Shakespeare and Utah's Back Roads

 We were back in Southern Utah, the weekend of August 28, 2015, for more Shakespeare.  We also wandered the small towns and back roads.

Whenever we drive I-15 to St. George, we try to stop at the Red Barn in Santaquin to have an ice cream cone and check out the fresh fruit and cheese in its refrigerated storeroom.

 On Friday night, we watched King Lear at the Shakespeare Festival.  It was a wrenching story of a family gone wrong.  As we walked out of the theater, Dave and I listed the things we would not do with our children!

We took all day Saturday to wander the back roads, on our way from St. George to Cedar City.

 The Worthington Gallery, in Springdale, is a favorite spot to pause.  Its front yard was filled with wind toys that swung in the breeze.

 We always window shop the pottery, stained glass, and paintings.

 There are rock shops in Springdale, but also in many other towns on the way to Cedar City.

 Dugway geodes are a hot-selling item.  Whenever we see Dugway geodes, we think of Dave's parents and their years in Dugway.  Dave's parents gave us a beautiful geode pen set for graduation.

 We could browse among the fossils and rocks for hours.

 We drove through the Zion Tunnel and then through the "Checkerboard" section of the park.

 Cars lined the road to watch this mountain goat relax in the shade.

 In Orderville, we stopped at a German bakery for a nut cookie.  "The owner is actually Dutch," the clerk said sheepishly.

 We want to return for a Gouda cheese and ham sandwich and a "bee sting" pastry.

 We spied a town on the map that we'd never visited.  We took a five-mile detour to stop at Alton, "a pretty little place," as its town marker proclaimed.  The town included a Mormon chapel surrounded by farms and cabins.

 We paused at Milt's Stage Stop, in the canyon above Cedar City, for supper.  Rusty's and Milt's are matching restaurants, a mile or two away from each other.  Both have log walls and animal heads mounted on them.  Both specialize in steak and prime rib.  "Which do you like better?" I asked David, but he couldn't distinguish between them!

 We walked behind Milt's to admire the old wagon wheels and the red boulders along the creek.

 Our final play of the weekend was Henry IV Part II.  It included cameos by Falstaff, the loveably corrupt courtier, and soliloquies by King Henry IV on the trials of being king.  I believe this is the play with the dialog, "Heavy is the head that wears the crown."

Shakespeare and Kyle's Ordination

Dave and I dashed around Utah during the weekend of August 21-23.  Highlights included watching four plays at the Shakespeare Festival in Cedar City and then participating in Kyle's ordination as a high priest by his father, Herb Flindt, in Salt Lake City.

On Friday morning, we watched "Closure," a reader's theater by James McClindon, a modern playwright who was in the audience with us.  Afterwards, the audience discussed "Closure" with the playwright, director, and actors.  It was one of my favorite experiences of the weekend.  "Closure" told the story of an Irish Catholic man dying of cancer, and trying to reconcile himself with his children and with his faith.  A heretical Virgin Mary and the diabolical paintings of Heronymous Bosch were figments of the man's fevered dreams which spiced up the performance.  "Closure" was witty, touching, a bit shocking, and thought-provoking, all at once.

On Friday afternoon, we watched  "Taming of the Shrew."  The portrayal of the role of women seemed antiquated for modern civil society, but the emphasis on a woman obeying her husband "as he is righteous" echoed the Mormon view of things!

 

Our Friday evening play was "Charley's Aunt," a slapstick farce. We normally don't enjoy slapstick humor, but this play was done so well that Dave and I laughed and laughed.  Shakespeare's comedies are often based on mistaken identities, and this was a modern take on that same convention.

 

 We relaxed, for dinner, at Centro Café, a fine addition to the Cedar City restaurant scene.  We ate a fig and prosciutto pizza, served with a green salad garnished with goat cheese and snipped apricots.  How chic! 

On Saturday morning, we hiked a six mile loop up to the water tower above the Coral Canyon subdivision, down to the "back road" to Washington City, and home.  From the water tower, we looked down on the peaceful, happy homes and gullies of our neighborhood.

In the afternoon, we attended "South Pacific."  The songs were beautiful and familiar, and the theme of overcoming discrimination was as old as this 1948 play and as new as today

We left Cedar City as soon as "South Pacific" ended, and we got home in time for an evening visit by Michael K and his girlfriend, Emma.  They were darling together.  Michael forwarded us photographs of the two of them dressed up for a dance and dressed down for a hike to a mountain lake.  Emma is a drama major at BYU Idaho and also does the accounting for her family's business. The business involves managing several auto repair shops.  

 

 On Sunday morning, we attended Kyle's ordination as a high priest.  Kyle drove from Seattle to SLC to deliver Grant to BYU-Provo, to let Michael K visit Emma, and to pick up Bryce and Alyssa and bring them home to Seattle.  While Kyle was in SLC, we met with a member of the Emigration Stake High Council, John Dahlquist, who presided at the ordination ceremony.  Of course, it was the occasion for photographs of various family groups.