The annual Madeleine Award is presented "to individuals who have made comprehensive and long-term contributions to the arts and humanities in Utah."

And that certainly applies to Fred C. Adams, the 2007 recipient.

"It's so strange, because it should go to some of the unsung people in the arts, but I am so honored," said Adams, the founder and director emeritus of the Utah Shakespearean Festival. "It is a tremendous honor and I am delighted. I've had half-a-dozen calls from some previous recipients, including Ann Cullimore Decker, Aden Ross and Ardean Watts.

"When you think about what has been accomplished by this little state tucked away in the mountains — with our ballet, our symphony, our choir without peer, and you think how we could be so blessed, and that's what we are, we're blessed."

Speaking by phone from his Cedar City office, Adams said the arts groups that flourish today in Utah "are the fruits of our pioneers' labors."

"Many years ago, my grandfather had a small orchard. When he was 86 or 87, he planted an apple tree. His daughter said he would never see it bear fruit, but he replied that 'my grandchildren will."'

Adams founded the Utah Shakespearean Festival in 1961, and it ran for just two weekends on a makeshift stage on the small campus of Southern Utah State College. Since then, both the school and the festival have grown considerably. The campus is now Southern Utah University, and in 2000 the festival earned one of the theater world's most prestigious honors, a Tony Award for Best Regional Theatre.

Just a couple of years ago, Adams turned the day-to-day festival operations over to his longtime assistant, R. Scott Phillips, and assumed the label of "director emeritus."

But that doesn't mean he retired.

Leaving the hands-on operation of the festival to Phillips and others has given Adams more time to focus on raising awareness and funding for the festival's projected performing-arts complex.

"We have been doing two things: working with the developer and architect on the design phase of the center and raising money for the construction-document phase. I've also been working with small community focus groups and taking them through a PowerPoint program on the project."

Adams said there have also been "significant requests" sent to some of the region's biggest foundations. "We have to raise another $10 million, but we hope we can break ground on the center in mid-2008 and have it up and open for our 50th anniversary (in 2011)."

Today, with six productions on three stages during the summer and three more in the fall, the festival ranks among the top tier of theatrical festivals in North America.