Whip-smart Pioneer Theatre Company production of Karen Zacarias’ Native Gardens makes for dazzling Utah premiere

The trials and tribulations of neighbors, especially involving property line disputes, have been among the most widely applied tropes in practically every television sitcom series since the 1950s. Many of these scenes have followed the tenets of “Hollywood Law,” which carves out the spaces for acceptable breakaways from reality. There also have been a handful … Read more

Pioneer Theatre Company’s world premiere presentation of Kareem Fahmy’s A Distinct Society is superb on all counts

In the middle of the superb world premiere production at the Pioneer Theatre Company (PTC) of Kareem Fahmy’s A Distinct Society, Peyman, an Iranian cardiac surgeon, tells Manon, who runs the tiny Haskell Free Library straddling the Canadian-U.S. border, “When I was young my father told me: ‘Peyman, politics is shit. Ignore politics, and it … Read more

Three live performances set to be available for streaming video on demand options: Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company’s Lo and Behold, Repertory Dance Theatre’s Six Songs from Ellis, Gina Bachauer International Piano Foundation’s The Ivory Menagerie

World premieres of works by two of Salt Lake City’s preeminent dance institutions (Repertory Dance Theatre and Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company), along with a splendid, innovative solo piano concert by Hsiang Tu, as presented by the Gina Bachauer International Piano Foundation, continue an impressive spring of performances in the Salt Lake City metropolitan area. Incidentally, all … Read more

Sundance 2022: Mija passionate, inspiring documentary about immigration, music, social change, entrepreneurial resilience

In less than a handful of years, Doris Muñoz quickly established her credentials in the music industry, particularly in artist management. Her intergenerational connections to music bridged the classics of rachera and boleros to the legends of Juan Gabriel and Los Panchos, and recently to indie first-generation Mexican-American pop artists such as Cuco, Kali Uchis … Read more

Salt Lake Acting Company presents Utah premiere of Working Theater production, American Dreams, smart virtual show that gets many things right about immigration

In a different immigration system, a Palestinian chef, a Pakistani cartoonist and a Mexican army medic, who came to the U.S. as a child but was deported as an adult because he lacked updated documents, would have an easier time settling in the country. Prior to the last major overhaul of the U.S. immigration system, … Read more

Two spring premieres: PYGmalion Theatre Company’s Sweetheart Come by Melissa Leilani Larson; Efren Corado’s Dust. Breath. Place. for RDT Link

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