New Play Sounding Series
Free Reading

Monday, October 14 @ 7pm

Director: Robin Wilks-Dunn

Actors: Sean Carter, Barb Ganddy, Tamara Johnson-Howell, Dan Larrinaga, Tito Livas*, Morgan Lund*, Nicki Nixon, Lane Richins*, Natalie Keezer

Stage Manager: Katelyn Limber*

Summer, 1998. Once popular, Arrowhead Community Pool has seen membership decline for years. Retired pool president Dorothy Wilson blames video games and air-conditioning. But when new pool president Freddie Rosedale abolishes Dorothy's longstanding alcohol ban and installs a frozen margarita machine, the place comes back to life, and a battle begins. SWIMMING POOL is a dark ensemble comedy about American excess and restraint on the cusp of the 21st Century.

SLAC thanks the Jarvis and Constance Doctorow Family Foundation for their generous support of this vital program. 

New Play Sounding Series
Free Reading: THE ROBERTASSEY

A Comedy by Kathleen Cahill

Monday, April 29 @ 7pm

Director: Penelope Caywood

Actors: Joe Crnich, Olivia Custodio, Alexandra Harbold, Robert Scott Smith

Reader: Valerie Kittel

Stage Manager: Miranda Giles

Roberta Mahoney is 40, unemployed, and taking a trip to Dublin, her father’s birthplace, with his ashes in her suitcase. Her pregnant sister Carol, talked her into it. Roberta hated her father, Hiker, an alcoholic veterinarian who loved animals – especially a pet skunk – more than his family. Roberta arrives in Dublin but her suitcase doesn’t.  Her trip turns into a magical mystery tour and the lost suitcase comes to represent her life of loses –her inability to develop intimate relationships, or to find something to do in life that matters to her – all caused, she believes, by her alcoholic father who keeps appearing, carrying her suitcase and singing his old songs. She meets a woman in a second hand clothing store with a skunk’s tail, a hotel concierge who shows up wearing Roberta’s shoes, and two baggage handlers named Garth and Aemon, who insist they are different people but who look exactly alike; one of them seduces her with his “orphic songs.” Everyone in Dublin seems to be involved in Roberta’s predicament.

THE ROBERTASSEY is a comedy about grief, loss and love; a comical metaphor for the process of learning how to live. As the recorded voice in the lost luggage department says: “Please continue to hold. Don’t give up.  Hold on for as long as you possibly can.“

SLAC thanks the Jarvis and Constance Doctorow Family Foundation for their generous support of this vital program.

Reserve Tickets Here

Doors open at 6:30pm. Open seating; first come, first served.

Pictured clockwise from top left: Playwright Kathleen Cahill, Olivia Custodio, Robert Scott Smith, Alexandra Harbold, Joe Crnich, and Valerie Kittel

New Play Sounding Series
Free Reading

Monday, March 4 @ 7pm

Director: Jason Bowcutt

Dramaturg: Camille Washington

Actors: Colleen Baum, Dee-Dee Darby-Duffin, Susanna Florence, Tamara Howell, Nicki Nixon

Reader: Michelle Love-Day

Stage Manager: Katelyn Limber

On the morning of February 21, 1895, the day after the great man died, Susan B. Anthony shows up on his widow’s doorstep. She is there to grieve — but is she also feeling guilty? FOUR WOMEN TALKING ABOUT THE MAN UNDER THE SHEET is an exploration of feminism and race, asking “what compromises should you make in pursuit of a cause?”

SLAC thanks the Jarvis and Constance Doctorow Family Foundation for their generous support of this vital program.

Reserve Tickets Here

Doors open at 6:30pm. Open seating; first come, first served.

Join us for a special presentation of the play that premiered at SLAC ten years ago.

Monday, October 30 @ 7pm

Written and Performed by Jeff Metcalf

A Funny, Touching, Warm, Informative, Frank, Inspiring, Entertaining Play about ... Prostate Cancer?!

Yes, that's right - an amazing play about prostate cancer.

Award-winning playwright Jeff Metcalf has written a remarkably honest- and outrageously funny - play about his experience with prostate cancer. This one man play, based on his journals, follows Jeff's journey from diagnosis through his life surviving the disease. "I'm here because of closet space, ritual and humor," says Metcalf.

A Slight Discomfort is about living - really living. It explores the shared experience of being human and dealing with a crisis with grace and humor.

A Slight Discomfort takes us from laughter to tears, from blushing to bravo, from thought to action, from tragedy to triumph.

$50 ticket includes performance and pre-show reception with appetizers at 6pm.

Buy Tickets

New Play Sounding Series
Free Reading

Monday, October 29 @ 7pm

Director: Per Smedegaard
Assistant Director: Cynthia Fleming

Actors: April Fossen, Nicki Nixon, Topher Rasmussen, Lane Richins, Cassandra Stokes-Wylie
Reader: Joshua Black

Stage Manager: William Richardson
Sound Technician: Katelyn Limber

From Denmark's Teatret Svalegangen, comes this racy, absurd, yet painfully relatable new play about the many faces of feminism.

SLAC thanks the Jarvis and Constance Doctorow Family Foundation for their generous support of this vital program.

Doors open at 6:30pm. Open seating; first come, first served. 

RESERVE YOUR TICKETS HERE

New Play Sounding Series
Free Reading

Monday, September 24 @ 7pm

Director: Shannon Musgrave

Actors: Lily Hye Soo Dixon, Ava Kostia, Adriana Lemke

On the brink of her next round of funding, Sarah Boyd, Founder and CEO of Tactix, must hold her company together through a pesky journalist's questions and glaring doubts thrown her way surrounding the promises her company has made. It's a heavy load, and Sarah knows that she is the only one great enough to bear it.

SLAC thanks the Jarvis and Constance Doctorow Family Foundation for their generous support of this vital program.

Doors open at 6:30pm. Open seating; first come, first served. 

Adapted from the short story "Part of the Story" by Stephen Dobyns

New Play Sounding Series
Free Reading

Monday, April 30 @ 7pm

Director: Robin Wilks-Dunn

Actors: Daniel Beecher, April Fossen, Jacob Johnson, Teresa Sanderson, Matthew Sincell, Cassandra Stokes-Wylie

Stage Manager: Jordan Simmons

Five adult birth-children. Their birth mother. A first-time, get-together, potluck brunch in a trailer-home in Michigan. A dead lover in the back room. Story-telling; joke-telling. Bad behavior. Good behavior. Y'all come, now.

SLAC thanks the Jarvis and Constance Doctorow Family Foundation for their generous support of this vital program.

Doors open at 6:30pm. Open seating; first come, first served. 

New Play Sounding Series
Free Reading

Monday, March 5 @ 7pm

Director: Shawn Fisher

Actors: Jeanette Puhich Foulger, Morgan Lund, Amy Ware

Reader: Olivia Custodio

Stage Manager: Ashley Winch

When Constance’s troubled son is lost at sea, and her long-lost daughter suddenly decides to visit, she is forced to face the truth about her family and the secrets that broke it apart so many years ago.

SLAC thanks the Jarvis and Constance Doctorow Family Foundation for their generous support of this vital program.

Doors open at 6:30pm. Open seating; first come, first served. 

For a sneak peak of the reading, take a look at this article by Matt Morris of Utah Arts Magazine.

New Play Sounding Series
Free Reading

Monday, November 6 @ 7pm

Director: Robert Scott Smith

Actors: Tyson Baker, Anne Louise Brings, Harrison J. Lind, Allen Smith, Alicia Washington.

Stage Manager: Jennie Sant

Made up of eight short plays, the entire play takes place in and around Reykjavík, Iceland. "All of the locations are ephemeral places, transitory, the kind of places people pass through or stop to rest but do not stay for long.” - Steve Yockey

SLAC thanks the Jarvis and Constance Doctorow Family Foundation for their generous support of this vital program. 

New Play Sounding Series
Free Reading

Monday, September 25 @ 7pm

Director: Adrianne Moore

Actors: Daisy Blake, Nicholas Dunn, Jacob Johnson, Kathryn Mungin, Matthew Sincell, Darryl Stamp, Cassandra Stokes-Wylie

Reader: Mary-Helen Pitman

Stage Manager: Kallie Erickson

A man takes an ancestry test a part of his initiation into a white supremacist group gets an unsettling surprise.

SLAC thanks the Jarvis and Constance Doctorow Family Foundation for their generous support of this vital program. 

New Play Sounding Series
Free Reading

Monday, September 25 @ 7pm

Director: Adrianne Moore

Actors: Daisy Blake, Nicholas Dunn, Jacob Johnson, Kathryn Mungin, Matthew Sincell, Darryl Stamp, Cassandra Stokes-Wylie

Reader: Mary-Helen Pitman

Stage Manager: Kallie Erickson

A man takes an ancestry test a part of his initiation into a white supremacist group gets an unsettling surprise.

SLAC thanks the Jarvis and Constance Doctorow Family Foundation for their generous support of this vital program. 

New Play Sounding Series
Free Reading

Monday, May 1 @ 7pm

Director: Robin Wilks-Dunn

Actors: Colleen Baum, Jacob Russell Johnson, Darby Mest, Nicki Nixon, Richard Scott, Matthew Sincell

Stage Manager/Reader: William Richardson

Winter is coming and the squirrels of the great tree are feeling the pinch. The greatest squirrel in the greatest tree in the greatest forest in all the land will not share his nuts. What's worse, rival squirrel families and rival squirrel species are all begging, pleading, and tricking to try to get his nuts. Will the tree survive? Will his family? Will war come and bring the whole thing tumbling down? The answer is yes, but we might have some fun getting there.

SLAC thanks the Jarvis and Constance Doctorow Family Foundation for their generous support of this vital program.

New Play Sounding Series Free Reading

Monday March 6 @ 7pm

Director: Cynthia Fleming

Actors: Austin Archer, Carleton Bluford, Trent Cox, Dan Larrinaga, Samantha Matsukawa, Andy Rindlisbach, Katryna Williams

Stage Manager/Reader: Morag Shepherd

The story of a girl who dances in silent films in 1921 New York City, her family, her lovers and friends, and the famous couple who almost ruined her life.

Workshopped in the 2017 SLAC Playwrights' Lab.

SLAC thanks the Jarvis and Constance Doctorow Family Foundation for their generous support of this vital program.

New Play Sounding Series Free Reading
Monday, November 21 @ 7pm

Director: Shannon Musgrave
Cast: Anne Louise Brings, Eric Cadora, Dee-Dee Darby Duffin, Jacob Russell Johnson, Melanie Nelson, Topher Rasmussen

It’s company outing day, and Laura, one of the top travel agents of her generation, is having the best / worst day of her life. So much so that she decides to end it all. Afterwards, her colleagues try to piece things together on a memorial blog, but how do you mourn someone you didn’t know that well?

A comedy about depression, or: a treatise on travel agents who don’t travel.

Workshopped in the 2016 SLAC Playwrights' Lab, LAURA AND THE SEA has gone on to be developed in the O'Neill National Playwrights Conference, was a finalist for the L. Arnold Weissberger Award, the Princess Grace Award, and was a semi-finalist for the Relentless Award.

SLAC thanks the Jarvis and Constance Doctorow Family Foundation for their generous support of this vital program.

New Play Sounding Series Free Reading
Monday, April 25 @ 7pm

Director: Dave Mortensen
Featuring: Brighton Hertford, Dee-Dee Darby-Duffin, Elise Groves, Jenessa Bowen, Stephen Drabicki, Tito Livas, Aaron Adams
Reader: Joy Haynes

This pitch black comedy has an illicit affair, a couple hanging on by a thread, bears at the window, and an adorable missing dog named Mr Bundles. No one's happy, people stop being nice, and blood spills in a story that mashes up violent myth and ideas about "good neighbors" to explore what happens when the mercury rises.

SLAC thanks the Jarvis and Constance Doctorow Family Foundation for their generous support of this vital program.

New Play Sounding Series Free Reading
Monday, February 1 @ 7pm

Director: Tracy Callahan
Featuring: Daniel Beecher, Anne Louise Brings, Anne Cullimore Decker, Cragun Foulger, Bob Nelson
Stage Manager/Reader: Sarah Danielle Young

WINTER is the story of an older couple who has an end-of-life pact, until one of them backs out. This new play from Julie Jensen, inspired by the story "Robeck" by Margaret Pabst Battin, is a beautiful tale of family and the right to die.

SLAC thanks the Jarvis and Constance Doctorow Family Foundation for their generous support of this vital program.

New Play Sounding Series Free Reading
Monday, November 9 @ 7pm

Director: Nancy Borgenicht
Featuring: Meg Gibson, Tamara Howell, Valerie Kittel, Susan Levin, and Shannon Musgrave
Dramaturg: Kathleen Cahill
Stage Manager: Justin Ivie

In this intimate sequence of poems, which tell the story of Sharon Olds' divorce, the author opens her heart, sharing the feeling of invisibility that comes when we are no longer standing in love's sight; the surprising physical passion that still exists between a couple during parting; and the loss of everything from her husband's smile to the set of his hip. Adapted for a theatrical reading by Nancy Borgenicht, STAG'S LEAP is both an elegantly personal story of divorce and a universal journey through love, sex, sorrow, memory, and new freedom.

SLAC thanks the Jarvis and Constance Doctorow Family Foundation for their generous support of this vital program.

*First published in Stag's Leap (Alfred A Knopf) copyright Sharon Olds 2012

New Play Sounding Series Free Reading
Monday, September 21, 2015 @ 7pm

Director: Shannon Musgrave
Cast: Olivia Custodio, Danny Egan, Brighton Hertford, Patrick Kintz, William Richardson
Stage Manager/Reader: Sarah Danielle Young

Sloane isn't sure why exactly her husband Timothy brought home a probably dangerous drifter. It's something about "doing a good deed." Of course, it's hard to think straight when her kleptomaniac neighbor keeps dropping by to chat and steal. And then things get violent. BLEEDING HEARTS is a dark farce about the disappearing middle class and the way people can slowly forget how to put themselves in each others' shoes. 

Free Reading - HARBUR GATE by Kathleen Cahill

MONDAY, APRIL 27, 2015 @ 7pm

SLAC thanks the Jarvis and Constance Doctorow Family Foundation for their generous support of the
New Play Sounding Series.

Director - Cohen Ambrose
Cast - Alexis Baigue, Colleen Baum, Daniel Beecher, Shannon Musgrave, Melanie Nelson, Topher Rasmussen
Reader - Amy Ware

About the Play

Cahill's play tells the story of five soldiers, two men and three women, traveling on the same convoy through dangerous territory in northern Iraq at the height of the war.The journey tests their warriors' code — and their humanity — in ways they could never have imagined.

HARBUR GATE was workshopped as part of the Salt Lake Acting Company Playwrights' Lab in February. Read more about its process here.

HARBUR GATE is the recipient of the National New Play Network's Annual Commission.

About the Playwright

KATHLEEN CAHILL's awards include the Jane Chambers Playwriting Award, two Connecticut Commission on the Arts Playwriting Awards, a Massachusetts Artists Foundation Award, a Rockefeller Grant, a National Endowment for the Arts New American Works Grant, two Edgerton Foundation Awards and a Drama League Award. Her play CHARM was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize; her play THE PERSIAN QUARTER was nominated for a Steinberg Award. Her produced musicals and operas include FRIENDSHIP OF THE SEA, DAKOTA SKY; an opera, CLARA, two opera/cabarets, A TALE OF TWO CITIES: PARIS AND BERLIN IN THE TWENTIES, and the comedy, FATAL SONG. She also wrote the lyrics for David Zabriskie's Requiem. Her most recent production is the musical PERDIDA, THE WINTER'S TALE in Mexico. Her other produced plays include the comedy, COURSE 86B IN THE CATALOGUE (Salt Lake Acting Company), THE STILL TIME (Georgia Rep/Porchlight Theatre, Chicago), WOMEN WHO LOVE SCIENCE TOO MUCH (Porchlight Theatre and NPR Radio), JOY FOREVER (Cleveland Public, Firehouse Theatre, Massachusetts), CHARM (National New Play Network Festival, Salt Lake Acting Company premiere, Kitchen Dog Theatre, Dallas; Orlando Shakespeare; Taffety Punk, Washington D.C. and others), THE PERSIAN QUARTER (Salt Lake Acting Company, Merrimack Rep.) and a one-act, THE ELECTRODYNAMICS OF MOVING BODIES (Fusion Theatre, Albuquerque). She wrote the screenplay for the independent feature, Downtown Express. She is Playwright-in-Residence at the Salt Lake Acting Company.

About the Director 

Cohen Ambrose is an MA theatre studies and MFA directing candidate at the University of Montana. He holds a BA in philosophy and theatre from The Evergreen State College. An actor, director, teacher, and scholar, Cohen has lived and worked in Montana, Washington, New York City, and Prague. His work has been published in Theatre Symposium, Wheelhouse Magazine, State of the Arts, and by the University of Montana Press. His directing credits for the University of Montana include THE GALILEO EXPERIMENT, BOOK OF DAYS, and CHARLES DICKENS' A CHRISTMAS CAROL; HOLES IN THE WALL and THE ELEPHANT MAN for Flathead Valley Community College; QUICK BRIGHT THINGS for GroundUP Productions, and ELEPHANTS AND COFFEE for 13th Street Repertory Theatre in New York City. He has directed staged readings and contributed to the development of new plays at the Missoula Colony, LABrynth Theatre, and GroundUP Productions. He is very grateful to have been invited for the first time to work with Salt Lake Acting Company.

About the Cast

Alexis Baigue

Alexis acted in: GOODNIGHT DESDEMONA (GOOD MORNING JULIET), ANGELS IN AMERICA: MILLENNIUM APPROACHES, HOW I BECAME A PIRATE, SATURDAY'S VOYEUR, staged readings MOTHER COLLEGE, THE LIVELY LAD, BUNBURY, THE CANCER DIARIES, CHARM, PROPHETS OF NATURE, ANGELS IN AMERICA: PERESTROIKA (S.L.A.C.), ONE MAN, TWO GUVNORS (Pioneer Theatre), DEAR WORLD (Sundance Summer Theatre), BEYOND THERAPY, THE SEX HABITS OF AMERICAN WOMEN (Pygmalion), THE BOYS IN THE BAND (Wasatch), SURFIN' SAFARI (Desert Star), JACQUES BREL IS ALIVE AND WELL AND LIVING IN PARIS (TheatreWorks West), ANASTASIA (StageRight), WIT (Emily Company), NO EXIT (SallyFourth), SUMMER AND SMOKE, CABARET, RHINOCEROS, QUEEN CHRISTINA, ANTIGONE, THE RIMERS OF ELDRITCH (University of Utah), YOU CAN'T TAKE IT WITH YOU, THE TREE OF LACE (Salt Lake Community College); staged readings: THE UNDERPANTS, THE VIOLET HOUR, THE LAST SUNDAY IN JUNE, (Utah Contemporary Theatre), RECTUM!, and Kathleen Cahill & David Owens' CUP (First Unitarian Church); film: SLOW MOE, SINGLE TRACKS, 12 DOGS OF CHRISTMAS: GREAT PUPPY RESCUE; television: GRANITE FLATS.

Colleen Baum

Colleen is from Salt Lake City and is happy to be back at Salt Lake Acting Company. She was last seen in COURSE 86B IN THE CATALOGUE, END DAYS, RABBIT HOLE, SEX STING, KIMBERLY AKIMBO, GO DOG GO, SATURDAY'S VOYEUR, THE WATER PROJECT and CABBIES COWBOYS AND THE TREE OF THE WEEPING VIRGIN. At Pioneer Theatre Company in MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING, OUR TOWN, THE HEIRESS, LOST IN YONKERS and YOU CAN'T TAKE IT WITH YOU. At Plan-B Theatre Company in CHRISTMAS WITH MISFITS, THE LARAMIE PROJECT, ANIMAL FARM, WAR OF THE WORLDS, SLAM, AND THE BANNED PLAYED ON, and TRAGEDY: A TRAGEDY. At The Old Lyric Rep Company in BLITHE SPIRIT, ALWAYS PATSY CLINE, GOODNIGHT DESDEMONA (GOOD MORNING JULIET) and BLOOD BROTHERS. Colleen is a proud member of Actors¹ Equity.

Daniel Beecher

Daniel attended the actor training program at the U of U. He has most recently been seen locally in AUGUST: OSAGE COUNTY with Utah Rep and Silver Summit, and at the Grand Theater in NOISES OFF, OUR TOWN, and DEATH OF A SALESMAN. Other local credits include COURSE 86 B IN THE CATALOGUE, THE CARETAKER, and AN EMPTY PLATE IN THE CAFE DU GRAND BOEUF at Salt Lake Acting Company, PETER PAN, MACBETH, KING LEAR, and ROSENCRANZ AND GUILDENSTERN ARE DEAD at Pioneer Theatre Company, and many others.

Melanie Nelson

Melanie received her Bachelor of Arts degree from Southern Utah University and performed at the Utah Shakespearean Festival. She went on to receive her Master of Fine Arts degree from Southern Methodist University where she performed at the Dallas Theater Center and Fort Worth Shakespeare in the Park, among other venues. This is her third play reading with SLAC. Some of her favorite roles include Sarah in TIME STANDS STILL, Berthe in BOEING BOEING, Emma in BETRAYAL, Catherine in PROOF, Elvira in BLITHE SPIRIT, Hanna in ARCADIA, Mrs. Cheveley in AN IDEAL HUSBAND, Chris in DANCING AT LUGHNASA and Becca in THE RABBIT HOLE (all at Pinnacle Acting Company), Portia in THE MERCHANT OF VENICE (Greer Garson Theater), Ophelia in HAMLET (Fort Worth Shakespeare in the Park). Other credits include: Martha Cratchet, A CHRISTMAS CAROL (The Dallas Theater Center); Maisy, SLAM – IT MUST HAVE BEEN COLD (Plan B Theatre Company); Jane, THE WOMEN (Theatre Neo); Hermia, A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM (Southwest Acting Company); Mariah, LOOSE ENDS (Margo Jones Theater); Amy Lee, LAUNDRY & BOURBON (The Egyptian Theatre). Melanie teaches acting at Westminster College, is a founder and the Managing Director of Pinnacle Acting Company and is a recognized actor/combatant by the SAFD.

Shannon Musgrave

Shannon recently returned to Salt Lake City from Washington DC, where she spent two years earning her MA in Arts Management at American University. While in DC, Shannon worked for Arena Stage, Flying V Theatre, the Washington Bach Consort, was selected as a directing fellow for the Kennedy Center's 2013 Directing Intensive: Developing the New Play, and served as Executive Chair for the annual Emerging Arts Leaders. Shannon got her start in theatre as an actor, earning her BA in Musical Theatre from Weber State University. She performed on SLAC's stages in SATURDAY'S VOYEUR from 2009 - 2011 as well as in GO, DOG. GO! and HOW I BECAME A PIRATE. Other local credits include 42ND STREET (Pioneer Theatre Co.), MUSICAL OF MUSICALS and SCHOOL HOUSE ROCK (The Grand Theatre), ROMEO & JULIET and THE 25TH ANNUAL PUTNAM COUNTY SPELLING BEE (Pinnacle Acting Co.) She also choreographed THE WIZARD OF OZ and OLIVER! at the Grand Theatre. Shannon is thrilled now to be back at SLAC as Associate Producer and Director of New Play Development.

Topher Rasmussen

Topher Rasmussen: Director/Playwright of Hamlet and Ophelia Go Swimming (Edinburgh Fringe 2014). Regional credits: Tchaik in The Private Ear (Sting & Honey Co.), Adam in Adam and Steve and the Empty Sea (Plan-B Theatre Co., fringeNYC 2013), Oswald Alving in Ghosts (Plan-B Script in Hand series), Sterling in Course 86B in the Catalogue (SLAC, 2012 CityWeekly Arty: Best Chewing of Scenery), Brian in Borderlands (Plan-B Theatre Co.), and a handful of SLAMs (Plan-B Theatre Co.). Other Credits: Gabe in Next to Normal (UVU, KCACTF 2014), Lucentio in Taming of the Shrew (UVU), Bianca in Taming of the Shrew (Grassroots Shakespeare Company), and Christ/Ensemble in the initial run of This Bird of Dawning Singeth All Night Long (Sting and Honey Co.).

Amy Ware (Reader)

Amy is a Senior at Westminster College studying Arts Administration. She is very excited to be participating in her first NPSS reading at Salt Lake Acting Company. Previous performances she has been in include: GODSPELL at Westminster College as Amy (Learn Your Lessons Well); TEMPEST at Westminster College as Spirit; HECUBA with the Classical Greek Festival as Polyxena; THREE SISTERS at Westminster Collage as Irina; FAME at the Grand Theater as a dancer; and the one-act POST-ITS at Westminster College as the Actress.

Free Reading - HOW TO STEAL A PICASSO by William Missouri Downs

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2015 @ 7pm

SLAC thanks the Jarvis and Constance Doctorow Family Foundation for their generous support of the
New Play Sounding Series.

About the Play

A counterfeit Picasso and cruel hoax are at the heart of this new dark comedy by the author of THE EXIT INTERVIEW and MR. PERFECT. When their bad boy son returns home on the same day a Picasso goes missing from a nearby art gallery, an eccentric family is forced to confront failure, love and the meaning of originality in this modern pixilated world where everything is copyrighted and art is no more than a commodity.

About the Playwright

WILLIAM MISSOURI DOWNS is the author of THE EXIT INTERVIEW, which was produced here at the SLAC as part of a Rolling World Premiere from the National New Play Network in 2013. This spring SLAC will stage the world premiere of his new comedy MR. PERFECT. His other new comedy WOMEN PLAYING HAMLET is the winner of a second Rolling World Premiere and will be produced this spring by the Unicorn Theatre in Kansas City, the New Theatre in Miami, and the Harrisburg Shakespeare Company in Pennsylvania. Bill has had over a hundred and fifty productions of his plays, won numerous playwriting awards, written four books on the art of theatre, playwriting and screenwriting and served as a freelance  and staff writer on several NBC television shows.  

About the Director

TERESA SANDERSON has been seen most recently as Violet in AUGUST:OSAGE COUNTY for Silver Summit and Utah Repertory Theatre Companies, Martha in WHO'S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF for Pinnacle Acting Company, and ERIC(A) for Plan B Theatre Company which won the award for " Best Drama" at the United Solo Festival in New York City. Favorite Directing credits include LADY DAY AT EMERSON'S BAR A GRILL for Pygmalion Theatre Company, ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST for Theatre Works West and Student SLAM for Plan B and the Theatre Arts Conservatory.

About the Cast

DANIEL BEECHER attended the actor training program at the U of U. He has most recently been seen locally in AUGUST: OSAGE COUNTY with Utah Rep and Silver Summit, and at the Grand Theater in NOISES OFF, OUR TOWN, and DEATH OF A SALESMAN. Other local credits include COURSE 86 B IN THE CATALOGUE, THE CARETAKER, and AN EMPTY PLATE IN THE CAFE DU GRAND BOEUF at Salt Lake Acting Company, PETER PAN, MACBETH, KING LEAR, and ROSENCRANZ AND GUILDENSTERN ARE DEAD at Pioneer Theatre Company, and many others.

TERENCE GOODMAN. New York roles include the original production of JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR, the first revival of DAMN YANKEES with Gwen Verdon and Ray Walston and as Captain Smith in TITANIC. Major regional favorites include Al Capone in ELIOT NESS IN CLEVELAND directed by Hal Prince/Nick Corley at The Denver Center, GREAT EXPECTATIONS for Goodspeed Musicals, OEDIPUS, PRIVATE EYE written by Chad Beguelin and Matthew Sklar (ELF ) at The American Stage Company and KELLY at The York Theatre, Musicals in Mufti. Film starring roles include Ode to Billy Joe, Final Rinse, and 95ers: Time Runner. Over 30 guest-star television roles and was a series regular on Days of Our Lives. Local favorites include THE EXIT INTERVIEW and (A MAN ENTERS) for SLAC and Billy Flynn in CHICAGO, 12 ANGRY MEN, THE DIARY OF ANNE FRANK and Antonio in MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING for Pioneer Theatre Company. Terence now lives in Park City where he is raising his son Jack.

ELISE GROVES is delighted to be returning to her Salt Lake Acting Company family once again. She was last seen here as "Dell" in COURSE 86B IN THE CATALOGUE. Her recent/favorite credits include "Logainne Schwartzandgrubenierre" in THE 25TH ANNUAL PUTNAM COUNTY SPELLING BEE at Pioneer Theatre Co., "Meg" in BRIGADOON at HTC, and "June" in GYPSY. Aside from acting Elise likes to travel, play Texas Hold 'em and eat Sour Patch Kids until her tongue turns raw.

JESSE PEERY. Jesse is so pleased to be working with this great company again! His last role with Salt Lake Acting Company was as Raymond in MANNING UP and, before that, Milo in the world premiere of (A MAN ENTERS). Other regional credits include Sam Byck in ASSASSINS and the M.C. in CHICAGO for Dark Horse Company Theatre, Antoine in A NIGHT WITH THE FAMILY and also as the role of himself in WELL for Pygmalion Theatre Company, Court in The New Works Theatre Machine’s world premiere of RIDE ME: A PLAY WITH CRUEL INTENTIONS, Austin in TRUE WEST and Rick in SIX DEGREES OF SEPARATION for Wasatch Theatre Company, Danny in DANNY AND THE DEEP BLUE SEA for the Egyptian Studio Theatre in Park City, and Pale in the Utah Theatre Artists Company production of BURN THIS. He was privileged to be part of the cast for the celebrity reading of SOME MEN on the Jeanne Wagner stage with special guest Terrence McNally. While a repertory artist for the Juilliard Conservatory in Chautauqua, New York, credits included Michael in A.R. Gurney’s THE DINING ROOM, and Malvolio in TWELFTH NIGHT. 

SUSAN DOLAN STEVENS appeared in SLAC's SIX YEARS, MAN FROM NEBRASKA, THREE DAYS OF RAIN and FF:THE BRONTES, numerous NPSS readings and has been a member of SLAC's playwright's group under Julie Jensen and Mike Dorrell. Pioneer Theatre Company credits include DRACULA, LETTICE AND LOVAGE, ROMEO AND JULIET, ARCADIA. She's also performed with the Old Lyric Repertory Company, Utah Contemporary Theatre, Plan-B Theatre Company, Babcock Theatre, Egyptian Theatre Company, Sundance Theatre, Broadway Stage, and the Rose Wagner. Some of her Film and Television credits include: Everwood, Touched By An Angel, Promised Land, Cover Me, Perfect Murder, Perfect Town, several Movies of the Week, How I Saved The President, Blind Dating, Shooting Star, The Redemption of Sarah Cain, Invasion of Privacy, Dream Machine . Susan holds a B.A. in acting from Albion College, MI and had the privilege of working at THE ACTORS STUDIO and THE STRASBERG INSTITUTE, New York. Susan's M.F.A. in Directing is from the University of Utah. 

Free Reading - TINY KUSHNER by Tony Kushner

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 2, 2015 @ 7pm

 SLAC thanks the Jarvis and Constance Doctorow Family Foundation for their generous support of the New Play Sounding Series as well as The Tanner Humanities Center, Kingsbury Hall, and Lee and Audrey Hollaar for their partnership on this particular reading.

SLAC will present a free reading of Tony Kushner's TINY KUSHNER, a series of five short one-act plays. This reading will take place on February 2 at 7:00 p.m. at the Salt Lake Acting Company and is presented in conjunction with the Tanner Humanities Center's lecture by the celebrated playwright on February 5 at Kingsbury Hall. SLAC would like to thank Lee and Audrey Hollaar and the Jarvis and Constance Doctorow Foundation for their support of this event.

Directed by Robin Wilks-Dunn

Featuring: Jason Bowcutt, Joe Crnich, Austin Archer, Aaron Swenson, Jeanette Puhich, Kathryn Atwood, Holly Fowers, Olivia Custodio, Emilie Starr, Nell Gwynn, Teri Cowan, Leah Hassett

To see Tony Kushner in person (as he will not be present for the reading of TINY KUSHNER) please reserve your FREE tickets to TONY KUSHNER-TANNER HUMANITIES CENTER ARTIST IN RESIDENCE PROGRAM at Kingsbury Hall on February 5, at 7:00 PM. Reserve your tickets online at www.kingtix.org

About the Playwright

TONY KUSHNER is a Pulitzer-Prize winning playwright (ANGELS IN AMERICA, CAROLINE, OR CHANGE) whose works tackle some of today's most sensitive social issues. An Emmy Award winner and two-time Tony Award winner, Kushner is the recipient of a Pulitzer Prize for Drama. He received an Academy Award nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay for the 2005 film "Munich," directed by Steven Spielberg. In 2008, he became the first recipient of the Steinberg Distinguished Playwright Award, the largest theater award in the United States.

Free Reading - BULL SHARK ATTACK by Troy Deutsch

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 10, 2014 @ 7pm

 SLAC thanks the Jarvis and Constance Doctorow Family Foundation for their generous support of this vital program.

About the Play

BULL SHARK ATTACK weaves together three monologues to create a compelling portrait of a trio of lonely souls who have stagnated from life's failures and disappointments. Their stories collide in unexpected ways as they each embark on a journey that ends up leading them down to the beach at night...

About the Playwright

Troy Deutsch is a writer, director, and actor from rural Minnesota living in New York City. His three-act family drama THE ROSE GARDEN, a semi-finalist for the O'Neill Playwriting Conference, is currently being developed by American Theater Company in Chicago. His play LAKE WATER, also a semi-finalist for the O'Neill Playwriting Conference, was developed at The New Group through the New Group/New Works Reading Series under the direction of Ian Morgan. LAKE WATER received its world premiere at IRT Theater produced by Neighborhood Productions, directed by Daniel Talbott. Troy's play PUSSYCAT was produced by the University of Utah, directed by Sandra Shotwell, and was a regional finalist with Kennedy Center ACTF. His play GLOWING DINOFLAGELLATES was performed on the beach in San Francisco with Rising Phoenix Rep and Kid Brooklyn Productions. Troy also worked with Kid Brooklyn Productions on ENCOUNTERS: THE LA RONDE PROJECT, which had a developmental run at IRT last summer and will have a full run next year. Troy recently wrote the text for FEAST, a multi-disciplinary collaboration between Flying Bobcat Theatrical Laboratory and NOW-ID, which was performed at The Great Saltair. Troy's short film NO ONE TOLD US, which he wrote, directed, and acted in with Cherry in the Spoon Productions is currently playing the film festival circuit. He is in pre-production on a feature film called MARLA, which he will also direct. As an actor: RABBIT HOLE (Broadway u/s, Manhattan Theatre Club). Regional: RABBIT HOLE (The Huntington Theatre Company, The Cleveland Playhouse); LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST, A FLEA IN HER EAR (Chautauqua Theater Company). Training: BFA from the University of Utah Actor Training Program.

About the Director

Sandra Shotwell earned her MFA in Acting from The American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco. She studied at the Central School of Speech and Drama in London, earning an Advanced Diploma in Voice and Speech (ADVS), with Distinction. She is a Certified Laban-Bartenieff Movement Analyst (CLMA) and in the midst of earning a certificate to teach Meisner Acting Technique with the True Acting Institute. A Professor of Theatre, Sandra first worked with Troy Deutsch when he was a student in the Actor Training Program at the University of Utah. She fell desperately in love with his play Pussycat after experiencing it at a staged reading, and then directed it for the Department's Studio 115 space. Pussycat was chosen to perform at the regional Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival, where Troy received a "Meritorious Achievement" and the lead actor a "Best Actor" award for the production. It is an overwhelming honor and pleasure to be directing Bull Shark Attack and again working with one of her most favorite playwrights, Troy Deutsch.

About the Cast

Tyson Baker is ecstatic to be making his debut at SLAC with this reading of BULL SHARK ATTACK. Tyson received his theatre training from Weber State University in Ogden, Utah. Other favorite credits include: Hannay in THE 39 STEPS (Old Lyric Rep.), Reverend John Hale in THE CRUCIBLE (The Grand Theater), The MC in MUSICAL OF MUSICALS!: THE MUSICAL! (Old Lyric Rep.), Friar Lawrence in ROMEO & JULIET(Weber State), Dan in CLOSER (Wasatch Theater Co.) and just coming off a world premiere kid's tour called DIFFERENT=AMAZING which deals with bullying.

April Fossen has appeared locally in NOTHING PERSONAL, SUFFRAGE, MESA VERDE, SHE WAS MY BROTHER, and MIASMA (Plan-B Theatre Company); AUGUST: OSAGE COUNTY (Silver Summit/Utah Rep); THE RIGHTEOUS AND VERY REAL HOUSEWIVES OF UTAH COUNTY (Alligator Press Productions); THREE DAYS OF RAIN, AN IDEAL HUSBAND, and ROMEO AND JULIET (Pinnacle Acting Company); and RINGS (The Grand Theatre). Regional credits include work with Berkeley Repertory Theatre and the California Shakespeare Festival. April holds a Bachelor's degree in Theatre Arts from UC Berkeley.

Cassandra Stokes-Wylie is thrilled to participate in SLAC's New Play Sounding Series with this outstanding creative group. What an amazing artistic opportunity. Her recent favorite credits include Helena in A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM, Actress Two in THE EXIT INTERVIEW, Roxy in CHEAT, Mrs. Givings in IN THE NEXT ROOM, OR THE VIBRATOR PLAY, Elizabeth Proctor in THE CRUCIBLE and the Governess in THE TURN OF THE SCREW. Cassandra has a BFA in Acting from the University of Utah and lives in New York City.

BY CORT BRINKERHOFFIn rehearsal, L to R: Jaten McGriff, Cort Brinkerhoff, Colleen Baum, Melanie Nelson, Anne Stewart Mark

Monday, October 6, 2014 @ 7pm
Chapel Theatre

About the Play

Orrin Porter Steed, a seventeen-year-old drifter from Colorado City, is arrested for setting fire to a Mormon church. His caseworker, Faith, delves into his past to figure out why and attempts to reunite the boy with his estranged mother. Meanwhile, as Faith's marriage crumbles, she begins to seek solace from Orrin and finds herself questioning everything she believes in.

THE VERMILLION HAND began as a ten-minute play titled UGLY TO THE BONE. The play was commissioned by Plan-B Theatre Company and premiered at SLAM '06. It was then developed into a full-length script, and workshopped in a script-in-hand production. THE VERMILLION HAND was then re-written as part of Vagrancy's Writers' Group in Los Angeles and received a staged reading at its annual new play festival.

SLAC is proud to welcome Cort Brinkerhoff back to Utah to continue fine-tuning THE VERMILLION HAND in the place where it was first conceived.

About the Playwright

Cort's plays include THE BLUE HOUR, BULLET, THE BOMB PLOT, and THE NIGHTMARE ROOM, a play about the last days of British mathematician, war hero, and convicted homosexual Alan Turing. His works have been produced or had staged readings at The Vagrancy (Los Angeles, CA), Alive Theatre (Long Beach, CA), The Last Frontier Theatre Conference (Valdez, AK), Plan-B Theatre Company (Salt Lake City, UT), Piano Fight Productions (San Francisco, CA), USC, and the University of Utah. His ten-minute play NEUROSIS was published in Canyon Voices Literary Magazine, Issue 8 (Fall 2013). He wrote the screenplay for the independent feature BEYOND THE RYE, which will premiere in Norway in 2015. A native Utahn, Cort began his writing career in the 2003 Playwrights Group at Salt Lake Acting Company led by Julie Jensen and JT Rogers. He holds an MFA in dramatic writing from USC, where he currently serves as an Assistant Instructor. He lives in Los Angeles.

DIRECTOR - Anne Stewart Mark

CAST
Orrin - Jaten Lee McGriff
Faith - Melanie Nelson
Emma - Colleen Baum
Reader - Shannon Musgrave

SLAC's New Play Sounding Series presents a free reading of STREETLIGHT WOODPECKER by Shawn Fisher on Monday, April 28th at 7:00 PM. 

ABOUT THE PLAY

STREETLIGHT WOODPECKER follows the story of Benji, an undersized Marine who has returned to his Irish-Catholic neighborhood in Philadelphia after being critically injured during battle. He bears not only the medals he earned but also the scars, and now that he has come home he must face the emotional wounds he avoided by going to war.  

When his father’s suicide renders him homeless just days after his return, Benji moves in with his childhood friend Sam. Soon questions that threatened Benji throughout his youth resurface, questions about his manhood and his relationship with Sam, and he distracts himself with booze, pills, and reckless fighting. Meanwhile, as Sam tries to protect him from self-destruction, Benji plots to kill a woodpecker that loudly bangs the metal streetlights in the neighborhood.

Shawn Fisher (Playwright) original scripts include SCOPE, THE CROW SONG, CHUMMING, STREETLIGHT WOODPECKER, and DO NOT HIT GOLF BALLS INTO MEXICO which was a National Finalist for the MetLife Nuestras Voces Playwriting Award and the David M. Cohen National Playwriting Award. HOW TO MAKE A ROPE SWING, which had a rolling premiere at both Salt Lake Acting Company and Cape May Stage, won an Edgerton Foundation New American Play Award, was a national finalist for New York's Urban Stages Emerging Playwright Award, and was a nominee for both the Steinberg/American Theatre Critics Association and the Barrie & Bernice Stavis national playwriting awards. His work has been produced or had staged-readings at Cape May Stage, the Spanish Repertory Theatre (Off-Broadway), the Los Angeles Theatre Center, Urban Stages (Off-Broadway), and Salt Lake Acting Company, among others. Shawn is also the Co-founder and Director of the National Playwrights Symposium at Cape May Stage. He earned his MFA in Theatre from Brandeis University and currently serves as a Professor and Head of Graduate Studies in Theatre at Utah State University. He is a native of New Jersey and is a proud member of The Dramatists Guild of America.

Richie Call (Director) is thrilled to be directing a reading for the first time at SLAC. He was previously part of the cast of SLAC's presentation of Do Not Hit Golf Balls Into Mexico, also by Shawn Fisher. Richie's acting credits include work for American Globe Theatre and Gorilla Rep in New York, Mile Square Theatre in New Jersey, and Pioneer Theatre Company, Salt Lake Shakespeare, and the Old Lyric Repertory Company in Utah. Richie is currently an Assistant Professor of Acting at Utah State University, and he is serving as a Co-Artistic Director of the Old Lyric Repertory Company. He received an MFA in Acting from Rutgers University, Mason Gross School of the Arts and a BFA in Performance from Utah State University.

Stefan Espinosa (Benji) is thrilled to be joining SLAC on this project – there is truly nothing more exciting or artistically satisfying than helping to bring a talented playwrights' new work to life. A native of Tucson, Arizona,Stefan has been fortunate to perform with wonderful theatres across the country. Favorite past regional theatre credits include: The Importance of Being Earnest, Urinetown (PCPA); The Pirates of Penzance, Sherlock Holmes: The Final Adventure, Pride and Prejudice (Arizona Theatre Company); Richard III, Henry V, Wild Oats (Wortham Theatre); Big River, Amadeus, Little Shop of Horrors, Lend Me A Tenor (Old Lyric Repertory); Camelot, The Mikado, Guys and Dolls, Fiddler on the Roof (Utah Festival Opera and Musical Theatre) and Stefan will be playing Thenardier in UFOMTs upcoming summer production of Les Miserables. Stefan has a BFA in Musical Theatre from the University of Arizona, and an MFA in Acting from the University of Houston. Stefan also runs the Utah Festival Conservatory for the Performing Arts and is an adjunct member of the Theatre faculty at Idaho State University.

Jason Spelbring (Sam) is thrilled to be a part of SLAC's New Play Sounding Series. Jason is an actor, director and educator. He is currently an assistant professor of acting at Utah State University's Caine College of the Arts. Theatre credits include six seasons at the Tony Award winning Utah Shakespeare Festival, Great River Shakespeare Festival, Kentucky Shakespeare Festival, Ensemble Theatre Company, Santa Barbara and PCPA Theaterfest. This fall Jason will be directing Pierre Marivaux's The Game of Love and Change for the Caine College of the Arts. www.jasonmichaelspelbring.com

Angela Roundy (Elizabeth) attended Utah State University where she earned her BFA in Acting. While at USU she appeared in such productions as KING LEAR, JAMES and the GIANT PEACH, TARTUFFE, and ROSENCRANTZ & GUILDENSTERN ARE DEAD. Her acting training began at the College of Eastern Utah where credits included THE CRUCIBLE, PICASSO at the LAPIN AGILE, and THE CRIPPLE OF INISHMAAN. Angela also appeared in The Neil Simon Festival's production of COME BLOW YOUR HORN.

Richard Johnson (Matt) is thrilled to make his SLAC debut with a talented and seasoned cast of peers. Richard has been seen locally this past summer in THE ODD COUPLE with Old Lyric Repertory Company. California credits include AS YOU LIKE IT with New Village Arts/Moonlight Cultural Foundation, LOST APOLLONIA and PICTURING MY SISTER with New Village Arts/Playwrights Project, JACOB MARLEY'S CHRISTMAS CAROL with Oceanside Theatre Company, and HENRY IV pt1 and THE TEMPEST with North Coast Repertory Theatre/MiraCosta College.

Lance Rasmussen (Reader) has performed for three seasons at the Old Lyric Theatre Company where he played in THE ODD COUPLE, JAMES AND THE GIANT PEACH, and AMADEUS among others. He is about to graduate from Utah State University with a BFA in Theatre Performance. At USU he has acted in plays including CANDIDA, LEARNED LADIES, TALKING PICTURES, A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM, OUR COUNTRY'S GOOD, and TWENTIETH CENTURY. He intends to pursue an MFA in acting.

Playwright William Missouri Downs Coming to Salt Lake for
Salt Lake Acting Company's New Play Sounding Series Free Reading of
MAD GRAVITY

SLAC's New Play Sounding Series presents a free reading of MAD GRAVITY by William Missouri Downs and directed by John Caywood on Monday, September 30, 2013 at 7:00pm. SLAC is thrilled to welcome Williams Missouri Downs back to the theatre after producing his play THE EXIT INTERVIEW last April. This one night event will feature a reading of this hysterical new play along with a question and answer session with the director, cast and the talented and engrossing Williams Missouri Downs. This creative, absurd play is the Winner of the 2013 Reva Shiner Comedy Award from the Bloomington Playwrights Project and a 2013 finalist at the Eugene O'Neill. The New Play Sounding Series is a part of SLAC's outreach programming which provides an essential testing ground on which playwrights can see their work in progress and receive insightful feedback from the audience in a post-play discussion. We thank the Jarvis and Constance Doctorow Family Foundation for their support of this vital program.

MAD GRAVITY is a comedy about Archie and Eudora, two Dada performance artists who have built a theatre in their living room. Every night before a live audience they act out their lives. You've heard of reality television; think of it as reality theatre. They want to build a second experimental space in their kitchen but they just cannot take any more kitchen sink realism. Artaud would be proud of them.

This Theatre of Cruelty performance concerns their teenage daughter who wants to marry the son of Joe and Mary. All the parties involved have been invited to the house/theatre. But when the kids forget to tell Joe and Mary about the live audience all hell breaks lose.

Things go from bad to worse when they discover that a comet has been spotted in the night sky. There is a 50/50 chance it will hit the earth. Everyone, including the audience, may have only an hour to live. This forces the parents to stop arguing about insignificant things like marriage and start arguing about great philosophical questions of life: Is the comet a sign from God or is it just gravity? And what the hell is performance art?

The one page second act (that's right the second act is one page long) does something no play has ever attempted in the history of theatre - it lets the audience in on the meaning of life.

Playwright William Missouri Downs is a unique and creative talent and SLAC is excited to give Salt Lake City audiences the special opportunity to not only enjoy his hilarious play, but to also interact with Downs and learn more about him, the play and his creative process. This special free night of theatre is not to be missed.

THE PLAYWRIGHT

WILLIAM MISSOURI DOWNS
William holds an MFA in acting from the University of Illinois and an MFA in screenwriting from UCLA. He was also trained in playwriting at the Circle Repertory Theatre in New York under Lanford Wilson and Milan Stitt. Since, he has authored over twenty plays, including INNOCENT THOUGHTS, the winner of the National Playwright's Award; JEWISH SPORTS HEROES AND TEXAS INTELLECTUALS, which took first place at the Mill Mountain Theatre's Festival Of New Plays; SEAGULLS IN A CHERRY TREE, the winner of the Larry Corse Prize for playwriting; KABUKI MEDEA, which won the Bay Area Critics Award for best production in San Francisco and the Jefferson Award for best production in Chicago; and THE EXIT INTERVIEW, the winner of the 2012-2013 rolling opening from the National New Play Network. Mr. Downs has had nearly 100 productions from New York to Singapore and from Israel to South Africa, including LORT theatres like the Kennedy Center and the Berkeley Rep. He is a full voting member of both the Dramatists Guild and the Writers Guild of America. While in Hollywood, Mr. Downs wrote for such NBC sitcoms as MY TWO DADS (starring Paul Reiser), AMEN (starring Sherman Hemsley), and THE FRESH PRINCE OF BEL-AIRE (starring Will Smith). He also won the Jack Nicholson Award for screenwriting and sold the movie EXECUTIVE PRIVILEGE to Tri-star.

After many years in Manhattan and Hollywood, Mr. Downs now enjoys living in the wide-open spaces of Wyoming. As head of the playwriting program at the University of Wyoming, Bill has won over a dozen teaching and research awards. He also teaches in the Religious Studies Department. His favorite thing to do is to find ancient temples and theatres - this quest has taken him to Egypt, France, Turkey, England, Greece, Italy, and China. Additionally, Mr. Downs is also the author of a number of books including: THE ART OF THEATRE (Wadsworth) an introduction to theatre book used at over 100 universities, NAKED PLAYWRIGHTING (Silman/James) a popular writing guide, and SCREENPLAY: WRITING THE PICTURE (Silman/James), which is used at top film schools in the United States and Poland. Samuel French and Playscripts have also published several of his plays.

THE DIRECTOR

JOHN CAYWOOD
John is pleased to return to SLAC following earlier productions of GOD OF CARNAGE, BATBOY, INCORRUPTIBLE and six versions of SATURDAY'S VOYEUR. John landed in SLC in 1987 from New York City for a one season residency at Pioneer Theatre Company. After 13 seasons with the company, John became Producing Artistic Director at Park City's Egyptian Theatre Company. Other Utah directing assignments include The Grand, Tuacahn,, Sundance Summer Theatre and Utah Musical Theatre. Favorite projects include BATBOY, THE MUSICAL RUTHLESS, THE MUSICAL, and of course, THE EXIT INTERVIEW. John is the Interim Executive Director of Kingsbury Hall at the University of Utah. It is fairly clear that he prefers Utah to New York.

CAST
Anne Louise Brings, Darrin Doman, Andra Harbold, Tracie Merrill, Zack Phifer, Holly Fowers - Reader

Salt Lake Acting Company’s New Play Sounding Series Presents a Free Reading of

ROAD TO EDEN by Sean Christopher Lewis

Salt Lake Acting Company is pleased to offer a free reading of ROAD TO EDEN by Sean Christopher Lewis and directed by Robin Wilkes-Dunn on Monday, February 24, 2014 at 7 p.m. as part of the New Play Sounding Series (NPSS). An outreach program at SLAC, NPSS provides an essential testing ground where playwrights can see their work in progress and receive insightful feedback from the audience in a post-play discussion. We thank the Jarvis and Constance Doctorow Family Foundation for their support of this vital program.

In 1848 a group of Mormon pioneers flee to the Mexican Territories of Utah to escape their oppressors. In 2013 a Mormon family's life is forever changed when a woman, who came to this country much like their ancestors did, mysteriously risks her life to save their rebellious son. ROAD TO EDEN tells two riveting stories which take place at the same place in Iowa but at two very different times. While the group of pioneers are forced to flee from Missouri and Executive Order 44 which authorizes the murder of any Mormon, a mother, father and son in 2013 are faced with the threat of gang violence. Both groups will be offered help in the form of a bold, strong Mexican woman and both will get way in over their heads.

ROAD TO EDEN explores themes that are complicated in a most thought provoking way. How does one distinguish the word of God from the whim of man? When is it okay to doubt? When is it good to trust? What choices would we make in the face of life-threatening danger? How far can fear push us?

This free reading offers a unique opportunity to hear a new play by an excellent cast and take part in a post-play discussion in which the playwright welcomes comments, questions and feedback from the audience.

THE PLAYWRIGHT
SEAN CHRISTOPHER LEWIS can be heard as a commentator on NPR'S This American Life. His plays have won the Kennedy Center's Rosa Parks Award, the 2010 National New Play Network's Smith Prize, the NEA Voices in Community Award, a Puffin Foundation Artists Award, a Barrymore Award from the Theatre Alliance of Greater Philadelphia, a Central Ohio Critic's Circle Citation for Best Touring Production, a Central Ohio Critic's Circle Citation for Best New Work, a National Performance Network Creation Fund Grant, the William Inge Fellowship and more. He served as National New Play Network Emerging Playwright in Residence at Interact Theatre in Philly and as Playwright in Residence at the William Inge Arts Center in Independence, Kansas. His work includes MAYBERRY (Hancher Auditorium, Bucksbaum Performing Arts Center, Iowa Arts Center); KILLADELPHIA (Baltimore Centerstage, Woolly Mammoth, Interact Theatre, Cape May Stage, Adirondack Theatre Festival, Touchstone Theatre, Hartbeat Ensemble, Drilling Company, Riverside Theatre, CSPS/Legion Arts, John Jay University/Gerald W. Lynch Theatre, Available Light Theatre, Revolutions International Theatre Festival); JUST KIDS (Available Light Theatre, Sandglass Theatre, Working Group Theatre, Pontine Theatre); I WILL MAKE YOU ORPHANS (Uno Festival of Solo Performance, Available Light 01 Festival, Equinox Theatre, Riverside Theatre, Center for Independent Artists, Galapagos Art Space, Hyde Park Theatre, TIXE Arts Center, Bowery Poetry Club);THE GONE CHAIR (Penn State University's Cultural Conversations Festival, Openstage Harrisburg's Flying Solo Festival, Riverside Theatre); MILITANT LANGUAGE (National Premiere at Know Theatre of Cincinnati, Halcyon Theatre of Chicago, Bang and Clatter in Cleveland, and Theater for the New City in NY, published by Original Works Publishing); THE APERTURE (Cleveland Public Theatre); THE HOMESCHOOLING OF JONATHAN ANDERSON (Drilling Company NYC, Luna Theater and Theatre of Note); SURVIVING THE BABY (Riverside Theatre); THE TEACHER SHOW (Revolutions International Theatre Festival) and GOODNESS (Project Y Theatre, Clockwise Theatre). He has been a playwriting fellow at the O'Neill Playwrights Conference and has had his work developed at the PlayPenn New Play Conference, Lark New Play Development Center, Orlando Shakespeare Festival's Harriet Lake Festival of New Work and at the National Center for New Plays at Stanford University. He is currently under commission with Davenport Theatricals, Interact Theatre, Hancher Auditorium, Available Light Theatre and Adirondack Theatre Festival. Internationally he has collaborated on MAJNOON SAITARA with the Ashtar Theatre of Palestine and with the International Theatre and Literacy Project he worked on JOURNEY TO THE DREAM a new play by high school students in Tanzania, East Africa. In 2011 he collaborated and directed WE STOOD UP for the Centre X Centre International Theatre Festival in Rwanda that incorporated the performances and stories of 23 orphaned survivors of the genocide. Lewis is also a noted actor, working Off Broadway at the Pearl Theatre, in NYC at La Mama ETC, regionally with companies like the Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival, in television and feature films from COMEDY CENTRAL'S Upright Citizen's Brigade to GOD'S COUNTRY and his work has been nominated for the Fox Foundation Fellowship and the Princess Grace Theatre Fellowship.

THE DIRECTOR
ROBIN WILKS-DUNN is back at SLAC after directing GOOD PEOPLE and DOTTIE: THE SISTER LIVES ON. She recently directed LAST LISTS OF MY MAD MOTHER and THE GOOD BODY for Pygmalion Theatre Company. Robin is script supervisor, co-writer and director for a children's touring show for the Intermountain LIVE campaign. Robin has directed several staged readings at SLAC, most recently David Kranes' THE LAST WORD. Other productions she has directed at SLAC include BOOM, PEARL, ONE LAST DANCE and NAPOLEON'S CHINA. She reads scripts for the Sundance Theatre Lab and works as Outreach and Education Coordinator for Kingsbury Hall.

By Thomas Gibbons

A free Reading April 22, 2013
7:00 pm

The Salt Lake Acting Company joins the National New Play Network, and over 25 partnering theatres across the US, in celebrating NNPN's 15 anniversary with a nationwide theatre event: a staged reading of NNPN's first Rolling World Premiere, Permanent Collection by Thomas Gibbons.
THis reading also celebrates the 10th Anniversary of the Continued Life of New Plays Fund, which supports three theatres that choose to mount the smae new play within a twelve-month period.  The result is a "Rolling World Premiere".

COMPANY

THOMAS GIBBONS (Playwright) is playwright-in-residence at InterAct Theatre Company in Philadelphia, which has premiered eight of his plays: Pretending to America, 6221, Axis Sally, Black Russian, Bee-luther-hatchee, Permanent Collection, A House With No Walls, and Silverhill. Other plays include The Exhibition and Homer. His plays have also been seen at the National Playwrights Conference at the Eugene O’Neill Theatre Center, off-off-Broadway at Blue Heron Theatre, Northlight Theatre, Florida Stage, Unicorn Theatre, Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, New Repertory Theatre, Florida Studio Theatre, Arizona Theatre Company, Center Stage, Ensemble Theatre of Cincinnati, Kirk Douglas Theatre/Center Theater Group, Aurora Theatre, Madison Repertory Theatre, Roundhouse Theatre, and many others. He is the recipient of seven playwriting fellowships from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, the Roger L. Stevens Award from The Fund for New American Plays, the Barrie and Bernice Stavis Playwriting Award, the NAACP Theatre Award, two Barrymore Awards for Outstanding New Play, and a Pew Fellowship in the Arts. Permanent Collection was the pilot selection of the National New Play Network’s Continued Life of New Plays Fund, and A House With No Walls was a subsequent selection. Both plays, along with Bee-luther-hatchee, are published by Playscripts.

BRIEN JONES (Sterling North) is thrilled to again be part of the cast supporting the Salt Lake Acting Company's New Play Sounding Series (NPSS). He has been featured in the cast for prior NPSS readings including GRANT & TWAIN (Harrison Terrell), THE OVERWHELMING (Joseph Seromba), FRANKINCENSE (the Reader), and COURTING DISASTER (Kaman Holmes).
Brien has also had the good fortune to appear in several Salt Lake City theater productions including MISS EVERS' BOYS (Dr. Brodus) with the EttaGrace Black Theatre Company at The Grand Theatre, CAROLINE, OR CHANGE (The Bus), LOVE! VALOR! COMPASSION! (Gregory), and BOYS IN THE BAND (Bernard) with Wasatch Theatre Company, MASTER HAROLD...AND THE BOYS (Sam), A SOLDIER'S PLAY (C.J. Memphis), JITNEY (Turnbo), and HOME (Cephus Miles) with People Productions SLC, and A RAISIN IN THE SUN (Joseph Asagai) with the University of Utah Babcock Theatre.
Brien's "big boy job" is the Executive Vice President for Business Development and Continuing Education for an international association of business valuation and financial forensic analysts. He dedicates this performance to his stepfather the Rev. C.C. Hines and his mother Annie Hines who always challenged and encouraged him to discover how freeing it is to speak for himself ... what he believes.

TONI BYRD (Ella Franklin) has been acting and directing in the Salt Lake Valley for over 30 years. Her recent acting credits include Tituba in THE CRUCIBLE, Sadie Delany in HAVING OUR SAY, Louise Seger in ALWAYS...PATSY CLINE. Toni was last seen in a reading of Kurt Proctor's A TURQUOISE WIND at SLAC. She is the cofounder of the EttaGrace Black Theatre Company.

KENT HADFILED (Paul Barrow) is thrilled to be appearing with Salt Lake Acting Company for the first time and working with his U of U schoolmate Robin Wilks Dunn. Pioneer Theater Company credits include THE ODD COUPLE (Roy), DIARY OF ANNE FRANK (Nazi Officer), 12 ANGRY MEN (Juror #2), world premiere of Charles Morey's THE THREE MUSKETEERS (O'Reilly), and as one of the first PTC interns. Graduate of the University of Utah's Actor Training Program; member Chautauqua Conservatory Theater Co. under the direction of Michael Kahn and Rebecca Guy; AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 DAYS (Fogg) Meat and Potato Theater Co.; DEAD MAN'S CELL PHONE (Gordon) Wasatch Theater Co.; KING LEAR (Kent), PROOF (Robert) guest artist Utah State Theater; INTO THE WOODS (Cinderella's Father) Utah Festival Opera and Musical Theater; ST. GEORGE AND THE RELUCTANT DRAGON (Dragon) Unicorn Children's Theater; NOISES OFF, ARSENIC AND OLD LACE, CASH ON DELIVERY, RELATIVE VALUES, AN INSPECTOR CALLS, CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF and more during the course of 8 seasons with Old Lyric Repertory Co.  Kent is a proud member of Actor's Equity.

TOM JACOBSEN (Alfred Morris) "If only I looked as young as that old headshot!  It is a pleasure to be back at SLAC."  It has been since the mid 90's that Tom has performed at Salt Lake Acting Company.  He is excited to once again work with beloved friends on a familiar stage.  "It doesn't get better than this."

ANGELA TRUSTY (Kanika Weaver)

STEPHANIE HOWELL (Gillian Crane) has appeared in BORDERLANDS, THE END OF THE HORIZON, THE ALIENATION EFFEKT, and BASH with Plan-B Theatre Company. She has also acted in all 9 (soon-to-be 10) 'SLAMs (Plan-B's annual 24-hour-hour theatre festival.) Other local credits include ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST, BIG RIVER, FORUM, and SOUTH PACIFIC at Pioneer Theatre Company. Additional favorite roles include Cassie in A CHORUS LINE, Amy in COMPANY, and Susie in W;T. Stephanie is a graduate of Northwestern University with a degree in Theatre Arts and is a member of Actor's Equity. Film/television credits include: DAYS OF OUR LIVES and PECULIARITIES. Stephanie is also an aerialist and has performed locally with Revolve Aerial Dance.

DIRECTOR

ROBIN WILKS-DUNN is pleased to be back at SLAC again after directing last season's DOTTIE: THE SISTER LIVES ON!  She recently directed LAST LISTS OF MY MAD MOTHER and THE GOOD BODY for Pygmalion Theatre Company. Robin is script supervisor, co-writer and director for a children's touring show for the Intermountain LIVE campaign and will direct it again for the Spring tour. Robin has directed several staged readings at SLAC, most recently David Kranes' THE LAST WORD. Other productions she has directed at SLAC include the premiere productions of BOOM, PEARL, ONE LAST DANCE and NAPOLEON'S CHINA. She reads scripts for the Sundance Theatre Lab and works as Outreach and Education Coordinator for Kingsbury Hall.  Robin's work has been seen on stages across Salt Lake Valley for years and hopefully for many years to come!

by Elizabeth Diggs

Free Reading February 25, 2013

Company: Kathryn Atwood, Brien Jones, Morgan Lund, Peder Melhouse, Max Robinson, Matthew Romriell

Salt Lake Acting Company is thankful to the Jarvis and Constance Doctorow Family Foundation and the Dramatists Guild Fund for their generous and vital support of our New Play Sounding Series program.

Playwright's Notes

I was first amazed and impressed by the book itself, Personal Memoirs of U.S. Grant. I quickly
rejected the idea that it could be a piece for one actor playing Grant. I realized I had to learn
more about the history -- of the Civil War, and Grant's role. This became a fascinating but staggering
task -- there are more books published about the Civil War than any other event in American history, dozens of books about Grant himself.

But one fascinating theme emerged: during his lifetime, Grant was revered. His heroic struggle
to finish his book in the face of death was front-page news across the country. North and South
were united in paying homage. Both Union and Confederate veterans visited, marched in front of
his house with old regimental flags, sent messages and tributes. The North honored him for saving
the union. The South honored him for the magnanimous terms of surrender he wrote at Appomattox.

When Grant died, church bells tolled across the country in every city and hamlet.

But almost immediately, his reputation began to slide. I learned in school that he was one of our
worst presidents, he won the war because he had more troops and supplies, he was a drunk. His
reputation could hardly have been worse! Earlier plays portrayed him as a cartoon, a drunk and a fool.

But the facts of his life and character contradicted this terrible reputation. I had to find an answer.
I found his story so compelling that I wanted to portray him on stage, to give audiences a chance to see
him "in action" and judge for themselves.

My fascination with Grant came just as we approached the 150th anniversary of the Civil War, the sesquicentennial.
I have been working on the play for more than three years. The 150th anniversary of the war's end will
come in 2015. I hope the play have will have a production in time to celebrate.

Company

Elizabeth Diggs (Playwright) Elizabeth Diggs’s plays include NIGHTINGALE, CLOSE TIES, GOODBYE FREDDY, AMERICAN BEEF, DUMPING GROUND, PRICELESS, HOW TO PLANT A ROSE and CUSTER’S LUCK. They have been produced at the Vineyard Theatre and Ensemble Studio Theatre in New York, and regionally at SouthCoast Rep, the Long Wharf, Victory Gardens, the Alley theatre, Capital Rep and many others. Her plays are published by Dramatists Play Service and Smith and Kraus. She is the book writer for the musical MIRETTE (with Tom Jones and Harvey Schmidt), developed at the Sundance Playwrights’ Lab, which premiered at the Goodspeed Opera House and was produced at Sundance Children’s Theatre. She was awarded a Guggenheim grant in playwriting, an N.E.A. developmental grant, and a commission from SouthCoast Rep. Prizes include the Los Angeles DramaLogue award for playwriting, the CBS/FDG prize, the Kennedy Center - Fund for New American Plays grant, and runner-up for the Susan Smith Blackburn prize. Liz wrote for the groundbreaking TV drama, “St. Elsewhere.” Liz is Professor of Dramatic Writing in the Goldberg Department of Dramatic Writing, Tisch School of the Arts, New York University. She is a member of Ensemble Studio Theatre, the Dramatists Guild and PEN. Her daughter, Jenny Mackenzie is a documentary filmmaker. She grew up in Tulsa, is a graduate of Brown, and lives in Manhattan and Chatham, N.Y.

Justin Ivie (Director) is thrilled to make his SLAC directing debut with this reading of Grant and Twain. SLAC audiences may remember him as an actor from his roles in Too Much Memory and four summers of Saturday's Voyeur. His previous directing credits include Arthur Miller's The Price for the OtherSide Players, Jacob Marley's Christmas Carol for OurSpace Theatre Co., Doctor Faustus for StageRight Theatre Co., The Servant of Two Masters for Northern Illinois University, and three seasons of The Senior Theatre Project – an initiative which tours a selection of original, short plays (written by, for and about seniors!) to community centers and retirement facilities. Justin has performed in over a hundred plays and musicals during the past twenty-five years both in Utah and in the Chicago area. A graduate of Weber State University, Justin also earned an MFA in Acting at Northern Illinois University. He has taught theatre and communications at LDS Business College, NIU, Triton College and Weber State. Justin also designs scenery and theatrical masks, writes an occasional play, and sometimes even plays the banjo (when he's pretty sure no one is listening).

Kathryn Atwood (Julia Dent Grant) is delighted to return to the stage at SLAC for this reading of GRANT & TWAIN. Most recently she played Paulina in WINTER'S TALE with Sting & Honey Theatre Company, Eve Ensler in THE GOOD BODY for Pygmallion and the title character in DONNA ORBITS THE MOON for Utah Contemporary Theatre. During the day, Kathryn is the Director of Development at Red Butte Garden. This performance is dedicated to 8 year old Jae Joon Hwang, who is interested in why people do what they do and say what they say.

Brien Jones (Harrison Terrell) is honored to again be part of the cast supporting Salt Lake Acting Company’s New Play Sounding Series (NPSS). He was cast in prior NPSS readings including The Overwhelming (Joseph Seromba), Frankincense (the Reader), and Courting Disaster (Kaman Holmes).  He has also had the good fortune to appear in several Salt Lake City theater productions including Miss Evers’ Boys (Dr. Brodus) with the EttaGrace Black Theatre Company, Caroline, or Change (The Bus), Love! Valor! Compassion! (Gregory), and Boys in the Band (Bernard) with Wasatch Theatre Company, Master Harold…and the Boys (Sam), A Soldier’s Play (C.J. Memphis), and Jitney (Turnbo) with People Productions, and A Raisin in the Sun (Joseph Asagai) with the University of Utah Babcock Theatre.

Morgan Lund (Adam Badeau) last seen here as Mark Rothko in RED, is very excited to return to SLAC. Morgan is the Artistic Director of The OtherSide Players a new professional acting company in residence at the Rio Theatre in Helper Utah. They are currently working on their second season at The Rio Theatre and are taking a short production break while they install new seating in the Rio Theaters 280-seat house.
Morgan has been a professional actor/writer/producer/director/teacher and artist for 30 years. A strong union member with three U.S. union affiliations, Morgan has worked with LORT Theatres, Film, Television, Radio, Print, Small Business, Corporate America, World Class Opera and Orchestras, Dance Companies, Theme Parks, Universities and Colleges all around the United States and beyond.
An actor since 1980 Morgan has appeared in over 200 plays. He has been a resident company member with the prestige's Hilberry Acting Company (1977-80), The Cleveland Play House Resident Acting Company (1980-88). A freelance actor since 1988 he has worked with companies that include Center Stage, Actor's Theatre of Louisville, New City Theatre, Ensemble Theatre, CAT CO, Shakespeare and Company, Dobama Theatre, Porthouse Theater, Pioneer Theatre Company and many more. He has shared the stage with Arthur Miller, Austin Pendleton, Derek Wolcott, Johnny Bolt, Roger Danforth and Tina Packer to name just a few. As a television and film actor, Morgan has been in some very good and some not so good films. He once had three different feature films running on HBO at the same time, in one of which he died...horribly! He has also been a guest artist with the Sundance Film Lab on many occasions and is currently waiting for the release of The WayShower a new Indie Film.

Peder Melhuse (Ulysses S. Grant) is a professional actor and a member of the Actor Training Program faculty.  He holds an MFA from the University of Wisconsin at Madison, where he subsequently taught, acted and directed. Melhuse was also Head of the University of Alabama Department of Theatre and Dance undergraduate and graduate acting programs, where he also directed and acted in the department’s season of plays and was a member of the Diversity Committee. Prior to his academic teaching career, Melhuse taught acting and scene study in New York and Los Angeles.
Melhuse is a proud member of AEA, SAG and AFTRA.  He regularly performs on professional stages from coast to coast. He starred in the famed and long-running production of Sam Shepard’s True West, directed by Gary Sinise, at the Cherry Lane Theatre off-Broadway.  Recent local appearances include Foreman in 12 Angry Men at Pioneer Theatre Company, Woolsey in The Overwhelming at Salt Lake Acting Company, Henry IV in Henry IV Part I with Salt Lake Shakespeare, and Joe Keller in All My Sons at the Babcock Theatre.

Max Robinson (Mark Twain/Samuel Clemens) was last seen at SLAC in CHARM.  His is also known for a one-man show which he produced and starred in: JACOB MARLEY’S CHRISTMAN CAROL. Max has also been seen in over 130 productions at Pioneer Theatre, including MY FAIR LADY, THE PRODUCERS, A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM, LES MISERABLES, PAINT YOUR WAGON, THE FOREIGNER, YOU CAN’T TAKE IT WITH YOU, ENCHANTED APRIL, JULIUS CAESAR, DISNEY’S BEAUTY AND THE BEAST, AMADEUS, and THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST. Max played Oscar Wilde in GROSS INDECENCY: THE THREE TRIALS OF OSCAR WILDE at The Studio Theatre in Washington D.C., which earned him a Helen Hayes award nomination. Film and TV credits include Other People’s Money, All My Children, One Life To Live, Touched By An Angel, Woody Allen’s Shadows and Fog and Disney’s Pixel Perfect.

Matthew Jay Romriell (William Perkins Ingersoll) Matt is a senior in the Actor Training Program at the University of Utah. He has been seen at Pioneer Theatre in The Philadelphia Story and Man of La Mancha. University of Utah Babcock Theatre credits include Vernon God Little, Hair, The Adding Machine and The Rocky Horror Show. Matt is grateful for the opportunity to work on such an exciting new work.

Penelope Pendleton (Reader) loves any reason to return to SLAC. She is currently the Production Manager for Intermountain Health Care's Children's Educational Assembly Tour LIVE WELL and a freelance Corporate Stage Manager. Penny trained in Stage Management at the Pacific Conservatory of Performing Arts and attended Utah Valley University on a full tuition theatrical performance scholarship. This past year's credits include: Stage Manager for RED, Assistant Stage Manager for BLOODY, BLOODY ANDREW JACKSON, SSTURDAY'S VOYEUR 2012 (SLAC), Production Manager for LIVE 2011, LIVE WELL 2012 (Intermountain Health Care) Producer & Production Manager for PERSUASION, THE LION THE WITCH AND THE WARDROBE, EURYDICE & OTHER SHORT PLAYS, RINGS OF THE TREE, and A ROOF OVERHEAD, (Zion Theatre Company).

by Fengar Gael

Free Reading December 3, 2012

Company:  Sean Carter, William Ferrer, Nell Gwynn, Bijan Hosseini, Paul Kiernan, Nicki Nixon, Josh Thoemke
Director: Alexandra Harbold

Salt Lake Acting Company is thankful to the Jarvis and Constance Doctorow Family Foundation and the Dramatists Guild Fund for their generous and vital support of our New Play Sounding Series program.

 Playwright's Notes

The inspiration for Devil Dog Six came from a friend who relishes the mathematics of handicapping, and took me to racetracks all over the country. Naturally I noticed there were very few women jockeys or trainers, so after some research and interviews, the play evolved, and because I admire the magnificent horses themselves, I couldn't exclude their presence in the play. I especially loved the Fairgrounds race track in New Orleans, and read in a book of interviews called Women in the Sport of Kings that southern male jockeys make it especially hard on women trying to break in.

FENGAR GAEL (PLAYWRIGHT) Ms. Gael has had her plays developed and produced at various theatres including the Sundance Playwrights Lab, New York Stage and Film Company, the InterAct Theatre of Philadelphia, the Moxie Theatre Company, New Jersey Repertory, Playwrights Theatre of New Jersey, Utah Shakespearean Festival, Seanachai Theatre of Chicago, Kitchen Dog Theatre of Dallas, The Theatricum Botanicum Seedlings, the Tangent Theatre and AboutFace Ireland New Play Festival, and in New York City: MultiStages, The Abingdon Theatre Company, Collaborative Arts Project 21, Playwrights Gallery, Reverie Productions, and the Flux Theatre Ensemble. Ms. Gael is a recipient of the Playwrights First Award, The Craig Noel Award, as well as commissions from South Coast Repertory, New Jersey Repertory, the InterAct Theatre, (through the National New Play Network),  and a playwriting fellowship from the California Arts Council. Most recently, The Usher’s Ball was given a showcase production at the Collaborative Arts Project 21's Shop Theatre; The Cantor's Tale was produced at the Hunger Artists Theatre Company, directed by Jill Johnson; and The Buttonhole Bandit was produced by the Edna Manley College of Performing Arts in Kingston, Jamaica. In February, 2012, The Gallerist (A Tale of Desecration and Desire) was produced at the Rorschach Theatre in Washington D. C.; this October Devil Dog Six was produced at The Venus Theatre in Laurel, Maryland; in November, The Island of No Tomorrows, as coproduced by MultiStages and the Interart Development Series in New York under the direction of Lorca Peress. Ms. Gael is currently a writer in residence at CAP 21 with the composer, Dennis McCarthy, continuing work on their musical, Soul on Vinyl.

ALEXANDRA HARBOLD (DIRECTOR) Previously at SLAC, she directed the world premieres of (a man enters) and The Persian Quarter.  Other directing credits: Betrayal, Three Days of Rain, Rabbit Hole, and Romeo and Juliet (Pinnacle) and SLAM (Plan-B). Acting: Circle Mirror Transformation, Dancing at Lughnasa, Six Years, The Seagull, Ice Glen.  Most recently, she directed a reading of Spark for Pygmalion Productions and served as Dramaturg on Pioneer Theatre Company's Of Mice and Men; also at PTC: Assistant Director on Emma and the Player Queen in Hamlet.  Education: Masters, University of London Goldsmiths; BA, Middlebury College; SITI Summer Intensive; and Midsummer at Oxford.  Current and upcoming projects:  SENSES 5, a collaboration with Robert Scott Smith (The Leonardo), A Slight Discomfort, and The Eccentrics (University of Utah, Studio 115).

SEAN CARTER (ACTOR #1) Sean is ecstatic to be back at Salt Lake Acting Company, where he was last seen in “Angles in America” as Belize. Sean has performed in several venues along the Wasatch Front to include Hale Centre Theatre, The Grand Theatre and The Egyptian Theatre Company. In addition to Belize, some of his favorite roles include Willie Johnson in “Miss Evers’ Boys,” and Papa Ge in “Once on This Island.” Sean would like to thank the production team, cast and crew, and his friends and family for their continued support.

JOSH THOEMKE (ACTOR #2) Josh last appeared on the SLAC stage in The Persian Quarter, in dual roles.  He was most recently featured in Meat & Potato's production of Aliens:  The Puppet Musical, in six roles.  Devil Dog Six marks his third collaboration with Andra Harbold.  When not acting, he plays and sings in the Celtic band, Bad Colleen, usually seen at Scottish festivals and St. Patty's Day celebrations.

PAUL KIERNAN (ACTOR #3) Is proud member of Actor's Equity Association. Locally has been seen at the Pioneer Theater in; Hamlet, 12 Angry Men, Is He Dead, Romeo and Juliet, Pride and Prejudice, Our Town, The Tempest, Of Mice and Men and Amadeus among others.
SLAC productions include; Freedomland, Skin in Flames, The Beard of Avon, The Memory of Water, Six years and End Days. He was last seen with Salt Lake Shakespeare as Brutus in Julius Caesar and as Falstaff in Henry IV. He has toured with the one man play A Slight Discomfort, written and lived by Jeff Metcalf. Regionally; Romeo and Juliet, Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival; Cyrano in Cyrano at the Hangar Theater; MacBeth, As You Like it, The tempest and The Taming of the Shrew, St. Louis Shakespeare Festival; Merry Wives, You Can't Take it With You and Amadeus at Great Lakes Shakespeare Festival; Twelfth Night, Much Ado, Hamlet, Richard III, As You Like It, Taming of the Shrew, Henry V and Every Christmas Story Ever Told with The Orlando Shakespeare Festival, Much Ado with Kentucky Shakespeare. Film and TV include; The
HBO series From The Earth to the Moon, Luck of The Irish, Go Figure, The Cell 2, Gold Coast, Rosanne among others. He received his MFA in Acting and Directing from Brandeis University in Boston.

WILLIAM FERRER (ACTOR #4) William Ferrer has lived in the Salt Lake City area for about 13 years.  He has spent much of that time teaching in the city's schools.  Ferrer has also performed as a storyteller in the region.  After years away from acting, he returned to theater in 2002 and has performed with Salt Lake Acting Company, Pygmalion Productions and worked extensively with People Productions.  Ferrer has also appeared in a number of feature and independent films shot in the area.  He plans to continue acting and directing in both the theater and film mediums.

NELL GWYNN (ACTOR #5) Nell Gwynn is very happy to be back at SLAC after playing Veronica Novak in "God of Carnage".  Other SLAC credits include "The Persian Quarter" and "Angels in America".  She most recently completed the filming of playwright David Johnston's "Mothra is Waiting", directed by Kevin Newbury and hitting film festivals in 2013.  She is currently employed by the Sundance Institute for the 2013 Film Festival.

NICKI NIXON (ACTOR #6) is thrilled to be returning to Salt Lake Acting Company’s directed readings for the third time with the talented Andra, the previous two premiering THE AGONY AND ECSTACY OF STEVE JOBS, as well as Kathleen Cahill’s MONSTER HEART. She also had the privilege of playing Antigone in TOO MUCH MEMORY at SLAC. She was most recently seen in Pygmalion Theatre Company’s reading of SPARK as Lexie. She was happy to play Annelle in STEEL MAGNOLIAS with Pinnacle Acting Company. Other local credits include Michella in Off Broadway Theatre’s TRANSMORFERS and Princess Justine in PUSS 'N BOOTS at the Children's Theatre. She is a proud graduate of Weber State University’s Theatre Arts program, where some of her favorite roles include Tess in SIX DEGREES OF SEPARATION, Angie/Dull Gret in TOP GIRLS, and Eve in WAITING FOR THE PARADE. She was also given the opportunity to perform as a Weird Woman in MACBETH at the John F. Kennedy Center for Performing Arts in Washington, DC.

BIJAN HOSSEINI (READER) Bijan would like to thank Andra, Kev, Cyn and the rest of the SLAC family for this - and so many other -opportunities. Bijan has worked with the Salt Lake Acting Company (Too Much Memory, Charm, The Persian Quarter NPSS reading), Plan-B, PYGmalion, Sting & Honey, the Babcock, the Classical Greek Theatre Festival, Pinnacle, Around The Globe, Wasatch, UTAC, Holiday Arts, and SLCC. He was last seen as Polixenes in Shakespeare's "The Winter's Tale" and is still touring with PYGmalion and Art Access' production of "The Mysterious, Happy Life of Brown Bag". Bijan is represented by TMG.

by Kurt Proctor

FREE READING Monday, October, 29, 2012

Director Keven Myhre

Company Toni Byrd, Brenda Sue Cowley, Heidi Klein, Annette Wright, Cassandra Stokes-Wylie

Salt Lake Acting Company is thankful to the Jarvis and Constance Doctorow Family Foundation and the Dramatists Guild Fund for their generous and vital support of our New Play Sounding Series program.

Playwright's Notes

Turquoise Wind came from a dream I had while I was in the final stages of writing Roundup (my cowboy poet play). I've always felt like it is the counter to that first play - not a sequel, obviously, but rather its other half.

Shortly after finishing the first draft of TW, I submitted it to Denver Center theatre where it was picked up by one of their partner theatres for a staged reading. That reading took place at the Aurora Fox theatre under the direction of Angela Astle. The feedback from the audience there was terrific, but they agreed that something was missing just prior to the end of the play. The resolution before the denouement, if you will.

At the same time that I had given the play to Denver Center, I had also given it to Chuck Metton at Utah Shakes. Chuck took it back to his readers and I was invited to be one of three playwrights in their New American Playwrights Program for August of 2012. I spent a week in Cedar City in rehearsals with the actors and director as well as Chuck and with the help of a drive up into the mountains, several naps for dreaming, and the voices of the actors in my head, I found the resolution that the play needed. In the process, I found that the ending needed to change as well. The audience response in Cedar City was great and the feedback very helpful. After each reading I would take notes and make a few tweaks before the next day. A word here, a clarification there.

I'm very excited to bring it home to the SLAC audience and to put it in the mouths of the women who inspired that initial, magical dream.

Company

KURT PROCTOR (PLAYWRIGHT) Kurt Proctor started his professional theatre career at Salt Lake Acting Company. Long time subscribers may remember him as "that guy who's in all the readings." Eventually performing several times in SLAC full productions, he branched out into directing, producing (as one of the founders of Utah Contemporary Theatre), and playwrighting. His plays Roundup and Treading Water have both had full productions. Turquoise Wind was developed at the Aurora Fox Theatre in Denver and as part of the New American Playwrights Project at the Utah Shakespeare Festival in Cedar City, where Kurt was one of the playwrights in residence for the 2012 program. When he is not working in theatre, he moonlights as an Air Traffic Controller (the longest acting job he's ever had!) Kurt is very pleased to bring Turquoise Wind home to the SLAC audience.

 KEVEN MYHRE (DIRECTOR Executive Producer) was chosen to receive the Mayor's Artist Award in the Performing Arts for 2009. Keven was awarded the 2008 City Weekly Award for directing THE CLEAN HOUSE and MOONLIGHT AND MAGNOLIAS at Salt Lake Acting Company. His other directing credits at SLAC are RED, ANGELS IN AMERICA: PARTS 1 & 2, THE OVERWHELMING, RABBIT HOLE, I AM MY OWN WIFE, BAD DATES, KIMERBLY AKIMBO, GOING TO ST. IVES, WATER LILIES, THE MEMORY OF WATER, TWO-HEADED, THE BEAUTY QUEEN OF LEENANE, GROSS INDECENCY: THE THREE TRIALS OF OSCAR WILDE, C'EST MOI in MERE MORTALS, andTHREE DAYS OF RAIN. Keven has designed all of SLAC's sets and many of the costumes for the last seventeen years. He also designed sixteen sets for The Grand Theatre, including ALWAYS...PATSY CLINE, JOHNNY GUITAR, MY FAIR LADY, SONG OF SINGAPORE, MORNING'S AT SEVEN, and GODSPELL. ACCORDING TO COYOTE, WEST SIDE STORY, CROW AND WEASEL, and SOUTH PACIFIC were designed for Sundance Theatre. His designs have also been seen at Pioneer Memorial Theatre, Utah Musical Theatre, Egyptian Theatre, Kingsbury Hall and the Babcock Theatre. His work for the Utah Arts Festival includes site design for the
20th Anniversary. He received a BFA from the University of Utah and a MFA in Theatre from the University of Michigan.

TONI BYRD (TONI) is both actress and director. In the past 30 years she has been involved with productions at SLAC, PTC, The Egyptian Theatre, Theatre Works West and the Grand Theatre. Ms. Byrd is the cofounder of the EttaGrace Black Theatre Co.

BRENDA SUE COWLEY (LISA) has been working professionally as an actor in Salt Lake City and surrounding areas since 1991. A member of Actor's Equity, Brenda has spent much of her time on the boards of the Salt Lake Acting Company. Originally from Portland Oregon, Brenda holds a Bachelor's Degree in English Literature from Northwest Nazarene University, and is the owner of Ninth Avenue Salon.

HEIDI KLEIN (DAWN) was happy to be a part of the reading of Nora Ephron's Love, Loss and What I Wore at Salt Lake Acting Company. She was recently seen in Sting & Honey's The Winter's Tale as Perdita. Previously she performed with Salt Lake Shakespeare Company's Twelfth Night (Viola) and in Measure for Measure (Isabella). A graduate of the University of Utah's Actor Training Program, some of her favorite productions were The Comedy of Errors (Adriana), The Duchess of Malfi (Duchess), Three Sisters (Natasha) and Bright Ideas (Lynzie).

ANNETTE WRIGHT (CHARLETTE) is soooooo excited to be doing her boyfriend's play!! After seeing it in Cedar City this summer, she just knew it was ready for more audiences!.  Annette has been a part of this since Kurt first wrote it and told her there was a part for her. Thats all it takes, I'm there. I hope you enjoy this play as much as I do.

CASSANDRA STOKES-WYLIE (READER) was most recently seen in SLAC's reading of LOVE, LOSS, AND WHAT I WORE, as Mrs. Givings in THE VIBRATOR PLAY with Pygmalion Productions, and Elizabeth Proctor in THE CRUCIBLE at the Grand Theatre. Other local credits include various characters in THE GOOD BODY with Pygmalion, the Reader for ANGELS IN AMERICA: PART 2, PERESTROIKA at SLAC, Shudder and Stella in THE HARVEY GIRLS during SLAC's Fearless Fringe Festival, Anna in Utah Theatre Artists Company's production of BURN THIS and the Governess in their production of THE TURN OF THE SCREW. Cassandra is a graduate of the Actor Training Program at the University of Utah and spent a season with the Milwaukee Repertory Theatre's acting internship program where she performed in PRIDE AND PREJUDICE, THE CHERRY ORCHARD, STATE OF THE UNION and understudied their one woman show THE BLONDE, THE BRUNETTE AND THE VENGEFUL REDHEAD.

By Mike Daisey

FREE NPSS Reading | Monday, March 12 @ 7 pm

Company Jason Bowcutt, Nicki Nixon, and Robert Scott Smith

Director Alexandra Harbold

Salt Lake Theater Examiner | Biting the Apple: Free reading of The Agony and The Ecstasy of Steve Jobs set

Salt Lake Acting Company is thankful to the Jarvis and Constance Doctorow Family Foundation and the Dramatists Guild Fund for their generous and vital support of our New Play Sounding Series program.

MIKE DAISEY (PLAYWRIGHT) has been called "the master storyteller" and "one of the finest solo performers of his generation" by the New York Times for his groundbreaking monologues which weave together autobiography, gonzo journalism, and unscripted performance to tell hilarious and heartbreaking stories that cut to the bone, exposing secret histories and unexpected connections. His latest work, The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs, was called "the best new play of the year" by the Washington Post, and was recognized as one of the year's best theater pieces by the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Seattle Times, Seattle Weekly, San Jose Mercury News, the San Francisco Bay Guardian, and will return to the Public Theater in 2012.

Since his first monologue in 1997, Daisey has created over fifteen monologues, including the critically-acclaimed The Last Cargo Cult, the controversial How Theater Failed America, the twenty-four-hour feat All the Hours in the Day, the unrepeatable series All Stories Are Fiction, the four-part epic Great Men of Genius, and the international sensation 21 Dog Years. Other titles include If You See Something Say Something, Barring the Unforeseen, Invincible Summer, Monopoly!, Tongues Will Wag, I Miss the Cold War, and Teching in India.

He has performed in venues on five continents, ranging from Off-Broadway at the Public Theater to remote islands in the South Pacific, from the Sydney Opera House to an abandoned theater in post-Communist Tajikistan. A partial list: Cherry Lane Theatre, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Victory Gardens, Seattle Repertory Theatre, Barrow Street Theatre, American Repertory Theatre, the Spoleto Festival, Yale Repertory Theatre, Center Theatre Group, Intiman Theatre, Woolly Mammoth Theatre, ACT Theatre, Performance Space 122, the Noorderzon Festival, the T:BA Festival, the Under the Radar Festival, the Flynn Theatre, the Lensic, and Chicago's Museum for Contemporary Art.

He's been a guest on the Late Show with David Letterman, as well as a commentator and contributor to the New York Times, This American Life, WIRED, Vanity Fair, Slate, Salon, NPR and the BBC. His first film, Layover, was shown at the Cannes Film Festival in 2010, and a feature film of his monologue If You See Something Say Something is currently in post-production. His second book, Rough Magic, a collection of his monologues, will be published in 2012. He has been nominated for the Outer Critics Circle Award, two Drama League Awards, and is the recipient of the Bay Area Critics Circle Award, five Seattle Times Footlight Awards, the Sloan Foundation's Galileo Prize, and a MacDowell Fellowship. He lives in Brooklyn with his collaborator and partner Jean-Michele Gregory.

Company

JASON BOWCUTT (ACTOR) For years Jason worked primarily as an actor and was on the stage of many great theatres including McCarter Theatre Company, The Guthrie Theatre, Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, The Shakespeare Theatre in DC, and our very own Pioneer Theatre Company. In New York Jason played Nathan Leopold Jr. in the Outer Critics Circle Award winning production of NEVER THE SINNER, for which he earned a Drama Desk and Helen Hayes Award nomination. Jason is also proud to be one of the Founding Directors of the New York Innovative Theatre Foundation (the IT Awards) which honors excellence in Off-Off-Broadway.

Since returning to Utah Jason has had the pleasure of working with Plan B Theatre Company and Pygmalion Productions as an actor and director. Jason currently works at Utah Arts & Museums in Community and Performing Arts.

NICKI NIXON (ACTOR) is excited to return to SLAC for her first reading after having the privilege of playing Antigone in TOO MUCH MEMORY.  She was most recently see as Annelle in Pinnacle Acting Company's STEEL MAGNOLIAS.  Other local credits include Michella in Off Broadway's TRANSMORFERS and Princess Justine in PUSS'N'BOOTS at the Children's Theatre.  She is a proud graduate of Weber State University's Theatre Arts Program, where some of her favorite roles include Tess in SIX DEGREES OF SEPARATION, Angie/Dull Gret in TOP GIRLS, and Eve in WAITING FOR THE PARADE. She was also give the opportunity to perform as a Weird Woman in MACBETH at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C.. She has been a proud and faithful subscriber at SLAC for the last 4 fun-filled years.

ROBERT SCOTT SMITH (ACTOR) NYC: Pericles (SLANT). SLC: CHARM, Swimming in the Shallows, Six Years, Big Love, BATBOY:The Musical (Salt Lake Acting Company); Pains of Youth, Santaland Diaries (Tooth and Nail Theatre); BASH (PlanB). Film and TV: Blessing, Animae, "Guiding Light". Print: The Unfortunate Moment of Misunderstanding (Jim Fiscus). Training: MFA Old Globe Theatre San Diego.

ALEXANDRA HARBOLD (DIRECTOR, ARTISTIC & LITERARY ASSOCIATE) At SLAC, Andra directed the world premieres of (A MAN ENTERS) and THE PERSIAN QUARTER and the New Play Sounding Series readings of T.I.C. (TRENCHCOAT IN COMMON), THE PERSIAN QUARTER and PROPHETS OF NATURE.  Local directing credits: ROMEO AND JULIET, RABBIT HOLE, THREE DAYS OF RAIN (PAC), and SLAM (Plan-B); Assistant Director: EMMA (Pioneer Theatre Company) and CHARM (Salt Lake Acting Company). Education: BA, Middlebury College; Master's in Performance Studies, University of London Goldsmith's College. Training: SITI Company's Summer Intensive at Skidmore. Upcoming directing projects include BETRAYAL by Harold Pinter (Pinnacle) and SLAM (Plan-B Theatre).

MIKE DAISEY (PLAYWRIGHT) has been called "the master storyteller" and "one of the finest solo performers of his generation" by the New York Times for his groundbreaking monologues which weave together autobiography, gonzo journalism, and unscripted performance to tell hilarious and heartbreaking stories that cut to the bone, exposing secret histories and unexpected connections. His latest work, The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs, was called "the best new play of the year" by the Washington Post, and was recognized as one of the year's best theater pieces by the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Seattle Times, Seattle Weekly, San Jose Mercury News, the San Francisco Bay Guardian, and will return to the Public Theater in 2012.

Since his first monologue in 1997, Daisey has created over fifteen monologues, including the critically-acclaimed The Last Cargo Cult, the controversial How Theater Failed America, the twenty-four-hour feat All the Hours in the Day, the unrepeatable series All Stories Are Fiction, the four-part epic Great Men of Genius, and the international sensation 21 Dog Years. Other titles include If You See Something Say Something, Barring the Unforeseen, Invincible Summer, Monopoly!, Tongues Will Wag, I Miss the Cold War, and Teching in India.

He has performed in venues on five continents, ranging from Off-Broadway at the Public Theater to remote islands in the South Pacific, from the Sydney Opera House to an abandoned theater in post-Communist Tajikistan. A partial list: Cherry Lane Theatre, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Victory Gardens, Seattle Repertory Theatre, Barrow Street Theatre, American Repertory Theatre, the Spoleto Festival, Yale Repertory Theatre, Center Theatre Group, Intiman Theatre, Woolly Mammoth Theatre, ACT Theatre, Performance Space 122, the Noorderzon Festival, the T:BA Festival, the Under the Radar Festival, the Flynn Theatre, the Lensic, and Chicago's Museum for Contemporary Art.

He's been a guest on the Late Show with David Letterman, as well as a commentator and contributor to the New York Times, This American Life, WIRED, Vanity Fair, Slate, Salon, NPR and the BBC. His first film, Layover, was shown at the Cannes Film Festival in 2010, and a feature film of his monologue If You See Something Say Something is currently in post-production. His second book, Rough Magic, a collection of his monologues, will be published in 2012. He has been nominated for the Outer Critics Circle Award, two Drama League Awards, and is the recipient of the Bay Area Critics Circle Award, five Seattle Times Footlight Awards, the Sloan Foundation's Galileo Prize, and a MacDowell Fellowship. He lives in Brooklyn with his collaborator and partner Jean-Michele Gregory.

By Shawn Fisher

FREE READING Monday, February 27th @ 7 pm

Director Adrianne Moore

Stage Manager Elizabeth Miller

Company Randall Eames, Marilyn Holt, Michael Gardner, Darryl Stamp

Salt Lake Acting Company is thankful to the Jarvis and Constance Doctorow Family Foundation and the Dramatists Guild Fund for their generous and vital support of our New Play Sounding Series program.

Playwright's Note

Years ago I came across a massive 300-year-old live oak that had been blown over by a hurricane somewhere in the South. On the side of the tree was a black scar resulting from years of cooking-fires built by plantation slaves, centuries ago. The scar had been mostly closed-over as the trunk had grown thicker and I was struck that, as with emotional scars, it had become deeper but harder to see as time went on. The idea of this "slave tree" and its scar stayed with me and eventually became a catalyst for the play. It led me to explore race from a point of hind-sight and through a societal lens that has evolved through the decades. I decided to set the play in the North, where opinions about race weren't as explicit as they were in the South. Specifically I chose my home region of rural South Jersey, a rustic part of the country once nicknamed the "Mississippi of the North" where some schools were segregated until the 1950's. The main character of Mrs. Wright is inspired by a real woman, Cora Fisher, who was mandated to integrate the elementary schools in Bridgeton, NJ despite the fact that she privately held racist attitudes. The fascinating aspect of her life is that, even with her personal biases, she was a dedicated educator who was successful by all measures and served her students equally regardless of race. This contradiction fuels the story and the character of Mrs. Wright as she prepares for her imminent death and faces the legacy she will leave behind.

Company

SHAWN FISHER (PLAYWRIGHT) is originally from New Jersey and works nationally as a theatre designer and playwright. He is currently based in Utah where he runs the MFA Program in Theatre at Utah State University. His other original scripts include SCOPE, The Crow Song and Do Not Hit Golf Balls into Mexico which was staged here at SLAC last summer. His plays have been produced or had staged-readings in New York, Los Angeles, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Salt Lake City. He is the Founder and Director of the Fusion Theatre Project, a non-traditional ensemble, based at USU, which creates original works of progressive theatre. Shawn's professional design work includes the New York productions of Seal Sings Its Song for Woken' Glacier Theatre Company, Cop Out and The Talking Dog at the Gene Frankel Theatre and over seventy other designs around the country. Shawn holds an MFA in Theatre from Brandeis University.

ADRIANNE MOORE (DIRECTOR) Adrianne's previous productions for SLAC include CIRCLE MIRROR TRANSFORMATION, HOLD PLEASE, WATER IMAGES (part of THE WATER PROJECT), ANCIENT LIGHTS (New Play Sounding Series) and most recently, DO NOT HIT GOLF BALLS INTO MEXICO for SLAC's Fearless Fringe Festival. She has also served as dialect coach on numerous SLAC productions including, RED, ANGELS IN AMERICA, CHARM, THE CARETAKER, END DAYS, CLEAN HOUSE, and SKIN IN FLAMES. She directs regularly for the Old Lyric Repertory Company; productions include ALWAYS PATSY CLINE, THE FOREIGNER, RELATIVE VALUES, THE RIVALS and SYLVIA. Other Utah directing credits include THE MIKADO (Utah Festival Opera) TALKING WALES (Utah Contemporary Theatre), PETER PAN, (The Egyptian Theatre Company) MIASMA and PLAY SLAM for Plan B Theatre. She is a professor of Voice and Directing at Utah State University. Favorite productions at USU include PROOF, OUR COUNTRY'S GOOD and KING LEAR.

A native of New Zealand, Adrianne worked as a director and actor in New Zealand, Australia and England before coming to the U.S. She holds a Graduate Diploma in Theatre Directing from the British Theatre Association in London and an M.F.A. in Directing from Florida State University.

RANDALL EAMES (READER) graduated Magna Cum Laude from Weber State University with a degree in Theatre Arts. He is happy to be returning to SLAC's stage after appearing in last season's Saturday's Voyeur and this season's How I Became a Pirate. Some of his favorite roles include: one of the guys in THE COMPLETE WORKS OF WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE ABRIDGED, Flute in A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM, Roy Johnson in THE LIGHT IN THE PIAZZA, part of the company of UNDER CONSTRUCTION and Willard in FOOTLOOSE. He would like to thank his friends, family and educators for their endless support.

MIKE GARDNER (MICK) is a Utah trained actor, studying at Hurricane High school, Dixie College, and finally graduating from Utah State's acting program in the spring of 2007. While at Utah State and under the direction of Adrianne Moore he played, and was awarded Irene Ryan nominations for outstanding performer, as Simon in Hayfever, Action in West Side Story, and Aunt Spiker in JAMES AND THE GIANT PEACH. Mike has performed at SLAC as Adam in DARK PLAY: OR STORIES FOR BOYS, and as Boy in IF YOU GIVE A MOUSE A COOKIE. Mike has also been seen in EVERYMAN and SHADOWS OF THE BAKEMONO with Meat and Potato theatre. Other favorite roles include the title role of Pippin (HHS), Sydney Bruel in DEATHTRAP (DSC), Arnold Wiggins from THE BOYS NEXT DOOR (DSC) and Mercutio in Pinnacle Acting Companies' production of ROMEO AND JULIET.

MARILYN HOLT (MRS. DELORES WRIGHT) Dr. Holt was a faculty member of the University of Utah Theatre Department for more than 30 years and chair for 9 years. She has played leads in about l20 full productions and has directed 30 at the University, in Salt Lake City, and throughout Utah and the Intermountain West. Some of her favorite roles were in LONG DAY'S JOURNEY INTO NIGHT, KNOWING CAIRO, VIVAT, VIVAT REGINA, and ROAD TO MECCA. Among her favorite productions directed were 2 productions of RAISIN IN THE SUN, one at Pioneer Theatre and again a few years later at Babcock Theatre. She and husband, John, have been married 63 years, are parents of 3 children, grandparents of 5 grand children and - in April, will be great grand parents. She does volunteer work for Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, has been president of Utah Theatre Assoc. and Utah Women's Forum. She reads widely, loves theatre of any kind and takes her cat, Buddha, for walks on a leash. She is known in the neighborhood as "The Crazy Cat Lady".

ELIZABETH MILLER (STAGE MANAGER)

DARRYL STAMP (ARTHUR "BO" WELLS") Darryl is thrilled to be making his SLAC debut after having directed and acted in Wasatch Theater's 2010 Page to Stage Festival. He is also a former Kansas City Drama Desk Award winner for Best Supporting Actor in a Musical. Locally, he has recently appeared as Midge in I'M NOT RAPPAPORT for the Holladay Arts Theater, as Ron in THE TALENTED TENTH for People Productions, and has just completed directing "Niggah," and Blues for an Alabama Sky for the Edward R. Lewis Black Theater Festival at the downtown Sal Lake City library. He has taught acting, Teaching Theater in Secondary Schools, and Shakespeare for Teachers courses at Weber State University, and he is currently a Language Arts teacher and an Assistant Baseball Coach at Hunter H.S. He thanks his wife Mindy and his daughter Sophia for their love and support.

by Kathleen Cahill

FREE NPSS Reading
Monday, April 30 @ 7 pm

Company Cheryl Gaysunas, Jacob Johnson, Deena Marie Manzanares, Amanda Maylett, Nicki Nixon, Nick O'Donnell, Zack Phifer, Barbara Smith

Director Alexandra Harbold

Salt Lake Acting Company is thankful to the Jarvis and Constance Doctorow Family Foundation and the Dramatists Guild Fund for their generous and vital support of our New Play Sounding Series program.

KATHLEEN CAHILL (PLAYWRIGHT) Kathleen's awards include the Jane Chambers Playwrighting Award (for her musical, DAKOTA SKY) a Jane Chambers Honorable Mention (for CHARM) two Connecticut Commission on the Arts Playwrighting Awards, (for THE STILL TIME and CHARM) a Massachusetts Artists Foundation Award, a Rockefeller Grant, a National Endowment for the Arts New American Works Grant, two Edgerton Foundation Awards (for CHARM, and for THE PERSIAN QUARTER) and a Drama League Award. Her musicals include for THE NAVIGATOR, FRIENDSHIP OF THE SEA; DAKOTA SKY, an opera, CLARA, two opera/cabarets, FATAL SONG, and A TALE OF TWO CITIES: PARIS AND BERLIN IN THE TWENTIES. Her plays include THE STILL TIME (Georgia Rep/ Porchlight Theatre, Chicago) the comedy, WOMEN WHO LOVE SCIENCE TOO MUCH (Porchlight Theatre and NPR Radio) HENRI LOUISE AND HENRY (Cleveland Public, Firehouse Theatre, Massachusetts) CHARM (National New Play Network Festival, Salt Lake Acting Company premiere, Kitchen Dog Theatre, Dallas; Orlando Shakespeare) and THE PERSIAN QUARTER (Salt Lake Acting Company, Merrimack Rep.) She wrote the screenplay for the film Downtown Express, which premiered at the 2011 Woodstock Film Festival. She has also written short stories for Cosmopolitan Magazine, worked as a journalist for the Hartford Courant, and co-authored medical papers for JAMA. Ms. Cahill received an MFA in Writing for Music-Theatre from NYU's Tisch School of the Arts. She works as writer/senior editor for Masterpiece on PBS where she writes the Introductions to Downton Abbey, presented by Laura Linney, and the Introductions to Mystery! presented by Alan Cumming.

Company

CHERYL GAYSUNAS (CLEO) lasted visited SLAC as Margaret Fuller in CHARM. Recent Pioneer Theatre credits include LAUGHING STOCK, IS HE DEAD?, NOISES OFF, and THE HEIRESS. Broadway credits: the original production of LA BETE, THE MOLIERE COMEDIES, and AN IDEAL HUSBAND, directed by Sir Peter Hall. Television credits include Den Brother, Law & Order, The Chapelle Show and many commercials. Cheryl has a husband named Jeff, a daughter named Phoebe, and cats named Bruce and Pete, all of whom are lovely and highly entertaining.

DEENA MARIE MANZANARES (DAISY) is a graduate of the Atlantic Theater Co. Acting School in NYC. Training also includes NYU's CAP21 and Juilliard. Among NYC credits are Witch/Mom in AMAZING ADVENTURES OF ARTHUR (Atlantic Theater Company) and Darlene in BALM IN GILEAD (Atlantic 453). Deena Marie has previously been seen at SLAC as Dana in (a man enters), Shirin/Azedeh in THE PERSIAN QUARTER, Blue Dog in GO, DOG. GO!, Ida in SKIN IN FLAMES, Sara in BOY and various readings in the NPSS. Local credits include Plan-B, Egyptian Theatre Co., Pygmalion Productions, Pioneer Theatre Co, Meat & Potato, Hale Centre Theatre and others. Recent highlights include Actor #5 in THE THIRD CROSSING (PLAN-B) and Sheila in HAIR (ETC). Deena Marie writes and performs sketch comedy on the web and has been featured on G4TV's "Attack of the show", MTV's "It's on with Alexa Chung", and our local KUTV2 Morning Show and "Good Things Utah". She also creates and appears in a weekly video for the Salt Lake City Weekly website. Recipient, Salt Lake Magazines Best of the Beehive (The Comedienne), and City Weekly's Best of Utah (Media/Politics). Next up is SLAM with PLAN-B Theatre Company, May 2012. She is a proud member of Actors Equity. www.deenamarie.biz

AMANDA MAYLETT (LILLY) This is Amanda Maylett's first experience working with SLAC and is extremely excited to be part of this team. She is currently a freshman and a theatre major at Westminster College. Her favorite educational productions include 42nd Street (Anytime Annie), Pride and Prejudice (Elizabeth), and The Ride Down Mt. Morgan (Bessie). Amanda would like to thank her family for their continuous support.

NICKI NIXON (POPPY) is excited to return to SLAC for her first reading after having the privilege of playing Antigone in TOO MUCH MEMORY. She was most recently seen in the SLAC reading of THE AGONY AND THE ECSTASY OF STEVE JOBS and as Annelle in Pinnacle Acting Company's STEEL MAGNOLIAS. Other local credits include Michella in Off Broadway's TRANSMORFERS and Princess Justine in PUSS'N'BOOTS at the Children's Theatre. She is a proud graduate of Weber State University's Theatre Arts Program, where some of her favorite roles include Tess in SIX DEGREES OF SEPARATION, Angie/Dull Gret in TOP GIRLS, and Eve in WAITING FOR THE PARADE. She was also give the opportunity to perform as a Weird Woman in MACBETH at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C.. She has been a proud and faithful subscriber at SLAC for the last 4 fun-filled years.

NICK O'DONNELL (NIGEL) NICK CHEEK-O'DONNELL (NIGEL) is thrilled to be working with Salt Lake Acting Company again for this reading of MONSTERHEART. He's done a few readings at SLAC before and loves the type of collaboration readings foster between playwright, performers and audience. Three years ago at SLAC, Nick doubled as Stephen Hawking and Jesus in END DAYS and Buisson and Verbeek in THE OVERWHELMING. He has also done stints at the Pioneer (JULIUS CAESAR) and Plan B (SLAM '08). A graduate of Carleton College, Nick worked in Minnesota with the Children's Theater Co., Theatre de la Juene Lune, Frank Theater and the Jungle Theater. In the Northwest, Nick performed with Seattle Shakespeare Co., Wooden O, Book-It Rep, Montana Shakespeare in the Parks and Seattle Children's Theater. He has coauthored a travel guidebook on NYC & designed theater posters for the U. Nick will enter the Master of Social Work Program at the U this Fall. These days Nick spends much of his time monkeying around with his four-year-old daughter and one-year-old son.

ZACK PHIFER (CHARLEY) Zack had uber fun doing SLAC's well received production of GOD OF CARNAGE last fall. After graduating from the U of U in the Acting Emphasis Program, he headed to Los Angeles where he appeared in over 150 commercials, 50 television shows and many films. Some favorite projects were Murphy Brown, Seinfeld, Get Shorty and Romy and Michelle's High School Reunion. He can currently be seen in the film Darling Companion shot in Utah.

BARBARA SMITH (IRENE) performed recently in LAST LISTS OF MY MAD MOTHER. Other productions include: STEEL MAGNOLIAS, MACBETH, SORDID LIVES, HOUSE OF BERNARDA ALBA, ALL MY SONS, and University of Utah Classical Greek Theatre ELEKTRA, IPHIGENIA AT AULIS (2005). HIPPOLYTUS, IPHIGENIA AT AULIS (1986), TROJAN WOMEN, THE BAKKHAI, SUMMER AND SMOKE, THE CHERRY ORCHARD, NIGHT OF THE IGUANA, EQUUS, A LIE OF THE MIND, ANNA CHRISTIE, and THE CRUCIBLE. Her directing credits include FEVER, MACBETH, HELEN, ENDGAME, JOHN LENNON AND ME, ANTIGONE, PICNIC, and COME BACK TO THE 5 & DIME JIMMY DEAN, JIMMY DEAN, and BUS STOP.

JACOB JOHNSON (READER) is pleased to be involved with this staged reading of Kathleen Cahill's MONSTERHEAD. Audiences will see him this summerJacob Johnson Headshot in his seventh production of SATURDAY'S VOYEUR here at SLAC. He was the producer/emcee of the CastPartySLC cabaret series at SLAC. He has performed with many theatres throughout the Wasatch Front, including Pioneer Theatre Company, Egyptian Theatre Company, Hale Center Theatre, The Grand Theatre, Off-Broadway Theatre, Rodgers Memorial Theatre, and many others throughout Utah and California. Favorite credits include: THE SECRET GARDEN (Dickon), FORUM (Hysterium), HOW TO SUCCEED...(Bud Frump), SOUTH PACIFIC (Lt. Buzz Adams), THE FANTASTICKS (Matt), CHARLEY'S AUNT (Jack), DAMN YANKEES (Rocky), and NO TIME FOR SERGEANTS (Psychiatrist). He is a graduate of the University of Utah and is a proud member of Actor's Equity since 2005.

KATHLEEN CAHILL (PLAYWRIGHT) Kathleen's awards include the Jane Chambers Playwrighting Award (for her musical, Dakota Sky) a Jane Chambers Honorable Mention (for Charm) two Connecticut Commission on the Arts Playwrighting Awards, (for The Still Time and Charm) a Massachusetts Artists Foundation Award, a Rockefeller Grant, a National Endowment for the Arts New American Works Grant, two Edgerton Foundation Awards (for Charm, and for The Persian Quarter) and a Drama League Award. Her musicals include for The Navigator, Friendship of the Sea; Dakota Sky, an opera, Clara, two opera/cabarets, Fatal Song, and A Tale of Two Cities: Paris and Berlin in the Twenties. Her plays include The Still Time (Georgia Rep/ Porchlight Theatre, Chicago) the comedy, Women Who Love Science Too Much (Porchlight Theatre and NPR Radio) Henri Louise and Henry (Cleveland Public, Firehouse Theatre, Massachusetts) Charm ( National New Play Network Festival, Salt Lake Acting Company premiere, Kitchen Dog Theatre, Dallas; Orlando Shakespeare) and The Persian Quarter ( Salt Lake Acting Company, Merrimack Rep.) She wrote the screenplay for the film Downtown Express, which premiered at the 2011 Woodstock Film Festival. She has also written short stories for Cosmopolitan Magazine, worked as a journalist for the Hartford Courant ,and co-authored medical papers for JAMA. Ms. Cahill received an MFA in Writing for Music-Theatre from NYU's Tisch School of the Arts. She works as writer/senior editor for Masterpiece on PBS where she writes the Introductions to Downton Abbey, presented by Laura Linney, and the Introductions to Mystery! presented by Allan Cummings.

ALEXANDRA HARBOLD (DIRECTOR, ARTISTIC & LITERARY ASSOCIATE) At SLAC, Andra directed the world premieres of (A MAN ENTERS) and THE PERSIAN QUARTER and the New Play Sounding Series readings of THE AGONY AND THE ECSTASY OF STEVE JOBS, T.I.C. (TRENCHCOAT IN COMMON), THE PERSIAN QUARTER and PROPHETS OF NATURE. Local directing credits: ROMEO AND JULIET, RABBIT HOLE, THREE DAYS OF RAIN (PAC), and SLAM (Plan-B); Assistant Director: EMMA (Pioneer Theatre Company) and CHARM (Salt Lake Acting Company). Education: BA, Middlebury College; Master's in Performance Studies, University of London Goldsmith's College. Training: SITI Company's Summer Intensive at Skidmore. She is currently BETRAYAL by Harold Pinter (Pinnacle Acting Company, May 3-12).  Upcoming projects include SLAM (Plan-B Theatre, May 12) and a collaboration with Director Elizabeth Williamson.

By Kathleen Cahill

Free Reading Monday, February 21 @ 7 PM

Director: Kathleen Cahill
Company: Colleen Baum, Daniel Beecher, Mark Fossen, Shannon Musgrave, Cassandra Stokes-Wylie

COURSE 86B IN THE CATALOGUE is a comedy about evolution. It tells the story of  a visiting paleontologist from Harvard, Stevie Stuart, who is teaching a course at a small community college in the southern corner of an arid state. She has just broken up with her husband, Bill, a Boston businessman who has a “flexible” attitude to the truth. She discovers that the college is set on land which contains extraordinary artifacts from the ancient past – some of them still living.

PLAYWRIGHT'S NOTE

"This play is very different from other pieces I’ve written. It's a flat out comedy, a comedy with serious intent but still a comedy... and I don't want to think about how hard it is to write comedy ... When you parachute out of an airplane it's better not to look.  The reading is a way for me to learn about it, hear it in front of an audience, get a sense of what's working or not. It's an opportunity to make use of audience reactions as a contribution to this new work as it begins its journey."

Company

Colleen Baum (Stevie) is happy to be back at Salt Lake Acting Company. She was last seen at SLAC in ANGELS IN AMERICA.  Other SLAC credits include GO DOG GO, END DAYS, SEX STING, RABBIT HOLE, KIMBERLY AKIMBO, CABBIES COWBOYS AND THE TREE OF THE WEEPING VIRGIN and THE WATER PROJECT. At Plan-B Theatre Company in the LARAMIE PROJECT: 10 YEARS LATER, AN EPILOGUE, LARAMIE PROJECT, ANIMAL FARM, WAR OF THE WORLDS, AND THE BANNED PLAYED ON, TRAGEDY: A TRAGEDY and SLAM; and the Old Lyric Repertory Company in BLITHE SPIRIT, MOUSETRAP, ALWAYS PATSY CLINE, GOODNIGHT DESDEMONA GOOD MORNING JULIET, SERVANT OF TWO MASTERS, BLOOD BROTHERS, POOL'S PARADISE, and THE UNEXPECTED GUEST.  Colleen is a proud member of the Actor's Equity Association.

Daniel Beecher (Sterling)is happy to be returning to SLAC, where he was last seen in YOGA CONFIDENTIAL as part of the Fearless Fringe Festival and in last season’s THE CARETAKER. He's also done several readings at SLAC, and played Antoine in AN EMPTY PLATE IN THE CAFÉ DU GRANDE BOEUF. Dan attended the University of Utah's Actor Training Program. While at the U, Dan played in SUMMER AND SMOKE, THE MERCHANT OF VENICE, A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC, A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM, and what feels like innumerable other parts, mostly in the Babcock Theater. Elsewhere around town, Dan has been seen in A VIEW FROM THE BRIDGE, ROSENCRANTZ AND GUILDENSTERN ARE DEAD, KING LEAR, MACBETH, THE THREE MUSKETEERS, and PETER PAN (in which he played Nana the dog and the crocodile- favorites) at Pioneer Theatre Company. He was in Salt Lake Shakespeare's productions of AS YOU LIKE IT, ROMEO AND JULIET, TWELFTH NIGHT, and played both Banquo and Macduff in MACBETH. Other local credits include ROMEO AND JULIET at Pinnacle Acting Co, and DIRTY BLONDE with Utah Contemporary Theatre. Outside of Utah, Dan studied at the Chautauqua Institution in New York. Film and television credits include Incident at DARK RIVER with Helen Hunt and Mike Farrell, and several independent films including VAPID LOVELIES, which he also helped write and associate produced, and which was accepted into several film festivals internationally.

Mark Fossen (Bill) is thrilled to be back at SLAC’s New Play Sounding series after appearing in the reading of Kathleen Cahill’s CHARM. Mark has been seen locally in THE ALIENATION EFFEKT, AMERIGO, and EXPOSED at Plan-B, MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM at Sundance Summer Theater, and Salt Lake Shakespeare's HENRY V and MACBETH among others. Recent directing work includes AN IDEAL HUSBAND at Pinnacle Acting Company and THE GLASS MENAGERIE at The Grand. Regional credits include work with Chicago's Steppenwolf Theater Company, San Francisco's Thick Description, Berkeley Repertory Theater, and both the California and Idaho Shakespeare Festivals. He is a member of the Plan-B/Meat & Potato DIRECTORS’ LAB, and teaches at the Theatre Arts Conservatory.

Shannon Musgrave (Dell) has been seen on SLAC’s stage in SATURDAY’S VOYEUR for the past two years and in last season’s GO, DOG. GO! Other local shows include 42^ND STREET at Pioneer Theatre Company, SCHOOL HOUSE ROCK LIVE and MUSICAL OF MUSICALS at The Grand Theatre, 25^TH ANNUAL PUTNAM COUNTY SPELLING BEE and ROMEO & JULIET with Pinnacle Acting Company, and many productions at Weber State University where Shannon earned her BA in Musical Theatre. Shannon also choreographed The Grand Theatre’s production OLIVER last fall. Offstage, Shannon works as SLAC’s Executive Assistant and loves being part of this fantastic company.

Cassandra Stokes-Wylie (Reader) was last seen as the Reader for ANGELS IN AMERICA: PART 2, PERESTROIKA at SLAC.  She also participated in SLAC’s Fearless Fringe Festival as Shudder and Stella in THE HARVEY GIRLS. Other local credits include Anna in Utah Theatre Artists Company’s production of BURN THIS and the Governess in their production of THE TURN OF THE SCREW. She will be seen next in Pygmalion’s production of THE GOOD BODY.  Cassandra is a graduate of the Actor Training Program at the University of Utah and a recent member of the Milwaukee Repertory Theatre’s acting internship program.  Favorite productions include Pride and Prejudice, The Cherry Orchard, The Shape of Things, Cloud Nine, Cowboy Mouth and The Comedy of Errors.  She is thrilled to be a part of the New Play Sounding Series.

Kathleen Cahill(Playwright) Ms. Cahill has received many awards for her work, including the Jane Chambers Playwriting Award, a Connecticut Commission on the Arts Playwriting Award (twice), a Massachusetts Artists Foundation Award, a Rockefeller Grant, a National Endowment for the Arts New American Works Grant, and a Drama League Award. Her plays include THE STILL TIME (Georgia Rep/Porchlight Theatre, Chicago), WOMEN WHO LOVE SCIENCE TOO MUCH (Porchlight), HENRI LOUISE AND HENRY (Cleveland Public), SLAM (Plan-B Theatre, UT), and the screenplay DOWNTOWN EXPRESS, a film for David Grubin Productions in NY. With composer Michael Wartofsky she wrote the book and lyrics for THE NAVIGATOR and FRIENDSHIP OF THE SEA; with Deborah Wicks LaPuma she wrote DAKOTA SKY (Olney Theatre), WATER ON THE MOON (Signature Theatre readings), and CAPTIVATED (Kennedy Center New Works Festival). Other musical works include the opera CLARA, FATAL SONG, and A TALE OF TWO CITIES: PARIS AND BERLIN IN THE TWENTIES (all Maryland Center for the Performing Arts). Her play CHARM (directecd by Meg Gibson) received its world premiere at SLAC last season and went on to Kitchen Dog Theatre in Dallas and Orlando Shakespeare.

trenchcoat in common: a blog turned into a play

by Peter Sinn Nachtrieb

FREE READING : Monday, November 15, 2010 @ 7 pm

Director Alexandra Harbold

Company: Austin Archer, Anne Cullimore Decker, Darrin Doman, Cheryl Gaysunas, Elise Groves, Megan Noyce, Nick O'Donnell

The birds are in the trees,
the toast is in the toaster
and the poets are at their windows.

- from Monday by Billy Collins

Every man is surrounded
by a neighborhood of
voluntary spies.

- Jane Austen

SL Theater Examiner | Secrets and schemes revealed at SLAC's free reading of TIC

PETER SINN NACHTRIEB (Playwright) is a San Francisco-based playwright whose works include boom (TCG's most produced play 2009-10), T.I.C. (TRENCHCOAT IN COMMON), HUNTER GATHERERS (2007 ATCA/Steinberg New Play Award, 2007 Will Glickman Prize), COLORADO, and MULTIPLEX. His work has been seen off-Broadway and across the country including at Ars Nova, SPF, Woolly Mammoth Theatre, Seattle Repertory, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Cleveland Public Theatre, Brown/Trinity Playwrights Rep, Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theatre, Dads Garage, and in the Bay Area at Encore Theatre, Killing My Lobster, Marin Theatre Company, Impact Theatre, and The Bay Area Playwrights Festival.   His newest plays are BOB, a South Coast Rep commission (and set to premiere at the 2011 Humana Festival for New American Plays at Actors Theatre of Louisville) and Litter, a commission for A.C.T.,  Peter holds a degree in Theater and Biology from Brown and an MFA in Creative Writing from San Francisco State University.  Peter is a member of New Dramatists, a resident playwright at the Playwrights Foundation, San Francisco and often writes at Z Space Studio in San Francisco.   He likes to promote himself online at www.peternachtrieb.com.

Company

AUSTIN ARCHER (SHYE) Austin Archer was last seen at SLAC during the extended run of SATURDAY'S VOYEUR 2010 when he played Tonto and others. He also appeared at SLAC as Haemon in TOO MUCH MEMORY. Other favorite roles include George Gibbs in OUR TOWN at Weber State University, Millet in FUDDY MEERS (WSU), Dr. Berrensteiner in A NEW BRAIN (Dark Horse Company Theatre), Aaron Krieffels and other characters in THE LARAMIE PROJECT (WSU), Hot Blades Harry in URINETOWN: THE MUSICAL (WSU), Lysander in A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM (WSU), Cosmo Brown in SINGIN' IN THE RAIN (Pink Garter Theatre) and WILL PARKER in Oklahoma! (Pink Garter Theatre). Television and film credits include Touched By An Angel, Everwood, Teenius (Film), and Whisper Island (Film). When Austin isn't busy doing all of this acting business he is either playing music with his band "Us Thieves", or working for SLAC in the box office or as a house manager.

ANNE CULLIMORE DECKER(CLAUDIA) Anne Cullimore Decker has been actively involved as a civic leader as well as a professional actress and director in theatre, opera, television and film. Her most recent credits include a a sold out/extended production of M ASTER CLASS where she played the role of Maria Callas at Salt Lake Acting Company; THEGONDOLIERS, and CARNIVAL OF THE ANIMALS, Utah Opera/Symphony’s at Deer Valley; YOU CAN’T TAKE IT WITH YOU, at Pioneer Memorial Theatre; Her latest film is Darling Companion starring Kevin Kline, Diane Keaton, Dianne Weist, directed by Lawrence Casden (The Big Chill). In 2011 she will be performing in WELL for Pygmalion Theatre.

DARRIN DOMAN(DAD) Darrin has appeared on many stages around the valley. Most recently, he played Cosme McMoon in SOUVENIR with Utah Contemporary Theatre. Other credits include Eddie, et al, JOHNNY GUITAR; Major Holmes, THE SECRET GARDEN; Spike Spauldeen, SONG OF SINGAPORE; Protean, A FUNNY THING HAPPENED ON THE WAY TO THE FORUM; Shem/Ham, CHILDREN OF EDEN; Wally Ferguson, 1940's RADIO HOUR; Rufus Pervis, THE PIRATED PENZANCE; Robert Livingston, 1776 (Grand Theatre); Agwe, ONCE ON THIS ISLAND (Heritage Theater) and Simon Zelotes, SAVIOR OF THE WORLD (Conference Center Theater).  Other work at SLAC includes Charlotte von Mahlsdorf (understudy), I AM MY OWN WIFE, Orestes Brownson (understudy) in CHARM and Ben, SATURDAY'S VOYEUR 2005. For SLAC’s New Play Sounding Series, Darrin has played Bart, THE THUGS; Mike, 14 and Reader, MAMMOTH. Darrin also has credits as musical director and enjoys singing with the Utah Chamber Artists. To support his theater "habit," Darrin works as a speech/language pathologist at the University of Utah Hospital. He enjoys teaching voice lessons, with a special interest in rehabilitating injured vocalists. Other hobbies include writing, international travel, collecting blue art glass and attempting to master circular breathing to become the next great didgeridoo player.

MEGAN NOYCE(Reader) Megan Noyce is a proud, new owner of a degree in Theatre Arts from the University of Puget Sound. And after a summer as an Education Intern/Teaching Artist at Lexington Children’s Theatre, she returns to Utah to put her degree to use. After spending most of her college career enchanted by acting, she began to study other aspects of theatre. This led her to dramaturgy, directing, teaching and playwriting. Her directing credits include THE SECRET IN THE WINGS, the one-act play NIGHT VISITS, and assistant directing THE SKIN OF OUR TEETH. Her play EINE LANGE REISE recently received a staged reading as part of Wasatch Theatre Company’s Page-to-Stage Festival. Megan currently works as an Assistant Teacher for the University of Utah Youth Theatre.

ALEXANDRA HARBOLD (Director, Artistic Literary Associate) At Salt Lake Acting Company, Andra directed last season's New Play Sounding Series readings of THE PERSIAN QUARTER and PROPHETS OF NATURE; she acted in SIX YEARS and ICE GLEN and is now an Artistic Literary Associate and a member of SLAC's Communications & Audience Development team.  Other local credits: HAMLET (Pioneer Theatre Company), LIVING OUT, FAT PIG (Pygmalion Theatre), and THE SEAGULL (Pinnacle Acting Company).   Directing credits: ROMEO AND JULIET, RABBIT HOLE, THREE DAYS OF RAIN (PAC), and SLAM (Plan-B). Andra is currently acting in Pinnacle Acting Company's DANCING AT LUGHNASA and will direct the world premiere of Kathleen Cahill's THE PERSIAN QUARTER at Salt Lake Acting Company in the new year.

By David Kranes

FREE READING Monday, October 11th @ 7 pm

Directed by Robin Wilks-Dunn

Company: Michael Behrens, Brenda Sue Cowley, Brien Jones, Alexandra Harbold

PLAYWRIGHT'S NOTE

"Much of Courting Disaster was written over two visits to the Wordbridge Playwrights Lab, where I was serving as a resource artist to emerging playwrights.  Being in the presence of "gifted" individuals is powerful and illuminating.  How those who are gifted navigate their gifts and selves through a lifetime poses choices and reconciliations.  How does a person-of-gifts get from "here" to "there"?  Delia, in this play, has made choices, her voice is unashamed.  Kaman has heard her voice and been drawn to it -- but he still has choices to make.  Agent Winters?  Well....he's doing his job --though he'd rather be doing another one."

DAVID KRANES (Playwright)

David Kranes is a writer of seven novels and two volumes of short stories--most recently, Making The Ghost Dance (2005). His 2001 novel, The National Tree, was recently made into a film by Hallmark, which aired in November, 2009. His short fiction (appearing in such magazines as Esquire, Ploughshares, Transatlantic Review) has won literary prizes and has been anthologized. Over 40 of his plays have been performed in New York and across the U.S. (in theaters such as The Actors’ Theater of Louisville, The Mark Taper Forum, Manhattan Theater Club, Cincinatti’s Playhouse in the Park), and his Selected Plays (with an Introduction by director, Jon Jory) will be published in 2010. His radio plays have been performed in the U.S., Canada and abroad. He has written for film and for dance companies. The opera, Orpheus Lex, for which he wrote the libretto, was performed at New York City’s Symphony Space in February of 2010. He is currently working on a novel, a play and a “wordscape”-score for a new Ririe-Woodburry dance piece choreographed by Charlotte Boyes-Christensen. In his second (or is it third?) life, Mr. Kranes, travels and consults in the casino industry.

Review

Salt Lake Theatre Examiner | The magic of a well-told tale at Salt Lake Acting Company's Courting Disaster (10/7/10)

Company

MICHAEL BEHRENS(AGENT KEITH WINTERS) Michael is very happy to be returning to SLAC. Previous SLAC appearances have been in the NPSS reading of THE PERSIAN QUARTER, PROPHETS OF NATURE, as Tom in SIX YEARS, Michael in ROUNDING THIRD, Jaisu in POLISH JOKE and Bill in LOBBY HERO, as well as two SATURDAY'S VOYEURS. You may have seen him in PRIDE & PREJUDICE at Pioneer Theatre Company as well as HENRY V, THREE MUSKETEERS, COMEDY OF ERRORS, PEER GYNT, ST. JOAN and THE MISER. Other favorite roles include Hamlet for TheaterWorks West, Lloyd in NOISES OFF, Sydney in LIGHT UP THE SKY, Froggy in THE FOREIGNER, Jane/Lord Edgar in THE MYSTERY OF IRMA VEP, Durdles in THE MYSTERY OF EDWIN DROOD, and Clotaldo in LIFE IS A DREAM all for Creede Repertory Theater. Michael can be seen and heard in countless radio and television spots as well as film. Michael is a graduate of The University of Utah's Actor Training Program and is a proud member of the Actor's Equity Association.

BRENDA SUE COWLEY(DELIA BLANCHARD) has been living and working as an actor in Salt Lake City for nineteen years. She was most recently seen as Mechum in Julie Jensen's THE HARVEY GIRLS for SLAC's Fearless Fringe Festival, and in the role of Katie Wynn in Mike Dorrell's World Premier Play, TALKING WALES: FINDING SIR FORMIDOR for Utah Contemporary Theatre. Brenda has been seen over the years in a number of productions at the Salt Lake Acting Company, Pioneer Theatre Company, The Grand Theatre, Pygmalion and others. Brenda takes particular pleasure in World Premier Plays, and is proud to have performed in Julie Jensen's WAIT!, as well as J.T. Rogers World Premier of MADAGASCAR. Television credits include a recurring role as Deena Clark on WB's Everwood, and she was recently seen in Trent Harris' film, Delightful Water Universe. Writing credits include (but are not limited to) SHEAR LUCK, THE MUSICAL (book and lyrics by Brenda; musical score by Kevin Mathie), which was produced at the Grand Theatre in the spring of 2006. Originally from Portland, Oregon, Brenda holds a Bachelor's Degree in English Literature from Northwest Nazarene University.

BRIEN K. JONES(KAMAN HOLMES) Brien Jones is the Director of Education and Conferences for several domestic and international financial forensic and business valuation associations. He is grateful to have the ability to balance his career with the performing arts. As an actor, he is performed with many Utah theater production companies including the Salt Lake Acting Company, People Productions, Wasatch Theatre Company, University of Utah Youth Theatre and the University of Utah Babcock Theatre. A short list of his stage credits include CAROLINE, OR CHANGE, LOVE! VALOUR! COMPASSION!, A RAISIN IN THE SUN, BOYS IN THE BAND, A SOLDIER'S PLAY, HOME, A HEART DIVIDED, JITNEY, THE EXONERATED, and MASTER HAROLD...AND THE BOYS.

ROBIN WILKS-DUNN (Director) Robin is delighted to be back with the New Play Sounding series after having last directed  the reading of Kathleen Cahill’s CHARM.  She previously directed premieres at SLAC of PEARL as part of THE WATER PROJECT, ONE LAST DANCE and NAPOLEON’S CHINA.   Robin enjoys reading working with new scripts and is a script reader for the Sundance Theatre Lab. She has taught theatre and directed around Salt Lake for over 20 years. Next on her plate is boom at SLAC this November and THE GOOD BODY at Pygmalian Theatre in the Spring.  Thank you to SLAC and David Kranes for the opportunity to work with this wonderful script and talented cast.

ALEXANDRA HARBOLD (Reader, Artistic Literary Associate) At Salt Lake Acting Company, Andra directed the recent New Play Sounding Series readings of THE PERSIAN QUARTER and PROPHETS OF NATURE; she acted in SIX YEARS and ICE GLEN and is now an Artistic Literary Associate and a member of SLAC's Communications & Audience Development team.  Upcoming projects include acting in Pinnacle Acting Company's DANCING AT LUGHNASA and directing the world premiere of Kathleen Cahill's THE PERSIAN QUARTER at Salt Lake Acting Company.

By Matthew Ivan Bennett

Monday, October 24, 2011 @ 7 pm

A love letter to Kaufman and Hart
An oddball play with a twist toward 21st century problems

Director Mark Fossen
Cast Michael Gardner, Mark Gollaher, JJ Peeler, Teresa Sanderson, Richard Scott, Cassandra Stokes-Wylie

A NIGHT WITH THE FAMILY is a comedy surrounding a character-driven, dysfunctional family who has gathered together in Salt Lake City. Playwright Matthew Ivan Bennett describes his script as "a love letter to the Kaufman and Hart, an oddball play with a twist toward 21st century problems." In A NIGHT WITH THE FAMILY, we meet: Donald- a New Age hoarder, Diane- a micromanager and a cougar, Antoine- a French-Canadian modern dancer and soon-to-be stepdad, Bree- a Mormon convert whose husband has an internet porn addiction, and Donny- a newlywed with anxiety attacks. We meet a family..... full of advice.

We are thankful to the Jarvis and Constance Doctorow Family Foundation and the Dramatists Guild Fund for their generous support of SLAC's New Play Sounding Series program.

Playwright's Note

"When I was in my early 20s, my attitude about my family was that I was so obviously, completely, deeply, and intrinsically different from them. In my early 30s, my attitude is that I used to be a dumbass. Family is so much a part of who you are, it's impossible to see sometimes. A NIGHT WITH THE FAMILY is a play about a family in crisis (or a whole family involving themselves in a son's crisis), how we directly sabotage each other even as we're trying to help, and how relationships are always, always messy--and, mercifully, hilarious."

Playwright's Bio

Matthew Ivan Bennett is the Resident Playwright of Plan-B Theatre, where he's premiered several plays. BLOCK 8, his play about the Japanese-American internment at Topaz, was supported by the NEA. His radio adaptation of FRANKENSTEIN received the Best Feature Program award from the Utah Broadcasters Association. His works have appeared at Chicago's Circle Theatre, at Hunger Artists in LA, and in the Source Festival in Washington DC. He's published in Smith & Kraus' 161 One-Minute Monologues from Literature. He acted in the SLAC production of Harold Pinter's THE CARETAKER. Matt earned a Bachelors' of Theatre Arts at Southern Utah University.

We thank the Jarvis and Constance Doctorow Family Foundation and the Dramatists Guild Fund for their generous support of our New Play Sounding Series program.

a new play by Elaine Jarvik and Kate Jarvik Birch

FREE READING: Monday, April 25th at 7 pm

As they get their grandmother's house ready for her 90th birthday party, Rosie and her brother wonder if their estranged father will show up after a 20-year absence.  The wondering turns into a series of fantastical and bittersweet encounters that explore who their father was, why he left, and what the rules of marriage should be.

Director: Tracy Callahan

Company: Dan Beecher, Teri Cowan, Darrin Doman, Cheryl Gaysunas, Terence Goodman, Tracie Merrill

Reviews

Life without father: memories sweet and sad at Salt Lake Acting Company reading | Salt Lake City Theater Examiner | Jenniffer Wardell | April 18, 2011

By Kathleen Cahill

FREE READING Monday, April 26th @ 7 pm

Directed by Alexandra Harbold
Company: Michael Behrens, April Fossen, Bijan Hosseini, Deena Marie Manzanares, Melanie Nelson

TWO WOMEN * TWO COUNTRIES * TWO GENERATIONS

The play is both a story told on a Persian carpet and a piece of political history, set in the United States and Iran between 1979 and 2009. In Tehran in 1980, Ann is an American hostage and Shirin, an Iranian revolutionary student, is one of her captors. Thirty years later their daughters, Emily and Azadeh, meet accidentally in an empty classroom at Columbia University during the visit of the Iranian President Ahmadinejad.

PLAYWRIGHT'S NOTE

"I wrote the play, inspired by what is happening in Iran these days- especially what is happening to the women, their passionate heroism, what they've lived through and what they are willing to do in honor of their country. I wanted to remember my life there, when I lived in Iran, more than thirty years ago, to give meaning to my memories and to try to understand what I didn't understand when I was a young woman living there. The play though, isn't a memory. It's a re-evaluation. And it's a question. Actually, it's a lot of questions."

KATHLEEN CAHILL (Playwright)

Ms. Cahill has received many awards for her work, including the Jane Chambers Playwriting Award, a Connecticut Commission on the Arts Playwriting Award (twice), a Massachusetts Artists Foundation Award, a Rockefeller Grant, a National Endowment for the Arts New American Works Grant, and a Drama League Award. Her plays include THE STILL TIME (Georgia Rep/Porchlight Theatre, Chicago), WOMEN WHO LOVE SCIENCE TOO MUCH (Porchlight), HENRI LOUISE AND HENRY (Cleveland Public), SLAM (Plan-B Theatre, UT), and the screenplay DOWNTOWN EXPRESS, a film for David Grubin Productions in NY. With composer Michael Wartofsky she wrote the book and lyrics for THE NAVIGATOR and FRIENDSHIP OF THE SEA; with Deborah Wicks LaPuma she wrote DAKOTA SKY (Olney Theatre), WATER ON THE MOON (Signature Theatre readings), and CAPTIVATED (Kennedy Center New Works Festival). Other musical works include the opera CLARA, FATAL SONG, and A TALE OF TWO CITIES: PARIS AND BERLIN IN THE TWENTIES (all Maryland Center for the Performing Arts).

Coverage from Salt Lake Theater Examiner - Salt Lake Acting Company previews the future with reading of The Persian Quarter

Photo Credit: Shadi Ghadirian, Qajar 1998

SLAC Sparks

Spark noun. a trace or hint | inspiration or catalyst | an ignited or fiery particle, something that sets off a sudden force | anything that serves to animate, kindle, or excite

The Essential Rumi
introduction by Coleman Barks
The ecstatic, spiritual poetry of Rumi

Blood and Oil: A Prince's Memoir of Iran, from the Shah to the Ayatollah by Roxane Farmanfarmaian and Manucher Farmanfarmaian
Iran was the first country in the Middle East to develop an oil industry, and oil has been central to its tumultuous twentieth-century history. A finalist for the PEN/West Award, Blood and Oil tells the epic inside story of the battle for Iranian oil. A prominent member of one of Iran's most powerful aristocratic families--so feared by Khomeini that the entire clan was blacklisted--Prince Manucher Farmanfarmaian was raised in a harem at the heart of Iran's imperial court. With wit and provocative detail, he describes the days when he served as the Shah's oil adviser and pioneered the partnership that resulted in OPEC. Beautifully written and epic in its scope, this scintillating memoir provides a fascinating history of modern Iran.

The Hand of Poetry: Five Mystic Poets of Persia, lectures by Inayat Khan
Poems by five Persian writers are accompanied by a discussion of the poems and the background of each poet

The Ayatollah Begs to Differ by Hooman Majd
The grandson of an eminent ayatollah and the son of an Iranian diplomat, journalist Hooman Majd is uniquely qualified to explain contemporary Iran's complex and misunderstood culture to Western readers.
The Ayatollah Begs to Differ provides an intimate look at a paradoxical country that is both deeply religious and highly cosmopolitan, authoritarian yet informed by a history of democratic and reformist traditions. Majd offers an insightful tour of Iranian culture, introducing fascinating characters from all walks of life, including zealous government officials, tough female cab drivers, and open-minded, reformist ayatollahs. It's an Iran that will surprise readers and challenge Western stereotypes.  In his new preface, Majd discusses the Iranian mood during and after the June 2009 presidential election which set off the largest street protests since the revolution that brought the ayatollahs to power.

Understanding Iran: Everything You Need to Know, from Persia to the Islamic Republic, from Cyrus to Ahmadinejad by William R. Polk
William R. Polk provides an informative, readable history of a country which is moving quickly toward becoming thedominant power and culture of the Middle East. A former member of the State Department’s Policy Planning Council, Polk describes a country and a history misunderstood by many in the West. While Iranians chafe under the yolk of their current leaders, they also have bitter memories of generations of British, Russian and American espionage, invasion, and dominance. There are important lessons to be learned from the past, and Polk teases them out of a long and rich history and shows that it is not just now, but for decades to come that an understanding of Iran will be essential to American safety and well-being.

Persian Mirrors: The Elisive Face of Iran by Elaine Sciolino
As a correspondent for Newsweek and The New York Times, Elaine Sciolino has had more experience covering Iran than any other American reporter. She was aboard the airplane that took Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini to Tehran in 1979 and was there for the Iranian revolution, the hostage crisis, the Iran-Iraq war, the rise of President Khatami, and the riots of the summer of 1999. In Persian Mirrors, Sciolino takes us into the public and private spaces of Iran and uncovers an alluring and seductive nation where a great battle is raging -- not for control over territory, but for the soul of its people.

Daughter of Persia: A Woman's Journey From Her Father's Harem Through the Islamic Revolution by Ssattareh Farman Farmaian
As founder in 1958 of the Tehranok/per book School of Social Work, Sattareh naively believed, "If one only avoided politics, one could achieve something constructive." After two decades of humanitarian efforts in Iranian family planning, day care, vocational programs and aid to the poor and prisoners' families, she was arrested in 1979 by Khomeini's machine-gun-toting teenage minions. Branded an "imperialist," she narrowly escaped execution and now lives in the U.S. The 15th of 36 children, Sattareh revered and feared her "all-powerful" father, a prince and governor. This dramatic if restrained autobiography, written with freelancer Munker, describes her patriarchal upbringing and her education at UCLA. She belatedly realized that "keeping our mouths shut let the Shah do what he wanted." Her memoir is actually most effective as a political document. She powerfully condemns the Eisenhower-backed coup that toppled democratic premier Mossadegh and installed ruthless dicatator Reza Shah Pahlavi, whose fascist secret police were trained and financed by the CIA. The Shah's corrupt, unjust regime, she graphically demonstrates, fueled explosive resentment that found an outlet in Khomeini's fanaticism.

All The Shah's Men: An American Coup and the Roots of Middle East Terror by Stephen Kinzer
With a thrilling narrative that sheds much light on recent events, this national bestseller brings to life the 1953 CIA coup in Iran that ousted the country's elected prime minister, ushered in a quarter-century of brutal rule under the Shah, and stimulated the rise of Islamic fundamentalism and anti-Americanism in the Middle East. Selected as one of the best books of the year by the Washington Post and The Economist, it now features a new preface by the author on the folly of attacking Iran.

Further reading and links

Shadi Ghadirian's images, featured in 2007 Telegraph interview Confusion in sharp focus
Qajar Gallery

Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books
By Azar Nafisi
Every Thursday morning for two years in the Islamic Republic of Iran, a bold and inspired teacher named Azar Nafisi secretly gathered seven of her most committed female students to read forbidden Western classics. As Islamic morality squads staged arbitrary raids in Tehran, fundamentalists seized hold of the universities, and a blind censor stifled artistic expression, the girls in Azar Nafisi's living room risked removing their veils and immersed themselves in the worlds of Jane Austen, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Henry James, and Vladimir Nabokov. In this extraordinary memoir, their stories become intertwined with the ones they are reading. Reading Lolita in Tehran is a remarkable exploration of resilience in the face of tyranny and a celebration of the liberating power of literature.

The Complete Persepolis
By Marjane Satrapi
Here, in one volume: Marjane Satrapi's best-selling, internationally acclaimed memoir-in-comic-strips.
Persepolis is the story of Satrapi's unforgettable childhood and coming of age within a large and loving family in Tehran during the Islamic Revolution; of the contradictions between private life and public life in a country plagued by political upheaval; of her high school years in Vienna facing the trials of adolescence far from her family; of her homecoming--both sweet and terrible; and, finally, of her self-imposed exile from her beloved homeland. It is the chronicle of a girlhood and adolescence at once outrageous and familiar, a young life entwined with the history of her country yet filled with the universal trials and joys of growing up.
Edgy, searingly observant, and candid, often heartbreaking but threaded throughout with raw humor and hard-earned wisdom--Persepolis is a stunning work from one of the most highly regarded, singularly talented graphic artists at work today.

Persepolis (Film)

The Ecstatic Faith of Rumi, Speaking of Faith with Krista Tippett on NPR, December 13, 2007 [53:00 audio]

By Keith Reddin

FREE READING Monday, February 15th @ 7 pm

Directed by Alexandra Harbold

Company: Alexis Baigue, Daniel Beecher, Michael Behrens, Daisy Blake, Holly Fowers, Mark Gollaher, Jayne Luke, Tracie Merrill, Nick O'Donnell, Josh Thoemke

Reviews & Coverage

In Utah This Week - Theatre Review 'Prophets of Nature' by Keith Reddin

Playbill.com - Reddin's Prophets of Nature Will Get Reading by Salt Lake Acting Company

SLC Theatre Examiner - Salt Lake Acting Company to offer free reading of Prophets of Nature

SLC Theatre Examiner - The more you know: The Luddites and SLAC's Prophets of Nature

Playwright's Note

"I started writing the play in response to people always calling me a Luddite, not knowing, like most people, the origin of that term. I do not now nor ever have owned a cell phone or BlackBerry. I tell people it's to keep myself free from constantly being reached by people, but must admit there is perhaps a fear of technology altering my universe. Looking up the history of the Luddites, I found it was based more than just fear of technology changing, it had a very real personal effect, the loss of jobs and the start of the Industrial Revolution in England and thus in Western Civilization. The Revolution started in the Midlands and the North, and those factories created social changes, good and bad. Dickens in HARD TIMES writes about how the factories can destroy families as well as create wealth.

Anyway, the more I read and researched, the more I was struck that the Luddites were considered early Terrorists. They used the tactics of modern day terrorists, creating fear and often using violence to fight back. The government suspended many laws and rounded up suspects to fight the fear of the Terrorists. The more you learn about the Luddites the more parallels one finds to today's situation. Very eerie and very exciting. And perhaps because I too fear and distrust much of the technological revolution I found myself relating to, even sympathetic to the Luddites. But they were terorists, who destroyed property and killed people. How could I sympathize with murderers? And yet I was torn. That made me re-examine the terrorists today. As Byron actually said to Parliament, to ignore them or dismiss them is just as dangerous. In order to fight them we must understand the cause for their hate and revenge. That is not to say we can condone their violence, I don't. But we must know them, like the Luddites, to keep our safety and our freedom. To merely fight fear with fear will never completely work. Lots to think about and that's why I think the subject of the Luddite rebellion is so rich and compelling. Maybe it will make a compelling, provocative play."

~ Playwright Keith Reddin

KEITH REDDIN (Playwright) Plays include: LIFE AND LIMB, RUM AND COKE, BIG TIME, NEBRASKA, LIFE DURING WARTIME, BRUTALITY OF FACT, ALMOST BLUE, ALL THE RAGE, FRAME 312, BUT NOT FOR ME, HUMAN ERROR, and THE MISSIONARY POSITION. Adaptations include: BLACK SNOW, THE IMAGINARY INVALID, HEAVEN'S MY DESTINATION, and THE LEES OF HAPPINESS by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Screenplays include: ALL THE RAGE and the cable features THE HEART OF JUSTICE, MILKEN, and BAD GUYS (TNT). His plays have been produced at NY Public Theatre, Manhattan Theatre Club, Playwrights Horizons, The Atlantic Theater, NYTW, The Goodman Theatre, LaJolla Playhouse, Yale Repertory Theatre, Berkeley Rep, Woolly Mammoth Theatre and The Donmar Warehouse in London.

Above Right: Engraving of a rioting mob of Luddites, British workers who were opposed to increasing mechanization of jobs, as depicted by 19th Cent. illustrator Phiz (aka Hablot Knight Browne)

Company

ALEXIS BAIGUE(Byron/Thomas) Other credits include: SATURDAY'S VOYEUR '09 (+8), GOODNIGHT DESDEMONA (GOOD MORNING JULIET) (The Salt Lake Acting Co.), THE BOYS IN THE BAND (Wasatch Theatre Co.), BEYOND THERAPY, THE SEX HABITS OF AMERICAN WOMEN (Pygmalion Productions), ANASTASIA (StageRight), SURFIN' SAFARI (Desert Star Playhouse), JACQUES BREL IS ALIVE AND WELL AND LIVING IN PARIS (TheatreWorks West), NO EXIT (Symeon Studio), WIT (Emily Company), DEAR WORLD (Sundance Summer Theatre), SUMMER AND SMOKE, CABARET, RHINOCEROS, QUEEN CHRISTINA, ANTIGONE, THE RIMERS OF ELDRITCH, LOYALTIES (University of Utah), YOU CAN'T TAKE IT WITH YOU, THE TREE OF LACE (Salt Lake Community College), staged readings of MOTHER COLLEGE, THE LIVELY LAD, BUNBURY, THE CANCER DIARIES, CHARM (S.L.A.C.'s New Play Sounding Series), THE UNDERPANTS, THE VIOLET HOUR, THE LAST SUNDAY IN JUNE, MY NAME IS RACHEL CORRIE (Utah Contemporary Theatre), WISH UPON, BOX KITE (Avalon Isle), RECTUM! (hosted by First Unitarian Church & S.L.A.C.) plus television, radio ads, and cinema, including THE VAPID LOVELIES (2009 Slamdance and Inside Out Toronto Film Festivals). The readers of Q Salt Lake voted him "Most Faaabulous Actor".

DANIEL BEECHER(William/Coldham/Davids/Park) Daniel Beecher is happy to be returning to SLAC, where he was last seen in this season's THE CARETAKER. Also at SLAC, he's done several readings and played Antoine in An Empty Plate in the AN EMPTY PLATE IN THE CAFÉ DU GRANDE BOEUF. Dan attended the University of Utah's Actor Training Program. While at the U, Dan played John in SUMMER AND SMOKE, Bassanio in MERCHANT OF VENICE, Carl Magnus in A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC, Snug in A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM, and what feels like innumerable other parts, mostly in the Babcock Theater. Elsewhere around town, Dan has been seen in A VIEW FROM THE BRIDGE, ROSENCRANTZ AND GUILDENSTERN ARE DEAD, KING LEAR, MACBETH, THE THREE MUSKETEERS, and PETER PAN (in which he played Nana the dog and the crocodile- favorites) at Pioneer Theatre Company. He played Orlando in AS YOU LIKE IT, Tybalt in ROMEO AND JULIET, Sebastian in TWELFTH NIGHT, and Banquo and Macduff in MACBETH all at Salt Lake Shakespeare. Other local credits include ROMEO AND JULIET at Pinnacle Acting Co, and DIRTY BLONDE with Utah Contemporary Theatre. Outside of Utah, Dan studied at the Chautauqua Institution in New York, where he played Orsino in TWELFTH NIGHT, and several parts in THE DINING ROOM. Film and television credits include Incident at DARK RIVER with Helen Hunt and Mike Farrell, and several independent films including VAPID LOVELIES, which he helped write and associate produced, and which has been accepted into several film festivals internationally.

MICHAEL BEHRENS(Robert/Fitzroy/Weaver) Michael is very happy to be returning to SLAC. Previous SLAC appearances have been as Tom in SIX YEARS, Michael in ROUNDING THIRD, Jaisu in POLISH JOKE and Bill in LOBBY HERO, as well as two SATURDAY'S VOYEURS. You may have seen him in PRIDE & PREJUDICE at Pioneer Theatre Company as well as HENRY V, THREE MUSKETEERS, COMEDY OF ERRORS, PEER GYNT, ST. JOAN and THE MISER. Other favorite roles include Hamlet for TheaterWorks West, Lloyd in NOISES OFF, Sydney in LIGHT UP THE SKY, Froggy in THE FOREIGNER, Jane/Lord Edgar in THE MYSTERY OF IRMA VEP, Durdles in THE MYSTERY OF EDWIN DROOD, and Clotaldo in LIFE IS A DREAM all for Creede Repertory Theater. Michael can be seen and heard in countless radio and television spots as well as film. Michael is a graduate of The University of Utah's Actor Training Program and is a proud member of the Actor's Equity Association.

DAISY BLAKE (Gwen) Daisy Blake is thrilled to be part of this reading of Keith Reddin's PROPHETS OF NATURE. As an actress, her plays include POLISH JOKE, HOLD PLEASE and BIG LOVE with Salt Lake Acting Company, STOP KISS, LIVING OUT and POPCORN with Pygmalion Productions, TALKING WALES I and II with Utah Contemporary Theatre and Kate in THE TAMING OF THE SHREW with Salt Lake Shakespeare. She's also appeared in a couple of SLAMs for Plan-B Theatre and has directed a piece in Student SLAM as well as co-directing the first Project Fabulocity with Tooth and Nail Theatre. She also teaches classes at Theatre Arts Conservatory. Other acting work includes voicing Dandelion in the XBox 360 game Amped 3 as well as other video games, commercials and short films. Daisy has a drama degree from Bristol University in England and works in communications and audience development at Salt Lake Acting Company.

MARK GOLLAHER(Ryder/Noble/Fitzwilliams/Bailey) Mark Gollager is excited to be working at Salt Lake Acting Company again, where he played Charles in THE CLEAN HOUSE, Peter Woodburn in ICE GLEN, and has appeared in BEAST ON THE MOON, INCORRUPTIBLE and F.F. THE BRONTES. Some of Mark's other roles include: Harold hill in THE MUSIC MAN and Captain Hook in PETER PAN at the Egyptian Theatre Company, Lumiere in BEAUTY AND THE BEAST and The Lion in THE WIZARD OF OZ at Tuchacan, and Hamlet in HAMLET, Bobby in COMPANY, Eilert Luvborg in HEDDA GABLER at the Rose Wagner. He has also worked in many productions at Pioneer Theatre Company including: EVITA, MACBETH, JULIUS CAESAR and CYRANO DE BERGERAC. Mark has also performed with the Utah Symphony narrating PETER AND THE WOLF, RUMPLESTILTSKIN, and Limmony Snicket's THE COMPOSER IS DEAD AND wrote, directed and performed two dramatized concerts based on the lives of Beethoven and Brahms. Aside from acting, Mark works as the Art Specialist at Cottonwood Elementary, and freelances as a professional storyteller and illustrator. 

JAYNE LUKE (Charlotte/Mrs. Noble/Drake) is so happy to be returning to SLAC this spring in the premiere of Kathleen Cahill's CHARM. Other appearances at SLAC were in BOY, SATURDAY'S VOYEUR '04 and '05, KIMBERLY AKIMBO, BIG LOVE, BEARD ON AVON and WHITE MONEY. She has also appeared at the Hale Center Theater in Orem in OVER THE RIVER, the Grand Theater in TRIP TO BOUNTIFUL, Pioneer Theatre Company in THE PRODUCERS, the Egyptian Theatre in CABARET, and played the role of Ruth in Plan-B Theatre Company's production of FACING EAST which was performed at the Rose Wagner in SLC, Theatre Rhinoceros in San Francisco and Off-Broadway at Atlantic Stage Two in New York City. Jayne is the Artistic Director of Walk-On, Inc. which produces the Senior Theatre Project that tours plays for, by and about seniors to community and senior centers and residential facilities in Utah.

TRACIE MERRILL (Anne/Walker) Tracie has performed locally as well as regionally, including various Shakespeare companies.  Salt Lake credits include Plan-B's SLAM and DI ESPERIENZA, SLAC's ICE GLEN, an early rendition of POETRY OF INTERIORS and Hale Centre Theatre's RAINMAKER.  Other favorites include Rosalind (AS YOU LIKE IT), Aphrodite/Psyche (METAMORPHOSES) and Marquise Therese (LA BÊTE).  A proud member of AEA, Tracie has an MFA from UT-Knoxville, a diploma from Weber-Douglas Academy, London and a BA from UNC-CH.

NICK O'DONNELL (Prince Regent/Gaskill) is thrilled to be working with Salt Lake Acting Company again for this reading of PROPHETS OF NATURE. Last season, he doubled as Stephen Hawking and Jesus in END DAYS and Buisson and Verbeek in THE OVERWHELMING. Nick has also done stints at the Pioneer (JULIUS CAESAR) and Plan B (SLAM '08). A graduate of Carleton College, Nick worked in Minnesota with the Children's Theater Co., Theatre de la Juene Lune, Frank Theater and the Jungle Theater.  In the Northwest, Nick performed with Seattle Shakespeare Co., Wooden O, Book-It Rep, Montana Shakespeare in the Parks and Seattle Children's Theater. When not taking care of his 2-year-old daughter, he had been caught writing a travel guidebook on NYC & designing theater posters. Nick recently started work on a Psychology PhD at the U, examining storytelling and moral development.

JOSH THOEMKE(Hammond/Compton) Josh Thoemke received his BFA from Virginia Commonwealth University prior to relocating to the West coast. There he became a founding member of the award winning Theatre Banshee, and could be seen on assorted, canceled television series. He could also be heard as the voice of Dark Adventure Radio Theater. Having performed on both the East and West coasts, Josh has made the natural progression to the Inner Mountain West, where he recently made his Salt Lake City debut in Meat & Potatoes' production, SHADOWS OF THE BAKEMONO.

HOLLY FOWERS (Reader) Holly has performed locally in ELEEMOSYNARY and ROMEO AND JULIET with Pinnacle Acting Company, and SEARCHING FOR DAVID'S HEART with the new Shalom Theatre Company. She also recently wrote and performed a piece called "This May Take Many Clicks" with Dance Theatre Coalition as part of the Eve Celebration at the Rose Wagner Performing Arts Center. Some of Holly's Seattle credits include CLOUD NINE, OEDIPUS, MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR, EDUCATING RITA and MACBETH. She is very happy to be a part of this reading.

ALEXANDRA HARBOLD (Director) At Salt Lake Acting Company, Harbold acted in SIX YEARS and ICE GLEN and is a member of SLAC's Communications & Audience Development team.  Recent directing credits include THREE DAYS OF RAIN, RABBIT HOLE, ROMEO & JULIET (Pinnacle Acting Company), BLACK AND WHITE (Plan-B Theatre's 2009 And the Banned Slammed On) and POETRY OF INTERIORS (Dance Theatre Coalition's Proving Ground Concert).  She is currently participating in Plan-B and Meat & Potato Theatres' Directors' Lab.  Upcoming projects include directing Script-in-Hand Series readings of new plays by Elaine Jarvik and Matthew Ivan Bennett, UCT's reading of Kurt Proctor's THE TURQUOISE WIND, and for Plan-B's 2010 And the Banned Slammed On.

by Tim Slover

Principally because of her extraordinarily beautiful music, the passionate and iconoclastic mystic Hildegard is almost as well known today as she was in her own 12th Century. Then, she was famous throughout Europe for her visions, the only woman to have her writings read aloud in synod by the Pope, himself. Hildegard is preparing to complete her book of revelations and present it to the Holy See when a penitent named Richardis arrives at her monastery and profoundly disrupts her world. VIRTUE tells the story of what happened.

Tim Slover (Playwright)

Tim Slover's plays have been produced off-Broadway and in professional regional and university theatres all over the US and in Canada. The Fulton Theatre in Lancaster, PA, commissioned and premiered two of Tim’s plays, TREASURE (2004) and LIGHTNING ROD (2006). In 2006 he was appointed writer-in-residence at nearby Franklin & Marshall College. In the fall of 2008 his play, JOYFUL NOISE, received a staged reading at the Hampstead Theatre’s Michael Frayn Space in London. DESPISED, his screenplay of JOYFUL NOISE, is optioned by Slickrock Films. His new eight-part radio drama, THE CHRISTMAS CHRONICLES, will air December 2009 on KBYU FM.

Tim’s writing awards include the Grand Prize, 65th Annual Writers Digest Writers Awards; the Christopher Brian Wolk Award for Playwriting Excellence (Abingdon Theatre); a Cine Golden Eagle; a Freedoms Foundation George Washington Honor Medal; and a Hopwood Award for Best Play. His plays are published by the Samuel French Co. and Encore Performance Publishing; other of his writing has appeared in the National Biography of American Theatre, Sunstone Magazine, and been published by Signature Books and Silverleaf Press.

VIRTUE was written in association with the Penn State University School of Theatre, and further developed in the New Plays Workshop of the University of Utah’s Department of Theatre and writers groups in Salt Lake City and Provo. (Thank you, everyone!)

VIRTUE was given a staged reading in London last June as part of the Arch 468 Propects Series. Tim is an associate professor in the Department of Theatre at the University of Utah.

Cast

• Peder Melhuse (Director)
• Amy Caudill (Stage Manager)
• Sarah Shippobotham (HILDEGARD)
• Peder Melhuse (CUNO)
• Kurt Proctor (VOLMAR)
• Natalie Blackman (RICHARDIS)

VIRTUE Playwright's Note

I first became aware of Hildegard through the transcendant vocal music which she claimed came to her, along with the rest of her visions, directly from the "Living Light," an avatar of God. If you listen to the cd which I heard first, A Feather on the Breath of God (Hyperion), you can decide for yourself whether or not she was telling the truth. Intrigued—more like intoxicated—I sought out her writings and accounts of her life. Two books stood out: Hildegard of Bingen: the Woman of Her Age, by Fiona Maddocks (Doubleday), and a particularly lovely translation of some of her writing (including Scivias, which is important to the story told in VIRTUE), Hildegard of Bingen: a Spiritual Reader, by Carmen Acevedo Butcher (Paraclete Press). In both books, Hildegard seemed so present, as though she had a foot in the 12th Century and a foot in our own time. Yes, she wrote recondite visions, difficult to appreciate in our day, but she also penned books of herbal medicine (for which the New Agers fervently claim her) and midwifery. And I loved her story: enclosed as an anchorite at the age of seven, freed from her cell and made a prioress of young women by thirty, a reluctant but eventually prolific visionary all her life.

It was the visions that mattered most. They compelled her towards heterodoxy, even iconoclasm, as they led her towards doctrine and practice unique in her, perhaps any, day. Women in monasteries, she learned from the Living Light, were Queens of Heaven, and they should look like it; so she dressed her nuns in white robes and gold jewelry; she took off their veils and adorned their heads with gold crowns. Music, she learned, was the speech of angels. So she wrote the world’s first opera, as well as its first morality play: The Play of the Virtues ("Ordo Virtutum"). Greenness ("viriditas") was what God loved best, she was told by her celestial muse, and so she praised fecundity in all its forms. As Thomas Cahill points out in his excellent Mysteries of the Middle Ages (Anchor Books), Hildegard was "no prude, and she makes no attempt to mask or excuse the sex and violence that inhabit her" (p. 96).

No wonder then that Hildegard’s human interactions were somewhat fraught. Imagine being the unfortunate man who tried to channel and control her talents, as her abbot, Cuno, did. (In a letter to him, she once accused him of being "a busybody, digging in the private business of others.") How would it have been to be Volmar, the faithful monk who worked alongside her for decades, taking down the visions she received and transliterating them into a Latin more elegant than she possessed? One account of his life speaks of a moral struggle he had early in his career with Hildegard. Was he in love with her, or did he want to strangle her? Or both?

But most fraught of all was her relationship with a young aristocrat named Richardis, who came to her monastery of St. Disibod and shook her profoundly. A vision Hildegard received soon after her arrival speaks of "a beautiful girl, bareheaded, with dark hair wearing a red tunic that flowed about her feet": in the vision this is Ecclesia, the Church, but it is also clearly this bewitching girl. And in the Ordo, Richardis gets translated again, this time into Anima, the Soul of mankind. When the young novitiate was forcibly taken from her, Hildegard’s heart broke, and she prosecuted a letter-writing campaign of pain and outrage which even reached the Pope. To Richardis, herself, Hildegard wrote of her distress "because of my love for a certain noble individual.… Now let all who have grief like mine mourn with me, all who have had such great love in their hearts and minds for a person as I have had for you." A love letter, surely.

Piety and passion, profound spirituality coupled with unabashed sensuality, a love for the Church and an absolute commitment to the searing personal visions which led her away from some of its doctrines: these are the paradoxical hallmarks of this remarkable medieval woman. For all those on a spiritual quest in our own difficult age, hers is not a bad star by which to steer.

Reading & listening recommendations from VIRTUE Playwright Tim Slover

• A Feather on the Breath of God (Hyperion Records)
• Hildegard of Bingen: the Woman of Her Age by Fiona Maddocks (Random House, Inc., 2003)
• Sciviasby Hildegard von Bingen, Translated by Columba Hart, Jane Bishop (Paulist Press, 1990)
• Hildegard Von Bingen's Mystical Visions: Translated from "Scivias" by Hildegard von Bingen, Translated by Bruce Hozeski (Bear & Company, 1995)
• Hildegard of Bingen: a Spiritual Reader by Carmen Acevedo Butcher (Paraclete Press, 2007).
• Ordo Virtutum (Order of the Virtues)
• Ordo Virtutum recording by Sequentia
• Mysteries of the Middle Ages by Thomas Cahill (Random House, 2008)
• The Life and Works of Hildegard von Bingen (1098-1179)