Editor’s Note: The Selective Echo is pleased to offer a regular feature, in alternating weeks, of major events highlighted through NowPlayingUtah.com, the state’s first comprehensive source for unique arts and cultural events. Its features are distinctly user friendly — searchable calendar of events, highlights of directory listings for a wide array of organizations and venues statewide and a submission protocol that is free and simple to use.

<

Plan-B’s ‘Di Esperienza’

In Di Esperienza, the world premiere Plan-B Theatre production, playwright Matthew Ivan Bennett resists forming a cohesive statement about Leonardo Da Vinci in a script that brings to life figures from three of his most iconic – and unfinished – masterpieces. They are La Gioconda (a/k/a The Mona Lisa), Judas from the Last Supper (which actually was da Vinci’s take on earlier versions of Andrea del Castagno and Domenico Ghirlandaio), and Isabella d’Este (often called the first lady of the Renaissance who was featured in a portrait drawing).

The play’s run begins today (April 3) and continues through April 19 with 8 p.m. performances on Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays, and 2 p.m. performances on Sundays. The play is being staged in the Studio Theatre of the Rose Wagner Center for the Performing Arts, located in downtown Salt Lake City.

Bennett’s script which seeks to deconstruct the myths and the doubts of Leonardo da Vinci appears as much a master’s thesis as it is a commissioned work by Plan-B. Supplemented with a rigorously reviewed and annotated bibliography, he tackles the imperfect person that few have even been willing to do when it comes to theatrical works concerning the great artist and inventor.

For more information, see The Selective Echo preview here.

St. George Art Festival

Sponsored by the St. George Arts Commission, the festival, a cultural staple of southern Utah for more than 30 years, will be held April 10 and 11 in the St. George Town Square. The juried festival brings more than 110 artists from around the nation who work in a variety of creative media. The many categories of art accepted include watercolor, oils, pottery, sculpture, photography, woodwork, and other creations. The show offers cash awards for Best of Show, Best 2D and 3D and ribbons for all categories, as well as the winning entry which will serve as the poster for the following year’s festival. This year’s featured artist is Al Rounds, a Utah-based watercolor painter who specializes in architectural landscapes.

The festival includes the usual popular attendant features of food, entertainment, and an extensive children’s art activity schedule. For more information, See here.

Moscow String Quartet

The Chamber Music Society of Salt Lake City will present a performance by the Moscow String Quartet on April 7, at 7:30 p.m. in the Libby Gardner Hall on the University of Utah campus. The ensemble is performing perhaps the three most well-known string quartets from the Russian music literature: Borodin’s second quartet in D Major, Tchaikovsky’s third quartet in E-flat Major (Op. 30), and Shostakovich’s seventh quartet in F-sharp Minor (Opus 108). For more information, see here.