‘One cannot fight what one cannot see’: Plan-B Theatre’s Full Color pops with heart, wit, poetry, intellectual depth, soul-bearing emotion

At the opening of Full Color, Plan-B Theatre’s 34th season opener, the setting is pleasant and inviting: eight people enjoying each other’s company and feeling comfortable at home, outside a tent in nature. As each person shares a story, the production’s epiphany expands organically, one narrative at a time. While the audience is welcomed to … Read more

Eight BIPOC playwrights and eight doppelgängers: Plan-B Theatre’s 34th season set to open with Full Color

Between 2010 and 2020, Utah’s population grew at a faster rate than in any other state and more than 52% of that growth occurred in minority populations. Today, more than 1 in 4 Utahns identify as Black, Indigenous or People of Color (BIPOC), compared to 1 in 5 in the 2010 U.S. Census. As the … Read more

More from a bountiful autumn season in performing arts: Fem Dance Company, Local Independent Theatre (LIT Co.) and NOVA Chamber Music Series

The fall performing arts season in Salt Lake City has been a bountiful harvest of enterprising programming. Featured reviews include Fem Dance Company, Local Independent Theatre (LIT Co.) and NOVA Chamber Music Series. FEM DANCE COMPANY: HEAR HER Earlier this month, Fem Dance Company’s premiere of Hear Her, choreographed by Alicia Ross, was an enlightening, … Read more

Nourishing the soul: Matchstick Girl by Jennifer Kokai and Kenneth Plain at Weber State Theatre, Go Home Come Back by Darryl Stamp at Plan-B Theatre

MATCHSTICK GIRL BY JENNIFER KOKAI AND KENNETH PLAIN: WEBER STATE THEATRE There have been many adaptations of Hans Christian Andersen’s 19th century short folktale The Little Match Girl. Some have been faithful to the story of a young beggar who sells matchsticks on the streets of Copenhagen but on a bitterly cold New Year’s Eve … Read more

A heartwarming take on what once in a lifetime can mean: Plan-B Theatre sets world premiere run for Darryl Stamp’s Go Home Come Back

Will, a sales manager, is supposed to be on his way to celebrate his wife’s birthday but he has a fatal accident because of distracted driving. James, a demolition worker who has a challenging relationship with his daughter, is crushed by falling pieces of a collapsed building. Their paths cross in the hereafter when they … Read more

A fine ode to motherhood and theatre in world premiere performance at Pygmalion Theatre Company of Julie Jensen’s Mother, Mother: The Many Mothers of Maude

When a play’s story arises from events or figures of Utah history, playwright Julie Jensen, whose works have been produced outside of Utah more frequently than any other local playwright, always succeeds in crafting a credible fictional narrative with a scrupulous eye toward framing the script’s framework with historical accuracy. In her award-winning play, Two-Headed, … Read more

Great Salt Lake Fringe 2020: Virtual format delivers smart concept shows, excellent performances

In Edinburgh, the birthplace of the Fringe festival concept in 1947, this year’s version has gone digital. “It’s hard to imagine a summer without the Fringe,” Shona McCarthy, Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society chief executive, said in a statement published online. “The explosion of creativity and community that the festival brings every year is unparalleled, and … Read more

Expanding the theatrical library during the pandemic: Plan-B Theatre adds 7 short plays from Utah theatrical artists of color to the national Play At Home initiative; its free, public app

One of the most formidable challenges in the COVID-19 pandemic, where live productions have ground to a near-complete standstill, is to keep the engine of creating new work going, especially when it still is unclear when the performing arts will return to an appreciable state of producing work. One national project has been the #PlayAtHome … Read more

Plan-B Theatre’s …Of Color fearlessly demolishes restraints on creative expression with four first-rate short plays

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

Plan-B Theatre to close out 28th season with Of Color, a potent creative statement of diversity and inclusion

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