Utah Shakespeare Festival's First Full-Time Employee

R. Scott Phillips first came to Southern Utah University in 1971, as a business major. However, like many students he soon developed other interests. “By the end of my second year, I wanted to change my major from business to theatre, but I was terrified to tell my parents,” he said. Yet, he managed to gather his courage, and he went home to Caliente, Nevada, to tell his mother and father of a decision that would change his life.

Phillips gets a little reflective as he finishes the story: “My father said ‘Scott, if this is a thing that makes you happy, then you should do it—but don’t give up your business degree.” So, Phillips graduated two years later with a double major in speech and drama, and in business. It has been a decision that has served him well as he has worked in various capacities at the Utah Shakespeare Festival for 40 years, and has now retired to pursue other interests.

“I had a great time here. I learned a great deal,” he said as he talked about how SUU prepared him for his future at the Festival. “I learned to think on my own, and I met some fabulous people while I was here.”

After graduation and nearly two years of graduate work at Idaho State, he was hired by the Festival leadership, notably founder and mentor Fred C. Adams, as the Festival’s first full-time employee, beginning work as the marketing director on March 1, 1977. Since, then he has worked as the Festival’s manager director, interim director, and (for the past nine years) as executive director.

In his 40 years, Phillips has made numerous friends as he has mingled with Festival crowds nearly every matinee and evening performance, welcoming old friends and making new ones. “Working here is like planning the biggest family reunion imaginable,” he said. “The 100,000 who come here every year are a family.”

In the process he has also been recognized as a leader in his field. Most notably he received the prestigious Mark R. Sumner Award from the Institute of Outdoor Drama in October, and in January was honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Shakespeare Theatre Association.

Phillips has hundreds of wonderful memories of his time at the Festival, but the ones he treasures the most are the Festival being awarded the Tony Award for Outstanding Regional Theatre in 2000 (“Imagine a boy from Caliente on the stage of the Radio City Music Hall to accept theatre’s greatest honor”); the Festival’s 50th anniversary in 2011 (“a non-profit organization turning 50 is really something to celebrate”); and the opening of the Beverley Center for the Arts in 2016. “The opening of the Beverley was an amazing accomplishment,” he said. “To raise nearly $40 million and build this center, including two new theatres, is almost beyond belief.”

And, now, for the future? Phillips is still working on exactly what he will do, but promises he will stay busy and involved in the arts and his community. “I love Cedar City, and I love the Utah Shakespeare Festival,” he said. “I expect both of them to continue to improve and be beacons to other communities and arts organizations.”

“I do believe Cedar City and SUU are much better and stronger because the Festival is located here,” he concluded. “It has elevated the conversations in our community. It has allowed us to be presented on a national and international stage. It has encouraged diversity and inclusion which I think have made Cedar City and SUU a better place for all of us.”

Tickets are now on sale for the Festival’s 56th season, which will run from June 29 to October 21. For more information and tickets visit www.bard.org/ or call 1-800-PLAYTIX.

The Utah Shakespeare Festival is part of the Beverley Taylor Sorenson Center for the Arts at Southern Utah University, which also includes the Southern Utah Museum of Art (SUMA).

Written by Bruce C. Lee, Utah Shakespeare Festival Publications Manager

Asai Gilman is Changing Lives in Hawaii

Asai Gilman, a 1992 marketing and information management graduate of Southern Utah University, is changing lives across the state of Hawaii.

He and wife Keawe founded a non-profit organization called Edu-1^st (www.edu-1st.org), in order to prepare Hawaii’s youth for college and career success. Through Edu-1^st, all types of students learn the keys to success, gain self-confidence, and are motivated to adopt a “can-do” attitude in their lives. 

Born and raised in the islands, Asai and Keawe graduated from the Kamehameha School before leaving the mainland for college at SUU. While here, they dated, married and started a family. 

Asai served as SUUSA’s multicultural representative and shortly after graduation took a job as SUU’s assistant director of school relations. That was when he first developed the idea for Edu-1^st, as he was conducting a college fair presentation on the Navajo reservation for young people and their families, and pledged then to return to Hawaii and create a non-profit organization that would give back to his people.

After working at SUU, Asai took a job at Dixie College where he coached football players from Las Vegas, Arizona, California and Hawaii.

“I got a chance to travel to Hawaii to recruit football players for five years, and each time felt impressed to follow my dream,” he says. “I saw families that lacked the college and career confidence and failed to see and believe in themselves based on social challenges and cultural stereotypes.”

He created a highly successful marketing company that specialized in yellow page advertising and design in the Las Vegas area. But his career path abruptly changed when he received a call from the president of BYU Hawaii asking him to interview for the position of director of admissions and recruitment. Feeling inspired by his dream of giving back to his community, Asai accepted the position and moved his family to Hawaii.

In the course of his work there, Asai met a colleague in the college’s parking and shared his vision of creating a non-profit organization to help families prepare for higher education and career success. This colleague, who worked in the grants division of the United States Department of Education, offered his help.

But it was not until three years later, after meeting this same colleague three different times—and a fair amount of prodding from his wife—that Asai decided to go for his dream and submit a grant.

Over the next few weeks, Asai and Keawe worked non-stop. They created Edu-1^st in two days, secured 501c3 status in just three weeks, and finished writing nine different grants. Edu-1^st was awarded two of the nine grants submitted, and received $3.3 million in funding. The couple went to work, hiring five full-time employees and another 20 part-time employees to help run the program.

“I have no idea how we did it, but I believe angels assisted,” says Asai.

He also believes the purpose of Edu-1^st made all the difference, especially considering that many larger entities and agencies, like the University of Hawaii, were in competition for the same pool of grants.

Since its official inception in 2003, Edu-1^st has served more than 6,000 students and families, and has helped build confidence in college and career success. Asai, who was the executive director, says, “Now, I serve on the board; it’s been a fun ride.”

The Gilmans have seven great children who carry on the tradition of excellence. Four of the seven are scholarship athletes at the United States Naval Academy, UVU, BYU and University of Hawaii (UH). Number four is a freshman in high school who has already received a Division 1 football scholarship offer to UH. The last three children, Asai says, “are amazing souls and keep us on our toes.”

Asai believes that he received great preparation skills for life from Southern Utah University because he received an opportunity to experience practical and hands-on learning.

“It was there where I learned how to create,” he says.