Performing Arts in Utah covered in 15 Bytes, Utah’s art magazine.
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 […]
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 […]
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. […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
Another Language Performing Arts Company’s latest project Ghost Town is currently in development but is already generating excitement in artists across a number of disciplines. Ghost Town is a crowd-sourced, online event involving artistic work inspired by Utah ghost towns and will be unveiled in 2015 as the company’s signature project marking […]
This week, Roland Lee and Craig Jessop were honored with a Governor’s Artist Award medal at the Governor’s Mansion in Salt Lake City. The awards are given annually to a visual artist and performing artist who “have made significant contributions to the arts in Utah.” Governor Gary Herbert and […]
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, […]
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 […]
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 […]
‘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 […]
15 Bytes started out as a visual arts publication. And it still is. But over the past year or so we’ve expanded our coverage to include some of our friends and colleagues in other fields. Earlier this year, we announced the addition of a literary editor, and this […]
Daughters of Mudson may sound more like the name of a weird band than the name of an annual dance performance. And you may or may not have been to Salt Lake’s Masonic Temple this spring to see the works-in-progress show called Mudson, put on by loveDANCEmore. Either way, the […]
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 […]
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 […]
Tandy Beal’s HereAfterHere: A Self-Guided Tour of Eternity aims to engage the audience in a conversation about death. However, the performance is so full of the joy of life, music, movement and creativity that at times death is left in the wings, although still close enough to remind […]
