One of my favorite parts of my theatre journey is any chance I have to support children and teenagers in their productions and one of the most consistently excellent schools for this is the Liahona Preparatory Academy led by their theatre director Jordan Long. I actually interviewed Jordan last month for OnStage Blog and it’s an entertaining listen if you have a few minutes free:

Jordan told us in the interview they were going to be putting on a Shakespeare Festival, which immediately intrigued me. Now I have attended it and it keeps up Liahona’s tradition of bold ambitious productions for their students. It was put on April 27-May 4th and here’s the highlights:

Liahona is unique institution because it has all ages of students, and I love how each group got to experience Shakespeare as part of the festival. They also went above and beyond on the venue space and including a dining portion with each show. I’ve never seen anything quite like it from an educational performance.

First of all, the venue. They transformed their stage into a 2-story theatre in the round that surrounded the students. Not only that but the 2nd story wrapped around to give a thin platform for the students to perform on. I was amazed particularly in Richard II how the students were able to act on the narrow area even navigating fight choreography in that tight space.

They also used the second level for scenes like Mufasa’s death in The Lion King Kids. To have Mufasa hanging from the top and Scar on the top platform is a brilliant choice by director Gina McGirr.

Speaking of The Lion King Kids it was the first show I saw of the festival and it was put on by the elementary school aged kids and has a large cast including 5 Rafikis and a big ensemble. This is only about 45 minutes of the Broadway show but it’s very cute and I loved how encouraging the children were when Young Simba struggled to remember his lines. “Hakuna Matata” is of course a highlight sung by Timon (Eowyn Davis,) Pumbaa (Abigail Brown,) and both Simbas (Gage Ervin and Asher Riffle.) The costumes by Jen Christensen were also beyond what you expect from this kind of small child production.

As I said, they also included a dining component to this experience. You had to arrive early to get your food but it was plentiful and delicious. You can see the pictures of the food above. It didn’t seem like that many people got the food so they probably consider that aspect a bust but I really enjoyed it.

The next production was Measure for Measure, which was put on as a traditional Elizabethan show and the students did remarkably well with the very mature subject matter. Katira Davis has the most challenging role as Isabella who must decide whether she can give up her virginity (she’s a nun) to save the life of her brother Claudio (James Fox.) This is not a Shakespeare I’m super familiar with so I really enjoyed getting to see it put on by the students (director Jordan Long.)

Next, we had my favorite of the festival The Comedy of Errors. It was directed by McGirr and Long and they made the brilliant choice to give it a modern update and have the events take place surrounded rival high schools that get mixed up in the crazy shenanigans. All of the kids were funny with the 2 Dromios stealing the show (Caroline Heinrich and Evan Swasey.)

Then finally the most ambitious of the festival was Richard II. This was directed by Long and he brings out the best in these students with very challenging material. I admit I was a little confused what was happening but as this was the only show I saw from the 2nd story it was a unique perspective and I eventually figured things out. This features James Fox as King Richard II and Sadie McGhie as Henry Bolingbroke. This was a very physical production with fights and even a dramatic scene where Richard monologues in front of a mirror and then throws a stone at the mirror and it crashes into a hundred pieces. They cleverly had fabric behind the mirror they could easily catch all the pieces on so nobody would be hurt by shards. It was a dramatic effect one doesn’t expect to get at a small high school production.

Honestly all of the festival one doesn’t expect to get from a school program. It’s impressive on every level and most importantly the kids are having a life-changing experience with each aspect of the production from the food, costumes, acting, themes, construction, everything! I have envy for these kids and wish I could participate in an adult version of the festival! I’d sign up for sure. It certainly will go down as one of the most memorable theatrical experiences of 2026. Well done to all involved. Liahona has finished off their theatrical season for this year but they have fun stuff planned for next year. More information can be found here.

The Lion King Kids is based on the Broadway show which is based on the Disney animated film which is loosely inspired by Shakespeare’s Hamlet. It has music and lyrics by Elton John and Tim Rice with a book by Roger Allers and Irene Mecchi. It first premiered on Broadway in 1997. Measure for Measure is Shakespeare’s 26th play and premiered around 1604. The Comedy of Errors is his 5th play and premiered around 1592. Richard II is his 11th play and premiered in 1595. He famously did Richard III before Richard II in 1592.

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