Sterling moments of the stage
If there was ever any question about "world class" theater in Utah, PTC's "Les Miz" and both the summer and fall seasons at the Tony Award-winning Utah Shakespearean Festival put that thought to rest.
Pioneer has long been considered among the premiere regional companies in the country, and USF consistently ranks among the top festivals in North America. PTC was the first regional theater company in the United States to acquire the rights to the global hit, based on Victor Hugo's classic novel.
Plan-B's production of Mary Dickson's "Exposed" and Salt Lake Acting Company's "Sexsting" are both in the running for the Steinberg New Play Award, to be announced in April at the Humana Festival in Louisville, Ky. The two dramas were nominated by the American Theatre Critics Association, which sponsors the award.
There were also quite a few changes on the local theater scene during 2007.
Locally operated NewSpace Entertainment, which had previously been part of Clear Channel's nationwide arts promotion group, shifted back to an operation more reminiscent of its original "Space Agency" roots. The company continues to book "Broadway Across America" touring productions into venues in some 20 cities, mostly in the West and Midwest.
Tooth & Nail Theatre Company shut down. Founder Roger Benington, who will guest direct an upcoming Salt Lake Acting Company production, has moved to New York City.
Provo-based FACE Theatre Company, an acronym for Family Arts and Cultural Entertainment, has run into one roadblock. It has functioned sporadically in a variety of spaces, and the company is on hiatus due to the red tape that has snarled the hoped-for renovation of a former downtown Provo furniture store.
According to Eric Heaps, that venue is no longer workable. The company will produce some of its 2008 season projects in collaboration with other groups but not until later in the spring.
Emerson-Smith College's Lockwood Repertory Company, which has also lost at least two venues over the past few months, is producing shows in the newly reopened Grove Theatre in Pleasant Grove.
• NOTABLE DEATHS during the past year include actor Scott D. Morgan, 49, on Oct. 6; Leo W. Ware, 84, who had appeared in more than 60 Wasatch Front productions and worked for several years to restore the historic Empress Theatre in Magna, on Jan. 3; Florence "Flossie" Bowes, who was involved onstage and behind the scenes of the legendary old Playbox, on May 18; Marjorie Millar Luke, 78, actress, director and costume designer, on Feb. 28 (she taught drama for more than 40 years in Santa Barbara, Calif., where her former junior high school theater has been renamed in her honor); Paul J. Stevens, 78, who had performed at both Promised Valley Playhouse and Pioneer Memorial Theatre, on Feb. 18; and Gordon Lynn Ayers, 55, who performed at PMT, the Lagoon Opera House and Theatre 138 ( where he played the master of ceremonies in "Cabaret"), on April 16 in Buffalo, N.Y.
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