Josh Petersen

“Accessible and beautiful.”

These are the words Luke Kelly uses to describe the artworks in the new collection “Beyond the Divide: Merchant, Artist, Samurai in Edo Japan,” which he curated for the Utah Museum of Fine Arts.

“Japonisme.”

This is the word the French used to describe Japan’s influence on Western art, first viewed when Japan reopened trade with the West in 1854. The woodblocks, with their bold colors, elegant line and flat perspective, surprised, then inspired Impressionists and Post-Impressionists like Van Gogh and Degas who incorporated the new way of seeing into their paintings. And they still surprise and inspire.

HASHIGUCHI GOYŌ, WOMAN APPLYING POWDER, 1918, WOODBLOCK PRINT, INK AND COLOR ON PAPER WITH MICA AND EMBOSSING. SELF-PUBLISHED. CARVED BY TAKANO SHICHINOSUKE. PRINTED BY SOMEKAWA KANZŌ. MINNEAPOLIS INSTITUTE OF ART, GIFT OF ELLEN AND FRED WELLS 2002.161.206. PHOTO: MINNEAPOLIS INSTITUTE OF ART.

You don’t need to be an expert in Japanese art to appreciate this diverse show, which includes screen and scroll paintings, sculptures, color woodblock prints and even samurai weaponry. The intricate pieces on display are both tranquil and vibrant.

“Beyond the Divide” is one of two exhibitions at UMFA featuring Japanese art. The other, “Seven Masters: 20th Century Japanese Woodblock Prints,” is a traveling collection from the Minneapolis Institute of Art.

“Seven Masters” focuses on the early 20th century, where ukiyo-e (Japanese woodblock prints) experienced an unexpected revival. Though the form had been on the decline for several decades, a group of artists created new images, depicting everything from lush landscapes to kabuki actresses. This new movement — shin hanga — grew in popularity, and the prints were reproduced widely. “The quality of them is astounding, not only in regards to the perfect production (having been printed from wood blocks) but also aesthetically,” said curator Andreas Marks.

“Beyond the Divide” goes back in time to the Edo period, between 1603 and 1868. Kelly chose to organize the show by focusing on the samurai, the merchant and the artisan. Samurais, who traditionally occupied the highest position in society, commissioned fancy armor and swords. Merchants, who grew rapidly from their low-class roots in this period, became new patrons for the arts, expanding the possibilities from artists. In Edo Japan, artists were able to flourish, often creating works for private residences that stayed behind beautifully decorated screen dividers.

These two exhibits span hundreds of years and represent a period of major changes for Japan, including economic transition, greater contact with the broader world and increasing modernization. UMFA’s displays combine the most famous trademarks of Japanese art while also demonstrating the wide diversity of these periods.

“I am excited that the tour now starts with Salt Lake City as the first venue,” Marks says. And though the art is from the opposite side of the world, this UMFA exhibit is still locally connected. Almost all of the pieces in “Beyond the Divide” have been part of the museum’s existing collection for years.

“Seven Masters” will be at UMFA until April 26 and “Beyond the Divide” will be open through July 5. Visit umfa.utah.edu for more information.

Plenty of plays start with a protagonist questioning their place in the world. Some of them express that questioning through song. Only one — unless I’ve missed out on a very specific subgenre — has that song sung by a chorus of brine shrimp puppets.

Singing to the Brine Shrimp

Plan-B Theatre Company

Feb. 13-23, with a preview on Feb. 12

Thursdays and Fridays at 8 p.m., Saturdays at 4 p.m. and 8 p.m. and Sundays at 2 p.m.

Tickets and info here.

These surprisingly cute creatures show up periodically in Jennifer Kokai’s new play Singing to the Brine Shrimp as a distinctly Utah chorus of consciousness. Their proclamations are not always helpful — they are just microscopic crustaceans after all —  but for audiences, they provide a useful peek into an artist at a personal and professional crossroads.

Utah mom Allison (Latoya Cameron) thinks she has finally gotten her big break. In a burst of brine shrimp-fueled inspiration, she writes a play that gets accepted for a prestigious workshop in New York. Her trip, however, is hardly a dream come true. Allison is constantly anxious about measuring up to the other playwrights, who are all about a decade younger, with fancy degrees and Brooklyn cool-kid-cred to spare. The actors and director assigned to her script are fifty shades of self-absorbed. And to make matters worse, everyone keeps asking about Utah with a condescension that makes her feel like something between a cult victim and an orphaned alien.  

Besides Allison, all of the other characters, played by actors Lily Hye Soo Dixon, Jay Perry and Emilie Starr, are a mix of puppets and humans. (Singing to the Brine Shrimp is a co-production with Puppets in the City, a local non-profit performing and teaching company.) To the actors’ credit, the puppet and human characters fit together naturally, and each new caricature is crisp, distinct and, most importantly, funny. Just because there are puppets doesn’t mean this show is meant for children — though, thankfully, the show also doesn’t milk cheap humor from puppets saying dirty things just for the hell of it.

Behind-the-scenes-drama may be typical subject matter for playwrights, but Kokai’s writing feels grounded in specific experiences, and this production’s aesthetic choices stand out. The sea-blue scenic design from Madeline Ashton enlivens Plan-B’s small space at the Rose Wagner Performing Arts Center, and the catchy songs by composer Kenneth Plain are a welcome addition. Singing to the Brine Shrimp is just the right kind of quirky, and it’s been too long since I’ve seen something genuinely weird and whimsical onstage. 

This short and mostly sweet Singing to the Brine Shrimp doesn’t crack 90 minutes, and that’s probably the right choice — the play is funniest in the first half, when the novelty is still fresh. Kokai doesn’t reach any grand conclusions, and the ending here is perhaps a notch too low-key. Still, it was nice to see a play that was both inventive and light on its feet — all in all, it felt like a breath of fresh air. Of course, the air in Salt Lake smells like salt water and car exhaust, but as Singing to the Brine Shrimp points out, the New York air is hardly any sweeter.

Read more of our theater coverage here.

In the Great Salt Lake, brine shrimp are tiny but mighty parts of the ecosystem. At just under a half-inch long, brine shrimp manage to thrive in the inhospitable Salt Lake waters, eating microscopic algae and acting as a food source for millions of birds.

Singing to the Brine Shrimp

Plan-B Theatre Company

Feb. 13-23, with a preview on Feb. 12

Thursdays and Fridays at 8 p.m., Saturdays at 4 p.m. and 8 p.m. and Sundays at 2 p.m.

Tickets and info here.

In the new play Singing to the Brine Shrimp, these small creatures serve an important role in a new ecosystem — the competitive, egotistical world of theatre. This idiosyncratic comedy, written by local playwright and Weber State theater professor Jenny Kokai, turns brine shrimp into a sort of Greek chorus, played by an ensemble of actors with hand puppets. Oh, and there are musical numbers.

Allison (Latoya Cameron) is a playwright from Utah who might have gotten her big break. One of her plays will be produced in New York, but Allison is feeling increasingly uneasy. The actors are difficult, she misses her wife, and she feels lost away from home. As the brine shrimp (helpfully?) sing, “You’re thousands of miles from all you know/ So who the heck will you be?”

The play is a perfect fit for Plan B, a company that produces works from local playwrights. Singing to the Brine Shrimp is not just from Utah’s art scene — it’s about Utah’s art scene. A celebration of creative expression, this play will be relatable to anyone who has been torn between the comforts of home and the pull of new opportunities.

Read more of our theater coverage here.

Pioneer Theatre Company’s production of Mary Stuart shows both the satisfactions and the limitations of the royal historical drama. On the one hand, there are some obvious pleasures — sweeping themes, dramatic stakes and lush wardrobes (Brenda Van Der Wiel designed the costumes). There will seemingly always be an appetite for royal gossip — just look at the backlash (and the backlash to the backlash) when Prince Harry and Meghan Markle stepped down from the royal family.

What: Mary Stuart

When: Through Jan. 25

Where: Simmons Pioneer Memorial Theatre

How: Tickets are available on their website.

See more of our theater coverage here.

Still, after centuries of watching bickering kings and queens, it’s a challenge for actors and directors to find fresh angles to the same material. Pioneer Theatre’s production suffers from this exact problem — it is competently performed, but while translating a 200-year-old play about a 450-year-old story, the potency is lost.

The play opens with Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots (Erika La Vonn) imprisoned in England. Her cousin and rival, Elizabeth I (Anne Bates), is threatened by Mary’s possible claim to the throne and opposed to Mary’s staunch Catholicism. Mary knows her life is in danger, and knows that changing Elizabeth’s mind is her best chance at survival. Elizabeth, meanwhile, is conflicted on her next step forward. Both women must navigate a complex tangle of alliances and possible betrayals while maintaining their unstable positions of power.

The cast of “Mary Stuart” (Courtesy Pioneer Theatre Company)

La Vonn works hard, but Mary, despite being the titular role, is not a particularly juicy part — she is saintly, but not always interesting. The play’s structure doesn’t always serve the character well. Because audiences only see Mary as a prisoner, they get little sense of her power and supposed magnetism. When Mary gets to be more than just a martyr, the play comes alive. In the opening scene of act two, Mary and Elizabeth meet in person, and Mary is finally able to unleash some regal righteous anger. La Vonn seems to relish the opportunity.

Bates, meanwhile, has more compelling dimensions to explore. Her Elizabeth is insecure and inconsistent, struggling against the impossible demands of monarchy and facing sexist standards that even women of extraordinary power couldn’t escape. Though the play’s characters tend to side with Mary, (characters often say, directly and indirectly, that Mary is the “pretty one”) Elizabeth is often most sympathetic to modern audiences.

Pioneer Theatre’s production is traditionally staged and designed, and the results are sometimes stuffy. The sets, designed by Sara Ryung Clement, are appropriately cold and imposing, but the actors sometimes look lost in the enormous space. John Ballinger’s music may be the most audacious part of the production — it comes in loud, unexpected bursts of dread — but the results are sometimes jarring additions to long scenes.

Still, whether it’s the 16^th, 19^th or 21^st century, it is still refreshing to watch two women work in unquestioned positions of power. The men in this story are constantly scheming for influence, but there is no question about who’s really in charge. This play argues that these queen’s reigns are just as dramatic, imperfect and bloody as their male counterparts. It’s a twisted kind of progress.

In the centuries since her execution in 1567, Mary, Queen of Scots has remained an object of public fascination. She is the subject of operas, sonnets, rock songs and, most recently, the 2018 film Mary, Queen of Scots, which starred Saoirse Ronan as the titular queen and Margot Robbie as Elizabeth I, her cousin and eventual rival.

Mary Stuart

Pioneer Theatre Company

Jan. 10-25

Mondays-Thursdays at 7 p.m., Fridays at 7:30 p.m. and Saturdays at 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.

Tickets and info here.

Even in 2020, Mary’s life remains the perfect bit of palace intrigue. (Harry and Megan’s recent decision to “step back” is interesting, but, knock on wood, nobody will lose their head.) Mary’s story has family drama, national tensions, violent feuds and a prison break. No wonder it’s a story we can’t seem to stop telling.

One of the most famous depictions of Elizabeth and Mary’s power struggle, the play Mary Stuart, is now coming to Pioneer Theatre Company. An English adaptation of Friedrich Schiller’s original German play, Mary Stuart is a female-centered story that’s unique to the era. In a press release, PTC Artistic Director Karen Azenberg said, “The story of these two powerful women, from a time where women were not typically found in positions of leadership, is a compelling one.” PTC’s production will star Anne Bates (Elizabeth I) and Erika La Vonn (Mary of Scotland), along with a cast of both PTC alums and actors new to the company.

L-R: Jamen Nanthakumar (Sir Edward Mortimer), Erika LaVonn (Mary of Scotland), Robert Mammana (Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester), Anne Bates (Elizabeth of England), and Fenton Li (Sir William Davison). Photo courtesy Pioneer Theatre Company.

Mary Stuart is not exactly a comedy, but compared to the anxiety of watching our current leaders navigate politics, this play almost qualifies as light entertainment.

Read more of our theater coverage here.

Salt Lake City is home to one of television’s most famous high schools. Albuquerque had the audacity to steal it from us.

The “High School Musical” franchise was a genuine global phenomenon, to the tune of more than 255 million viewers. But even though the franchise was filmed in Salt Lake’s East High School, the actual films were set in Albuquerque. Apparently, the writers felt it was appropriate to reject one of the country’s most beautiful cities for a place whose best attraction is a Turquoise Museum. (I’m only a little bitter.) To add insult to injury, East High didn’t even get to keep its mascot — the actual high school’s mascot, the Leopards, was replaced with the (admittedly catchier) Wildcats. 

Luckily, Disney+ is here to right history’s wrongs. The streaming service’s new colon-happy title “High School Musical: The Musical: The Series” is actually set in Salt Lake City. This mockumentary follows a drama teacher (Kate Reinders) at the “real” East High who decides to direct a stage version of the popular film. Nini (Olivia Rodrigo) is hoping to get promoted from chorus girl to Gabriella, the show’s star. Her new boyfriend EJ (Matt Cornett) seems like the perfect candidate for Troy, the male lead, but Olivia’s ex Ricky (Joshua Bassett) also impulsively auditions for the show in a quest to win her back. The behind-the-scenes angle cuts some of the musical fantasy of the original films — it’s just as much “The Office” as “Camp Rock” — but, rest assured, there are still love triangles and Disney-appropriate teen angst. (Thank God.)

Disney’s “High School Musical: The Musical: The Series” stars Dara Rene as Kourtney, Sofia Wylie as Gina, Larry Saperstein as Big Red, Joshua Bassett as Ricky, Frankie A. Rodriguez as Carlos, Julia Lester as Ashlyn, Matt Cornett as E.J., and Olivia Rodrigo as Nini. (Disney+/Craig Sjodin)

Nathan Smedley is a Utah native who participated in the series as a featured extra. Smedley, who  didn’t come into the project with acting experience, said he “auditioned on a whim.” After a nerve-racking selection process, he was one of 15 chosen out of an initial pool of about 500. “I loved [the movies] growing up, and it was a dream come true,” Smedley said. 

Smedley said the team behind the show “went out of their way to include Utah talent.” Most of the principal dancers, featured extras and additional extras were local.  Jeff T. Miller, a Utah-based producer of the series, said that Disney was impressed with the local talent behind-the-scenes. “The crew here is as good as anywhere in the world, so why would you want to go somewhere else?” he said. 

For many Utahns who watched “High School Musical” as children, this new series is an exciting homecoming. “It’s great to be part of a show that acknowledges how great Utah really is,” Smedley said. He said the original films were a childhood favorite and source of local pride. “I grew up going to East High to see Sharpay’s pink locker,” he said. “It’s a huge part of film history in Utah.” 

East High School, complete with that famous pink locker, is still a popular tourist attraction — students still sometimes see tour buses parked outside the school. The Utah Office of Tourism even has a four-day itinerary for super fans. (For just a measly four-hour drive, you can drive a go-kart that might have touched the butt of Zac Efron.) Clearly, the state wants to stay in Disney’s good graces. The Governor’s Office of Economic Development provided a tax incentive for the production of season one. 

Olivia Rodrigo in “High School Musical: The Musical: The Series” (Disney+/Natalie Cass)

However, Jeff T. Miller, a Utah-based producer of the series, said that for Disney, coming back to Utah was about more than finances. “We are not in the top 10% of incentives,” Miller said. But Disney producers liked the convenience of filming in Utah, and Miller said they were impressed by how friendly and accommodating the locals were. “We feel that it’s more of a partnership here than in many other places in the country,” Miller said. He said that Disney’s relationship with Utah is a sign of the state’s business-friendly environment. “Having the Disney company here tells you everything you need to know,” he said.

Both Miller and Smedley agree that series creator Tim Federle did a good job of updating the series for a new generation. Miller said he liked the contemporary feel of the new show, and Smedley emphasized the series’ LGBT-inclusivenes. Smedley said it was huge progress that a family show “expresses and validates and acknowledges LGBT people of all ages … It wasn’t anything I saw on Disney Channel growing up.” 

He hopes that families will watch “High School Musical: The Musical: The Series” together. “Give the first episode a shot, no matter your age,” Smedley said. “I guarantee you’ll like it.”

Read more of our arts and entertainment coverage here.

If you see The Play That Goes Wrong, now playing at Pioneer Theatre Company, don’t expect to spend the time before the play on your phone. As I walked into the theater, members of the “stage crew” (played by actors Harrison J. Lind, Morgan Werder and Jessica Weyman) walked through the main floor and asked audience members increasingly bizarre questions, like if they’d seen a lost dog, or perhaps a Duran Duran CD box set. Onstage, an increasingly panicked stage manager tries to prepare the set for a performance. One (un?)lucky audience member is even asked to help hold a set piece in place.

What: The Play That Goes Wrong

When: Dec. 6-21, Monday-Thursday at 7 p.m., Friday at 7:30 p.m., Saturday at 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.

Where: Simmons Pioneer Memorial Theatre

How: Tickets are available on their website.

See more of our theater coverage here.

Such is the controlled chaos of The Play That Goes Wrong, a play positively stuffed with running jokes, sight gags, wordplay and good old-fashioned farce. Once the show actually starts, audiences are immediately invited to the play-within-a-play — The Murder at Haversham Manor, a perfectly cheesy murder mystery put on by the Cornley Polytechnic Drama Society. Fortunately for us, the Drama Society’s ambition far outweighs their talent. Chris Bean (William Connell,) seemingly the only member of the Drama Society’s creative team, admits that due to cast limitations, their recent musical production of Cats had to be changed to just Cat. The Murder at Haversham Manor’s plot is simple enough — there’s a rich murder victim (Brandon Contreras,) an observant detective (Connell) and a few suspicious suspects (Greg Balla, Ruth Pfredehirt and Jordan Sobel). The real draw here is not the plot but the constant onstage disasters, including forgotten lines, self-immolating set pieces and injury-prone actors.

This is not a play you go to for an ingenious plot or deep characters. Instead, director Karen Azenberg leans into the play’s endless physical comedy — the book by Henry Lewis, Henry Shields and Jonathan Sayer calls for an all-antics, all-the-time approach. The inexhaustible ensemble seems to be having a genuinely good time, reveling in the pratfalls, over-the-top line readings and many (oh so many) spit takes.

The real star of this production might be James Kronzer’s clever scenic design, which is thoughtfully engineered to handle all of the play’s tricks and treats. Both on stage and behind-the-scenes, it’s hard work to pull of this precise band of physical comedy. This show requires as much discipline — and more creative thinking — than your average realistic drama. It can take serious smarts to play this dumb.

The crowd in my performance ate it all up. This kind of brazen physical comedy can be truly universal. Of course, the most ridiculous comedic choices strained credulity, especially in the show’s less engaging second act, but it’s best to just accept the madness and embrace a show that, against all odds, goes on and on.

Oda Might, a new play at Plan-B Theatre Company by local playwright Camille Washington, takes place entirely in one blank room of a hospital, characterized only by one large window. In this seemingly unremarkable space, Washington digs into a surprising character study between two women who seem to be opposites but carry some unexpected connections below the surface. Oh, and there’s a murder, a life of crime, and that window, which maybe isn’t so insignificant after all. At the very least, Oda Might is a lot more interesting than an actual visit to the doctor’s office.

What: Oda Might
When: Nov. 7-17, Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m., Saturday at 4 p.m., Sunday at 2 p.m.
Where: Rose Wagner Performing Arts Center
How: Tickets are available on their website.
See more of our theater coverage here.

The patient (Dee-Dee Darby-Duffin) is in custody in a mental hospital after being convicted for a murder she still denies. The doctor (Yolanda Stange) is treating the patient with a mix of incredulity and genuine understanding. The patient admits a history of crime and scamming, and even as she details her own history — with bad boyfriends, a surprising cross-country journey, and a sudden conversion to Christianity — both the doctor and the audience wonders if this is just another scam. Over the course of their session, the patient and doctor’s emotions simmer as the patient’s mysterious past blurs the line between the psychological and the supernatural. 

Yolanda Stange in ‘Oda Might’ (Photo by Rick Pollock, Courtesy Plan-B Theatre Company)

Plenty of recent movies and TV shows — from Joker to Big Little Lies — have used the therapy room as an arena for rich drama, allowing characters to reveal hidden depths and unexpressed emotions. Oda Might takes this idea to its extreme — plot is only revealed through dialogue between the patient and the doctor, leaving audiences to fill in the imaginative gaps. The play could loosely be described as a psychological thriller, including some sudden plot twists, but the narrative is less linear (and harder to follow) than standard genre fare. 

Director Cheryl Ann Cluff cleverly uses the small space at Plan B to her advantage, letting the actors and audience feel the claustrophobia of the single room. She encourages naturalistic, engaging performances from the actors. Darby-Duffin is a natural storyteller with an easy charisma — you can see why victims might fall under her spell. In the beginning, Stange seems to be stuck in the thankless role of a straight-woman, but her performance is instead a slow build, reaching viscerally powerful heights at the climax. I won’t spoil the play’s intense conclusion, but trust me when I say that Washington is unafraid of the abstract and unexpected.

Read more of Salt Lake Magazine’s theater coverage here.