Melissa Leilani Larson

Passing the test of collaboration with full honors: The Rose’s Performing Arts Coalition show ReFramed hit perfectly with sold-out house

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As appealing as collaboration is, many arts organizations are more likely to make a bit of an awkward, even contentious mess of it. In some instances, performing arts organizations choose the safer route for collaborating, by setting a broadly articulated theme for everyone to contribute their distinct piece to the effort. But, if groups sincerely … Read more

An exciting twist to the annual Performing Arts Coalition show at The Rose: Six resident companies fully collaborate on forthcoming Pictures at an Exhibition: ReFramed

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While Modest Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition is among the most familiar pieces in the classical musical repertoire, it might surprise more than a few just how little we actually know about what the composer’s expressive intentions were when he composed in 1874 the piano score in memory of his friend, the Russian painter and … Read more

A prized chamber theater jewel: Outstanding acting invigorates Plan-B Theatre’s production of Melissa Leilani Larson’s Bitter Lemon

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The two actors in the fabulous Plan-B Theatre production of Melissa Leilani Larson’s Bitter Lemon persuade the audience to reconsider Shakespeare’s Macbeth, not just as a chronicle about the fatalistic machinations of power but also as the moral conflict about good and evil. This conflict is manifested in Larson’s character creations of Lady Helen Macduff … Read more

Enemy fiction: Melissa Leilani Larson’s Bitter Lemon set for Plan-B Theatre’s (sort of) world premiere this week

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In February, Plan-B Theatre mounted a world premiere production of Balthazar, Debora Threedy’s fresh reimagining of The Merchant of Venice’s Portia. As The Utah Review noted at the time, Threedy’s play is a well-crafted piece of fan fiction. In her two-hander script, she successfully sustained the broader integrity of Shakespeare’s literary world while reconfiguring characters … Read more

With strong performances, Melissa Leilani Larson’s Mestiza, or Mixed, is outstanding season closer for Plan-B Theatre

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After a long talk with Alex, her girlfriend, Lark seems she can barely stay afloat, wondering if she will ever find success as a filmmaker. She speaks to her absent Filipino father: “It makes sense, Dad. That you wanted to fit in. The westerns are all about this idea of finding a place to belong … Read more

A mixed Filipina filmmaker adrift about her identity in American society: Melissa Leilani Larson’s Mestiza, or Mixed, set for Plan-B Theatre premiere June 9-19

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In Melissa Leilani Larson’s newest play Mestiza, Or Mixed, thirty-something Lark Timon is a struggling filmmaker hoping to make a big break with one of her six screenplays. Lark, who identifies as a mixed Filipino female, believes her script set in the American West is a sure bet. Lark describes her female protagonist as Reyna, … Read more

Outstanding quartet of new short plays drive successful premiere of Plan-B Theatre’s Radio Slam; free app now available to listen to performances

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Now that all four new short plays from Plan-B Theatre’s Radio Slam have premiered in KUAA (99.9 FM) broadcasts, the company is making available recordings of them free and open to the public via its new mobile app, which can be downloaded here. Each play runs approximately 10 minutes. The project was coordinated with KUAA (99.9 … Read more

Plan-B Theatre’s Radio Slam to feature four world premiere short plays in daily KUAA-FM broadcasts, May 5-8

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Radio always has been a resilient medium in extraordinary times. The COVID-19 pandemic is no different. Results from a recent Nielsen Audio survey show that 83% of consumers are listening to radio more frequently and extensively. Characterizing radio as a “local lifeblood,” Brad Kelly, managing director of Nielsen Audio, says, “In this environment, it’s no … Read more

Impressive late summer entertainment with The Post Office, Rose Exposed #TRENDING

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THE POST OFFICE In the fading daylight, Ash (Alexis Bitner, Olympus High School) tells the others surrounding her bed, “I can see the courier riding down the narrow road that winds like a ribbon through the trees. She’s traveled that road many times, a lantern in her hand and a bag of letters on her … Read more

The Post Office set to premiere in conjunction with Rose Exposed; companion piece to upcoming UN Civil Society Conference in SLC

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Of all his works as a Bengali dramatist, The Post Office has become Rabindranath Tagore’s (1861-1941) most famous play. It was completed in 1912, a year before he became the first non-European to win the Nobel Prize in Literature. The play’s story is simple. A boy who is confined to his home because of illness, … Read more