CEDAR CITY – Peter Sham, for many years an audience favorite with the Utah Shakespeare Festival, will be starring in and directing at the Neil Simon Festival for the first time, to be held at the Heritage Center Theatre in Cedar City from July 9 through August 9.
After wanting to be a part of the Neil Simon Festival for awhile now, the timing was perfect, Sham said, just like great comedy.
“It just all kind of fell into place, and the role was irresistible,” Sham said, “it’s one of the funniest plays on earth, I couldn’t turn this one down.”
Sham will portray Max Prince, a character based on legendary comedian Sid Caesar, in Neil Simon’s “Laughter on the 23rd Floor.” Sham will also direct Neil Simon’s “The Star-Spangled Girl.”
He is ready to be on stage again, Sham said; and especially, he said: “to step into a role where I really have to play a character again and really research a character, and especially a role like this that’s based on Sid Ceaser – one of the greatest comics if not the greatest comic of all time who virtually invented sketch comedy and everything that we know today in television.”
Sham first came to Cedar City from his hometown of Buffalo, New York, in 1993 to perform for the Shakespeare Festival. Currently, he is head of acting and directing in Southern Utah University’s Department of Theatre Arts and Dance.
He will have the opportunity take the stage with several former students, including Halie Merrill, Emilie Moulton, Grayson Moulton, Redge Palmer, Nathan Smith, and Alec TerBerg.
“Some of my greatest, funniest, most talented students are a part of the festival this year, and I’m going to get the share the stage with them,” Sham said, “So that is what I am really excited about.”
Husband and wife team Emilie and Grayson Moulton, along with Redge Palmer, have also performed with the Utah Shakespeare Festival.
“It’s a big thing. They don’t get to play with me on that level, it’s a master-slave relationship sometimes I feel,” Sham said. “I mean that lovingly of course. We’re colleagues now, and that’s going to be a cool thing, I’m looking forward to it.”
Event details and ticket information
- When: July 9 through Aug. 9
- Where: Heritage Center Theatre, 105 north 100 east, Cedar City, Utah 84720
- Admission: $21 to $26 | Neil Simon Festival | Telephone: 866-357-4666
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- Neil Simon Festival holds open auditions for 2014 season
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