Shakespeare Festival comes to USU

Utah State University will be having their first ever Shakespeare festival on Friday April 22 to honor the 400th anniversary of the death of William Shakespeare.

“The whole world will be marking the 400th anniversary of his death … We thought of doing an academic conference to celebrate but we wanted to do something that is for the students by the students,” said Phebe Jensen, a professor in the English department and coordinator of the event.

Since January, Dr. Jensen’s English 4300 class has been planning this event with help from USU’s English Honors Society.

“We want to get people who aren’t as aware of how fun Shakespeare is, aware of the range and variety of what he wrote,” Jensen said.

The event will be held on the lawn across from the University Inn from noon to 2 p.m. In order to get more students to come to the event, many of the students involved are planning on handing out fortune cookies with Shakespearian insults inside, and will also be selling Shakespeare themed T-shirts.

The event will also include a variety of displays and events including a long board jousting contest, a sonnet display, games, a photo booth, a jester and a booth where students can receive medieval medical advice from a quack doctor.

“Just to clarify, the medical advice should not be taken seriously,” said Ethan Trunnell, the president of USU’s English Honors Society.

Although the USU theater department has already taken time to honor the famous writer in their performance of Twelfth Night, the English department also wanted to commemorate Shakespeare’s works and are planning on preforming a half dozen different scenes from a variety of Shakespeare’s plays, which are directed by Sherre Barnes, a drama major at USU.

“This event has a serious purpose but it’s going to be fun,” said Jensen.

— shaniehoward214@gmail.com