Performing Arts in Utah covered in 15 Bytes, Utah’s art magazine.
Painter Cassandra Christensen Barney has plenty of experience coming up with costumes and set designs for the characters in her paintings — whimsical females in period dresses, often surrounded by a menagerie of flora and fauna. But she has found doing the same for live dancers on the […]
Once a stuffy place for plays, recitals and lectures, Salt Lake City’s Ladies Literary Club recently has become a stylish place for plays, recitals and lectures. Purchased about a year ago by a young and very hip couple who renamed it Clubhouse (to honor its previous incarnation), the […]
There is one topic du jour that seems repetitive: devout Mormons, lapsed Mormons, non-Mormons, all appear concerned lately (belatedly) with LGBT rights in the LDS Church. Books like the Mormon mystery His Right Hand by Mette Ivie Harrison, so many newspaper articles and letters to the editor, and […]
Night after night, a young white woman watches news broadcasts about police violence against African- American citizens. Although she lives far away, she is moved to act against the brutality she sees on the screen by joining the protest effort. The year is 1965—but it could just as […]
Picture a young child coloring: they smile in delight at picking out just the right crayon or enthusiastically grab a random one from the floor; they fill the page with broad strokes of vibrant color without any regard for the lines (assuming there are any); and an infectious […]
Early in Salt Lake Acting Company’s production of “Streetlight Woodpecker,” the protagonist Benji (played by Stefan Espinosa) mistakes the pecking of a neighborhood woodpecker for the sound of distant machine-gun fire. Benji, who has just returned from active duty with debilitating injuries, struggles to readjust to his hometown […]
If you’re planning on attending Ballet West’s production of Romeo and Juliet this month, you might notice the company has hired a new maestro: Tara Simoncic. Artistic Director Adam Sklute has brought her in over the past several years for projects, but she was appointed as the orchestral […]
Been there, done that. Many of us have, I’m sure. “I don’t know the title or the author but I can kinda tell you what the cover looks like. Can you find it for me?” “Well, why can’t you call Barnes and Noble to see if they have […]
In PYGmalion Theatre’s excellent Buyer & Cellar, you have Barbra Streisand as herself; a quick cameo by her husband, James Brolin (in search of frozen yogurt with sprinkles); her down-on-his-luck employee, Alex More (recently fired as Disneyland’s Mayor of Toontown for telling a child where to put […]
If you are familiar with the irreverent, bawdy, ever-so-absurdist humor of Mel Brooks’ films and plays, you will instantly understand the kind of wild ride the Grand Theatre’s The New Mel Brooks Musical: Young Frankenstein promises its audience. For those uninitiated into the 1974 cult film, the story […]
Pozdnyshev did it in the conservatory with a knife. We learn that much early on in “The Kreutzer Sonata,” Eric Samuelsen’s world-premiere one-act play, a superb adaptation (and condensation) of Tolstoy’s 1889 novella about murder and madness. Combined with a spellbinding performance of much of Beethoven’s Violin […]
The novel and (actually, several) films of The Talented Mr. Ripley are readily available in Salt Lake, but until this week the play has not been. A first step in rectifying that omission was made on Monday night, when Weller Booksworks, as part of both its Free Play Reading Series and the Utah Humanities Book Festival, staged a free reading in the bookstore. Although presented without costumes or scenery and only minimal action, the actors prepared as they would for any staging, rehearsing and working together to develop characters and impart the right voices.
“I saw the best minds of my generation” (Janis, Jimi, Jim, Kurt, Amy, the kid who lived around the corner) “destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked, dragging themselves through the negro streets at dawn looking for an angry fix, angelheaded hipsters burning for the ancient heavenly connection to […]
Of all the brilliant theatrical tropes that Repertory Dance Theatre has introduced over half a century, one of the best comes right at the start of each performance. As the house lights dim and the roses on the curtain fade from sight, anticipation calls the audience to order. […]
The premise is unalluring: a smartly dressed, middle-aged woman stands in front of the audience and recounts the struggles of caring for a parent with Alzheimer’s. Yet an emotionally taut performance by April Fossen; a sharp, engaging script by Steve Yockey; and the fairy-tale interludes of Glen and […]
