For example, gene-modified immune cells seek out and destroy cancer cells in both child and adult lymphoma and leukemia patients while sparing normal cells and tissues and boosting prospects for complete disease remission. In the case of recurring ovarian cancer, in which 16,000 U.S. women die each year, scientists have engineered measles viral strains that help boost a patient’s anti-tumor immune response and could prove potentially effective for women dealing with various stages of the disease. A Taiwan researcher developed gene therapy for children between the ages of 2 and 8 who are suffering from a progressive disorder that affects a child’s most basic motor movement skills and often leads to death at an early age. In his study, the clinical trial showed significant improvement in nearly all cases.

Findings from this research are being presented to more than 1,300 researchers, students, and postdoctoral fellows who have convened this week in Salt Lake City for the 16th annual meeting of the American Society of Gene and Cell Therapy. Dr. Mario Capecchi, the distinguished University of Utah molecular geneticist who was a co-winner of the 2007 Nobel Prize in Medicine, is among the keynote speakers.

The ASGCT meeting is yet another example of Salt Lake City’s capacity to host many of the most important regional, national, and international scientific and technological meetings for the benefit of the research community.

The highlighted research underscores just how far scientists working in gene therapy have progressed in proving the principles especially in how gene therapy and cell therapy (for example, blood transfusions and bone marrow transplants), its older colleague, can overlap to disable mutations in patients dealing with severely aggravated conditions of immunodeficiency and in using T-lymphocytes (more commonly known as T-cells) in treating cancer. In the latter case, the ongoing research could prove monumental in the most challenging battle against cancer – in which ‘armored’ T-cells, in effect, can effectively destroy the protective scaffolding tumors rely upon to secure the microenvironment they use to ward off attempts to kill them. These ‘seek-and-destroy’ cells accomplish their mission without compromising surrounding normal cells and tissues and without causing significant side effects to patients.

Each study, in its current limited scale of clinical trials involving small numbers of individuals who are in late stages of the disease, is incremental but yet materially significant in expanding the body of knowledge that will benefit the forthcoming phases of expanded larger clinical trials and research.

Among the research highlights are the following:

* Focusing on ovarian cancer, which is the most common form of gynecological cancer mortality in the United States, Dr. Evanthia Galanis’ team (Mayo Clinic) engineered strains of the virus cousins of the vaccine strain used to inoculate children against measles. Furthermore, the research group then modified the virus to express NIS, a protein essential for the synthesis of specific thyroid hormones, in order to help researchers track the imaging of viral distribution after it has been administered to patients. The patients in the study had advanced forms of the disease and their bodies had failed to respond effectively to all previously available surgical and chemotherapy options.

The results showed a median overall survival period of more than 26 months for patients, an outcome much more favorable than what is observed in other experimental trials. Dr. Galanis explained the treatment could prove effective especially for patients with a lower burden of the disease, especially as the viral therapy facilitates a better immune response and is capable of remaining longer in the body so the outlook in combating the tumor improves accordingly.

Side effects proved to be relatively manageable with mild abdominal pain being the most commonly observed. The research group is expected to advance its work with a Phase II trial, using larger yet still relatively small groups of patients.

* Sorafenib is the drug most commonly used to treat advanced kidney and liver cancer, but a research group led by Dr. David Kirn (Hibiscus Biotherapeutics) believes that JX-594, an oncolytic virus (also known as Pexa-Vec), can go head to head against the standard drug therapies in targeting and destroying cancer cells. An oncolytic virus selectively infects cancerous cells and can be used to deliver anticancer therapies directly to tumors.

The therapy could prove useful in a multi-pronged approach against the disease and researchers expect to go into a Phase III trial next year, which will involve a larger number of patients and will compare the new therapies to established therapies and/or placebos.

* A therapy, developed by a team led by Dr. David Porter (Hospital of University of Pennsylvania), involving artificial T-cell receptors is showing particular promise for patients with advanced lymphoid cancers. The earlier work with modified T-cells showed limited effect against the disease, because the cells could not expand sufficiently nor persist for a sufficiently long enough time to fight against the tumor’s microenvironment.

However, Porter’s group has been able to show that CART19 cells, which use immune cells taken from a patient’s own blood, can be deployed to expand in vivo as significantly as needed, can persist for more than two years, and remain biologically active. This is especially crucial for patients where the only previously available option has been allogeneic stem cell transplantation, a procedure available only to a small number patients and the risk of death is extremely high.

Porter’s research showed the targeted cell therapy could effectively bypass the mechanisms of resistance. Complete remission was observed in five patients and partial remission in five others. The therapy worked effectively against tumors that measured anywhere from 2.9 pounds to 7.5 pounds.

* In a study related closely to Porter’s, Dr. Renier Brentjens’ team (Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center), modified a subset of a patient’s own immune cells with gene therapy to recognize and destroy cancer cells in patients with B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia. The only viable option for patients in the most advanced stages of the disease has been to use salvage chemotherapy followed by a bone marrow transplant, a high-risk procedure. Thus, of the five patients who had the experimental treatment after salvage chemotherapy, a majority went into complete remission within a very short time. Brentiens believes the fundamental principle of this approach can be applied to other forms of cancer.

* Gene therapy is proving to be an elucidating partner in treating rare orphan diseases such as Aromatic L-Amino Acid Decarboxylase (AADC), a progressive fatal disorder in which children lose all of their motor abilities and many die by or before their sixth birthday. Dr. Wuh-Liang Hwu (National Taiwan University Hospital) injected an AAV2 (adeno-associated virus, serotype 2) viral vector – essentially a vehicle for therapy delivery which encapsulates the relevant genes – into the brain’s putamen, which is responsible for an individual’s capability to control movement. This helps the cells to produce AADC (Aromatic L-amino acid decarboxylase) an enzyme crucial for the synthesis of dopamine and serotonin. Working with eight patients ranging in age from two to nine, all of whom who did not have the motor skills for head control or sitting, Hwu found that seven had head control, four could sit without support, and two could stand with support. The patients have been followed for their progress from between one and a half to three years. One patient already is learning to walk and another is able to vocalize words.

* Working with children who have Pompe Disease, a rare form of muscular dystrophy in which motor skills, heart muscle function, and respiratory failure occur progressively, Dr. Barry Byrne’s team (University of Florida College of Medicine) is working to improve upon the currently available treatments that do help to lengthen the patient’s survival and alleviate heart muscle problems but that still cause persistent diaphragm issues with regard to respiratory function. His team developed a gene therapy for the diaphragm delivered through a viral AAV-GAA vector. In particular, GAA (acid alpha-glucosidase) is an enzyme that plays a role in breaking down glycogen but when it is deficient, the excess glycogen ends up being stored in the heart muscle and other body tissues, which of course lead to the most problematic effects of the disease being manifested. The early clinical study focused on five patients ranging in age from two to 15 and all patients showed noticeable improvements in respiratory function, up to and including the ability to breathe without mechanical assistance. A Phase II trial is planned involving yet larger numbers of patients and researchers will focus on how dosing levels can be calibrated given specific physiological issues of the patient as well as the extent to which the disease’s symptoms have manifested themselves.

* A team led by Dr. Andrew Davidoff (St. Jud Children’s Research Hospital) is investigating how a gene transfer therapy can improve the conditions and outlooks for patients with Hemophilia B, a blood clotting disorder triggered because of a mutation in the gene encoding Factor IX, located on the X chromosome. It also is known as the Christmas Disease, named after a five-year-old British boy who was observed with the condition in the 1950s. Prevalent in men, the disease occurs in one out of every 25,000 individuals. Normally, the treatment is exhaustive both in terms of time and cost, as patients usually must go for protein replacement therapy several times a week.

The team has developed an AAV vector which coordinates the transfer of the Factor IX to liver cells, which, in turn, synthesizes the missing protein. The treatment was administered in varying dosage levels to 10 patients, all of whom had no presence of the gene encoding blood clotting factor. Significant, yet still modest, improvements were observed in all cases, with patients having FIX factor levels of between one and eight percent, which represents major improvement in their bleeding propensity but still falls short of the critical baseline of 20 percent, for normal or expected function.

However, the results also have meant that eight of the ten treated patients were able to discontinue the time-consuming, costly protein replacement therapy and the remaining two have been able to extend the intervals between treatments. The therapy is administered as a simple out-patient procedure and requires no more than 30 minutes. Investigators are in the midst of Phase I/Phase II clinical trials and plan to continue refining the ways to deliver most effectively the viral vectors to patients. More importantly, the patients reported no unusual side effects. (NOTE: This image: On May 19, 2008, University of Florida geneticists reported in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that they have developed a new version of the adeno-associated virus used in gene therapy that works about 30 times more efficiently in mice than vectors scientists currently rely on.)

Impressively, SLC has become a worthy destination for sharing updates in the scientific community. The ASGCT meeting also is providing opportunities for activity partnerships with The University of Utah and local area high school districts, where students are able to gain access into various areas of clinical progress through educational session offerings.

For more information about the ASGCT, see here. And for further information about the Salt Lake Convention and Visitors Bureau, see here.

Torben Bernhard’s latest short-form documentary ‘Scavenger,’ about a man living off the grid in a northeast Thailand slum who collects recyclable materials to earn money for his family of seven, would have been a completely different film had he not lost the work for a year due to a major computer failure.

‘It is important to the making of the movie that I lost it for almost a year. After our RAID crashed and nearly wiped out our Lost and Found Series, including Scavenger and Thailand Cowboy,’ Bernhard recalls. “Before our hard drive crashed, I thought I was 90 percent of the way to a final cut. When we finally reclaimed our footage and I watched my work-in-progress again, I felt like the movie was much further away from being finished. I dived back into the editing with the very present realization that I had almost entirely lost this project.’

With his wife Marissa’s precise editing hand and fellow filmmaker Travis Low’s work as sound editor, ‘Scavenger’ became a superlatively understated artistic statement of our common humanity. The film with its long pauses effectively allows the viewer to absorb Wichan Chaona’s (or Chan, more familiarly) environment and to hear his resilient — even optimistic — voice that invites us to contemplate our own sense of moral and social duty to be protectors, not self-indulgent exploiters.

The film, part of the Lost and Found Series being created by the Bernhards and Low, will be premiered Feb. 19 at the Big Sky Documentary Film Festival in Missoula, Montana. This is the third consecutive year that an entry from the five-film package of the series will be premiered at Big Sky. The film also will be screened at the 35th annual Mountainfilm Festival in Telluride during the Memorial Day weekend.

The film is full of surprises in content, its genesis, and in its production. As with the previous films which received their first screening at Big Sky — ‘Tarkio Balloon’ and ‘Boomtown’ — the idea for ‘Scavenger’ came in an inspirational flash. ‘I was sitting on a bus, traveling through Thailand, when the very simple thought of following someone who reclaims items from public trash bins entered my mind,’ Bernhard explains. ‘I had seen these men and women for years and was curious about their daily lives and observations.’

Several months later, Bernhard disembarked at a busy bus terminal in Nakhon Ratchasima, Thailand and hired a motorcycle taxi to help locate someone who collects recyclables for a living. ‘We had no idea where we were going and continued aimlessly for a while before stopping at a local outdoor market, and as we were sitting and discussing where to go with a growing group of curious locals, Chan drove past on his motorcycle and we flagged him down,’ he recalls. Bernhard introduced himself to Chan, who thought briefly about the idea of being filmed and then invited the filmmaker to jump on the side cart of his motorcycle.

The film, running under 11 minutes, is exquisitely edited, preserving Chan’s philosophy, tone, and pace of life in as unfiltered an observational state as possible. There is no music (more about that later) but the film’s audio is a minimalist, aleatoric composition of Chan’s voice and the incidental sounds of his routine and environment. The amount of dialogue was cut in half from its original form by Bernhard, who was motivated to keep the speaking parts as sparse as possible after attending an editing panel at the DOC NYC festival last year, where ‘Boomtown’ was screening.

The film’s slowed pace is significant as well. ‘The more I cut out of ‘Scavenger,’ and the more sparse it became, the quicker the film flew by,’ he explains. ‘It seems counterintuitive, but it reminds me of the e.e. cummings quote where he says “like the burlesque comedian, I am abnormally fond of that precision which creates movement.”‘

Despite its sparseness, ‘Scavenger’ is a rich, warm film with plenty of green and sun that quietly reinforce Chan’s life-affirming philosophy. The intricacy and precision of the Lost and Found Series team’s work leave fully intact Chan’s statement: all work that we all do is the same because we do it with our hearts — the profound epiphany in ‘Scavenger.’

The minimalism is extraordinarily complex yet decisively effective in ‘Scavenger.’ ‘The hope, I suppose, is that audience members will entertain the implications of the movie and not dismiss it because of its simple surface,’ Bernhard says. ‘The other difficulty is that the line between simplicity and the absence of meaning can be dangerously close; or, in other words, the line between “something there” and “nothing there.”‘

Ironically, the idea that the film could have been lost forever because of a technical glitch became one of the most important driving forces in bringing ‘Scavenger’ to completion. ‘Losing the film was a particularly confusing time for me, because I felt that both the idea to make the documentary and meeting Chan were serendipitous and I never anticipated that our biggest hurdle would be technological,’ he says.

After the footage — encompassing 1.6 terabytes — was recovered a year later, thanks to the assistance of his wife’s father and a family friend who found technicians in Thailand capable of doing the work, Bernhard saw the opportunity for transformation — not just in the project but also in his foundation as a creative producer. ‘The decisions that I see as integral to what the film has become are mostly the product of making the wrong choices first. We made enough mistakes throughout editing that the final choices grew from past failed attempts,’ he adds.

Other original considerations were changed, too. Once Bernhard viewed the footage after it had been recovered, he decided to drop the sound track that was scored by Brady Kimball, a musical collaborator. ‘It just felt like the wrong decision to include the music,’ he says, adding the music is featured on an experimental hip-hop EP titled ‘Fitzcarraldo’ which he and Kimball have created.

He left it to Low, who has a strong music background and is exceptionally patient with minute details, to put the audio into its final form — yet another major challenge given that Bernhard was, as he describes it, ‘a one-man band during production … operating the camera and all of the sound at the same time.’

‘Scavenger’ — like the other short films — emerged as inspirations before the three filmmakers decided to produce and package them as the Lost and Found Series. The projects primarily were intended to allow the filmmakers to experiment with storytelling forms without committing significant time or resources to longer projects.

Naturally, the short format video is proving to be a fruitful vehicle for the team, whose first major project was the feature-length documentary ‘The Sonosopher,’ an outstanding experimental film about the life and work of Utah poet and performing artist Alex Caldiero. Incidentally, it was traveling to and from the 2010 Cinequest Film Festival screening of ‘The Sonosopher’ in California where Bernhard got his inspiration to do ‘Tarkio Balloon,’ the first of the Lost and Found Series films.

‘Tarkio Balloon‘ premiered two years ago at Big Sky. A five-minute film of fragile poetry, it goes back to a cemetery in a small Missouri town where his brother, Dane, is buried. In 1985, when Bernhard was 2, his two-month-old brother died of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. Shot on 8-millimeter film and incorporating excerpts from an audio interview recorded years earlier with his mother (Janae), ‘Tarkio Balloon’ gives visibility to all parents who lost a child.

In ‘Boomtown,’ which premiered last year at Big Sky and has played at five festivals within a year including venues in Camden, Maine, St. Louis, and New York City, Bernhard and Low reconstruct memories of Frisco, Utah, the site of a once-profitable silver mine, for a contemporary audience through excerpts from rare recordings of oral histories taken from individuals who had lived in a town that disappeared from the map by the end of the 1920s.

The remaining films of the series are expected to be completed this year. Marissa is directing ‘Thailand Cowboy,’ a fascinating look into a Thai man who lives to fuel his passion for American westerns and the romanticized personalities of that genre including John Wayne and John Ford.

The fifth film – ‘The Gospel According to Ralphael’ – is about a Salt Lake City man who has transformed a shabby warehouse into a museum of enormous concrete and steel sculptures, paintings, murals, and ceiling frescoes that synthesize his religious beliefs taken from traditional and personal interpretations of many theological foundations.

Collectively, the films underscore the primal challenge we all face in the lifelong predicament of preserving identity. ‘I’m attracted to things that appear simple, even at-risk of being ignored, but contain complex ideas and themes,’ Bernhard explains. ‘It was not until later that these seemingly independent productions would coalesce under the theme of losing and finding.’

What is most evident in all of these stories is the series’ principal objective: ‘Nobody or very few people know our history but this will change.’

‘Scavenger’ will screen Tuesday, Feb. 19, at 5:30 p.m. in the Crystal Theatre, one of the main Big Sky venues. The work is one of 11 that is part of the festival’s Mini Doc Competition.

For more information about the festival, see here, and for more information about The Lost and Found Series, see here.

Scavenger [Full Film] from OHO Media on Vimeo.

PHOTOS: Courtesy of Rick Pollock

By Friday evening at eight, Jerry Rapier, Plan-B Theatre’s producing director, had succeeded at raising a good degree of anxiety in every single playwright, director, designer, and actor who would be involved in a 24-hour marathon to produce five new plays for the company’s 10th annual SLAM!

Promising in advance there would be plenty of curveballs to enliven the already substantive risks associated with this annual creative circus, Rapier delivered in a big way and the results paid more than generously in a phenomenal Saturday evening show that capped an already memorable season for one of Salt Lake City’s most original, adventurous artistic organizations. (Design piece for ‘Totally Fucked’ (Tobin Atkinson) by Rick Pollock)

On Friday, Rapier immediately relieved the five playwrights from the imposing task of creating new plays by announcing that five of their previous respective efforts for SLAM! would be staged in fresh productions. There were plenty of new twists, too. Larry West would direct the production of ‘American Garbage,’ his first turn at writing which was presented in 2005. Matthew Ivan Bennett would realize a personal long-standing ambition to act in ‘Terms of Use,’ which was produced for the 2009 SLAM! Some productions would feature the actors who performed the premieres while others brought in new actors and directors. Likewise, for four of the plays, designers would create a new projected set piece for the respective plays.

While six of the 45 plays from SLAM! during the last nine years have continued in fully realized productions, the quintet of ten-minute pieces selected from the repertoire represented the crème de la crème and all hold up solidly. Indeed, the production staging, acting, and various technical elements accomplished in the 23 hours before the show – that normally would require nearly a month’s work of preparation – were sharp, crisp, and outstanding in every instance.

And, the audience in the 500-seat Jeanne Wagner Theatre of the Rose Wagner Center for Performing Arts responded with justifiable energetic enthusiasm in every regard. (‘Totally Fucked’, Tobin Atkinson; actors: John Graham, Kalyn West, April Fossen)

The evening opened with Plan-B co-founder Tobin Atkinson’s ‘Totally Fucked,’ the first play from the first SLAM! in 2004. Think of a wickedly perverted, satirical twist on ‘Mr. Smith Goes to Washington,’ where party affiliations and ideologies really don’t mean anything in both the character and the plot. Atkinson provided a timeless compacted showcase of how political scandal and the orchestrated exercise of image redemption subvert genuine political outrage over a process that has become, well, … as the title of Atkinson’s play indicated.

The trio of actors – John Graham, Kalyn West, and April Fossen – set the performance bar high in a production directed by Kay Shean and featuring design work created by Rick Pollock.

Larry West’s ‘American Garbage,’ produced originally in 2005, offered a dark, provocative comedic allegory warning about the dangers of persistent procrastination when it comes to heeding the wake-up call for acting to stop and reverse environmental damage. Even amidst the absurd humor which the audience thoroughly enjoyed, West managed to show quite clearly the baffling irony of trying to soothe ourselves into obliviousness, even while the ‘feathery plume’ becomes a ‘billowing black cloud’ than then transforms into a ‘toxic mass’ necessitating a ‘code red’ warning. (Design piece for ‘American Garbage’ (Larry West) by Randy Rasmussen)

Jayne Luke, Topher Rasmussen, and Stephanie Howell teased out the best elements of West’s script and direction. The projected design was created by Randy Rasmussen.

While comedy figured prominently, there were substantial dramatically emotional moments in two plays. Jenifer Nii’s ‘Control_Alt_Delete,’ reprised from 2011, showcased her skills to create naturally smooth balances of poignancy, love, humor, and family warmth, portrayed to the right effect by Latoya Rhodes, David Holmes, and Mark Fossen. (‘American Garbage,’ Larry West; actors: Jayne Luke, Topher Rasmussen, Stephanie Howell)

The story focuses on a young gay man, recently diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, who leaves his partner with the intent of sparing him the burden of dealing with his serious illness. However, his brother and sister-in-law believe he should not abandon his relationship. The production was rounded out appropriately in the direction by Marcine Lake and design by Phil Lowe. (Design piece for’ Behind The Blue Door’ (Eric Samuelsen) by Greg Ragland)

Eric Samuelsen’s ‘Behind The Blue Door’ from 2007 is an impressive piece that shifts back and forth from the fantasy landscape of knights, damsels, dragons, and court jesters to the never-ending nightmare of the open-ended war on terror and to the Iraq War.

Samuelsen, whose works comprise Plan-B’s 23rd season beginning in the fall, accomplished a great deal in 10 minutes with accessible, intelligent metaphors. In Iraq and other Middle East countries, blue signifies safety, protection, spirituality and immortality. Slaying one dragon does not eliminate the evil and, in fact, it regenerates in multiples. The jester tells an incessant stream of groan-inducing no-arms, no-legs jokes.

And, the actors rose to the demands quite well with Jason Tatom as Jesper the Jester, Daisy Blake Perry as the damsel princess, and Cooper Howell as the prince. The production was directed by Alexandra Harbold and projection design was provided by Greg Ragland.(‘Control_Alt_Delete’, Jenifer Nii: actors: Latoya Rhodes, David Holmes, Mark Fossen)

Closing out the quintet of the plays was Bennett’s ‘Terms of Use,’ which gained even more audience laughs than its premiere four years ago. Anita Booher and Kirt Bateman reprised their roles with completely unleashed delight while Bennett took stage as the no-nonsense, by-the-book intelligent designer. (Design piece for ‘Terms of Use’ (Matthew Ivan Bennett) by Jann Haworth)

Christy Summerhays returned to direct the latest production, managing more than adequately to even squeeze out more comedic impact than what already was generously evident in Bennett’s script. Providing the perfect design imprint was Jann Haworth.

The play is set in the fantastical scene of a heavenly incarnation clinic as two technicians prepare to send a woman back into earthly existence, to be born in Provo. In particular, her ample breasts fascinate her, and despite every fervent intention on the technician’s part to keep things on a clinical level, his intern, with mischievously childlike glee, exults about the sexual beauty and possibilities of her breasts. In the process, the intern’s long dormant sexuality is awakened as well.

Bennett works as well with comedy as he does with emotionally incisive personal dramas. His short play ‘Shark Week’’ and longer form ‘A Night With The Family’ have received excellent reviews.

‘Terms of Use’ packs a lot of comedy in 10 minutes. There is Lot from the Old Testament, whose wife, contrary to popular belief, was turned not into a pillar of salt but one of cumin. There is the acknowledgement that mainstream America has obvious difficulties with seeing an exposed areola. There is the awareness that Facebook’s classification of nipple shots as obscene, pornographic, or sexually explicit is completely absurd. And, finally there is the realization that the real serpents in an imaginary paradise are denial and detachment which feed the more incipient evil of unhealthy repression and suppression. (‘Behind The Blue Door’, Eric Samuelsen; actors; Jason Tatom, Daisy Blake Perry, Cooper Howell)

‘Terms of Use’ was the coda to SLAM! in 2009 and it played with even more emphatic impact in 2013. And, intriguingly enough, one could see that Bennett approached learning the lines he had written as a formidable challenge.

ANNOUNCING THE 2013-2014 SEASON

The evening’s solid achievements proved the appropriate segue for Rapier’s announcement of the forthcoming 23rd season which will feature four new plays by Samuelsen, one of Utah’s most productive and important literary figures who has had three earlier works premiered by Plan-B, and a return of the company’s ‘And The Banned Played On,’ a celebration of the First Amendment (May 3, 2014). (‘Terms of Use’, Matthew Ivan Bennett; actors: Kirt Bateman, Anita Booher, Matt Bennett)

The season opens with ‘Nothing Personal’ (Oct. 24- Nov. 3), examining sociopolitical cultural dynamics and concerns arising from Susan McDougal’s imprisonment for contempt of court during independent counsel Kenneth Starr’s investigation of the Whitewater controversy during the Clinton Administration.

Plan-B’s Radio Hour returns with its eighth edition and second holiday season themed production, ‘Fairyana,’ about a group of cynical writers for a children’s television program who happen to be anything but favorable or amenable to the simple pleasures of childhood. The Dec. 3 performance will coincide with a live radio broadcast on KUER-FM’s show ‘RadioWest,’ hosted by Doug Fabrizio.

Samuelsen, with a keen sense for erudition writ large, offers ‘Clearing Bombs’ (Feb. 20 – March 2), which recreates a 1942 night when economists Friedrich Hayek and John Maynard Keynes are on the rooftop of King’s College Chapel in Cambridge, waiting to clear away and defuse German bombs.

‘3’ (March 27- April 6) is a set of three short plays in which Mormon women separately confront issues that challenge their cultural and individual worldviews.

All productions with the exception of Radio Hour (which will be presented in the Jeanne Wagner Theatre) are staged in the Studio Theatre at The Rose Wagner Center for Performing Arts in downtown Salt Lake City.

Samuelsen, who also is widely known for his translations of Henrik Ibsen’s works, will have his translation of ‘Ghosts’ presented Aug. 25 in a Script-In-Hand Series reading at the Jeanne Wagner Theatre.

Another Script-In-Hand Series event will be held June 24, featuring ‘Reykjavik’ by Richard Rhodes, also in the Jeanne Wagner Theatre. The work recreates the 1986 summit in which Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev debated nuclear disarmanent. The reading will be followed by a public discussion led by Mary Dickson and the playwright and coordinated with the Utah Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons. (Design piece for ‘Control_Alt_Delete’ (Jenifer Nii) by Phil Lowe)

Both Script-In-Hand Series readings are free but ticket reservations are required.

In addition, Plan-B is partnering for the first time with the NOVA Chamber Music Series to present Igor Stravinksy’s ‘The Soldier’s Tale, featuring conductor Steven Schick and narrator Doug Fabrizio.

Tickets are now available for the five-show season, including a complete subscription package at $93, which represents a 15 percent saving over ticket prices for each of the five shows.

For all ticket information, see here.

Utah playwright Matthew Ivan Bennett, who has participated in all but one annual edition of Plan-B Theatre’s SLAM productions, has provided quite a few memorable moments in a creative circus where 25 days of full-scale production rehearsals are crammed into a single day, including the creation of a play that 500 audience members will see for the first time on that evening.

One of the best came in 2009 when Plan-B combined for the first time the company’s annual fundraiser celebrating the First Amendment and the 24-hour playwrights’ SLAM event. In ‘Terms of Use,’ Bennett served a hilarious, ribald interpretation of an incident involving a Provo, Utah woman whose online photo of her breastfeeding was determined by Facebook officials to be obscene.

As The Selective Echo reported at the time:

‘[He] set the fantastical scene in a heavenly incarnation clinic as two technicians prepare to send a woman back into earthly existence, to be born in Provo. In particular, her ample breasts fascinate her, and despite every fervent intention on the technician’s part to keep things on a clinical level, his intern, with mischievously childlike glee, exults about the sexual beauty and possibilities of her breasts. In the process, the intern’s long dormant sexuality is awakened as well.

‘The actors – Kirt Bateman, Anita Booher, and David Spencer – dove with great fervor into Bennett’s script in an uproarious production directed by Christy Summerhays.

‘Bennett, as usual, managed to cover lots of territory with great effect. There is Lot from the Old Testament, whose wife, contrary to popular belief, was turned not into a pillar of salt but one of cumin. There is the acknowledgement that mainstream America has obvious difficulties with seeing an exposed areola. There is the awareness that Facebook’s classification of nipple shots as obscene, pornographic, or sexually explicit is completely absurd. And, finally there is the realization that the real serpents in an imaginary paradise are denial and detachment which feed the more incipient evil of unhealthy repression and suppression. Bennett’s contribution was the perfect coda to an outstanding benefit evening and to outstanding season that featured his work.’

SLAM, in which five 10-minute plays are written, produced, and staged all within a 24-hour period, is not for the untested writer. Think of a literary version of an intense P90X fitness workout.

The five playwrights — Tobin Atkinson, Matthew Ivan Bennett, Jenifer Nii, Eric Samuelsen, and Larry West — randomly will receive instructions on the evening of Friday, May 3, and they will have 12 hours to produce a script, generally between 10 and 15 pages, to cover a 10-minute production. The length restriction is strictly enforced. Jerry Rapier, Plan-B’s producing director, recalls the second year of SLAM when one play ran 20 minutes with disappointing impact.

Bennett and Samuelsen are participating for the ninth time. Nii is doing her fifth turn. Tobin Atkinson was among the first group of SLAM playwrights, along with Samuelsen.

Audience members will see the results on Saturday, May 4, at 8 p.m. in the Jeanne Wagner Theatre of the Rose Wagner Center for Performing Arts. The event, as in recent years, is expected to sell out the 500-seat house.

The process is unforgiving and brutal as the schedule indicates. As soon as the playwrights deliver their scripts at 9 a.m. on Saturday, copies are made for the creative team, which has 10 hours to stage the work, beginning at 9:30 a.m. Directors work with a design team and a cast of actors (15 total for the entire event). As always, Rapier is keeping a tight lid on details but assures there will be a few curve balls for the creative teams. SLAM has succeeded, partly due to Rapier’s solid self-discipline to keep things as spontaneous as possible.

Last year, Rapier gave the five playwrights an unexpected gift of creative liberation. Their only limitations were no nudity, the actors would be dressed in black, props of nothing more than four benches, and the usual length of 10 minutes. It seemed fitting that one of the strongest entries came from Elaine Jarvik, who was participating for the first time. ‘NEXT!’ was a smartly paced comedic piece with a career-minded Eve deciding whether or not a recently deceased couple deserved admission to heavenly paradise.

In 2011, Rapier and Cluff dispensed with First Amendment and censorship themes and all of the playwrights received the same title – ‘Control_Alt_Delete.’ They did surprisingly well in working various metaphors around computer jargon’s ‘three-finger salute.’ For example, Samuelsen did a nice riff echoing the popular ‘Moby Duck’ book by Donovan Hohn. Nii provided a classic, sensitive tale about a young gay man, recently diagnosed with cancer, who leaves his partner with the intent of sparing him the burden of dealing with his serious illness. However, his brother and sister-in-law believe he should not abandon his relationship.

Playwrights sometimes scramble to make sense of the surprise prompts they receive before setting out on an all-night writing marathon. In 2008, Cort Brinkerhoff’s ‘Oh My Goth’ tackled several big-story themes of religion, same-sex couples, and artificial insemination. The playwright, who admitted that he had absolutely no familiarity with the Goth tradition and was a bit puzzled by how he would incorporate the dark double archways in his set backdrop, nonetheless managed a substantive script that, again, was well executed in the hands of the capable cast of actors assigned to him.

Larry West, who has participated as a director for SLAM, is returning this year as one of the playwrights. In a 2011 Plan-B blog post, he recalled his first turn as a SLAM playwright when he was handed the title prompt ‘American Garbage.’ He describes a process that many writers can identify with quite familiarly:

‘I paced the house for an hour or so, rehearsing my ‘I’m-a-fucking-loser-as-a-playwright speech’ when it hit me that maybe I should just throw out all the ‘research’ and just write the damn thing. In addition to the title, we were given a list of props that we might want to utilize in the show. First on the list was a dozen wilted roses. I closed my eyes and imagined that image and simply wrote what came into my Dew-fried brain. Within an hour and a half I had written 12 pages! Holy shit, I only needed 10 pages. I went back and did some edits and it was done. For good or ill it was done!

‘Filled with doubt and fear, I passed off my 10 pages to my director/cast and went home to get some sleep…yeah, right, I was so wired and nervous that I couldn’t close my eyes. Fast-forward to performance…it was quite wonderful. I had a brilliant cast and an insightful director and they made terrific choices and somehow it all seemed to make sense. There were some laughs and some meaningful pauses and some decent applause.’

SLAM also is not necessarily an ephemeral event. There is a respectable probability that at least one of the 10-minute impromptu productions the audience sees could be a future full-scale Plan-B offering.

Previous SLAMs have generated such productions. These include Aden Ross’ ‘Love Runs Uphill’ which was retitled ‘Cause and Defect’ and subsequently produced by New York University. This also became ‘Amerika’ which was produced by Plan-B in 2006. Samuelsen’s ‘Miasma,’ also produced in 2006, was a result of SLAM. Others include Cort Brinkerhoff’s ‘Squat,’ produced by Alive Theatre in Long Beach aboard the Queen Mary, and, more recently, ‘Nuts’ by Julie Jensen, which was retitled ‘The Brown Shoes’ and published in ‘Ten 10-Minute Plays.’ Bennett’s ‘Mesa Verde’ originated as a short play in Plan-B’s annual slam seven years ago.

The benefit goal is less than 20 percent of an incredibly efficient annual budget of less than $200,000, a rather amazing feat for a small theater that manages at least three full runs of shows, consistently with sold-out performances. Rapier also will announce the productions for the 2013-2014 season.

Tickets are available by calling (801) 355-ARTS or by visiting here. They are $25 for reserved seats and a $10 for students.

As in previous years, every single seat for Plan-B Theatre’s 22nd season was sold. The achievement is notable for this small Salt Lake City theatrical company with a unique brand of staging works which accomplish the complex objective of infusing intellect seamlessly into an art form that demands passion and emotional expressiveness in order to succeed and be viable.

There is no doubt that the company’s 2012-2013 season will be especially remembered for the penetrating ways in which the productions – all premieres by playwrights with major Utah connections – challenged individual perceptions about identity in the most compelling, interesting, and daring ways.

All three playwrights whose works were featured this season – Matthew Ivan Bennett, Matthew Greene, and Jenifer Nii – epitomized artistic roles perhaps best explained by historian and playwright Charles Mee as representing “the canaries in the cave” who “belong out at the edge of society and beyond where the pain is, where the raw nerves are, where the subtlest and most delicate and most easily overlooked things are.”

Plan-B’s artistic achievement merits more than a casual assessment, especially given the practical, ordinary realities of sustaining a small theatrical company in which every dollar counts for survival. It also is worth noting that four Plan-B plays in the last five years were awarded direct funding, courtesy of the National Endowment for the Art’s Art Works grant program.

This was no ordinary season for several reasons. Plan-B, always judiciously managed by its two leading principals Jerry Rapier and Cheryl Ann Cluff, began its season one week before Christmas by resurrecting its popular Radio Hour series with Bennett’s adaptation of the Sherlock Holmes story ‘The Blue Carbuncle,’ presented for the first time in the 500-seat Jeanne Wagner Theatre of the downtown Rose Wagner Center for Performing Arts. Normally, the season has begun in October.

Then, beginning in January, the company accelerated into overdrive to stage three enthusiastically received premieres in the Studio Theatre at the Rose Wagner – all within the course of just a little more than 100 days. The company is taking a brief breather before resuming on May 4, when Plan-B will mark the 10th anniversary of its 24-hour SLAM creative marathon, also its single largest annual fundraising event. (See tomorrow’s Selective Echo for a preview.) Behind the scenes, Plan-B already has begun preparations for both the 23rd and 24th seasons.

This season also has carried unique significance for Rapier and his husband, Kirt Bateman (who is an actor, director, and community leader in the arts), who became parents to a newborn son (Oscar) last fall. This life transforming event signifies just how the creative process is doubly capable not just for surviving in a landscape where enlightenment, compassion, and struggles for justice and equality often are embraced reluctantly or even resisted and feared but also for inspiring others in the community to think about and bring change.

In every respect of their plays, Bennett, Greene and Nii stepped boldly forward, creating characters that transcended even those boundaries most familiar to Plan-B’s audiences. In many exceptional performances, the actors in each of the productions followed suit, liberating themselves from the smallest tendency to hesitate or censor themselves in roles that challenged dangerous yet pervasive misperceptions about the most intimate aspects of individual identity.

Selecting the season’s productions was as much, if not more, a decision of scheduling works that had ripened to their best aspects of creative maturity than a choice of serving a cohesive thematic underpinning, Rapier explains. However, thanks to a well-developed instinctive sense of programming combined with the ‘happy accidents’ which occasionally occur in the creative enterprise, the whole body of Plan-B’s 22nd season represented precisely the range of conflicts and promises which define the state of social community in Utah and in so many other areas of the nation.

‘Adam & Steve And The Empty Sea,’ chronicled a pair of childhood friends who stand on opposite sides in the battle over marriage equality but neither of whom is prepared to abandon his principles. Greene focused on how individuals can come safely and comfortably to their respective opinions about religion through a process that does not have to be seen as an act of disloyalty, disavowal, or renunciation of faith.

In the most personal realm, the play acknowledged the dilemmas of being trapped between literalism and dissent as well as the interpersonal perils of unflinching acquiescence to religious dogma and doctrines – which definitely is not limited to Mormonism. Greene’s characters of Adam and Steve gradually reached a point where both could see the possibility of faith and reason existing together – where one does not have to sacrifice his own sense of spirituality or commitment to a particular religious faith.

In the one-person show of Bennett’s ‘Eric(a)’ – propelled by a magnificent, profoundly immersive performance by Teresa Sanderson as a transgendered man in his fifties who falls in love with a woman for the first time – the boundaries of sexual politics are busted through and replaced by a reawakened sense examining the naturally fluid human nature of sexual and gender identity.

Bennett skillfully mixes intellect with the most approachable face of emotion. One aspect of ‘Eric(a)’ revealed why we have been able to turn a blind eye on the mythical constructions of masculinity and femininity that have been so effectively perpetuated upon us to the point of forgetting it has been our culture which has created these so-called idealized notions of gender identity.

But, Bennett also rightly sensed how audiences might resist and even fear the presence of intellect in the theatrical venue. Thus, Eric’s emotionally engaging story in search of love subtly informed us that gender identity does not have to be constructed upon the notion of who holds or exercises power in its raw form. At the end, we could leave the theater knowing that we could survive whatever existential predicaments we face merely by accepting there are no easy answers to so many complex issues in a life that already is complicated enough.

With ‘Suffrage,’ Nii suggested a new historical consciousness about Mormon women by acknowledging how the 19th century issues of suffrage and polygamy cannot be separated. The two sister-wives in Nii’s play asked us to reconsider the soothing narrative illusions of a long-standing historical tradition and to think anew about how Mormon women in the late 19th century fought hard for their civil liberties along with how they coped with the disruption and displacement they faced once the practice of plural marriages ended.

However, ‘Suffrage’ also dealt with the broader – even universal – contemplation of the struggle between competing interpretations of what was justifiable and right. Perhaps the most important take-away from ‘Suffrage’ – and upon which the play’s dramatic tension was built so extensively — was the individual’s self-identification that pierces through the prevailing mental images, stereotypes, and perceptions coming from outsiders, third parties, and opponents.

Taken collectively, the plays exemplify the tenor, tone and tensions of a social and cultural debate that plays out not just in Utah but in many other parts of the country. The most truculent vocal dissenters on issues of marriage equality, sexual identity, civil rights, and others argue that culture matters but they also insist on a static culture that is predicated on an metaphysical intellectual foundation which no longer exists even among those who identify as solidly faithful adherents to Christianity or morally-based intellectual traditions. Change is afoot even in the most stubborn quarters of Utah, despite the protests of a few who are dismayed at any sign of cultural evolution.

Plan-B’s plays rely on a vocabulary that does not follow a rigid intellectual order but rather is enriched by civil, secular and liberal foundations of thought which have made clearer, cohesive sense to ever-larger groups of people who have grown uncomfortable with an older vocabulary that has become increasing confrontational and fear-mongering. The open-ended vocabulary of the three plays accommodates an enlightened sense of moderation and balance resonating with a metaphysical awareness that eschews the rigid moralistic arguments of a culture, which is rapidly receding in our sociocultural landscape.

The enlightened vocabulary also found its way in Plan-B’s lighthearted adaptation of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s only known Sherlock Holmes story set during the Yuletide season. Bennett’s adaptation captured the essence of the most resilient and popular Christmas stories. ‘Sherlock Holmes and The Blue Carbuncle’ reflected themes of redemption, optimism, homecoming, and reconciliation that dictate many Yule stories. Likewise, Plan-B’s production epitomized the positive psychology behind the celebration’s popularly accepted religious attachment in a treatment that resonated easily with everyone.

Accordingly, the audiences have continued to respond in the most encouraging ways. Only three productions since 2006 have not sold out, according to Rapier. This also was the eighth year that the company has dedicated its productions to original works by Utah playwrights.

A book containing the plays will be published in the near future. For more information, see here.

Tomorrow: A look at the 10th anniversary of Plan-B’s SLAM playwriting and creative marathon

Reflecting a continuously diversified cosmopolitan profile in product and practice, the voice of the Caputo’s family business emanates from many sources originating not only from the fields and farm ranges in Utah’s backyard but also from numerous points across the country and from some of the most distant locations on the planet. It also is a voice entrusted not only to the owners but also to, as Matt Caputo sometimes describes, a tribe of employees, industry peers, and dedicated local food leaders and producers that is slowly gaining critical mass in the community culture.

Take for example, Evan Ross, the affable, always approachable downtown store’s cheese manager, who is putting a fresh take on the popular cheese education classes. On April 23, Ross will lead a tasting class, ‘War and Cheese,’ ($25; alcohol pairing $15) that will include Spanish Garrotxa, a bloomy rind, raw goat’s milk cheese from northern Spain’s Catalonia region.

In a recent blog post at Caputo’s web site, Ross, who also is pursuing his humanities degree at The University of Utah, explains how the cheese virtually disappeared during the Franco regime, which had essentially outlawed small-scale, non-industrial farming operations. ‘This would have been a terrible loss to all those who enjoy great cheese,’ he writes. ‘Luckily for us Garrotxa (and many other fantastic Spanish cheeses) made a resurgence in the 1990s and is again available to us.’

Caputo’s seems to embrace wholeheartedly the risks of innovation in a cheese program that now includes a class about making mozzarella and burrata at home, satisfying a request that many customers had repeatedly voiced. Unfortunately, it was the ‘and burrata’ clause that initially complicated matters, as the store’s cheese crew discovered two weeks before the class was scheduled to meet in late Match.

Karli Sheppick and Sean Rorke had already cemented Caputo’s reputation for producing an excellent in-house mozzarella but Caputo had become dismayed the store could no longer carry Italian burrata, in which stretched thin strands of leftover or excess mozzarella curd are bathed in fresh cream and stuffed inside new balls of mozzarella.

The Food and Drug Administration had blocked the import of Italian-made burrata because it contained fresh cream. Caputo also was disappointed in an American produced version. And, as Caputo indicated in his own post, ‘we had never attempted to make burrata.’

With Ross and Adam Kreisel, one of Utah’s best-known chefs in Italian cuisine, advising, Sheppick and Rorke met the fast-approaching deadline, producing an in-house burrata that beat out an Italian import in a last-minute test. The Italian product tested for taste likely had made it through customs because of a citric acid modifier added to the cream, Caputo believed.

The hands-on class for making mozzarella and burrata, offered at $100 each for 12 participants, also was a success. Students received all of the necessary tools including enough curd (five pounds) to take home and continue their practice.

‘We’ll definitely offer it again,’ Caputo says, adding that some of the first participants would like to take the class again just to practice. ‘We’ll even adjust the costs for those who are bringing their own tools and materials including whatever curd they had left over from the previous class.’

The homemade burrata ($18.99 per pound) carried in the store is wrapped in the leaves of asphodel, an Old World herb and member of the lily family. The curd is stretched into stracciatella — long, thin ropes measuring usually no more than an inch in thickness — and then bathed for a few minutes in cold heavy cream that does not contain any carrageenan. Once the strands are firm, the curds are then peeled into thin strands resembling string cheese, cut into shorter segments, and then packed into fresh balls of mozzarella.

Caputo’s brings in curd from the Narragansett Creamery, a company based in Rhode Island that purchases their milk – with no growth hormones or antibiotics used whatsoever – from the Vermont-based St. Albans Cooperative Creamery. Narragansett produces more than 100,000 pounds of curd weekly for wholesale producers and makers of mozzarella, feta, and ricotta. As for a carrageenan-free cream used to bathed the stracciatella, Caputo’s found the source at Costco.

There also are other exceptional Italian cheeses including several varieties of Testun, which historically has been one of Italy’s hardest cheeses and when aged to its ideal state (often 18 to 24 months), it can develop crunchy large textures that also leave a tantalizing creamy texture on the tongue. In the Piedmonte dialect, testun usually refers to a hard-headed person.

Unquestionably, these cheeses — often processed with different combinations of milk from goats, sheep, and cows — are stubbornly good and fortunately because of their intense, complex flavors, a little bit goes quite a long way even considering their prices which run to nearly $50 per pound.

One of the most prominent makers is Beppino Occelli and their varieties are unique. One is coated with malted barley (‘al malto’) that is soaked in scotch whiskey while another (‘al barolo’) has a wonderfully controlled sense of fruit and sweetness. The cheeses do have strong fragrances but have easily approachable tastes, including ‘foglie di tabacco’ (wrapped in tobacco leaves), and ‘foglie di castagno’ (wrapped In chestnut leaves).

Not only with cheese but many other new offerings are being explored for Caputo’s education classes, especially with Caputo’s wife, Yelena, an attorney who has joined the full-time staff. Customers can expect to see other interdisciplinary, broader topical treatments with chocolate and charcuterie, for example. Employees also will be involved in other hands-on classes including those for butchering, sausage making, and cheese crafting.

New collaborations are popping up in every department at Caputo’s. Now more than a year in operation, Caputo’s Butcher Shop continues to expand its products, thanks to Frody Volgger, one of the state’s best-known chefs who ran the former Vienna Bistro in downtown Salt Lake City. Welcoming experimentation at every opportunity, Volgger has more than 40 years of experience as a butcher and maker of charcuterie going back to his formative years in Alto Adige and Salzburg.

A popular recent addition, for example, is the in-house pastrami ($15.99 per pound), which comes from a gently smoked, home seasoned brisket sourced from Niman Ranch Beef. To handle the volume, Volgger has been able to use the smoker facilities at Colosimo’s Sausage’s West Jordan location and, in the process, has helped that long-time local food producer fine-tune its own smoker capabilities.

Outstanding as the in-house meats and charcuterie have become – as represented in their brisk sales – the butcher shop also has become an important customer nexus for many of Utah’s ranchers and family farms who have invested heavily in propagating the essential criteria of responsible livestock agriculture that includes, but is not limited to, animals which must be of heritage breed and that farmers must demonstrate a near-total dedication to pasture grazing and using feed that is not sourced from genetically modified products.

New partnerships are proving critical in building a butcher and meat program with admirable yet immensely rigorous goals and expectations. These interactions also have benefited Utah-based operations such as Christiansen Family Farms in Vernon which now obtains spent brewer’s grain from Squatters Pubs and Beers in downtown Salt Lake City. Not only does the spent grain provide more protein but it also satisfies the need to locally source a portion of the feed ration for the farm’s heritage breed pigs — including Berkshire and Mulefoot — without going to supplementary sources that are most likely derived from genetically modified (GMO) plants.

The ongoing problem of satisfying a respectable demand for high-quality meat from heritage breeds also has required a higher sense of resourcefulness, especially as producers, retailers and end-users are mutually committed to maintaining high ethical and product integrity standards. For example, a good portion of the lamb comes from Snowy Mountain Sheep Creamery, which maintains a flock of approximately 250 animals representing French Lacaune lambs, a breed well known for its milk that farmers in the southern French regions have sold regularly to Roquefort plants; East Friesians from Germany which are just as a rich milk source as the Lacaunes but do not have the same fat and protein content as their French counterparts, and Purebred Icelandic animals that are Canadian registered. It is these lambs that Susan Hansen has called, ‘triple purpose sheep,’ prized for their top-quality milk, meat attributes, and exquisite fleece.

However, as expected, Snowy Mountain Sheep Creamery’s supply for meat production is periodically exhausted. For example, its next supply will not be available until the early fall so Volgger and Caputo must look to alternative sources. The advantage is that Caputo’s can continue cultivating a network that ultimately will provide benefits in terms of responsible supply and demand. Among other notable heritage breeders for sheep is Utah Natural Meat in West Jordan which has available St. Croix and Bermuda Black Belly sheep. (For an excellent summary of heritage breed livestock in Utah, see Benjamin Bombard’s article in the Spring 2013 issue of Edible Wasatch magazine here.)

The exquisitely curated and extensive chocolate program at Caputo’s also continues to evolve with new voices, products and emphases. Within the last six months, the downtown store organized two well-attended events featuring cooking competitions with local chefs and representatives from among two of the world’s best known chocolate makers — Amedei and Valrhona.

The most recent event featured the world’s first ‘blond chocolate’ Dulcey,’ created literally by accident in Valrhona’s French headquarters. Courtney McDowell of Pago and Finca took top honors in a presentation that featured a stack of ‘Dulcey’ confections surrounded by a lightly smoked, ‘Dulcey’ popcorn.

Caputo’s also carries an extensive range of Valrhona products including many varieties of cocoa powders, that are the most preferred ingredients for use in many kitchens of Michelin-starred restaurants, according to Alex Espiritu, who is regional sales manager for the Pacific Northwest and Rockies region and who has been the lead pastry chef for the company’s U.S. division.

A notable Valrhona example is Tainori, a strong entry from the rather limited range of chocolate originating in the Dominican Republic. It’s a bold chocolate bar tempered subtly with apricot and muted spice and woodsy notes suggestive of cedar and alcohol.

An important addition to Caputo’s steadily growing representation of American chocolate makers committed to high-quality single origin beans is Ritual Chocolate, operated by a couple (Robbie Stout and Anna Davies) in the Denver metropolitan area. Like many of their American counterparts, the young couple entered the industry just within the last half-dozen years, finessing their work with mentoring by Steve DeVries, one of the country’s most respected chocolate makers.

The bars — Balao, Costa Rica, Gran Couva, and Madagascar — are being produced in small batches of no more than 80 pounds, using in part vintage equipment that definitely shows in the final results with regard to tasting notes and textures. As Caroline Eberly wrote in a recent Colorado Homes and Lifestyle magazine feature about Ritual Chocolate, ‘[t]he factory’s winnower, for example—the machine that separates the nibs from the shell—was built in the early 1900s. While other pieces of equipment might only be 20 years old, their designs date back to the 1800s.’

Balao is a particular standout, according to Caputo, who likes the combination of beer, yeasty, floral jasmine, and tropical fruit tasting notes in the bar that is not even close to being idiosyncratic as it might sound on first reading. Balao, a small town in Ecuador, is home to the Camino Verde plantation and one of the best-known producers of the Nacional Cocoa variety. And, as part of a partnership that signifies why the world’s most respected chocolate makers are striving to strengthen the sustainability model in cocoa agriculture, Ritual Chocolate’s owners take direct supporting interest in matters of agronomy that focus on soil integrity, water usage, biofertilizers, and tree preservation.

One of Ritual Chocolate’s most important attributes comes through its neat, slim, concise packaging which provides a good deal of information without overwhelming the customer. Take note of the batch number on the front at the bottom of the label as well as the year of the harvest. It is significant to note that beans such as those from Costa Rica, which came from a 2009 harvest, are still producing a top-quality product.

In almost any given week, a voice emerges at Caputo’s to join a chorus that most certainly is sharing an appreciation and awareness for a food culture that promises to attract the most curious customer as well as to surprise the most jaded skeptic.

For more information, see here.

In her 1999 book about St. Joan of Arc, Marina Warner (Joan of Arc: The Female of Heroism) explained that while one of the most famous women of Western civilization extended the ‘taxonomy of female types,’ the body of history regarding the roles of women and individual women has yet to be explored in truly meaningful depth. Warner wrote, ‘we must develop a richer vocabulary for female activity than we use at present, with our restrictions of wife, mother, mistress, muse. Joan of Arc, in all her brightness, illuminates the operation of our present classification system, its rigidity on the one hand, its potential on the other.’

Within the space of just 75 minutes, Jenifer Nii’s latest play ‘Suffrage,’ in an outstanding premiere by Plan-B Theatre, offers an elucidating glimpse into how one might expand and enrich the historical narrative concerning Mormon women in the 19th century.

Many already know that Mormon women enjoyed the benefit of full suffrage, starting in 1870, the rights of which were reaffirmed by church leaders in 1878 but became endangered as the Mormon church formally disavowed the practice of plural marriage for the sake of joining the Union. The right of enfranchisement was restored in Utah’s new constitution when it was adopted in 1895.

However, ‘Suffrage’ powerfully suggests a new consciousness especially about Mormon women whose faith has unquestionably sustained their church throughout its 183-year history. Indeed, the stories of two sister-wives – Ruth (the energetic young suffrage activist) and Frances (the older woman who decisively acts to keep the family going while the husband is imprisoned) – underscore the stress of dealing with an inconsistent ‘second-class’ status and the dissatisfaction associated with it.

Late in the play, the combined stress of impending foreclosure, the absence of the husband (Benjamin) who is in jail because of polygamy, restless children, and worries about providing basic necessities is evident in Frances (played with the utmost sincerity and realism by April Fossen). Even as she maintains her composure, she strongly chastises the younger, idealistic Ruth (performed with appropriate tone by Sarah Young) for neglecting the children and her home duties.

Controlling her anger and frustration as best as she can, Frances says: ‘You have left them to fight for themselves. To defend themselves against enemies on both sides—those who would make our lives a crime and now those who see their mother as a militant, determined to upset everything we have worked to build. These many weeks and months, have you looked at your children? You preach ‘suffrage’. They suffer, Ruth. Your own children suffer. We. Suffer.’

Admitting her delinquency, Ruth, nevertheless, says she cannot remain silent and is confident the cause of suffrage will lead to a better future for the children. She responds, ‘All my life I have followed. I have obeyed. I have done everything that has been asked of me, without question or protest. And I have done well and honorably—by Benjamin, the children and you. I am a good wife. I am a good mother. But now, finally, I can be more.’

While the scene occurs in the late 1880s – in the last days before the Mormon church formally disavowed polygamy – the exchange between Frances and Ruth could unfold just as easily today. With a derisive laugh suggesting that she cares little for what others think, Ruth dismisses Frances’ concerns about others seeing the young suffragist as a ‘threat’ or ‘menace.’

Frances is incredulous that Ruth will not consider the existential threat facing them:

‘But while you are out there caring less about those people, while you are out meeting and speaking and petitioning on behalf of women, I am here. Trying with all my might to fulfill what my faith tells me is a woman’s most sacred calling: teaching and strengthening those souls who will fail and founder without mothers like me. And this work, which you have come to dismiss as subservient, is not only for today or tomorrow or even 100 years from now. It is for eternity. And you would have me shrink before you? Caty Stanton? Your beloved Susan Anthony? You would have me apologize and abandon my work for yours? No. I have a home to save, and children who are on the precipice and leaning out into nothingness. And so, I might add, do you.’

Dealing full force with the intersecting dynamics of polygamy and the suffrage, Nii effectively conveys how the once-secure order of the Mormon pioneer world is collapsing around the lives of Ruth and Frances. Yet, the open ending of ‘Suffrage’ is one of hope, not pessimism. Ruth embraces her departure not as a nightmarish transition but as a life-enriching tradeoff. Frances embodies the wisdom of seeing the past as instructive – clearly, there seems to be much we can learn by looking back – and as effective preparation for coping with a world that has become unfamiliar, unpredictable, and perhaps even ‘dangerous.’

‘Suffrage’ excels because it deals with the problematic concerns of history that is constructed by way of intellectual laziness and by way of a predilection for a chronicle that is excessively sentimental or romanticized. The stories of Ruth and Frances are riveting. At the end of the play, Frances and Ruth face a new quest for economic independence, as the husband has decided to keep one of the other sister-wives as his sole legal spouse.

These sister-wives ask us to reconsider the soothing narrative illusions of a long-standing historical tradition and to think anew about how Mormon women in the late 19th century fought hard for their civil liberties along with how they coped with the disruption and displacement they faced once the practice of plural marriages ended.

However, perhaps the most important take-away from ‘Suffrage’ – and upon which the play’s dramatic tension is built so broadly — is the individual’s self-identification that pierces through the prevailing mental images, stereotypes, and perceptions coming from outsiders, third parties, and opponents.

Acknowledging the issues of suffrage and polygamy could not be separated, Nii reminds us of just how deeply embedded our identity constructions are. No doubt, they are fictions but they also are hugely important and essential politically, culturally, and socially. And, we are aware that even some would be willing to risk their lives rather than give up their identities.

In the end, ‘Suffrage’ advises us to confront the deep, monochromatic, fictitious structures that have been popularized in the conventions of storytelling entertainment especially when it comes to Mormons and more specifically to the sister-wives in plural marriages. Once we deal conclusively with these idealized fictions, we can eliminate the ‘second-class’ status that unfortunately is still bestowed upon women who have both the conviction of faith and duty, regardless of the roles they take in their lives.

The production shines in many respects. As actors, Fossen and Young embrace the incredibly sophisticated pacing of Nii’s impressive script. Although the pacing of the first few scenes in an early performance was awkward and lacking in energy, the chemistry coalesced in the sharpest emotional exchanges later in the play. As is customary, these are easily fixable issues for this adventurous company.

Cheryl Ann Cluff’s direction and sound design add significant value to the usual minimalistic staging, especially in the use of martial drum cadences between scenes. This is a smart choice because the music does signify both the progress accomplished and the work yet to be done in the movement for equality in all realms of life and work for women.

In yet another convincing display of Plan-B resourcefulness, Randy Rasmussen on set design, Jesse Portillo on lighting design, Phil Lowe on costume design, and Jennifer Freed as stage manager effectively convey the setting of the play which covers a nine-year period from 1887 to 1896, when Utah became a state. The abstract three-dimensional construction of wire-mesh screens is a satisfying, intriguing backdrop, especially with the lighting. Depending upon one’s imaginative capacity, the backdrop can signify either the typical Utah mountainview or a chromatic landscape representing chaotic movement or change.

The dresses convey the modest, proper, frugal sense one would expect in Utah during the late 1800s but without appearing cliché as one might see in a television production about pioneer women and families. The props are simply a kitchen table, some chairs, benches, papers, books, and a few other small items.

‘Suffrage’ will continue through April 14. Days and times include Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m.; Saturdays at 4 p.m., and Sundays at 2 p.m.

Tickets are going quickly and, as of press time, tickets were only available for April 11 and April 14. However, small numbers of tickets may become available for other performances and interested parties should check the company’s web site for updates.

Tickets for Plan-B Theatre performances are $20 each ($10 for students) and can be purchased here or by calling 801-355-ARTS.

For more information, see here.

Featured on the album, released by Navona Records late last month and which is available on Amazon, iTunes, ClassicsOnline, Spotify, Naxos Music Library and other digital distribution outlets, are Henry Wolking’s ‘Gone Playin,’ a three-movement concerto for clarinet and string orchestra, and ‘The Old Gypsy,’ a string quartet that traverses a cleverly selected sampling of a Hungarian folk song for gypsy violin, jazz lullaby, European-style waltz, and a musical fanfare. Both of these works also have enjoyed considerable attention in the Utah performing arts scene.

Wolking went to Prague last summer where string members of the Moravian Philharmonic Orchestra along with clarinet soloist Robert Walzel recorded the works.

Also featured on the album is a three-movement orchestral work ‘Dùn Èideann Blogh,’ by composer James Scott Balentine, that represent musical impressions of his time when he was living in Edinburgh, Scotland. Balentine’s work includes soloists Walzel on clarinet and Eric Stomberg on bassoon. Balentine, who is on the faculty at the University of Texas at San Antonio’s music school, had this work premiered at the Utah Arts Festival in 2007.

A trombonist and prolific, highly diverse composer who retired last year from The University of Utah’s School of Music after nearly 40 years, Wolking has been among the most important musical figures in the Utah scene. Coming to the University of Utah at the age of 23 in 1972 to lead the area of jazz studies, he has written roughly two dozen compositions for orchestra and more than 45 of his jazz and brass chamber ensemble works have been published my major outlets. He also has published much of his work through his own company, Wolking Music Publications.

The Utah Symphony has premiered several of his works, including his first symphony and a trombone concerto. His music has been performed internationally including the Warsaw Philharmonic, London Symphony Orchestra, New Zealand Symphony, and the BBC Jazz Orchestra. His ballet ‘Forever Yesterday,’ which premiered 20 years ago, was broadcast on the NPR’s ‘Performance Today.

Both works featured on the recording reflect Wolking’s consistently effective capacity to bring a complex mix of elements – from polyrhythms to melodic chorales to the unmistakable grooving inflections of jazz – to music that can be taken seriously while reassuring both novice and experienced listeners that it’s okay to enjoy it purely on its entertaining merits.

For example, ‘Gone Playin’ is a spirited musical riff off epitaphs one might see on gravestones. Each movement – ‘Gone Fishin’, ‘Gone Sleepin’, and ‘Gone Dancin’ – suggests a distinct musical imagery of an epitaph for no particular individual, living or deceased. The various movements include rollicking jazzy rhythms, long melodic passages, a jazz lullaby, and syncopated dance rhythms from Puerto Rico, Cuba, and the Dominican Republic.

The work was composed for Walzel, the former director of the University of Utah School of Music who now is dean of the music school at the University of Kansas. ‘Gone Playin’ was premiered in March 2006 by the Utah Philharmonia in Salt Lake City, with Walzel as soloist. The concerto also has been performed at concerts in Austria and Finland, as well as the Utah Arts Festival.

Likewise, while each of the four movements in ‘The Old Gypsy’ string quartet represents a well-chosen palette of musical styles and expressions, listeners readily can discern the underlying harmonic structural integrity that flows throughout the work. The last movement starts with an unpublished Hungarian folk tune being played by a strolling gypsy violinist that he first heard in a Budapest restaurant some 15 years ago. A Hungarian friend was able to scribble the tune out in ink on a napkin so that Wolking would have a solid source for his musical inspiration.

The quartet was written for and premiered by the Utah-based Abramyan String Quartet at the request of Gerald Elias, a violinist and University of Utah music faculty colleague with Wolking. ‘The Old Gypsy’ was performed at one of the celebration/dedication concerts held in the spring of 2000 for the grand opening of the Libby Gardner Concert Hall and reopening of the David P Gardner Hall on the University of Utah’s main campus in Salt Lake City.

Wolking also has played a major role in the Utah Arts Festival’s long-running music commission program. He wrote ‘Forests,’ the first orchestral commission for the Utah Arts Festival in 1991 and has spearheaded the commission program ever since, which included establishing the jazz commission. Last year, Lisa Sewell, the executive director asked him to write the jazz commission for the 2012 event and he wrote a large ensemble piece described by one of the musicians as ‘Percy Grainger meets Frank Zappa.’

Navona Records, based in Hampton, New Hampshire, is a classical label imprint of the audio production house PARMA Recordings. Headed by Dreadnaught bassist Bob Lord, the label has a substantial catalogue of music by composers such as Wolking and Balentine who are creating a fresh, innovative body of work in orchestral, chamber, instrumental, and experimental music. The album also includes plenty of extra digitally accessible material including study scores, extended liner notes, video clips, and other information.

For more information, see here.

The France-based Valrhona Company is bringing along its newest creation — Dulcey, which according to most reviewers, has hints of French shortbread, caramelized milk, and raw sugar. The happy confectionery accident occurred after Frédéric Bau, the head pastry chef and director of the Valrhona Chocolate School, left Ivoire chocolate in a bain marie for more than 10 hours. The new Dulcey bar — which Valrhona representatives say is a unique product not to be classified as dark, milk, or white chocolate — was launched in Europe with rollouts in Asia and the United Arab Emirates before coming to the States.

Alex Espiritu, pastry chef for Valrhona’s U.S. division, will be the featured guest and will oversee a competition featuring Amber Billingsley of Vinto, Alexa Norlin of The Rose Establishment and Courtney McDowell of Pago & Finca. The judging panel is a a veritable culinary powerhouse in its own right, comprising three local chefs who have established national and international reputations: Viet Pham of Forage, Ryan Lowder of Copper Onion and Takashi Gibo of Takashi. Tagged as ‘Battle Blond,’ the event takes place Monday, April 8, at 7 p.m. at Caputo’s downtown location (314 W. 300 S).

In many ways the event’s participants signify the growing profile of Salt Lake City’s food culture, which is being acknowledged nationally in print, broadcast, and digital media outlets. Rounding out the event will be savory bites by Frody Volgger of Caputo’s Butcher Shop, coffee pour-overs by Charming Beard Coffee, and samples of Crooked Line beers as well as spring and summer session style brews by the Uinta Brewing Company.

Tickets are moving fast, as expected. The $20 admission price includes tasting the three competing chocolate dishes, savory appetizers and coffee pour overs. Up to four alcoholic beverages from Uinta may be purchased at an additional cost ($10).

Tickets must be purchased in advance via (801)531-8669 or here.

PHOTO CREDITS: Rick Pollock

If there is a forceful critique of contemporary Mormonism upon which both the religion’s faithful adherents and outsiders trying to make sense of its most controversial aspects might agree is how the stories of individuals and characters of Utah’s early history are eclipsed and blighted by today’s most contentious elements of conservatism.

In thinking about 19th Century Mormonism and an exceptional historical record of the adventurous and enterprising intellectual, educational, and social pursuits of women, one might consider, as a starting point, a line from John Keats’ ‘Isabella; Or, the Pot of Basil’: ‘Alas! When passion is both meek and wild.’

While it is widely known but perhaps not as comprehensively acknowledged and integrated as it should be into the public consciousness, Mormon women enjoyed the benefit of full suffrage, starting in 1870, the rights of which were reaffirmed by church leaders in 1878 but became endangered as the Mormon church formally disavowed the practice of plural marriage for the sake of joining the Union. The right of enfranchisement was restored in the state’s new constitution when it was adopted in 1895.

The challenge of telling this history is significantly complex because polygamy’s role must be acknowledged and properly addressed in order to provide a full, rich, truthful appreciation of an extraordinary period in Utah’s development. Mormon historians such as Leonard Arrington, Carol Cornwall Madsen, Jill Mulvay Derr — to name just a handful — have documented the works and leadership of Emmeline B. Wells, Lula Greene Richards, Mary Jane Mount Tanner, and others in terms of their political, social, and educational contributions.

Impressive as their legacies are, one also wonders about the stories of other Mormon women – the anonymous or forgotten sister-wives – and their characterization in the chronicle. There are misleading dangers in interpreting – or even, discounting – the stories of the supposedly meek, who were committed to fulfilling their obligations, by placing them within a fantasizing scenario shaped by contemporary perceptions of misogyny, subjugation, and social biases. Without the benefit of acknowledging the realistic premises about how the issues of polygamy and suffrage were intertwined, such stories can become misconceived, unsatisfactory accounts that do no justice to exploring the conundrums all of us face in realizing the possibilities in our individual human experiences.

Jenifer Nii’s newest play, ‘Suffrage,’ which will be premiered in a 10-day run by the Plan-B Theatre Company beginning April 4, rises to the theatrical challenge of balancing the compelling emotional conundrums the two characters face with a sincere appreciation of overshadowing historical dynamics in their story that acknowledges the mutual presence and impact of full suffrage and polygamy.

Set in a nine-year period leading up to Utah’s formal admission to the Union in 1896, ‘Suffrage’ is the story of two sister wives: Ruth and Frances. In her 20s, Ruth embodies the energizing promise of suffrage as the response to her frustrations with plural marriage and the attendant obligations of submitting to her husband and to all men. Frances, who is a generation older than Ruth and is the second of five wives, accepts the practical aspects of her quotidian commitments to sustain the family while her husband is imprisoned. Frances’ courage, too, is evident in being confident that her role already is endowed with an empowering voice manifested through her faith and her obligations to protect the family legacy.

In ‘Suffrage,’ Nii exhibits the precise superlative writing skills that enriched her adaptation of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s ‘The Scarlet Letter,’ produced by Plan-B in 2012. With the characters of Ruth and Frances in her latest work, she brings forward a 125-year-old story with a haunting poignancy about two women who certainly do not lack conviction, respectively, but who also must contend with the sometimes profoundly disappointing realities of life that intervene with and disrupt their personal capacities to fantasize about or to dream about a richer, immensely more satisfying existence.

And, as with last year’s outstanding production of ‘Scarlet Letter,’ Plan-B’s Cheryl Ann Cluff returns to direct Nii’s newest play. Cluff perfectly augments Nii’s gifts by recognizing how ‘Suffrage’ transcends the misperceptions usually ascribed to this period of Mormon history. More importantly, she eschews the need to ‘spoon feed’ the audience, keeping aware that theatergoers will readily grasp the contemporary relevance of a play in which the opening scene is set in 1887.

As she prepared for this production, Cluff was reminded by the recent book ‘Lean In: Women, Work and the Will to Lead,’ by Sheryl Sandberg, who came to Facebook in 2008 as chief operating officer after career stops that included the U.S. Treasury Department, Google, and McKinsey. One of the best quick summaries of Sandberg’s work came from a New York Times contributed piece by Anne-Marie Slaughter, a professor of politics and international affairs at Princeton, who also worked at the U.S. State Department during the first term of the Obama Administration:

‘Her point, in a nutshell, is that notwithstanding the many gender biases that still operate all over the workplace, excuses and justifications won’t get women anywhere. Instead, believe in yourself, give it your all, “lean in” and “don’t leave before you leave” — which is to say, don’t doubt your ability to combine work and family and thus edge yourself out of plum assignments before you even have a baby. Leaning in can promote a virtuous circle: you assume you can juggle work and family, you step forward, you succeed professionally, and then you’re in a better position to ask for what you need and to make changes that could benefit others.’

Cluff, who enthusiastically endorses Sandberg’s book, says she is surprised and dismayed at the backlash against it, especially from those who apparently did not even bother to read it. Some of the most frequently voiced erroneous criticisms suggest that the book amounted to a ‘war on mothers.’ In fact, recent writings about the issue of balancing work and life for women persistently have raised substantial dustups. Ironically, Slaughter faced as much criticism as Sandberg did when Slaughter’s ‘Why Women Still Can’t Have It All’ appeared last summer as a cover story in The Atlantic.

Sandberg writes quite a bit about the tensions that just happen to presage the epiphanies being shaped in ‘Suffrage.’ In ‘Lean In,’ Sandberg writes: ‘There is always an opportunity cost, and I don’t know any woman who feels comfortable with all her decisions. As a result, we inadvertently hold that discomfort against those who remind us of the path not taken. Guilt and insecurity make us second-guess ourselves and, in turn, resent one another.’

The sister-wives in ‘Suffrage,’ regardless of disagreements or variances in focus, nevertheless, stand with love and respect for each other. At one point, Frances tells Ruth, who is so impassioned in the cause of suffrage: ‘You are not alone. Nor shall you ever be. There are many who will cleave unto you and look to you for guidance. If you believe in your heart that you walk in truth, then do so with courage. But I must go and do likewise. I must provide for my children, and I cannot do that here. Please try to understand, and wish me well. As I do you.’

The formative process for creating ‘Suffrage’ involved many tricky, delicate challenges for Nii, who is not Mormon but who also was sensitized toward maintaining the integrity and accuracy of history while seeking a personal story sufficiently compelling to drive the narrative with emotional epiphanies that are appropriate to contemplate today.

Likewise, the play – with just two actors – fits the limits of Plan-B’s exceptionally resourceful capabilities for making minimalistic staging effectively convey the setting. Once again, ‘Suffrage’ will be performed in the Studio Theatre in the Rose Wagner Center for Performing Arts in downtown Salt Lake City. The set is just a table and some chairs, which serves as a kitchen, assembly pulpit, sheriffs’ office, and the place for Frances’ work. The locations are just incidentally suggested at the appropriate place in the dialogue.

‘This was particularly challenging for me,’ Nii explains. ‘I couldn’t have lots of actors or lots of ongoing conversations.’

On the other hand, the limitations also afforded Nii the opportunity to expand and explore the extraordinary intersection of polygamy and suffrage in a way that might be lost or buried deeply in other storytelling media and forms. ‘It plays more powerfully by not having men on the stage,’ she says. ‘Early in the writing process, I couldn’t decide if the play was more about one issue or the other – suffrage or polygamy. In the end, I knew that I could not separate the two.’

In the fourth scene, Nii shows expertly how she resolves the writing challenges on this specific point. In simultaneous action, Ruth addresses the audience as if she was appearing before a suffrage rally while Frances is at the sheriff’s office, where in the immediately prior scene Frances is clearly holding two conversations – talking to her husband Benjamin in jail while being interrupted by the guard. In the fourth scene, Frances is assuring the sheriff that her daughter who was arrested for damaging a fence will make full reparations.

While Ruth speaks in full-throated voice about suffrage Frances is discussing the impact of her husband’s imprisonment upon the children as well as the growing persecution of the sister-wives’ families. One hears a convergence of core beliefs in the spoken words of both characters. Ruth says to her audience, ‘To our sisters who believe in their heart, who fear in their heart that suffrage is an affront to the will of The Almighty, I say only that the sole goal of our movement is equality under the law. True partnership with men in shaping the rules that govern us, and to ensure that they are fair.’

In this theatrical fugue of sorts, Frances tells the sheriff, ‘We are good people. We live and work and love like any other. Our hearts are the same, and our desires. For ourselves, our children, and our fellow man. We are people of faith, which faith distinguishes us from others. But are we so alien as to warrant this?’

Later in the scene, the two women reunite after their respective appointments and after a short debate about priorities and responsibilities, Ruth assures Frances that she will speak with the daughter and follow up with her to make amends for the damaged property. Instinctively, they know that any feelings of guilt, resentment, intimidation, and insincerity that could be expressed about the particular path one chooses achieve no positive result. They comprehend the complex task to work past those differences in order to accomplish what they individually expect to do.

Mindful of propelling the emotional momentum forward in the action, Nii also selectively incorporates just enough historical information to anchor the context for the audience’s benefit. Ruth mentions a newspaper article that includes the proclamation of Brigham Young granting full suffrage, and later reads the bullet points of the Edmunds-Tucker Act that prohibited and criminalized polygamy. In the eleventh scene, Frances reads the 1890 Woodruff Manifesto from the newspaper in which the Mormon church no longer sanctions plural marriage.

Yet, Nii also reminds her audience that while the battle for suffrage was won, the challenges for taking full ownership of the rights of enfranchisement remain to this day. There are plenty of naturally occurring references in the words of Ruth and Frances that put the historical parallel squarely in today’s sociopolitical environment. One only need consider the controversial debates about the Violence Against Women Act, where many nationally prominent politicians were quick to say that they are not about waging a ‘war against women’ but they also would not cast a vote on legislation that closes loopholes of legal technicalities and assures equal protection not only for all women but especially for gay women, undocumented immigrants, and Native Americans who are victims of rape as well as sexual and domestic abuse.

‘Suffrage’ is a strong entry in a season of Plan-B’s works that have gone to great lengths to correct the misperceptions that surround all types of identity. It is most especially noteworthy that two works – ‘Suffrage’ and Matthew Greene’s ‘Adam & Steve and The Empty Sea’ – are admirably respectful, balanced treatments focusing on the misconceptions and misperceptions many have about Mormonism, in particular. It is equally noteworthy that while the writers come from different foundational perspectives – Greene is a Mormon while Nii is not – both arrive at significant, satisfying points of balance that can help to bridge an increasingly contentious religious divide in Utah.

Indeed, it is just as fitting to take note that one of the state’s most progressively liberal, socially conscious creative organizations embarks on a carefully considered path toward envisioning — in a work of art and culture — a feasible middle ground that accommodates as many people and interests as possible. It is a clear demonstration of theater’s potential for truly empowering community growth.

The cast comprises April Fossen, a veteran of many Plan-B productions, and Sarah Young in her first regular-season appearance on the Plan-B stage.

Performances will run April 4 through April 14. Days and times include Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m.; Saturdays at 4 p.m., and Sundays at 2 p.m.

Tickets for Plan-B Theatre performances are $20 each ($10 for students) and can be purchased here or by calling 801-355-ARTS.

For more information, see here.