Salt Lake Acting Company - Bloody, Bloody Andrew Jackson

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.