SimonFest is back at Center for the Arts in August 2022
Center for the Arts at Kayenta once again brings the Simon Fest Theatre Co.’s productions to Southern Utah, in August 2022.
SimonFest has been going strong in “Festival City, U.S.A,” for seventeen years! Says the founder, director, actor and theatre professional Richard Bugg, “We help initiate the cream of Southern Utah University’s acting crop into the national theatre scene by casting recent graduates alongside seasoned veterans. We work tirelessly to preserve and honor the works of American playwrights and their contemporaries around the world as well as foster the development of new American plays that follow the tradition of character-driven plots and comic introspection into the American experience.” SimonFest Theatre Co. fosters new works by producing one never-before-produced play every year as part of their regular season.
This year’s SimonFest shows at Center for the Arts at Kayenta include the rare productions of Man of La Mancha and Evita.
Man of La Mancha – August 3-6,2022, 7:30 PM
Man of La Mancha is the heartbreaking and inspirational Tony Award-winning musical, based on Cervantes’ Don Quixote, about one man’s refusal to give up his impossible dream. Man of La Mancha is one of the world’s most popular musicals. Inspired by Miguel de Cervantes’ seventeenth-century masterwork Don Quixote and set during the Spanish Inquisition. The original 1965 production won five Tony Awards, including Best Musical. Cervantes is in prison awaiting trial during the Spanish Inquisition. He and his fellow prisoners perform a play-within-a-play, telling the story of the elderly Alonso Quijana, who renames himself “Don Quixote” and goes on a quest to right all wrongs in the world. The rousing, Spanish-inflected score includes the classic numbers “The Impossible Dream,” “I, Don Quixote,” “Dulcinea,” “I Really Like Him” and “Little Bird.”
Evita – Music by Andrew Lloyd Webber. August 17-20, 2022, 7:30 PM.
Evita charts the young and ambitious Eva Peron’s meteoric rise to sainthood. Set in Argentina between 1934 1952, the Tony-winning musical follows Eva Duarte on her journey from poor illegitimate child to ambitious actress to, as wife of military leader-turned-president Juan Peron, the most powerful woman in Latin America, before her death from cancer at age 33.
The events in Evita’s life are presented in song and commented on by the show’s narrator, Che. Well-known numbers from Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical masterpiece include “Don’t Cry for Me Argentina,” “Oh What a Circus,” “Buenos Aires” and “Another Suitcase in Another Hall.” Evita is the winner of Seven 1980 Tony Awards, including Best Musical, Best Score and Best Book.
Man of Mancha: August 3-6,2022, 7:30 PM
Evita: August 17-20, 2022at 7:30 PM
Tickets for adults are $35 and $10 for students and children. Adults save $10 for when purchasing tickets to both Simon Fest shows, using discount code simon at check out. Purchase tickets at www.KayentaArts.com or call the box office at 435-674-2787.
Come, be a part of the art at the Center for the Arts at Kayenta!
