Last year, Repertory Dance Theatre’s world premiere performance of Natosha Washington’s I AM…, which the company commissioned, was outstanding. Coming 13 months later, in line with the company’s season theme of Reflection, the eight dancers, joined by narrator and singer Dee-Dee Darby-Duffin, took the evening-length work to new heights in a riveting display of spectacular … Read more
At the opening of Full Color, Plan-B Theatre’s 34th season opener, the setting is pleasant and inviting: eight people enjoying each other’s company and feeling comfortable at home, outside a tent in nature. As each person shares a story, the production’s epiphany expands organically, one narrative at a time. While the audience is welcomed to … Read more
Between 2010 and 2020, Utah’s population grew at a faster rate than in any other state and more than 52% of that growth occurred in minority populations. Today, more than 1 in 4 Utahns identify as Black, Indigenous or People of Color (BIPOC), compared to 1 in 5 in the 2010 U.S. Census. As the … Read more
Within a few days after third grader Martin Richards from Boston was killed in the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing, a photo which showed the boy holding a sign he created that read ‘No more hurting people. Peace’ went viral. He made the sign a year before, when an activist who was protesting the handling of … Read more
A show-stopping moment in the Voodoo Theatre Company’s Utah premiere production of Clare Barron’s Dance Nation comes when Ashlee, who is just coming into her teen years, delivers the mother of all monologues that any adolescent girl could ever dream of speaking. Running approximately three and a half pages in the script, Ashlee knocks the … Read more
October’s performing arts schedule was filled with many jewels, including Repertory Dance Theatre, the Gina Bachauer International Piano Foundation and NOVA Chamber Music Series. The reviews below: REPERTORY DANCE THEATRE: I AM… One could not have asked for a more spectacular opener for Repertory Dance Theatre’s (RDT) 58th season than the premiere of Natosha Washington’s … Read more
Just as essential as a choreographer’s skills in setting the most impactful movement upon a dance company in the studio is their capacity to trust the dancers as collaborators in rendering themes they envision, particularly when the work is steeped in the choreographer’s autobiographical experiences. In an interview with The Utah Review, choreographer Natosha Washington … Read more
SALT LAKE ACTING COMPANY: PASSING STRANGE Audiences might be well prepared for what the rock opera Jesus Christ Superstar or the Motown soul musical The Wiz have to offer but are they really prepared for Passing Strange, a rock musical, with a nice bit of punk and gospel thrown into the mix, which examines the … Read more
Just slightly past the midway point of the opening night performance in the world premiere of Carleton Bluford’s The Clean-Up Project, it was evident that another Plan-B Theatre production was having the usual very good opener. Bluford’s script, about a swift revolution that has transformed the country and flipped the power structure, is complex in … Read more
Take the title of one of the four short plays in the premiere audio production of Local Color, and a listener can appreciate the organic commitments that Plan-B Theatre has made in bringing original plays that reflect a more genuine sense of the creative place at the core of the Utah Enlightenment. For closing out … Read more