{"id":3645,"date":"2011-07-06T23:53:16","date_gmt":"2011-07-06T23:53:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/?p=3645"},"modified":"2025-11-12T22:13:11","modified_gmt":"2025-11-13T05:13:11","slug":"randy-rasmussen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/randy-rasmussen\/","title":{"rendered":"Randy Rasmussen"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Randy Rasmussen, photo by Will Thompson<\/p><\/div>\n

Randy Rasmussen\u2019s new 20 foot painting \u201cWoodside\u201d is smaller than what he\u2019s used to working with. As Technical Director for both Plan B Theatre and Kingsbury Hall his usual canvas is the size of a stage, a scale he\u2019s been working with since his days at Jordan High School. Back then Jordan was one of the last high schools to have a working fly system and Rasmussen was part of the stage crew. It was there that he found his niche, among creative students who made a comfortable home outside the mainstream world. \u201cTheatre is a magnet for people who don\u2019t fit in anywhere else. It\u2019s a place where freaks congregate. It was the only place in high school for a freak and I met my friends there. When there is distinctly a majority and distinctly a minority, that minority gets bonded together really tight and the next thing you know you have twenty to thirty friends that you\u2019ll have for the rest of your life,\u201d Rasmussen says.<\/span><\/p>\n

After high school Rasmussen went to college at what is now Southern Utah University, where he studied theatre and art. There he had the opportunity to take ceramics classes from Mark Talbert, and, being only 60 miles from Zion National Park, frequently venture out to the desert with his first water color block to start painting outside. \u201cI dreamed about art and thought about art,” Rasmussen says, “but it was Cedar City that gave me the opportunity to really explore it. There were some incredible landscape painters in Southern Utah and Springdale at the time. It was really eye opening.\u201d<\/p>\n

He continued to find inspiration in his first job out of college, painting scenery and running a sound board at Pioneer Theatre, where he worked for seven years. \u201cI learned how to make things happen, to dream big and build big.\u201d He worked on several large scale productions from the very beginning; his first was West Side Story. But it is actually a smaller stage that has been one of the most fulfilling things in his life. While at Pioneer Theatre he began to build sets for Plan B Theatre Company. \u201cOnce they got to the point where they needed real scenery; I\u2019ve done every set ever since,\u201d Rasmussen says. He has been there for 15 years and still finds the work tremendously satisfying because of a special formula: \u201cIf you can get the magic combination of great content, great people to do it with and if you\u2019re really lucky you might find a little money to do it. If you can get those three things it\u2019s a really, really wonderful thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Woodside by Randy Rasmussen at the Rio Grande Cafe, photo by Will Thompson<\/p><\/div>\n

For almost as long as he\u2019s been with Plan B Theatre Company Rasmussen has also worked at Kingsbury Hall. Along with being in close proximity to the desert, it\u2019s his work with the two theatres that keeps him in Salt Lake City. He also stays because he notes that the polarization between liberals and conservatives in Utah has created a breeding ground for unique art. \u201cOppression creates dissention. I know some people who are doing some really wild things in this town and it\u2019s stuff you wouldn\u2019t see in LA,\u201d he explains.<\/p>\n

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Randy Rasmussen mural inside Cinegrill in Salt Lake City<\/p><\/div>\n