If there ever was a congregational vote to sustain the creative leadership that has made Saturday’s Voyeur, the annual summer theatrical tradition of the Salt Lake Acting Company (SLAC), a resilient success year to year, it would be merited for the team of Allen Nevins and Nancy Borgenicht. The 41st edition, which runs through Sept. … Read more
Many of Utah Arts Festival’s special street theater attractions have been unforgettable. In 2014, Australia’s Strange Fruit using a soundtrack with excerpts from Mozart to swing, acted out a universally approachable timeless story of a boy and girl in romance, expressing love, loss, jealousy and joy. However, the quartet of performers danced, flirted and delighted … Read more
PYGMALION THEATRE COMPANY: SWEETHEART COME One of the most extraordinary renderings of Emma Hauck’s story came in 2000 with In Absentia, a 19-minute film made by Stephen and Timothy Quay. The BBC commissioned the short film as part of a series matching filmmakers with music selected by BBC producers. The Quay Brothers already had chosen … Read more
In 1931, as the Great Depression’s grip tightened, F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote the obituary for the flimsy age of roaring confidence and youth-driven abandon that had been “jolted” out of existence when the stock market crashed in 1929. In an essay titled Echoes of the Jazz Age, he wrote, “It was an age of miracles, … Read more
For a critic who sees the creation of art, in its broadest terms, as framing difficult questions that pull us out of our comfort zones, creative expression that is fearless in taking risks becomes the most meaningful to consider. In Utah, we put a premium on civility, politeness and gentility that tacitly signals restraint – … Read more
In the heart of one of the country’s reddest states, it might surprise more than a few that some of the Utah Enlightenment’s finest arts organizations are putting substance behind the talk about diversity and inclusion. Women have pioneered two of the nation’s longest running contemporary dance institutions. The state’s arts and museums division was … Read more
Wendy Burger is as definitive a character could be for the young person living in the remote hinterlands of a state like Utah who finds the empowering comfort zone of the theater as the perfect home for a budding confidence in her sexual identity. She is the lead character in Julie Jensen’s 2003 play Wait!, … Read more
Emilie, the vivacious host of Dead People Live!, the fictional television show at the center of An Evening with Two Awful Men, the latest premiere of Plan-B Theatre Company, adapts immediately to the constant curveballs tossed about in Elaine Jarvik’s boffo script. There never is just one motto (always pithy and wry) for Dead People … Read more
There is an appropriate and gratifying takeaway from Bekah Brunstetter’s comedic play The Cake, which the Salt Lake Acting Company (SLAC) is giving its Utah premiere in a well-acted, polished production. While many anticipated the U.S. Supreme Court to make a momentous decision last summer in the Masterpiece Cakeshop case involving a baker in Colorado … Read more
An Evening with Two Awful Men, the newest Plan-B Theatre production which opens Feb. 21, promises to be quite the reality show: a mix of CNN, C-SPAN, Jerry Springer, TLC, Judge Judy, History Channel, American Idol. Written by Elaine Jarvik, a former journalist with several Plan-B productions to her credit, her latest play captures the … Read more