SALT LAKE CITY: Salt Lake Acting Company (SLAC) has announced its 2017-18 season, featuring four mainstage productions and a children’s show.
“SLAC’s 2017-18 season will take us to new places theatrically and thematically,” said artistic director Cynthia Fleming in a statement. “Once again, our audiences will see things on SLAC’s stage they’ve never seen before. The stories of next season come in exciting and eclectic forms and we are thrilled to continue to stretch ourselves artistically. In a beautiful mix of smart comedies, thoughtful dramas, and a riveting musical, our 47th season is sure to be one of SLAC’s finest.”
The season will kick off with Chisa Hutchinson’s Surely Goodness and Mercy (Sept. 6-Oct. 15), about a twelve-year-old motherless outcast in an under-funded African-American school in New Jersey who befriends a childless woman who works in the school cafeteria.
Next up will be Steve Yockey’s Mercury (Oct. 11-Nov. 12), developed in SLAC’s New Play Sounding Series, a horror comedy about a seemingly fine world, yet Mercury is in retrograde, there are bears in the back yard, and people are disappearing. Shannon Musgrave will direct.
The season will continue with children’s show The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs (Dec. 1-29), by Paul Gilvary, Robert Kauzlaric, and William Rush. Based on the book by John Scieszka and Lane Smith, the story follows the Big Bad Wolf as he takes the stand in Piggsylvania’s Trial of the Century. Penelope Caywood will choreograph and direct.
Following will be Taylor Mac’s Hir (Feb. 7- March 11, 2018), about a discharged vet who returns home to find his mother liberated from an oppressive marriage, his sister in the process of changing genders, and his father asleep in a clown costume.
Next will be Fun Home (April 4-May 6, 2018), with music by Jeanine Tesori and book and lyrics by Lisa Kron. Based on the graphic novel by Alison Bechdel, the musical follows a chain of events in Alison’s childhood growing up in a funeral home as the closeted lesbian daughter of a father with secrets of his own. Caywood will choreograph, David Evanoff will provide musical direction, and Jason Bowcutt will direct.
The season will conclude with the return of Saturday’s Voyeur (June 20-Aug. 26, 2018), by Allen Nevins and Nancy Borgenicht, a satire about the bizarre realities of Salt Lake City. Fleming will direct.
Salt Lake Acting Company, founded in 1969, develops new works in its Playwrights’ Lab and produces contemporary plays and musicals.
