ReFraming A Classic
BY MELISSA LEILANI LARSON
Since March of this year, Melissa Leilani Larson’s plays have been seen onstage at Utah Valley University (GIN MUMMY), Plan-B Theatre (BITTER LEMON), and Grand Theatre (PRIDE AND PREJUDICE). Later this year you’ll see her PERSUASION at Snow College. In 2025, THE BOX-CAR CHILDREN will premiere at Creekside Theatre Fest and PRIDE AND PREJUDICE will appear at Centerpoint Legacy Theatre.
Her latest work, PICTURES AT AN EXHIBITION: REFRAMED, is this year's annual summer event at The Rose (following 11 years of ROSE EXPOSED and last year's MIX TAPE), featuring the work of Gina Bachauer International Piano Foundation, Plan-B Theatre, PYGmalion Theatre Company, Repertory Dance Theatre, Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company, and SB Dance. This one-night-only event produced by the Performing Arts Coalition is Saturday, August 24 at 8pm in the Jeanne Wagner Theatre at The Rose. Please call 801.355.ARTS or click here for tickets.
When I was first approached to be part of this year’s end-of-summer event at The Rose, I was excited. I’ve attended a number of them over the years, and it’s great fun to get a peek into what all of the resident companies are working on. Music, dance, theatre—The Rose has it all. In the past, the event has featured short plays written and produced by Plan-B and Pygmalion—theatre companies where I’ve been privileged to see my work produced.
Past iterations of the-evening-formerly-known-as-Rose-Exposed have typically had a theme to tie things together: “Birthday Suite” in 2022, for example, or “#Trending” in 2019. Each company was free to create and perform a piece within the framework of that theme, and those separate pieces were then threaded together in performance. This year, things are a little different. Everyone is contributing to a singular piece from the beginning, with all six companies pulling inspiration from the same place: a well known piano suite, Modeste Mussorgsky’s “Pictures at an Exhibition,” as well as the lesser known art of Viktor Hartmann, which inspired it.
I was asked to do two things: First, to write a short play based on one of the movements in the suite and the painting that sparked it. Second, to write a few bits of dialogue to serve as connective tissue between performances. The idea was of docents in a museum, troubled by obnoxious visitors and learning about the art.
Playwright Melissa Leilani Larson
Over the course of the summer I met with Jerry Rapier and Fran Pruyn (artistic directors of Plan-B and PYGmalion) about the short play. I was able to Zoom with the artistic directors from all six companies (them plus Kary Billings from GB, Linda Smith from RDT, Daniel Charon from RWDC, and Stephen Brown from SB) to discuss music (to have a world-class pianist from Gina Bachauer’s vast network of international pianists playing live is a thrill), as well as the paintings and overall concept. I was given license to create an order for the pieces to be performed, select artworks and music for some of the performances, and add additional artworks to fill our “museum.” A story began to form—an atypical day in the life of a small museum. Missing paintings, busloads of tourists, painfully shy docents, glorious music, art that comes to life through RDT and RWDC dancers. What could possibly go wrong?
What started out as just a framework has grown into something else. The short play has disappeared. The whole event, now called PICTURES AT AN EXHIBITION: REFRAMED, has transformed from a series of performances into a play—a play with a live pianist, wonderful dancers, witty actors, and projections designed by Daniel. Those docents in the museum? Yeah, they’re characters now (played by actors from Plan-B and Pygmalion: Anne Decker, Tamara Howell, Corinne Penka, Niki Rahimi, and Ben Young). So are the obnoxious museum patrons (played by dancers from SB Dance). I found myself caring about them and what they want—which is usually a good sign when you’re writing a play.
One of the things I love most about working in the theatre is the opportunity we have to embrace the unexpected. For theatre to work, there are things that have to happen, things you count on: sound cues coming on at precisely the right time; performers hitting their marks; certain fabrics diffusing light. We rehearse so that things are perfect. But sometimes things happen beyond our control — and sometimes those things are actually quite wonderful.
I hope you’ll join us for REFRAMED; it may not be what you’re expecting, but that is half the fun.
Read more in City Weekly, The Salt Lake Tribune, and The Utah Review