All’s Well That Ends Well
by William Shakespeare
The Utah Shakespeare Festival 2022
Director Melinda Pfundstein
Scenic Designer Linda Buchanan
Costume Designer Lauren T. Roark
Lighting Designer Stephen C. Jones
Sound Designer Joe Payne
“Although the king forces the young Count Bertram to marry orphaned Helen, he cannot make him love her. Only by completing an impossible task can Helen win that affection she longs for. This production, updated to 1940s France and Italy on the eve of World War II, casts a sideways light and forces us to question the ages-old maxim that all’s well that ends well.”
Music from the late 30s included famous artists from Italy and France, such as Josephine Baker, Stephane Grappelli, Django Reinhardt, Alberto Rabagliati, Dino Olivieri Orchestra, and Carlo Buti. This production featured an air raid siren horn, through which the king would play phonographs of overbearing fanfares. It also included bugle marches and plenty of small town atmospherics. We also had a wonderful actor musicican, Sophia K. Metcalf, who played saxaphone during transitions in Fance, and guitar in Italy.
Music and Effect Sequences
Photos by Karl Hugh