Fred C. Adams, founder and executive producer of the Utah Shakespearean Festival, is the 1994 recipient of Geneva Steel's annual Modern Pioneer Award.
With Adams at the helm, the festival has grown from a modest budget of $1,000 and 3,276 paid admissions in 1961 to a 1993 season attendance of 116,926 paid admissions and a $2.7 million budget.The festival is now known as one of the top five repertory theaters and Shakespeare Festivals in the United States, according to the New York Times. Last spring, more than 3,000 actors auditioned for 40 spots in this year's festival.
"This year, we honor a man who 33 years ago brought Shakespeare to the red-rock mountains of southern Utah," said Joseph A. Cannon, chairman and chief executive officer of Geneva Steel. "He turned a small community into a `Festival City' and proved to the world that Utah can become `the Athens of the West.' "
In its sixth year, the Modern Pioneer Award has been presented to such Utahns as David Evans, co-founder of Evans and Sutherland; and Joseph Rosenblatt, former president of EIMCO.