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