ADAM HESTER

Adam Hester has directed numerous original works, musicals and Shakespeare productions. He started the Abilene Shakespeare Festival in 1990. In 2015, he workshopped a new musical, After Zoey, co-written with his daughter, Jenavene, in New York City and has directed professionally at the New York Musical Theatre Festival (Mother Divine), for Atlanta’s Legacy Theatre and the Oklahoma Shakespearean Festival. He directed Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale this summer for the Abilene Shakespeare Festival and will be directing The Lifespan of a Fact in February 2027 at Abilene Community Theatre. As an actor, he has appeared as Shylock in The Merchant of Venice, Caesar in Julius Caesar, Sigmund Freud in Freud’s Last Session, Selsdon Mowbray in Noises Off, Velasco in Barefoot in the Park and numerous others. He is a senior faculty member in theatre at ACU where he served as chair for the department from 1991-2015. He and his wife, Donna, just celebrated 47 years of marriage. They have three impressive children and seven amazing grandchildren.