Who is Brian Vaughn?

Last week Abe and I attended, perhaps, the most interesting, entertaining, bizarre, but seriously cool theatrical event I've ever attended.  "Make a Scene" was a Shakespeare Festival fundraising event, and thanks to the generosity of Andrea, we enjoyed a loved dinner and a theatrical reading of Much Ado About Nothing performed by a couple of the Shakespeare Festival actors and several of Utah's government, business, media, and educational leaders.   This group included Governor Herbert and his wife, Lt. Governor Cox and his wife, Sean Reyes, the president of SUU, our very own Andrea and many others.

This was our group at dinner.

There was plenty of ad libbing and laughter.  The fascinating thing to me, was this is an activity that, on a smaller scale, we have done with our closest friends.  We have enjoyed doing Shakespeare readings with our book club for many years.  But this was almost surreal to see these people who we kind of know because they are sort of celebrities in the community, but really don't know at all, doing this vulnerable thing of acting together on stage.

 Do you know who I am standing with?  It's Brian Vaughn.  You might ask the question, "Who is Brian Vaughn?"  It is a reasonable question.  One that I myself asked on my first trip to the Shakespeare Festival about 17 years ago.  Abe and I were sitting in an auditorium during a question and answer session.  The person leading the discussion kept mentioning Brian Vaughn.  Well, I didn't know who he was.  So I ASKED.
The auditorium errupted in laughter.  The snorting, mocking kind of laughter (or so it felt to me)-- disbelieving that anyone could be so foolish as to not know who this Utah Shakespeare Festival legend  was.  I have since seen him perform a few times and I understand why that audience reacted the way they did.  He is phenomenal and so enjoyable to watch.
Anyway, we've gotten a lot of mileage out of the "Who is Brian Vaughn" joke.

And now, here are my own little thespians who have been preparing for an audition for Herriman's Newsies this summer.