CEDAR CITY, Utah, Oct. 11, 2022 (Gephardt Daily) — The Utah Shakespeare Festival has announced that its longtime education director, Michael Bahr, will return to the festival to serve as interim managing director starting Nov. 1.
Bahr will fill this role until a nationwide search for a new managing director can be completed.
“I am so pleased Michael has accepted this important appointment,” said Southern Utah University President Mindy Benson, in a released statement. “He has a long history of audience development, creative programming, and cultivating connections to art not only within the community and on campus but with patrons, donors, and those with whom he works daily. As a result, I have confidence and optimism about the future of the festival.”
Bahr served as education director for the festival for more than 20 years before retiring and becoming the director at Gateway Preparatory Academy, where he has served since July. He said it was a tough decision to leave the school.
“I have thoroughly enjoyed my work at Gateway. It is a school of choice, and I still choose to support it. I will stay on in a partial capacity at the school until they can find the best replacement,” Bahr said.
Bahr said he was honored to be asked by the festival to return.
“I am humbled and grateful that President Benson reached out and asked me to serve in this critical role. The festival has been a large part of my life, and I felt compelled to return and help during this transition.”
During his years at the festival, Bahr worked to establish the annual Shakespeare Competition, the Shakespeare in the Schools annual touring productions, the Playmakers youth theatre program, Wooden O Symposium, sensory-friendly performances, and juvenile justice outreach programs.
As a community builder, he stresses that all festival productions, orientations, seminars, and Greenshows are designed to bring artists and the community together and to expand perspectives.
“With his background in education, Michael is uniquely positioned to succeed in this new role due to his many years of experience building successful educational programs,” said Bryan Watabe, Utah Shakespeare Festival Board of Governors chairman, in a prepared statement. “His deep academic roots in understanding the importance of Shakespeare as a teaching tool and how to employ it to build future audiences are critical to the viability and growth of the Utah Shakespeare Festival.”
Bahr will work closely with the festival’s interim artistic director Derek Charles Livingston, who was appointed in June, the month after the previous artistic director, Brian Vaughn, who had served since 2011, left weeks before the 2022 summer season began.
Neither the festival nor Vaughn provided any explanation for his sudden departure.
The news of Bahr’s interim appointment comes eight days after the festival’s announcement that the executive producer Frank Mack had resigned after five years on the job.
Bahr said he believes in the power of plays.
“‘The play’s the thing,'” Bahr said, quoting Shakespeare. “Plays are tools that we can use to celebrate and elevate our humanity. The festival tells universal and classic stories through authentic theatrical experiences. We are about personal connections with our audiences, amplified by the artists and administrators who design and create productions that connect in meaningful and innovative ways.”
