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Tuacahn 2021 Season
Among the rare arts opportunities available to those living in Utah is a chance to see live theater in one of the most spectacular settings anywhere. Tuacahn Amphitheater in Ivins finds its shows given the stunning redrocks backdrop of the mouth of Padre Canyon. If you’ve been waiting for the right time to get back to seeing a theatrical production, you’d have a hard time finding something more ideal than an outdoor show showcasing such natural beauty.
That’s not to say that the Tuacahn 2021 season doesn’t offer plenty of delightful options, full of shows that would be worth your time no matter what was behind the stage. This weekend marks your last opportunity to see this production of Annie, the 1977 Tony Award-winning musical adaptation of the comic strip featuring the Depression-era adventures of a spunky red-headed orphan adopted by a wealthy man. Two other current shows continue their runs, however: Disney’s Beauty and the Beast (pictured), the stage adaptation of the beloved animated musical (through Oct. 23); and Million Dollar Quartet, which speculates on a 1956 studio session in Memphis, Tennessee involving music legends Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins and Johnny Cash (through Aug. 7).
If for some reason this weekend doesn’t work, more fun is still to come. Next week marks the opening of School of Rock (July 17-Oct. 22), adapting the hit Jack Black comedy, while the following week brings a new musical adaptation of The Count of Monte Cristo (July 24-Oct. 21). Visit tuacahn.org for schedules and ticket information, and plan your trip now. (Scott Renshaw)
TUACAHN CENTER FOR THE ARTS
Renaissance Day @ University Place
We might have just had the actual experience of living through a plague, but for some reason we still find it fascinating to revisit a Europe of centuries ago—a time without modern medicine, sure, but also a time that feels steeped in heroism and pageantry. Renassiance faires and festivals continue to be a popular pastime for those who might consider the 16th century a nice place to visit, even if you wouldn’t want to live there. Swords, chivalry, magic, lilting music—it’s all the stuff of your favorite movies and fiction, with the advantage of being able to drive home to your air conditioning and wifi. Saturday, July 10 marks the return of an annual tradition at Orem’s University Place with Renaissance Day activities for all ages. Headlining the entertainment is the real armored combat of Salt Lake City Crusaders (pictured), a group dedicated to preserving the spectacle and skills of swordplay in full suits of armor; you can meet members of the group, then watch an actual battle in all its clinking and clanking glory. Musical performances are also on tap, including bagpipers and the Harp Irish Dance Company. And while it might not exactly be thematically consistent, there’s also a chance for wannabe pirates of all ages to explore the Black Pearl.
Renaissance Day appears for but a few hours at University Place (575 E. University Parkway) from 6 p.m. – 9 p.m. Visit the website for additional information, and plan a brief escape into days of yore.
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Three Creeks Confluence Park Opening Celebration
In 2014, a group of University of Utah students traced three creeks—Red Butte, Emigration and Parley’s—from their headwaters to their confluence with the Jordan River, and found that all three emptied in the same location. That was the start of a project including the creation of the Seven Canyons Trust, a non-profit working to restore and uncover impaired creeks. And part of that effort has included the creation of Three Creeks Confluence Park at 1300 South & 900 West in Glendale, where 200 feet of stream—previously buried in concrete for 100 years—has now been uncovered to become part of a new open space that also features two beautiful bridges.
On Friday, July 9, you’re invited to join an opening celebration for Three Creeks Confluence Park, from 5 p.m. – 9 p.m. Live performances are on the docket, including Native American dance and drumming from Sunwater Singers, and folk melodies by First Daze. Salt Lake Arts Council presents information about community art that has been installed at the site, and other local organizations including Tracy Aviary, Salt Lake City Public Library and Salt City Bike Collective will also offer information about their activities. You can paddle the Jordan River with the Jordan River Commission, or simply kick back with a cold beverage from Fisher Brewing or food offerings by Balabe and Mas Gorditas.
The event is free and open to the public. On-street parking is limited, and alternative forms of transportation—including bus and Trax, or making use of the bicycle valet service—are encouraged to enjoy your evening. (SR)
Wasatch Wildflower Festival
The beauty of our local landscape takes on distinctive seasonal qualities, from the winter mountain snows to the fall leaves that turn the hillsides into a riot of golds, oranges and purples. This time of year, however, is perfect for appreciating the glories of wildflowers in the Big and Little Cottonwood Canyons. And if you’ve always wanted to know a little bit more about them, consider signing up for the events that make up the Cottonwood Canyons Foundation’s annual Wasatch Wildflower Festival.
The Festival provides a unique opportunity for guests to get out into the beauty of the canyons in the summer, while also providing education on how to appreciate and preserve this unique resource. Each of the four Cottonwood Canyons resorts—Alta, Snowbird, Solitude and Brighton—dedicates a day to a series of walks and hikes, able to accommodate a wide range of age and ability levels, including kidfriendly. Most of the walks take place at a gentle pace, but difficulty level varies based on trail difficulty and the length of the excursion, anywhere from 45 minutes to three hours. All of the walks are led by Cottonwood Canyons Foundation naturalist guides, providing information on the flora and fauna you might see.
Tours are scheduled for July 10 (Brighton), July 11 (Solitude), July 17 (Snowbird) and July 18, with start times from 9 a.m. – 1 p.m.; selfguided hike information is also available. All events are free, but registration is required. Visit cottonwoodcanyons.org for full schedule and registration links, and dive into a wild mountain summer. (SR)
Heel Yeah
A preview of some of the offerings in the 2021 Damn These Heels Queer Film Festival
The end of June doesn’t mean the end of interesting programming based around LGBTQ issues. The Utah Film Center’s Damn These Heels Queer Film Festival launches July 9 with 25 features and three short film programs, highlighting the queer experience in documentaries and narrative features. Here’s a look at a few of the entries available for preview at press time; while most titles are available for streaming ticket purchase, some screenings are in-person. Check damntheseheels.org/film-program for full schedule and ticketing information.
Cicada: Co-writer/co-director/star Matt Fifer’s semi-autobiographical romantic drama tries to pack a lot of issues in 95 minutes, but works best as a story about two people navigating new relationship territory. Ben (Fifer) is a young man living and working in New York City, his nights spent in a succession of male (and occasionally female) onenight hook-ups. Then he meets Sam (Sheldon D. Brown), and the two begin a tentative romance. Each of them is affected by the aftermath of traumatic events—Sam’s related to anti-gay violence, Ben’s initially just hinted at and underlined by a high-profile news story that plays in the background— and it is a bit dizzying watching Fifer try to address so many topics, including Sam being closeted to his religious father, and the fact that the relationship is interracial. But Cicada mostly hits the marks in its lowkey way, notwithstanding Cobie Smulders’ cameo as Ben’s slightly out-there therapist feeling like it belongs in a completely different movie. The title metaphor for emerging at just the right moment is bit on-the-nose; there’s otherwise a solid sense for the tensions that can pull love apart.
Cured: One of the most contentious battlefields of the gay rights movement—the fight to have homosexuality removed as a mental disorder from the guidelines of the American Psychiatric Association—gets a terrifically comprehensive treatment in Patrick Sammon and Bennett Singer’s documentary. After laying the foundation for what it was like to be gay and subjected to the threat of institutionalization or electroshock therapy for your “disease” in the 1950s and 1960s, the filmmakers spend time on the activists like Barbara Gittings and Frank Kameny who led the charge from the outside, as well as closeted gay psychiatrists who worked for change from the inside. Inevitably, there are detours about the broader post-Stonewall gay rights movement that are going to feel fairly familiar, but Sammon and Singer are wise enough to let those who were in the trenches tell their own stories of making “good trouble” like disrupting the 1970 APA convention in San Francisco. The archival footage of news broadcasts and interview shows make it clear just how much these people were fighting against, and how monumental it would be not to have institutional medicine define them as sick.
No Straight Lines: The Rise of Queer Comics: What at first glance seems like an interesting pop-culture footnote quickly turns into a portrait of some true pioneers, as well as the power of representation. Director Vivian Kleiman visits with some of the landmark creators of gay-themed underground comics in the 1970s, 1980s
Cured
STRAND RELEASING COMPADRE MEDIA GROUP
We’re All Going to the World’s Fair
STORY CENTER FILMS
and 1990s, including Rupert Kinnard (The Brown Bomber), Mary Wings (Come Out Comix), Howard Cruse (Gay Comix) and Alison Bechdel (Fun Home). Individually, the profiles are moderately satisfying, both in the tales of how they didn’t see their experience in the traditional comics of the time, and occasionally about their artistic process and the shifting landscape of publishing into the early 21st century. But the strongest material involves a sense of community, as these creators begin working together on projects, and as a younger generation of creators pays their groundbreaking forebears their proper respect. The occasionally fragmented narrative adds up to a big picture about refusing to allow yourself to be invisible in the world.
We’re All Going to the World’s Fair:
There’s an almost deliberate provocation in the way Jane Schoenbrun’s debut feature feints and dodges about what kind of genre its working in—and it wouldn’t be playing fair to spoil it. The set-up involves teenager Casey (Anna Cobb) taking “the World’s Fair Challenge,” an online creepypasta horror narrative; as she begins to post videos about how she thinks she might be changing, a stranger identifying himself as JLB (Michael J. Rodgers) reaches out to Casey. Schoenbrun teases with the circumstances of Casey’s life—her parents are never seen—as well as why JLB might investing himself so much in her fate. And while there are a few genuinely disturbing images sprinkled throughout the narrative, it’s never entirely clear whether there’s an actual supernatural component to World’s Fair. It’s more unsettling as a portrait of how lonely, isolated people get sucked down Internet rabbit holes, seeking ways to connect with people, even if those ways seem disturbing or unhealthy. There’s scary stuff going on here, but the scariest thing might be Cobb’s committed performance as a kid who has no idea how becoming part of this world might be affecting her. CW
