This year’s selections in The Utah Review of the top ten moments of the Utah Enlightenment in 2023, the ninth annual edition, were the easiest to curate in the nine years of publishing this annual list. Likewise, selecting the top moment among the ten was just as easy. In Utah, there are creative producers in … Read more
FIRE . . . flaming, burning, searing, and penetrating far beneath the superficial items of the flesh to boil the sluggish blood. FIRE … a cry of conquest in the night, warning those who sleep and revitalizing those who linger in the quiet places dozing. FIRE . . . melting steel and iron bars, poking … Read more
INTRODUCTION One year ago, when The Utah Review presented the 2019 edition of the top 10 moments of the Utah Enlightenment, it was a jubilant representation of Utah’s integral strengths as a community of the arts and the momentum that catapulted Salt Lake City as one of the Intermountain West’s most dynamic centers for creative … Read more
Now that all four new short plays from Plan-B Theatre’s Radio Slam have premiered in KUAA (99.9 FM) broadcasts, the company is making available recordings of them free and open to the public via its new mobile app, which can be downloaded here. Each play runs approximately 10 minutes. The project was coordinated with KUAA (99.9 … Read more
Radio always has been a resilient medium in extraordinary times. The COVID-19 pandemic is no different. Results from a recent Nielsen Audio survey show that 83% of consumers are listening to radio more frequently and extensively. Characterizing radio as a “local lifeblood,” Brad Kelly, managing director of Nielsen Audio, says, “In this environment, it’s no … Read more
In one of many intensely emotional passages in Plan-B Theatre’s unprecedented streamed production of Jenifer Nii’s The Audacity, actor April Fossen rises to an unforgettable moment in Utah theater history. Among the six characters she portrays in this solo work is Josie Bassett, one of Utah’s most famous pioneer ranchers. Josie, nearly 90, is walking … Read more
“Legend, lore, mystery, romance and even murder.” That is the opening sentence in Linda Wommack’s recently published book Growing Up with the Wild Bunch: The Story of Pioneer Legend Josie Bassett. “This rugged, tough-as-nails, small-statured lady moved to a new homestead on Cub Creek in Utah, where she would struggle to survive for the next … Read more
More than 50 years ago, Susan Sontag’s essay Against Interpretation became one of her most famous and widely scrutinized writings. Sontag wrote in the last line of the essay, “In place of a hermeneutics we need an erotics of art,” – a declaration that resonated in her deep admiration for Franz Kafka’s work and, in … Read more
In one of opera’s most famous and most captivating arias, Tosca sings Vissi d’arte, which translates literally to “I lived for art.” The aria from this Giacomo Puccini opera is an anguished prayer because Tosca, a singer, faces the most impossible choice. To save her lover (the painter Cavaradossi) from the death sentence, she must … Read more
Being a conservative in the arts has also been great for me because those in the arts give me a full environment to hear other perspectives. Being close to those with different viewpoints has opened my mind and sometimes changed it (and sometimes reinforced it), but either way it’s been an expanding experience. I sometimes … Read more