Josh Petersen

Melissa Leilani Larson has established herself as one of Utah’s most successful playwrights and screenwriters. She has written stage adaptations of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice and Persuasion; Little Happy Secrets, a play about a woman at BYU who falls in love with her roommate, and the Mormon-focused films Freetown and Jane and Emma. 

Larson’s works have traveled through various settings, time periods and genres, from Victorian drawing room comedies to Latter-day Saint historical dramas to contemporary realism. But for her latest play, Mestiza, or Mixed, which premieres on Thursday, June 9 at Plan-B Theatre, Larson focused on a subject she never tackled so directly—her own life. 

The play follows Lark (Joy Asiado), a 30-something aspiring screenwriter living in Utah. Lark has a passion for her art and plenty of interesting ideas, but her life is frustratingly stalled. None of her screenplays have been produced and she is saddled with mounting student loan debt. She has a competitive, fraught relationship with her sister Ava (Jayna Balzer), feels misunderstood by her mother Carrie (April Fossen) and is estranged from her beloved father, who recently separated from her mom. Meanwhile, Lark’s girlfriend Alex (Lily Hye Soo Dixon), a fellow writer whose brazen self-confidence is almost exactly opposite of Lark’s introverted personality, is more undermining than affectionate. 

Lark is also a “mestiza,” or a person of mixed Filipinx and European heritage—her mom is white and her dad is a Filipino immigrant. White people often incorrectly guess her race, other people of color don’t see her as part of their community, and even Alex, who is also Asian-American, calls her “the whitest brown girl I know.” Lark describes her own race as a “weird middle place,” and she feels unsure of how, or even if, to claim her own identity. 

For Larson, these themes hit close to home. Like her protagonist, Larson is a mixed-race Filipina artist living in Utah, and though Mestiza is not directly autobiographical, she drew from the experiences of herself and her family in the script. Larson says that growing up, it was rare to see multiracial families—especially Flipinx ones—in theater or the media. “I’ve never expected to see myself on stage because of the way my family looks,” she says. “And I thought, ‘Well, why not try?’” 

Mestiza is a story rooted in the experiences of a mixed-race Filipinx family—the complex family dynamics, dysfunctional romance and professional setbacks are specifically tied to Lark’s identity, even if the character’s personal struggles will be broadly relatable to audiences of all races. Larson also writes about the professional and creative evolution of an artist trying to turn their craft into a career.  “There are times as an artist where you just feel like, ‘Hey, I made something really pretty, but also I’m bad at this. I’m never going to make any money. I’m never going to get to that place where I’m doing this for a job,’” Larsen says.  

While writing Mestiza, Larson explored her own vulnerable feelings about race and cultural divides. In one key scene, Lark is chosen as a finalist at a film festival, and a critical online commenter assumes from the black-and-white headshots of the screenwriters that every recipient is white. Larsen based this on an experience she herself had, which party inspired her to write the play. The moment—and the raw conversation with Alex it inspires—illustrates the ways Lark feels invisible.

Lark and Larson both share a self-consciousness about their own race, which leaves them feeling unmoored from their communities. “I’ve struggled with feeling Filipino enough,” she says. This struggle, paradoxically, could make it more difficult for Larson to write about racial identity—and the insecurity surrounding that identity—so directly. While Larson felt plenty of trepidation about writing so personally, she ultimately felt freed by the opportunity to wrestle with these complicated topics through fiction. “I know this is relatable because I can relate to it,” she says.

Mestiza, or Mixed will be at the Rose Wagner Performing Arts Center from June 9-19 and streaming online from June 15-19. For tickets, visit Plan-B’s website. And while you’re here, subscribe and get six issues of Salt Lake magazine, your guide to the best of life in Utah.

Carol Channing. Barbra Streisand. Bette Midler. Few roles in musical theater—for men or women—have as storied of a legacy as the lead part in Hello Dolly! The classic musical is a nostalgic favorite that has lasted for decades, including in an acclaimed 2017 revival starring Midler and, later, Bernadette Peters. Now, the actress Paige Davis is joining the role’s legendary pedigree in a new production at Pioneer Theatre Company.

“I’ve wanted to bring Hello, Dolly! to our stage ever since I arrived in Salt Lake City over 10 years ago,” says Karen Azenberg, Pioneer Theatre Company’s Artistic Director and the director and choreographer of this production. 

On the off-chance you don’t already know the story, the musical comedy, with music and lyrics by Jerry Herman and a book by Michael Stewart, follows Dolly Levi (Davis), a widowed matchmaker returning to New York after a long absence. Dolly claims she’s trying to find a wife for the wealthy Horace Vandergelder (Kris Coleman), but it quickly becomes clear that she hopes to marry Horace herself. Meanwhile, Dolly plays matchmaker to Horace’s store clerks—Cornelius (Alexander Mendoza) and Barnaby (Michael J. Rios)—and two young single women—Irene (Kelly McCormick) and Minnie (Dori Waymer).

Davis will lead the production in her PTC debut. Davis is known for hosting the TLC reality show Trading Spaces, where neighbors would redecorate rooms in each other’s houses with the aid of interior designers. Along with other TV appearances, Davis is also known in Utah for her years as a spokesperson for RC Willey—you might remember her as the cheery face of the furniture store’s ubiquitous TV ads. She may still get recognized as the “RC Willey lady,” but Davis has long had an accomplished career as a theater actress. A trained dancer, Davis performed on stage before, during and after her time on Trading Spaces, including a run as Roxie Hart on Broadway in Chicago. Now, Davis will perform for Utah audiences for the first time. (Her husband, actor Patrick Page, has a long legacy in Utah theater as a director of development at the Utah Shakespeare Festival and a frequent performer at PTC.) 

Davis has been a longtime fan of Hello Dolly!—she even performed her first professional role in a summer stock production of the musical. After she played the title role in Mame, another Herman musical, at North Shore Music Theater in Massachusetts, Page suggested that she could play the part of Dolly Levi. Davis was flattered—though she jokes that her initial reaction was, “how old do you think I am?” (For the record, Streisand was only 27 when the film version was released.) She could see the parallels between herself and the role. Davis, with a laugh, describes herself as a “meddler,” and after more than two years of COVID-19, she related to the story of a woman relearning to embrace life. After being cast in the role, Davis tried to cast aside the expectations set by past actresses and make the role her own. She describes her approach to the material as “ground up”—focusing on the script and music to build her own connection with the material.

Davis is the first to acknowledge that the musical, which premiered in 1964 and is set at the turn of the 20th century, has gender politics that modern audiences will find dated. Still, the project’s core optimism lives on—it’s no easy feat to remain an audience favorite decades after debuting. The score includes standards like the title song, “Before the Parade Passes By” and “It Only Takes a Moment.” Davis cites the song “Put On Your Sunday Clothes” as not only a highlight of the show but her favorite musical theater song of all time. “It’s impossible not to smile when you hear that song,” she says.

What does Davis hope audiences leave the production with? “The joy,” she says simply.

Hello Dolly! will be at Pioneer Theatre Company from May 13-28. Tickets and more information are available on PTC’s website.