In Spite of Ourselves written by Alumna, Cate Heiner, starring Actor Training Program students Hannah Ensign and Maxwell Paris premieres at the Great Salt Lake Fringe Festival this weekend. In Spite of Ourselves is a devised piece based on the poem “All My Love Poems Sound Like Break Up Poems” by Ashe Vernon. Heiner said in an interview with The Chronicle, “My play exists in this weird space between falling in love and falling out of love... it does have a beginning, a mi ddle and an end, but they don’t have to happen in that order and you can decide what they are.” In Spite of Ourselves has 6 performances between August 3-12. For more information visit the Facebook event page. They were in love. Are. Were. Maybe. They’ve grown apart, or back together. This has all happened before, or it’s a sign of what’s to come. They can’t stand each other, and they can’t let each other go.
About the playwright: Catherine Heiner received her master’s degree in Literary and Cultural Studies this spring from Carnegie Mellon University. This year she has also presented at the American Theatre in Higher Education conference, Comparative Drama Conference, and the University of Wisconsin-Madison Theatre and Drama Graduate Student Conference. Her work in dramaturgy has included productions of As You Like It, American Idiot, and Self Defense, or death of some salesmen, as well as upcoming productions of The Wolves,The Lion in Winter, and the world premiere of An Evening with Two Awful Men.
About the cast:
Hannah Ensign is a senior in the Actor Training Program at the University of Utah. Previous credits include Meg Long and Captain Jemmy Campbell in Our Country's Good (University of Utah), Ellie in Elephants Graveyard (Anthem Theatre Co), The Vagina Monologues (University of Utah), Maggie in Somewhere In Between (Great Salt Lake Fringe Festival), and Ursula/Outlaw in The Two Gentlemen of Verona (Salt Lake Shakespeare).
Maxwell Paris is thrilled to be making his debut at the Fringe Festival. He is a sophomore in the Actor Training and Stage Management Programs at the University of Utah, originally from Wisconsin. Back home he appeared in Inspecting Carol as Wayne Wellacre, All in the Timing as Trotsky, and in Peter Pan as Tik Tok Croc. Here in Utah, he was most recently seen as Submarine in A View From the Bridge. His upcoming projects will include being the PA for U of U's production of Chess and as an ensemble member in Big Love.