In the updated, slimmer, far more terse version of Morag Shepherd’s two-hander My Brother Was A Vampire, only occasional wisps of the crisp, tart and sardonic banter between Callum and his sister Skye from the earlier version remain. Played by actors Tyler Fox and Ariana Farber who are considerably older than the two actors who … Read more
Starting its second decade, the Great Salt Lake Fringe Festival will feature 23 shows, many from outstanding indie theater companies in three venues, during the event which will run from July 24 to Aug. 3, in downtown Salt Lake City. The event will take place at the main hall and the black box at the … Read more
In Morag Shepherd’s superb two-hander The Big Quiet, two Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints sister missionaries could not be more different. But, by the end of the play, they are closer to each other than either could ever have imagined. In their respective ways, they realize that women in the Mormon community literally … Read more
While there have been plenty of stories about male missionaries in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints rendered in film, television and theater, there has been a dearth in stories about Mormon sister missionaries. However, last year’s release of Heretic, a horror film about a pair of sister Mormon missionaries who hope to … Read more
Misery, one of Stephen King’s best novels, is about an author’s deepest terror as he desperately tries to figure out how to stay alive, while he is imprisoned in the home of the woman who calls herself “his number one fan.” When the 1987 novel was adapted three years later into a film, directed by … Read more
The question of and quest for personal dignity come through with sharp bites in the outstanding production of Paul Zindel’s The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds, with Immigrant’s Daughter Theatre in collaboration with Hart Theater Company. Directed by Morag Shepherd, the production reinvigorates for a contemporary generation a 1965 play which some critics … Read more
Becoming more popular than its precursor “dream on,” the slangy derisive “in your dreams!” quickly took hold in the 1980s, making it painfully aware that despite desiring so much for something to happen, it will never be. With eight miniature scenes by four Utah playwrights, presented to a tiny audience of six persons per performance, … Read more
PYGmalion Theatre Company has been on a golden run in recent productions stretching to last season and its latest featuring Julie Jensen’s Last Lists of My Mad Mother is stellar in every measure. Directed by Morag Shepherd, this one-act gem is carried by the perfect chamber theater ensemble chemistry of actors Reb Fleming, Tamara Howell … Read more
Earlier this year, playwright Morag Shepherd directed the excellent Pygmalion Theatre Company production of Debora Threedy’s Mountain Meadows, which was about historian Juanita Brooks’ search for the truth behind the Mountain Meadows massacre, one of the darkest stains in Mormon history. With news of the massacre, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints institutionalized … Read more
WASATCH THEATRE COMPANY: MELANCHOLY PLAY For the Wasatch Theatre Company production, Director Morag Shepherd took to heart Sarah Ruhl’s instructions for Melancholy Play: A Contemporary Farce: “Melancholy in this play is Bold, Outward, Sassy, Sexy and Unashamed. It is not introverted. It uses, instead, the language of Jacobean direct address.” In a very smart, gratifying … Read more