The Rose Exposed
The resident performing-arts companies at the Rose Wagner Center have always had a certain degree of togetherness, but that sense of shared purpose crystalized last year during the early months of the pandemic. They worked together to create the virtual 2020 version of their annual Rose Exposed showcase, I Wanna Hold Your Hand, and pulled closer together as a group. "We're sharing an artistic endeavor, as well as all of us going through this human thing at the same time," Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company artistic director Daniel Charon told City Weekly last year. "Between empathy and the common goal, it just connected us."
With live theater returning to Utah, the companies at the Rose—Ririe-Woodbury, Plan-B Theatre Company, Pygmalion Theatre Company, Repertory Dance Theatre, SB Dance and the Gina Bachauer International Piano Foundation—are still connected, but also acknowledging the ongoing state of uncertainty filled with variant strains and anti-vaxxers. That uncertainty has been plugged cheekily into the program's theme with the title We Just Don't Know, as the six organizations present new short works in an hour-long sampler platter that allows us all to live with the reality that ... well, there are a lot of things right now that we just don't know, except that we need to figure it out together.
We Just Don't Know runs for one night only on Saturday, Aug. 28 at 8 p.m., with tickets $15. Masks will be required for all attendees, and attendance will be capped at half theater capacity to allow for social distancing between parties. Visit roseexposed.org to purchase tickets and for additional event information. (SR)
loveDANCEmore Sunday Series
The COVID pandemic has been a crucible for creativity, as arts organizations had to re-think ways to safely present their work, from drive-in performances to virtual offerings. Local dance organization loveDANCEmore, however, wants to re-think not just where arts performances are held, but when.
For 10 seasons, loveDANCEmore's Mudson series provided a platform for innovative works-in-progress, and was the showcase for more than 150 new dances. After a hiatus last year during which the company created the virtual program Only the Lonely, the Mudson concept returns, re-imagined as the Sunday Series. The four-event program begins Aug. 29 and runs through October, with the scheduling in part intended to shake up the long Utah tradition of Sundays being a dead zone for cultural activities.
The opening program on Aug. 29 at 7:30 p.m. features works by two choreographers. Salt Lake City-based artist Emmett Wilson presents Afternoon of an Alter, a solo piece created during a residency at Headlong Dance Theater's Performance Institute; also featured is Masio Sangster (pictured). Upcoming performances are scheduled to showcase Jessica Baynes & Nicholas Maughan and Arin Lynn & Tori Meyer (Sept. 12); Stephanie Garcia, Miche' Smith and Kellie St. Pierre in an open-house format that allows spectators to wander freely and experience each piece at their leisure (Oct. 10); and Jordan Simmons (Oct. 24).
Each program will be held on the roof of SpyHop's Kahlert Media Center (208 W. 900 South), with a suggested donation of $12 per person. Visit lovedancemore.org or the full calendar and additional event information. (SR)
Kathryn Bond Stockton: Gender(s)
The early 21st century has felt like a uniquely disruptive time for gender norms, as transgender awareness, shifts from the binary paradigm and the idea of "providing your pronouns" moves ever more from the fringes into the mainstream. But despite the protestations of those who feel as though the "man/woman" world is freshly threatened, gender has never been simple. And a new book by Kathryn Bond Stockton—University of Utah Dean of the School for Cultural and Social Transformation—digs into the many ways that's true.
In Gender(s), Stockton takes a look at the inherent queerness of gender with a playful tone that nevertheless takes the subject quite seriously. The book digs into the way race and class manifest themselves in gender expression, and the "new normal" of gender in popular culture artifacts like dolls and high-profile public figures like Lil Nas X. As the book's press release further explains, "Stockton also examines gender in light of biology's own strange ways, its out-of-syncness with 'male' and 'female,' explaining attempts to fortify gender with clothing, language, labor and hair. She investigates gender as a concept—its concerning history, its bewitching pleasures and falsifications—by meeting the moment of where we are, with its many genders and counters-to-gender."
Stockton will be participating in a virtual Crowdcast event sponsored by The King's English Bookshop on Tuesday, Aug. 31 at 6 p.m., in conversation with fellow University of Utah faculty member Erika George. The event is free to the public, but advance registration is required. Visit kingsenglish.com to register and for additional event information. (SR)
New World Shakespeare Company: To Wit
The greatness and enduring appeal of William Shakespeare's works can be found not just in those works themselves, but in the way they have inspired other creators. Fascinating plays, books and movies have taken their cue from exploring the Bard's now-iconic stories from the point-of-view of different characters, like Tom Stoppard's Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead. That's the starting point for local playwright Elise C. Hanson's To Wit, the first non-Shakespeare work produced by New World Shakespeare Company.
The premise takes Shakespeare's great tragedies and gives them a darkly comic twist: What are the mental-health impacts of so much death on those characters who were still living at the end of them? Maybe they require a support group, led by Hamlet's Horatio, where they can contemplate the psychological crises brought on by their experiences, and even occasionally find themselves interacting with the deceased. According to the production's director, Catherine Mortimer, "Being able to tackle our own existential dread with laughter, poetry, and a little bit of blood, that is what Elise and New World have given us through To Wit."
To Wit runs through Aug. 29 at The Gateway Box Theatre (124 S. 400 West, with performances at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 26-Saturday, Aug. 28 and a 3 p.m. matinee on Sunday, Aug. 29. Tickets are $15-$20 at newworldshakspeare.com, including standing-room tickets, and masks will be required for all audience members regardless of vaccination status. A portion of the proceeds from the production will support the Utah chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI). (SR)