Theater

Utah Theatre articles published in 15 Bytes, Utah’s art magazine, including theatre reviews, interviews with playwrights, directors, actors and more.

Performing Arts | Theater

Reading Ripley: Weller Bookworks stages a reading of Phyllis Nagy’s The Talented Mr. Ripley

By Geoff Wichert on October 13, 2015 • ( Leave a comment )

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.

Performing Arts | Theater

Off and Dancing: Ritual opens Repertory Dance Theatre’s 50th season

By Geoff Wichert on October 3, 2015 • ( 1 Comment )

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. […]

Performing Arts | Theater

Baked Goods and Bulletproof Smiles: SLAC’s Blackberry Winter explores the emotional toll of caring for parents with dementia

By Shawn Rossiter on September 23, 2015 • ( Leave a comment )

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 […]

Performing Arts | Theater

Shakespeare Festival’s Henry IV Part Two

By Shawn Rossiter on July 5, 2015 • ( Leave a comment )

While most fans agree “The Empire Strikes Back” is the best film in the original Star Wars trilogy, few of them would suggest watching the film in isolation. It would be like attending only Part Two of Shakespeare’s trio of plays on Henry V: a middle with no […]

Performing Arts | Theater

Amadeus: Consuming Envy and Creative Passion at the Utah Shakespeare Festival

By Shawn Rossiter on July 2, 2015 • ( 1 Comment )

Just as one would not wisely attend Shakespeare’s Henry V as a primer for an exam on franco-anglo relations in the 15th-century, do not come to Peter Shaffer’s Amadeus, on stage this summer at the Utah Shakespeare Festival, to better understand the life of a favorite classical composer. […]

Performing Arts | Theater

Not “Big Love”: Plan-B’s “Pilot Program” Proves a Fine Tragicomedy

By Ann Poore on April 9, 2015 • ( Leave a comment )

A husband, his wife – and a sister wife: not such a peculiar scenario in Utah. But LDS Church mandated? Again? That’s the intriguing premise of Plan-B Theatre’s excellent world-premiere play, “Pilot Program.” Set in 2019, the plot centers around a hopelessly childless middle-aged LDS couple who are […]

Performing Arts | Theater

Pygmalion Productions’ Hellman v. McCarthy

By Geoff Wichert on February 28, 2015 • ( 1 Comment )

Playwright Brian Richard Mori set himself a challenge when he set out to dramatize one of the 20th century’s most illuminating literary feuds. While more than half of all Americans must be old enough to remember this and other events from the early 1980s, few things can have […]

Daily Bytes | Performing Arts | Theater

Plan-B’s “Mama”: You Laugh, You Cry

By Ann Poore on February 12, 2015 • ( 1 Comment )

Plan-B’s “Mama” is an absorbing play, beautifully performed Wednesday night by a quartet of fine actors. A rich mixture of high tech and solid theater, it resonates with a hymn to every sort of mother. Bad or good, absent or too-much present, drunk or sober, playwright Carleton […]

Performing Arts | Theater

SLAC: Privacy, McMansions and the Evil Media

By Ann Poore on February 7, 2015 • ( Leave a comment )

Lighting adds a lot to a play and it simply wasn’t there opening night at Salt Lake Acting Company’s world premiere of Elaine Jarvik’s “Two Stories.” There were two interruptions in the production due to a blown fuse before it was decided that, well, the show must go […]

Performing Arts | Theater

Shakespeare Festival’s Sense and Sensibility

By Shawn Rossiter on July 7, 2014 • ( 3 Comments )

The world premiere of a stage adaptation of Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility is the triumph of this year’s Utah Shakespeare Festival. Under the capable hands of director Joseph Hanreddy, and based on a commissioned text by J.R. Sullivan, this Sense and Sensibility is a delight to watch, […]

Performing Arts | Theater

Mining for Gold: Utah Shakespeare Festival’s The Comedy of Errors

By Shawn Rossiter on June 30, 2014 • ( Leave a comment )

This year, unsuspecting visitors to the Utah Shakespeare Festival’s Adams Theatre may be startled to find Vicki M. Smith’s playful stage set, which looks more appropriate for a theatrical production of Blazing Saddles than an Elizabethan comedy: because at the 2014 Festival, Brad Carroll’s staging of Shakespeare’s The […]

Performing Arts | Theater

“3” Insightful Plays at Plan B

By Ann Poore on March 27, 2014 • ( Leave a comment )

Family Home Evening it isn’t. But Eric Samuelsen’s world premiere “3” at Plan B Theatre Company is still as Mormon as it gets. That doesn’t mean anyone of any belief system won’t enjoy it immensely. But it will help if you’ve spent some time in Utah. These are three […]

Performing Arts | Theater

Pygmalion’s The Women of Lockerbie

By Geoff Wichert on March 10, 2014 • ( Leave a comment )

‘When evil comes into the world, it is the job of the witnesses to turn it into love.’ Statistically, when a child dies, more than half the time the parents end up by divorcing. The reason most often given is conflict over how to grieve. These differences aren’t […]

Literary Arts | Theater

Eric Samuelsen in Three Acts

By Dale Thompson on February 6, 2014 • ( Leave a comment )

ACT I Eric Samuelsen enters stage right. He’s a broad man with keenly intelligent eyes and an infectious smile. Samuelsen looks surprised to be here. He’s a playwright after all, not an actor. ERIC: Choosing not to act was not a difficult call. He laughs good-naturedly. ERIC: It […]

Daily Bytes | Theater

Plan-B Fosters Innovative Playwrights

By Dale Thompson on January 23, 2014 • ( Leave a comment )

I recently had the pleasure of sitting down with Eric Samuelsen, resident playwright for Plan-B Theatre Company. His latest work, Clearing Bombs, will debut on February 20. During our conversation, I was struck by Samuelsen’s success: 20 years as professor in the theatre department at Brigham Young University […]

Performing Arts | Theater

The Righteous and Very Real Housewives of Utah County

By Alyssa Hickman Grove on May 24, 2013 • ( Leave a comment )

I went to The Righteous and Very Real Housewives of Utah County having seen no more than a few minutes of a “The Real Housewives of…” TV show; but that brief taste was exposure enough to get a sense of the series’ formula of alliances, feuds, gossip, and […]

Daily Bytes | Performing Arts | Theater

Anne Cullimore Decker in The Righteous and Very Real Housewives of Utah County

By 15 Bytes on May 13, 2013 • ( Leave a comment )

Wives, widows, forbidden love and family secrets…and all in Utah County. Whether you’re intrigued or wondering if this simply describes your family, the world premier of The Righteous and Very Real Housewives of Utah County is a play you’re not going to want to miss. Written by Miguel […]

Artists of Utah's 15 Bytes

Utah's Art Magazine

Theater

Reading Ripley: Weller Bookworks stages a reading of Phyllis Nagy’s The Talented Mr. Ripley

Off and Dancing: Ritual opens Repertory Dance Theatre’s 50th season

Baked Goods and Bulletproof Smiles: SLAC’s Blackberry Winter explores the emotional toll of caring for parents with dementia

Shakespeare Festival’s Henry IV Part Two

Amadeus: Consuming Envy and Creative Passion at the Utah Shakespeare Festival

Not “Big Love”: Plan-B’s “Pilot Program” Proves a Fine Tragicomedy

Pygmalion Productions’ Hellman v. McCarthy

Plan-B’s “Mama”: You Laugh, You Cry

SLAC: Privacy, McMansions and the Evil Media

Shakespeare Festival’s Sense and Sensibility

Mining for Gold: Utah Shakespeare Festival’s The Comedy of Errors

“3” Insightful Plays at Plan B

Pygmalion’s The Women of Lockerbie

Eric Samuelsen in Three Acts

Plan-B Fosters Innovative Playwrights

The Righteous and Very Real Housewives of Utah County

Anne Cullimore Decker in The Righteous and Very Real Housewives of Utah County

Make a Tax-Deductible Contribution

UNDERWRITERS