No Sundance experience should ever go without visiting the festival’s New Frontier programming. One of the best options is Weirdo Night, a filmed version of a popular underground show that has attracted a solid following in Los Angeles. The 42-minute episode, which was filmed last summer and was discovered online by a Sundance programmer, is … Read more
INTRODUCTION One year ago, when The Utah Review presented the 2019 edition of the top 10 moments of the Utah Enlightenment, it was a jubilant representation of Utah’s integral strengths as a community of the arts and the momentum that catapulted Salt Lake City as one of the Intermountain West’s most dynamic centers for creative … Read more
Pearls are the gift for the 30th anniversary. In its three decades, Plan-B Theatre has strung together many strands of luminescent pearls. The company has produced an impressive canon of original work by Utah playwrights. It has put weight behind the words of committing to bring new, diverse and historically suppressed voices to the stage. … Read more
In Catherine Filloux’s newest play, White Savior, a Black journalist’s tweet goes viral and tees up the right dose of tension to anchor the story’s acute contemporary relevance. The tweet reads, “White savior complex distracts organizations from seeing the fundamental flaws of human rights law.” It accompanies a video clip of Jean, a human rights … Read more
Dreams are the unifying universal driver of our human existence. Carl Jung, as he explained in The Collective Works, wrote that dreams “put on the likeness of that more universal, truer, more eternal man dwelling in the darkness of primordial night. There he is still the whole, and the whole is in him, indistinguishable from … Read more
Major anniversaries always call for big celebrations. For an independent performing arts company, a golden anniversary not only demands an extravaganza but it also is a moment to highlight the triumph of resilience in demonstrating to the community that local cultural enterprises are indispensable for elevating the social conscience and inspiring others to join creative … Read more
Sometimes, love and romance are fantastical tales of immortal connections reignited through the experience of reincarnation. There also is the mystifying sense of love at first sight. And, then there is déjà vu, that sensation we are familiar with in our dreams but also some of us have experienced it in real life when we … Read more
There always is something soothing in the familiar pop strains of such Beatles classics as I Want to Hold Your Hand, the 1963 hit that truly brought the British quartet to its fame with American audiences. Unfortunately, when one washes and sanitizes their hands, the immediate impulse to touch, however, is constrained by social distancing … Read more
Never underestimate a child’s resourceful imagination. Cass, who is just shy of turning 10, becomes Super Cat. Cass’ best friend, Ray, who already has turned 10, is Reptile Robot. Together, they battle Captain Squid and Octo-Baby. During their sleepover, Cass and Ray learn a lot more from each other about what it really means to … Read more
Adopting a complete virtual format, the Great Salt Lake Fringe Festival (GSLF) marked its sixth year with the schedule of 38 shows being viewed more than 5,000 times from 48 states and 25 countries. Many individual performers raised tips and donations and GSLF organizers say that, pending final confirmed figures, the amounts per show are comparable … Read more