Pygmalion Theatre Company set to open 2019-2020 season with Julie Jensen’s Two-Headed play

History, as nearly no one seems to know, is not merely something to be read.  And it does not refer merely, or even principally, to the past. On the contrary, the great force of history comes from the fact that we carry it within us, are unconsciously controlled by it in many ways, and history is … Read more

17th annual Spy Hop Productions’ PitchNic films scheduled to premiere Nov. 7

Cameron Baer, 19, a Provo High School graduate, nearly quit the PitchNic class at Spy Hop Productions this year. He had successfully pitched the concept for one of the short films to be made in the year-long class. It is a fictional narrative based in part about obsessions and anxieties that can skew one’s perceptions … Read more

Plan-B Theatre sets world premiere for Camille Washington’s Oda Might thriller

In Oda Might, a new play by Camille Washington, the patient, a middle-aged black woman in a psychiatric hospital, relates details of her life to her doctor, also a black woman but younger and lighter skin. The patient, a spiritual medium who believes she is the scapegoat for a murder, is candid about her life … Read more

Salt Lake Acting Company’s world premiere Form of a Girl Unknown brings exceptional performances

The world that Amali Wilson is about to experience as an adolescent who has just begun her menstrual cycle is, on one hand, a turbulent one marked by police brutality, sexual assault, discrimination and disenfranchisement. On the other hand, it is a resilient, vibrant one where Black women are at the forefront socially, politically and … Read more

Red Desert ensemble plans Oct. 28 concert at Westminster College as blockbuster sampler of contemporary music

As part of its artistic residency at Westminster College’s school of music, the Red Desert ensemble, the duo project of clarinetist Katie Porter and composer/percussionist Devin Maxwell, will present a blockbuster sampler of contemporary music including a world premiere by Maxwell and music by Stockhausen, Cage, Xenakis and Tenney along with works by 21st century composers Johannes Kreidler and … Read more

Utah filmmaker’s Second Sight short documentary serves emotionally compelling narrative as archetype of international eye healthcare mission

At the center of Cole Sax’s short documentary Second Sight, the story of Virgilio and Joanly Lahioan and their four children in the Philippines eloquently conveys the human impact of broad questions that researchers have sought to answer by empirical evidence. Does poverty perpetuate poor health? Does poor eye health deepen poverty? How and why? … Read more

Upcoming Utah Film Center screenings highlight issues of white nationalism, traumatic impacts of child abuse

Continuing a month of free, public screenings dealing with big issues, two documentary films along with talkback sessions – one on white nationalism and the other about the traumatic impacts of child abuse – will be presented by the Utah Film Center. They are the award-winning White Right: Meeting the Enemy (2017), directed by Deeyah … Read more

World-class performances in Salt Lake City: Pianist Hong Xu at Bachauer, Ligeti and Brahms concert for NOVA Chamber Music Series

HONG XU: GINA BACHAUER INTERNATIONAL PIANO FOUNDATION It was a perfect homecoming for Chinese pianist Hong Xu, who opened the 2019-2020 season series of concerts for the Gina Bachauer International Piano Foundation. Xu, who won the bronze medal at the 2001 Bachauer competitions at the age of 17 in Salt Lake City, returned last week … Read more

Strong examples of arts and education integration: Plan-B Theatre’s Flora Meets a Bee, Mundi Project’s 3-D Printed 6-String Violin Experience

PLAN-B THEATRE FREE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL TOUR (FEST): FLORA MEETS A BEE The sense of feeling borrowed can become alienation. In Morag Shepherd’s Flora Meets A Bee, the latest play in Plan-B Theatre’s successful Free Elementary School Tour (FEST) program, Flora, 8, is committed to making her new friendship stick. In one scene, Flora recalls seeing … Read more

Repertory Dance Theatre’s Inside Outside season opener is spectacular on all counts

Each spectacular half of the Repertory Dance Theatre’s (RDT) 54th season opener could have been a concert in itself. However, with the concert’s Inside Outside theme, part of what portends to be a fascinating season of Here and Now juxtapositions, the halves emphatically demonstrated that, in the desire to articulate a story, the language of … Read more