Southern Utah University Exhibits 'Willy The Kid: Shakespeare in the American West'

Did cowpokes of the Wild West brush up their Shakespeare while they kicked up the sagebrush? Did trailblazers on long journeys keep themselves occupied memorizing the great speeches of HAMLET and MACBETH? Or perhaps entertain each other around the campfire with stories of Prospero and Bottom?

It's quite possible, according to Matt Nickerson, Associate Dean of the Southern Utah University's Gerald R. Sherratt Library.

"I started doing research on a cool story of Shakespeare to do for the exhibit and I discovered that he was the most popular playwright on the western frontier," says Nickerson.

Now through October 31st, the library presents "Willy the Kid: Shakespeare in the American West," one of the hundreds of worldwide events commemorating 2016 as the 400th anniversary of William Shakespeare's death.

The walk-through exhibit features 16 printed artifacts including posters and scripts from the Gold Rush era (1850-1870), as well as stories of actors and production teams who traveled to the American West to put on Shakespeare shows in gold mining towns.

Michael Bahr, education director at the Utah Shakespeare Festival, said the exhibit will showcase the popularity of Shakespeare's works during that time.

"We want to celebrate his place in the American West and his importance to the early communities," Bahr said. "He was a man for the West and was important for civilizing the West."

The exhibit is sponsored in part by the Education Department at the Utah Shakespeare Festival and Utah Humanities, which enriches cultural, intellectual and civic life by providing opportunities for all Utahans to explore life's most engaging questions and the wonders of the human experience.

"Willy the Kid" is free to the public every Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Visit library.suu.edu.