Alex Smith & Company in Chris Curlett’s “Fox and the Mormons,” as part of Plan-B’s FULL COLOR. Image by Sharah Meservy.
We have come to rely upon artistic director Jerry Rapier and his Plan-B Theatre for moving productions that require intellect as well as a certain amount of soul surrendering to absorb. Physical tension, too, is usually present—you realize immediately that this likely will not be a relaxing evening at the theater, but it will certainly be an engaging one. You will get out of it what you are willing to put into it, and that could be, and usually is, a great deal.
This is manifestly true of the current production, Full Color, the third installment of the company’s Color series, following …Of Color in 2019 and Local Color in 2021.
A world premiere by Tatiana Christian, Chris Curlett, Courtney Dilmore, Dee-Dee Darby-Duffin, Bijan Hosseini, Tito Livas, Iris Salazar, and Darryl Stamp in the Studio Theatre at the Rose Wagner Performing Arts Center, Full Color offers glimpses into the lives of eight different Utah BIPOC playwrights, performed by eight actors of color.
Yolanda Stange in Dee-Dee Darby-Duffin’s “Fried Chicken.” Image by Sharah Meservy.
The actors gather on Janice Chan’s set, which suggests a camping excursion among friends. Each actor has a chance to take center stage and embody the colorful lives of their respective playwrights: Dee-Dee Darby-Duffin’s experience at a grocery store in 9th & 9th, where a cashier mistakes her University of Utah debit card for an EBT (electronic benefit transfer) card; Courtney Gilmore’s story of a young person returning to their reservation to reconnect with their roots; Tito Livas’ struggles navigating a world of racist casting; Tatiana Christian’s dynamic probing of liberal political speech; Darryl Stamp’s revealing Halloween anecdote as the only Black person in a Bountiful neighborhood; Iris Salazar’s childhood embrace of color-tinged language; and Chris Curlett’s struggles navigating the world of theater in an LDS context.
Full Color concludes with Bijan Hosseini’s “At Least One.” All the actors leave the stage, except Alec Kalled, who movingly relates Hosseini’s miserable story of being half Persian in a post-9/11 world and constantly being pulled aside by airport security when he travels. He describes a chilling stop where a police officer told him, “Don’t think for a second I couldn’t shoot you and get away with it.”
Full Color is simple and straightforward and authentic and ordinary: it is also bold, barrier-breaking, and extraordinary, according to an apt description in a press release.
Alec Kalled in Bijan J. Hosseini’s “At Least One.” Image by Sharah Meservy.
Full Color, Plan-B Theatre, Salt Lake City, through Nov. 10
A graduate of the University of Utah, Ann Poore is a freelance writer and editor who spent most of her career at The Salt Lake Tribune. She was the 2018 recipient of the Salt Lake City Mayor’s Artist Award in the Literary Arts.
Categories: Theater
