CEDAR CITY — After more than 23 years with the Utah Shakespeare Festival, education director Michael Bahr has announced his retirement effective July 31. Beginning July 1, Bahr started the next act in his life as the newly hired director/principal at Gateway Preparatory Academy in Enoch.
“I am so happy to see Michael step into this exciting new chapter of his life after his amazing and transformative years at the Festival,” executive producer Frank Mack said in a July 6 news release from the festival, fittingly titled “Parting is Such Sweet Sorrow.”
“Michael has led the education department brilliantly,” Mack added. “His innovative curricula and devoted teaching has changed the lives of countless students, while the insights he has shared with our audience members in the Seminar Grove has deepened their experience at the Festival.”
For the next few weeks, Bahr will stay tied to the Festival, continuing his work until July 31 as he assists the education department during this transitional period. He will also be visible at the Festival in the future conducting seminars and orientations, while his wife, Kris Bahr, assistant guest services manager and volunteer coordinator, continues as a full-time member of the Festival staff.
Called “Peter Pan, the Pied Piper and the Energizer Bunny, all rolled into one,” Bahr has served as the Festival’s education director for over two decades.
In making the announcement, Bahr made it clear that, although he wasn’t looking for a new position, he is “excited for the challenge that waits at Gateway.”
Brittany Jensen, chair of Gateway’s board of directors, told Cedar City News that Bahr is “the ideal leader to propel our school forward and take us to even grander heights.”
“Since the passing of our visionary director Andy Burt in October, we have searched for a suitable successor to carry our mission forward,” Jensen said. “It seems almost miraculous that we were able to find such a perfect fit right in our community at this exact time.”
Bahr said he is looking forward to furthering Gateway’s mission and goals.
“Andy Burt’s vision of Gateway has created a learning community that cultivates a spirit of collaboration and enthusiasm for learning,” Bahr said, adding, “I am thrilled to join this team of educators and to be a part of the inspirational legacy of this organization.”
Bahr said his biggest joy in life is collaborating with educators and students.
“For everyone that knows me they see this as a natural choice to come and play with this elite team of teachers!”
Bahr also noted on his departure from the Festival.
“I am filled with a sentimental, melancholic sadness upon leaving this position,” Bahr said. “But I am also filled with joy because of what lies ahead for the Festival.”
Bahr was hired in December 1998 as the education director when he joked he was “dragged kicking and screaming out of the classroom.” He noted that “when Festival Founder Fred C. Adams first made the job offer to me back then, Adams said ‘I need someone who speaks the language of teachers, professional theatre and actors, and students.’”
Bahr spoke those three languages and was hired, but his journey with the Festival began years before this.
“In 1982, I acted in the Shakespeare Competition and was awarded a scholarship to Southern Utah University, which was then Southern Utah State College,” Bahr said.
During his time as an undergraduate, Bahr worked at the box office in the Festival. After graduating, he took a job as a teacher in Bakersfield, California, and brought his students back to Cedar City to participate in the Shakespeare Competition. He then moved to northern Utah for another teaching job and continued to bring his students to the competition.
As the Festival’s education director, Bahr spent time teaching at Cedar City and Canyon View high schools and as an adjunct professor for theater methods at Southern Utah University beginning in 2001.
Bahr built an incredible legacy during his time at the Festival, implementing monumental changes that have made theater more accessible to students and teachers. During this time, he solidified summer programs and dramatically amplified the Shakespeare Competition, which grew from 45 to over 120 schools.
Bahr collaboratively created Bard’s Birthday Bash, Playmakers, the Wooden O Symposium, and Shakespeare-in-the-Schools, which consists of an annual touring production for over 20,000 students across the Intermountain West.
“The play – that is central to everything we do. I hope to have left a legacy of access and engagement to plays,” Bahr said. “My legacy is the acknowledgment of the power of the dream and the power in the play to cultivate civil discourse and education.”
Written by LIZ ARMSTRONG of Utah Shakespeare Festival. Cedar City News reporter JEFF RICHARDS also contributed to this report.
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