Published: June 1, 2009 • By Clint Talbott

Ruth and Ken Wright have a long history of professional success. The pair also has an abiding passion for the poetry of Shakespeare. Their work and personal interests are as complementary as they are to each other.

Ruth is an attorney who spent years as a state legislator and environmental activist. Ken is an engineer who founded Wright Water Engineers. Their 54 years of marriage has been measured and punctuated by the bard’s iambic pentameter.

When they were engaged, Ken and Ruth saw Lawrence Olivier’s “Hamlet” at a movie theater in Milwaukee. When the Colorado Shakespeare Festival debuted in 1958, Ruth and Ken Wright were there. They’ve attended the festival every year since and are among its most devoted supporters.

Both Ken and Ruth became early fans of the bard. In junior high school, Ken recalls memorizing the “quality of mercy is not strained” monologue from “The Merchant of Venice.”

“I was quite impressed,” Ken recalls.

Ruth still has the copy of the complete works of Shakespeare that she studied in school. The binding is loose and the edging worn. Just as they should be.

Ken and Ruth Wright look over Ruth's copy of the complete works of Shakespeare.Ruth is particularly fond of the two “Henry IV” plays and their sequel, “Henry V,” which examine Henry’s youthful dissipation and later redemption. Henry finally heeds the urging of his father, which is, as Ruth paraphrases, “Hank, pull it together.”

And so he did, by trouncing the more numerous and well-prepared French at the Battle of Agincourt.

As she ticks off her favorite plays—“The Tempest,” “Midsummer Night’s Dream,” “Macbeth,” “Hamlet,” “Julius Caesar”—Ruth reflects on one of the major tragedies.

“King Lear,” she muses, “is so tragic that I’m not going to see it again. It’s just too much.” Lear abdicates the throne and hands the kingdom to his two unloving daughters, compounding his poor judgment by banishing Cordelia, the daughter who truly loves him. They all die in the end.

“I have no idea why she also gets killed,” Ruth says.

After five decades of Colorado Shakespeare Festival performances, Ken and Ruth are well-qualified to note some highlights. The 1988 “Hamlet,” starring Val Kilmer, was outstanding, they said. “He had such a stage presence.”

They recall a production of “Much Ado Âé¶čÊÓÆ” Nothing” set as a Western. Ruth says she and Ken don’t object to performances of Shakespeare set in different times, as long as the change doesn’t detract from the words. This one didn’t, she said. “It was hilarious.”

Via the Shakespeare festival, Ruth and Ken have introduced friends, family and co-workers to the bard. The couple took their grandchildren to the festival. On one occasion, one of the youngster’s friends, invited to attend a play, said he’d rather go to a movie.

The Wrights’ grandson, Mason, said, “Movie? Shakespeare’s better than any movie.” Recalling this, Ruth chuckles and says the boy was reared well.

The festival reflects well on the University of Colorado, Ken said. “We think much more highly of CU than we would otherwise. It’s a real feather in our cap.”

The Wrights’ most visible support of the Shakespeare festival is through advertising. Wright Water Engineers has sponsored plays for years. It makes good business sense, the couple said.

“We find our employees are proud of the fact that the company supports Shakespeare, and we get more than our money’s worth in advertising,” Ken said.

Ken and Ruth emphasize that the Shakespeare festival, and the arts in general, enrich the communities in which they are performed or displayed. The festival sows financial and other rewards for the city, Ken said, adding, “I’m not at all sure that the festival gets credit for that.”

Ruth notes that the Shakespeare festival attracts potential Wright Water Engineers clients such as lawyers, corporations and engineers. This year, the firm is sponsoring “Hamlet.”

While they support the arts, their career history is similarly impressive and visible.

As a law student, Ruth wrote the Boulder charter amendment that set a 55-foot limit on the height of buildings, and she has been described as the driving force behind Boulder’s open space program. She served in the Colorado House of Representatives and Senate from 1980 to 1994.

Ken has conducted water-supply engineering for the Adolph Coors Co. since 1963, has done hydrological work for the former Rocky Flats nuclear-weapons plant, and, with Ruth’s collaboration, has done paleohydrological and other research at the Peruvian Inca site of Machu Picchu.

Unlike Hamlet, the Wrights know when it’s time to act.

For more information about the Colorado Shakespeare Festival, seeÌę. To support the festival, please contact Tara Olney, director of development, CU Foundation, at 303-492-6018, orÌętara.olney@cufund.org.

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Issue: Summer 2009
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