Penny Caywood was invited to attend the 2019 Latinx Theatre Commons Theatre for Young Audiences (TYA) Sin Fronteras Festival and Convening. Caywood has been the Artistic Director of the University of Utah’s Youth Theatre Program for twelve years. As the program has grown, Caywood’s involvement in the community has as well. She’s presented at several art integration and teaching training workshops throughout the state and has been involved in dozens of local productions.

This year’s festival will take place at the University of Texas from Jan. 24-26. Caywood will be among the artists, scholars, and educators across the Americas to experience theatre with youths. Five plays will be featured during the Festival, while the Convening focuses on workshops, panels, discussions, and artmaking.

“I am excited to be a part of HowlRound’s Latinx Theatre Commons where I will have a chance to celebrate my cultural identity and my stories and have time to think about how that can apply to our community in Utah.”

Caywood’s upcoming play is a reimagined Alice, based on Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll. The play’s cast are the young actors of the Youth Theatre program. It will be showing in Kingsbury Hall this April.

A question I continue to ask myself as a theatre practitioner and scholar is, why is live performance not a part of our teaching? To teach the art form I love, I should be using live performance to do it. This impulse drove me to apply for a teaching grant which has funded my project to bring liveness into the classroom, supporting students' learning experience.

Initially, the project only included theatre classes. When Dr. Mangun approached me to work with her in the spring of 2018, I was very excited at the prospect. Dr. Mangun asked me to arrange a performance in her class about Ida B. Wells, a remarkable journalist in the late 1800's who investigated reasons why Black men were being lynched. She published three long pamphlets with her findings and observations between 1892 and 1900. Since I did not have access to a play about her, I wrote my own. As a white woman, this posed a significant challenge as I did not wish the voices I was bringing to the fore to be disingenuous. My feminist approach to making theatre is to bring other, more knowledgeable people and resources into my process, which is what I did.

The result was "The Lynchpin Life," a conversation across time between Ida and a contemporary woman (Ada) dealing with both the history of lynching in this country and a current scourge of our culture, the shooting of unarmed black men by law enforcement. I had hoped the story might engage the students to remember what they might never have been taught, but also to see more clearly what they think they already know. I am now looking forward to this piece having a future (a possible performance at the Edward Lewis Festival this February) as well as making more partnerships in other departments to bring scenes to their students and help them connect with the humanity that lies at the heart of the knowledge we aim to disseminate. To use one of Ida's lines in the play, "if people grow too comfortable in their ignorance, you have to jangle to get their attention!" I hope this play continues to toll and reverberate through the students and faculty who experience it.

y guest writer Adjunct Assistant Professor of Theatre Lynn Deboeck

Lynn Deboeck, a professor in the theatre department, has been working for the past 18 months on a project to enhance curriculum through performance -- bringing topics to life, so to speak. Part of this project took place on October 29, 2018 when two actors performed a play she wrote for my mass communication history class (COMM 5630). The play, "The Lynchpin Life," juxtaposes the true story of anti-lynching activist Ida Wells with a fictional character who becomes an activist in Black Lives Matter. The goal is to help students gain a different appreciation for Wells while also seeing how history influences current events. Deboeck is using this experience as part of a pilot project funded by a University Teaching Grant called "Teaching Theatre with Liveness." She has given several performers opportunities to learn their craft by participating in live theater, performing for theatre classes and receiving compensation for doing so; Deboeck also seeks to engage in other cross-disciplinary collaborations with faculty to help enrich the education of U students--"The Lynchpin Life" is the first such engagement.

Name: Catherine (Cate) Heiner

From: Salt Lake City, UT

Program: Honors BA Theatre Studies (also Honors BA Writing and Rhetoric, both class of 2017), emphasis in dramaturgy and playwriting

What I Do: Dramaturgy

How I Got Into It: When I was in high school, I loved English and theatre, and I could never decide which one I wanted to pursue to study. Then, I realized that if I did dramaturgy I could do research in both areas. I loved dramaturgy because I got to use my knowledge of performance, history, writing, and analysis to good use.

Experience at the U: During my time at the U, I was able to work on a number of productions. I worked on everything from Shakespeare to musicals to contemporary drama, which added a lot of variety to my experience. Working with so many different directors helped me understand how my position changes based on the needs of a specific production and creative team, and I enjoyed finding unique opportunities to collaborate with other artists in meaningful ways.

Favorite Utah Memory: I worked in athletics for all four years I was at the U. This made for a really interesting intersection between theatre and the rest of the university, and I used it as inspiration for a writing project in Tim Slover’s Intro to Playwriting course. After the semester ended, Tim told me my work had been selected for the New Play Workshop the following spring. Not only was the workshop itself an awesome experience, but I loved seeing the two worlds of athletics and performance come together for the staged reading. I loved being able to share my artistic life with my work friends, and it was awesome to see the actors reaching a new demographic on campus. It was the kind of cross-connection that benefits all departments and students.

Advice for Recent Grads:

• Keep in touch with people you enjoy working with. (This includes professors and students.) You never know who will help point you in the right direction for your work.
• Ask for help—there are other people out there who have had similar journeys.
• Say yes as much as you can to as many different opportunities as you can. It will probably be scary and a little overwhelming, but it will also be worth it. Just keep breathing.
• Stay humble, stay kind, stay grateful—the world is small and the world of theatre is even smaller.

LOVE IN THE ARENA My first adventure with Big Love started with a trip to the emergency room, because someone accidentally scratched my cornea during callbacks. Maybe the director just took pity on me after the accident and wanted to make a peace offering, but I was cast in the role of Nikos. And now, fourteen years later, I have the privilege of revisiting this wonderfully wild and fiercely relevant work. I thought I had a good sense of the production and the story I wanted to tell, but that was before I started looking more closely through the magnifying glass of the #MeToo Movement.

The story I wanted to tell evolved. One line kept reverberating in my mind, one spoken passionately by Thyona: “there can be no love because there can be no love that is not freely offered and it cannot be free unless every person has equal standing.” What would happen to the power dynamic if women actually had equal standing? And if women do not have equal standing, can we ever have justice?

I jumped at Chuck Mee’s invitation to “pillage the plays as I have pillaged the structures and contents of the plays of Euripides and Brecht and stuff out of ‘Soap Opera Digest’ and the evening news and the internet.” I updated references to bring us to 2018, added text from other works by Chuck, and changed almost all the music he suggested—which had been exclusively male—and found music composed, written or performed by women. This production is an equal collaboration amongst the actors, designers, and stage management team, and I couldn’t have fulfilled my vision without their incredible work.

So, welcome to our boxing ring. Chuck Mee says: “I like plays that are not too neat, too finished, too presentable. My plays are broken, jagged, filled with sharp edges, filled with things that make sudden turns, careen into each other, smash up, veer off in sickening turns, that feels good to me. It feels like my life. It feels like the world.” We hope you feel the same!

—Robert Scott Smith, Director

We will have a post-performance discussion immediately following the 7:30 p.m. performance on November 16, to talk about the impact the #MeToo movement has had on Big Love.

Big Love | November 9-18 | Babcock Theatre Tickets available at tickets.utah.edu

The University of Utah’s Department of Theatre ends the fall season with Charles L. Mee’s Big Love, an elaborate, updated retelling of one of the oldest plays in Western history, The Danaids by Aeschylus. Directed by Robert Scott Smith, the production runs Nov. 9-18 in the Babcock Theatre in the lower level of the Pioneer Memorial Theatre, 300 South and University Street.

Big Love, which has nothing to do with polygamy or the late cable TV series, tells the story of 50 brides who flee their 50 grooms and seek refuge in an Italian villa. Mayhem ensues, complete with grooms in flight suits, women throwing themselves to the ground, occasional pop songs, romantic dances, and even a bride falling in love.

Written originally for the Humana Festival, Louisville, in 2000, this play is topically relevant by tackling the issue of sexual misconduct that prompted the #MeToo movement, and challenging the many misconceptions of gender and sexuality that still exist today. In a 2003 interview with Open Stages newsletter, Mee explained, “…it’s all about refugees and gender wars and men and women trying to find what will get them through the rubble of dysfunctional relationships, and anger and rage and heartache.”

Big Love is timely, important, and a spectacular theatre piece the audience won’t forget.

Tickets General $18

UofU Fac/Staff $15

Seniors (60+) Military $15

Free for UofU students with valid student ID, must show Ucard in person to request a ticket

Student $8.50

So, I made a thing. A year ago I was beginning to write the grant for this project. I had seen Remote Mitte by Rimini Protokoll earlier that year in Berlin, and I was really interested in audio tours as an immersive, theatrical experiment. I wrote about re-contextualizing locales, sharing stories dismissed by ageism, engaging people with my city, and, with the help of Robert Scott Smith, I got the grant.

In December of 2017, I sent out flyers to every assisted living facility in Salt Lake, calling for storytelling volunteers. I got one reply. This tour is a collection of his stories. Along the way, equipment broke, feelings got hurt, and publishing platforms disappeared into the ether after being acquired by massive speaker companies (I’M LOOKING AT YOU BOSE). But my friends and faculty were always there to work through the hiccups, and that was pretty flipp’n awesome. Special thanks to Benjamin Young and Alexander Woods.

This tour isn’t perfect. But it’s personal, political. And it’s probably not like any other audio tour you’ll be listening to in the near future. So go out there and get to know my city.

by Emily Nash, student in the Actor Training Program

Great Ascents

By Emily Nash Available on VoiceMap Audio Tour Oct. 6-Nov. 6, 2018

Audio Tour: Great Ascents was made possible by a University of Utah Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP) grant. UROP provides undergraduate students and mentors the opportunity to work together on research or creative projects. To find out more about how to apply for a UROP grant, visit: our.utah.edu/urop/

About Emily Nash She is a senior in the ATP. Currently she's the assistant director of Julius Caesar in Studio 115 at the University of Utah. She is also finishing her massage therapy certification, and lurking, "whoops I mean interning," at Pioneer Theatre Company. Favorite roles include 

Maria in Up: The Man in the Flying Chair (Studio 115), Player in Shockheaded Peter (Sackerson), and Carmen in This Girl Laughs, This Girl Cries, This Girl Does Nothing (Arizona State University). Next up you’ll see her in The Rivals in the Babcock Theatre. Lots of love to her friends and family for supporting her shenanigans.

Racism. Hate crimes. Love. Islam. Culture. Language. Life. Five Muslim women in a post-9/11 world serve tea and uncover what lies beneath the veil in this critically acclaimed one-woman show.

Photo by Sadaf Syed.

Adjunct Assistant Professor of Theatre and Adjunct Instructor of Gender Studies, Lynn Deboeck has helped in the coordination to bring Rohina Malik, a Chicago-based playwright and solo-performer to the University of Utah campus to perform her piece, Unveiled at the Post Theatre on Friday, October 19 at 7:00 p.m and Saturday, October 20 at 1:00 p.m. This event is free and open to the public.

Unveiled, has been presented at theaters in the United States, Canada and in the summer of 2016 in South Africa. Rohina has performed the play at the 16th Street Theater, Victory Gardens Theater, Next Theater, Brava Theater, Crossroads Theater, Muslim Fest in Canada, Theater project, Baltimore, Voyage Theater Company NYC and Silk Road Rising.

Unveiled has also been presented at Princeton University, Yale University, NYU, University of Chicago, Stanford University, DePaul University, Loyola University, College of the Atlantic, Bates College, St. Mary's College, UC Irvine, UC Santa Barbara, UC Davis, Oklahoma State University,  University of Wyoming,  Brigham Young University, College of New Jersey, Washington University, Fordham University, UW Osh Kosh, Concordia University, La Verne University, and many more.  Rohina has been invited to perform Unveiled at Universities, Churches,  Mosques, Synagogues and Theaters. She was awarded the Y award with the Evanston YWCA for her work to end racism.  

​ Praise for Unveiled

"Rohina Malik, the hugely talented writer-actress at the center of the Victory Gardens solo show "Unveiled," is a remarkable new theatrical voice in Chicago. In her rich, upbeat and very enjoyable 70-minute collection of five character studies of Muslim women in modern-day America, Malik gives voice to characters from whom we hear far too little in the theater."   -- Chris Jones, Chicago Tribune.

A "terrific show... intellectually engrossing work of theater" -- Nina Metz, Chicago Tribune

"Unveiled offers a provocative, insightful and uplifting theater experience." -- Tom Witom, Pioneer Press

"Powerful solo show... five riveting tales of Muslim women" -- Jack Helbig, Chicago Reader

“A compelling 70-minute piece rich with illuminating surprises, drawing the audience into worlds that are both unique and truly universal. It is terrifically entertaining. -- Catey Sullivan, Chicago Examiner

"Rohina's little masterpiece will further open our eyes" -- Alan Bresloff, Steadstyle Chicago

"The stories are important, to be sure, but the cumulative effect is weighty." -- Web Behrens, Chicago Free Press.

"She creates five characters on stage.....I shed a tear or two....Works like this do their bit to bring about peace and harmony and counter hate.  I wish this could visit every school, every church, every mosque, every temple in the country."  -- Moira de Swardt

"One of the most awaited performances of the 2016 National Arts Festival was Unveiled, written by internationally-acclaimed playwright and actress Rohina Malik.​... Unveiled was written in response to the 9/11 attacks in America and is one of the bravest and uplifting experiences I have ever had."-- Khinali Bagwandeen

"Unveiled is a provocative piece of theatre, rich with enlightening surprises that draw the audience into a unique but yet universal world." -- Carol Kagezi​

The Wolves by Sarah DeLappe, directed by Assistant Professor Alexandra Harbold featuring Department of Theatre faculty, students, and alumni is playing at Salt Lake Acting Company October 10-November 11, 2018. These warriors are ready to take on anyone. Their minds move at warp speed, their emotions jostle for position, their bodies are fine-tuned, and their hormones are raging. It’s war out there on the girls’ soccer field. Get ready for The Wolves.

Tickets available at Salt Lake Acting Company.

Design Team:

Set Design – Erik Reichert

Costume Design – Kerstin Davis

Lighting Design – William Peterson

Sound Design – Jennifer Jackson

Prop Design – Janice Jenson

Dramaturg – Catherine Heiner

Soccer Consultant – Joe Murray

Stage Manager – Justin Ivie*

Assistant Sound Design – Kate Hunter

Assistant Stage Manager – Katelyn Limber

Cast:

Madi Cooper – #25

Louise Dapper – #14

McKenzie Steele Foster – #11

Tracie Merrill – Soccer Mom

Mary Neville – #7

Ireland Nichols – #00

Hailee Olenberger – #13

Fina Posselli – #2

Cézanne Smith – #8

Alison Jo Stroud – #46

The Department of Theatre at the University of Utah is honored to be hosting Fight Master David Boushey on October 19, 2018 for a master workshop with faculty and students from the Actor Training Program, 9:40-11:35 a.m. in the Performing Arts Building.

Master Boushey is an American stuntman, stunt coordinator, stage fight director and stunt trainer. He is the founder of International Stunt School in Seattle, WA, which is considered the foremost stunt training facility in the film industry. He is also the founder of the United Stuntmen's Association and the Society of American Fight Directors. He was inducted into the Hollywood Stuntmen's Hall of Fame in 1992. Fight Master Boushey is one of fourteen First Masters in North America and the recipient of the Los Angeles Critics Award for Best Fight Choreography in 1981, 1985, and 1991.

During his career 40-year professional career as a stunt coordinator and stunt instructor throughout North America and Europe, he has Coordinated Stunts and Action for 8 Academy Award-Winning actors including Chris Cooper, Brad Dourif, William Hurt, Tommy Lee Jones, Marsha Mason, Jon Voight, Christopher Walken, and Denzel Washington. Other actors he's trained include Drew Barrymore, Barry Corbin, Anna Faris, Danny Glover, James Earl Jones, Heather Locklear, Mary Tyler Moore, Meg Ryan, Keifer Sutherland, and Elijah Wood.

Championship chess is a thrilling world, filled with larger than life personalities, intrigues, and fast paced action. Who knew that watching hyper-intelligent people think could be so interesting? Mix chess with the dynamics of take-no-prisoners international diplomacy, crossed with complicated interpersonal entanglements, and you have the basis of a compelling story. The story of these various attempts at manipulation come together compellingly in Tim Rice, Benny Anderson, and Bjorn Ulvaeus’s musical Chess.

Why this play? This play has been tried in different forms between the West End and Broadway. It has been pretty commonly understood in the industry that neither form worked perfectly. Tim Rice, whose idea this play was, invites a director to continue the work of shaping the telling of this story, its character development, and the interplay of those different worlds. That alone was a compelling reason to work on this material.  ABBA’s score is well known and well loved, and Tim Rice’s lyrics give fuel to the world. It was an exciting prospect for me to dissect this wonderful story, script, and score, and to reimagine the intersections of the characters in order to make their journey touch us across the footlights.

Why now? Current Russian–American sparring cannot help but remind us of the deadly diplomatic tensions of the Cold War. How do we relate to each other as nations and as individuals? How do we know what the other side really wants, really means? How we really function productively?

We in the Chess company have a tremendous respect and admiration for the amazing minds that compete in chess at the championship level. We’ve come to understand the dominance of Russia in the game and the support they have given their most skilled players. The obsession and focus required to participate at this level attracts minds that just don’t turn off. Unfortunately, minds that ignore other aspects of life are easily mis-used. We hope that you will love these characters and their story in this rarified world as much as we have loved creating it all for you.

The collaborative nature of theatre requires that artistry and co-operation from many specialists come together. Our team has been especially brilliant. We have an amazingly talented cast. Musical Director Alex Marshall’s orchestration underscores the drama with passion. Halee Rasmussen’s tilted, raked chess board is a constant tweak to the predicatable. Cole Adams’s inspired lighting keeps us on edge and guessing at what will happen next. Adam Day masterfully brings the voices front while still letting us feel the band in the room. Brenda Van der Wiel created our edgy, surprising costumes. Amanda French wig’s and make-up have added to the off kilter nature of the characters. Amber Lewandowski and her skilled stage management team have kept us focused and on schedule. The Musical Theatre Ensemble supports and broadens the score allowing us to expand the sound.

We have been so blessed with a team that has bonded, and who serve the show with definitive focus and unique sensitivity and talent.

We hope you enjoy the show!

--Denny Berry Director and Choreographer of Chess The Musical

Musical Theatre Program Head