Jan 7, 2020 | Blog, Script-In-Hand Series
We invite you to join us Sunday, January 12 at 2pm as we join with Better Days 2020 as we celebrate the centennial of the ratification of the 19th Amendment with a free Script-In-Hand Series reading of Jenifer Nii’s 2013 play SUFFRAGE. Following are a few thoughts from Katherine Kitterman, Historical Director of Better Days 2020. She will lead a post-show discussion with actors April Fossen & Sarah Young, director Cheryl Cluff and playwright Jenifer Nii. Click here for free-but-required tickets. 2020 marks the 150th anniversary of Utah women’s first votes. When Utah women went to the polls in 1870, they became the first in the United States to cast ballots under a women’s suffrage law. But as Jenifer Nii’s SUFFRAGE explores, Utah women’s votes were entangled in the political conflict over the Mormon practice of polygamy. From the very beginning, lawsuits and congressional legislation threatened to repeal Utah women’s voting rights. Utah women like Ruth fought back. Supported by Mormon church leaders, they petitioned lawmakers and built relationships with national suffrage leaders. But they were ultimately unsuccessful. The Edmunds Act disenfranchised polygamists in 1882, and in 1887 the Edmunds-Tucker Act revoked suffrage for all Utah women, regardless of marital status or religion. Undaunted, suffragists organized the Utah Woman Suffrage Association and succeeded in restoring women’s voting rights in Utah’s state constitution. In 2020, we honor what they achieved, remember those who were left behind, and resolve to build on their legacy of leadership. Better Days 2020 is a 501(c)(3) non-profit dedicated to popularizing Utah women’s history. We believe that by exploring the legacy of our past, we make Utah a better place...
Dec 9, 2019 | Blog, Radio Hour, Radio Hour Episode 14: Circle
RADIO HOUR EPISODE 14: CIRCLE by Matthew Ivan Bennett receives its world premiere in a co-production with KUER’S RadioWest this Friday, December 13, 2019 featuring Olivia Custodio, Jay Perry and Teresa Sanderson, with original music by Dave Evanoff, eFoley by Jennifer Freed and direction and sound design by Cheryl Cluff. Click here on Friday, December 13 at 11am to listen to CIRCLE live (rebroadcast at 7pm). Happy Holidays! I’ve been fortunate in the last few years of the Radio Hour series to experiment with genre. I wrote STAND, a thriller in which the US fractionates into an alt-right dystopia. I wrote TROLL, a magical-realist comedy in which an internet troll gets cursed and becomes a real troll. With RADIO HOUR EPISODE 14: CIRCLE, I get to dive into science fiction and Tom Clancy-like action. The Circle in this year’s RADIO HOUR is a collective of artificial general intelligence living on the moon in 2044. Stories about artificial intelligence usually go down one route or another: either they spin a narrative of a self-aware robot that’s really a metaphor for the oppression of marginalized human groups, or they spin a narrative of AI becoming evil overlords – which is really a metaphor for technology owning us instead of the other way around, or a metaphor for uncaring totalitarian regimes. I tried to avoid (or twist!) those tropes in writing my AI story. CIRCLE is, at its heart, a story in which humans must re-orient themselves in the presence of another intelligent and mightily capable species. I’m interested in this story because I think the emergence of AGI (artificial general intelligence – machine...
Oct 22, 2019 | Blog, Oda Might
Camille Washington’s ODA MIGHT receives its world premiere November 7-17 (tickets and more info here), concluding our partnership with The David Ross Fetzer Foundation for Emerging Artists. David created roles in three Plan-B productions: THE SCARLET LETTER by Jenifer Nii and THE END OF THE HORIZON and THE THIRD CROSSING by Debora Threedy. But more importantly, he was family. So we committed to produce five world premieres by emerging artists in partnership with The Davey Foundation…and the fifth is upon us. We’ve celebrated motherhood through Carleton Bluford’s MAMA; worked retail at the holidays through Rob Tennant’s BOOKSMART; explored the very nature of storytelling through Morag Shepherd’s NOT ONE DROP; navigated survivor’s guild through Austin Archer’s JUMP; and are straddling the line between truth and reality with Camille Washington’s ODA MIGHT. ODA MIGHT was chosen from a dozen submissions from local playwrights age 35 or younger at time of submission. Each play was read and scored blind by four panelists: Betsy Ross (David’s mother and Executive Director, The Davey Foundation). Artistic Director Jerry Rapier and the past two winners, Morag Shepherd and Austin Archer. Each ranked ODA MIGHT first. We thought you might enjoy some of their comments. Wow – this is extremely well-written. I love the slow boil, love the twist and that it’s a thriller. – Jerry What a well-developed story. I liked the getting there. – Betsy The plot is captivating and the dialogue is smart. – Morag The sheer originality of the play is enough to capture an audience’s curiosity, and the naturalism of its characters is pretty impressive. – Austin It’s bittersweet to be the final Davey Foundation grantee. I’m...
