Fred C. Adams

Fred C. Adams is the founder of the Utah Shakespeare Festival held on the Southern Utah University campus (formerly Southern Utah State College and College of Southern Utah) and has also served as producing director, executive producer, and director of the Festival Capital Campaign.

Adams moved to Cedar City in 1959 as an assistant professor of theatre arts, and noticed the influx of thousands of tourists each summer coming to visit the state’s national parks. He figured these numbers represented audience potential for a theatre festival. He brainstormed with his future wife, Barbara and his class thesis was the design of a summer Shakespeare festival. The festival was founded in 1961, with its first two-week season in 1962. He presented The Taming of the Shrew, Hamlet, and The Merchant of Venice.

The festival has grown to producing eight or nine plays over a sixteen-week season, and a touring production plays to schools throughout the West during the winter. The festival earned a Tony Award in 2000 for Outstanding Regional Theatre, equal to an Academy Award for film. The festival also was honored with the 2001 National Governors Association Award. In 2011, The festival’s fiftieth anniversary production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream garnered a regional Emmy Award for a live broadcast by BYUtv (Best Special Event Coverage, Live or Edited). This was the first live broadcast of a performance in the Festival’s history. The festival has also been the recipient of numerous other awards, including the Best of State Award in arts and entertainment. Adams was named Utah’s 2003 Entrepreneur of the Year for Community Enrichment by Ernst & Young, and in 2010 received both the Utah Governor’s Award in the Humanities and the Burbage Award for a lifetime of service to the international Shakespearean theatre community.

Adams is a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He is the father of four children.