The two features in the Episodic Nonfiction Pilot Showcase and the seven offerings in the Documentary Short Film Program comprise two of the most consistently outstanding program blocks this year at Sundance. Episodic Nonfiction Pilot Showcase If viewers are anticipating the conventional true crime fare, a genre that already is fatigued and or saturated, the … Read more
PYGmalion Productions Theatre Company’s Utah premiere production of Tiny Beautiful Things, which is based on the bestselling book by Cheryl Strayed that was adapted for the stage by Academy-Award nominated screenwriter and award-winning actor Nia Vardalos, is a charming delight of chamber theater, with a quartet of actors who give the audience a soothing respite … Read more
At 21, in 2017, Aristo Sham was thinking about ways he could do multiple things. A decade earlier, just as he was entering his adolescent years, he already had won first prize in the Ettlingen International Piano Competition in Germany in 2006, and then the top prize in Salt Lake City at the Gina Bachauer … Read more
MYRIAD DANCE COMPANY: DREAM SPARK Truly a gratifying collaboration in the best sense of the word, Myriad Dance Company’s Dream Spark could not have been a more fitting opening for Dreamscapes in its newest location. Now housed in the former Macy’s store at The Shops at South Town in Sandy, Utah, the immersive art museum … Read more
Watching Sleeping Beauty’s Dream, by Javen Tanner, in a recent production by The Sting & Honey Company, one can appreciate the cosmopolitan melange of myths that supersedes the traditional Disney-like narrative portrayal. Tanner’s script shows that the relationships connecting the romantic lead characters extend beyond physical attraction into loyalty, commitment, friendship and dignity. The results … Read more
Of numerous remarkable moments in the exceptional documentary film All That Breathes (Kiterabbit Films and Rise Films production), India’s sole entry in this year’s Sundance, among the most unforgettable are those portraying the psychological and philosophical attitudes of brothers Nadeem and Saud, who have put their heads down in total focus for nearly the last … Read more
A Mormon-themed dark comedy narrative and a Turkish sociological thriller surrounding two university students underscore just how rigorously curated this year’s Sundance short film program is. Gregory Barnes’ The Touch of the Master’s Hand and Serhat Karaaslan’s The Criminals are among this year’s 50 short films which were selected from 9,933 submissions. The Touch of … Read more
Few dance companies in the U.S. would take the audacious path of holding a choreographer’s competition in which the audience determines the winner with the prize of a commission for a composition to premiere in the company’s next season. However, the format of Regalia, the largest fundraising event each year for Repertory Dance Theatre (RDT), … Read more
Repertory Dance Theatre’s (RDT) Voices concert capped an unforgettable expression of diversity and inclusion for its 53rd season. However, before delving into the specifics of the rich, subtly emotional dynamics of the Voices performances, a broader context is essential. The theme of Manifest Diversity came full circle with Voices. In the season’s first concert last … Read more
For urban dwellers the thought of birds can sometimes conjure unpleasant associations with pigeons and seagulls using cars and humans as public restrooms or other feathered friends sounding early morning wake-up calls long before sunrise. But these misguided city folk have got it all wrong. Birds aren’t intruding on our environment—quite the opposite! One visit … Read more