You’ve known him as Antonio Salieri and Felix Ungar, as Scapin and as Richard II; he’s also been the directorial hand behind plenty of classics at the Utah Shakespeare Festival, and, since 2011, he’s been its co-artistic director. And now he’s leaving. We just don’t know to where.
It’s like a cliff-hanger at the end of Act II of one of the many plays David Ivers has directed or starred in at the festival since 1992. Ivers announced that he’ll be leaving Cedar City to become artistic director of another regional theatre. But he hasn’t yet announced which. “This new position is a thrilling professional opportunity, and it dovetails with the needs of my family,” he said in a press release issued by the festival. “I am eager to embark on this next adventure, even as I say goodbye to this amazing theatre and company of gifted and dedicated artists and staff.”
Before departing, Ivers will help to welcome the 2017 company this week. He will return to Cedar City to direct the world premiere production of How to Fight Loneliness, opening Aug. 26.
In 2011, Ivers was named co-artistic director with Brian Vaughn. Last season they starred opposite each other in Neil Simon’s The Odd Couple and the pair was often referred to as “the boys,” especially by recently-retired executive director R. Scott Phillips. Considering how often we’ve seen something similar on the stages they have curated over the years, one wants to imagine some Shakespearean palace intrigue behind these recent departures, with Vaughn as a newly crowned but troubled king — but, alas, it seems more likely the result of the normal course of artistic careers.
Vaughn, Ivers and Phillips all oversaw the inauguration of the new Beverley Sorenson Center for the Arts as the new home of the Utah Shakespeare Festival last year.
“I have so many memories and inspiring events associated with the Utah Shakespeare Festival that I’ll remain forever grateful to the artists, staff, and guests that make the Festival what it is,” Ivers said in the press release. “Everything I know about cultural literacy, everything I know about challenges and rising above them, everything I know about incredible work on incredible stages, I learned at the Utah Shakespeare Festival.”
The 2017 season of the Utah Shakespeare Festival opens June 30. For more information visit bard.org.
UTAH’S ART MAGAZINE SINCE 2001, 15 Bytes is published by Artists of Utah, a 501 (c) 3 non-profit organization headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah.
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