A&E

from City Weekly October 28, 2021

Wasatch Contemporary Dance: Curioser

Familiar stories can often feel completely new when artist takes a different way of looking at them. That’s the way that Wasatch Contemporary Dance approaches the source material of Lewis Carroll’s beloved stories about Alice and her adventures in Wonderland, as part of the new dance presentation Curioser.

As told by WCD and choreographer Jaclyn Brown, Curioser “is a work that investigates mental health issues and their physical manifestations in the body, as well as their impact on social interactions in both isolation and a group setting,” Brown says in an artist statement. “Based on the Mad Hatter’s question ‘Have I gone mad?’… , we navigate this sensitive issue with respect to the community that it affects, and an aim to destigmatize discussion of its related topics.”

“During the process of creation, it has been difficult to … embody the various forms of mental illness in a way that deals with the elements of dance, rather than adopting a characterization we do not have experience with ourselves. … We have made an immense effort to abstract these concepts into a piece that displays a less-than-literal interpretation.”

You can catch Curioser at the Covey Center for the Arts (425 W. Center St., Provo) Oct. 28-29 at 7:30 p.m. nightly. On Oct. 29, 4-6:30 p.m., the company will offer a workshop for dancers 14-18 years old in conjunction with the production. Tickets are $17-$30; face coverings are recommended, but not required. Visit wasatchcontemporary.com for tickets and additional event information. (Scott Renshaw)

Plan-B Radio Hour: Sleepy Hollow

You might think that an all-audio dramatic presentation would be easier to stage in the COVID era than an in-person show—but that’s not necessarily the case, according to Plan-B Theatre Company’s artistic director Jerry Rapier. Sleepy Hollow, the 15th installment of the company’s Radio Hour presentations on KUER, was originally planned for last year, but the limitations of the studio’s recording space made it impossible.

“At that point [in 2020], no one felt safe, so we just shelved it,” Rapier recalls. “There’s barely enough room to socially-distance the actors in the Radio West studio proper; we have to put them at funny angles. A soundproof room is great for quality radio, but not great for COVID spacing.”

Still, though a hybrid of in-person and virtual rehearsals and a lot of that creative arrangement of the team, Plan-B will get to present Matthew Ivan Bennett’s original adaptation of the familiar Washington Irving story about mild-mannered Ichabod Crane (Radio Hour stalwart Jay Perry) and his encounter with the terrifying Headless Horseman. The story choice this time came from Radio West’s Doug Fabrizio; “The minute he suggested it,” Rapier says, “it was like, ‘Yeah, let’s do a real spooky Halloween show.’”

Radio Hour: Sleepy Hollow will be performed and broadcast live on Friday, Oct. 29 at 11 a.m. on KUER 90.1, with an encore broadcast at 7 p.m. The show will subsequently be available via the Radio West podcast, via the Plan-B Theatre Company app, and on the KUER website page that houses the history of the Radio Hour collaboration. (SR)

Day of the Dead Celebration @ Cultural Celebration Center

Though Halloween dominates popular culture as a fall event, recent years have seen growing interest in the traditional Día de los Muertos/Day of the Dead celebration, in part owing to representation in popular culture like the Pixar feature Coco. Locally, one of the biggest such celebrations annually takes place at the Utah Cultural Celebration Center (3333 S. Decker Lake Dr., West Valley City), and it returns to a live presentation in 2021 with plentiful activities marking the occasion.

The event is scheduled to include traditional Mexican dance and music performances, food and beer garden offerings, community altars and several hands-on craft activities for all ages. Attendees are also invited to participate in the La Catrina/El Catrín costume contest, evoking the figure of the well-dressed, smiling-skull-faced figure from Mexican Día de los Muertos iconography, part of a tradition dating back to artists of the early 1900s reminding people that even the wealthy landowners could not escape mortality. Gallery exhibits (running through Nov. 4) including ofrendas (pictured), traditional Mexican dresses and photography of previous Day of the Dead celebrations are also available for viewing included with admission, along with a local artists’ market.

The Day of the Dead events take place Saturday, Oct. 30, 11 a.m.-6 p.m., with tickets $5 for adults and free for children 12 and under. Face masks will be required for all attendees over the age of 4, and entry will be through timed-ticket reservations. Visit culturalcelebration.org for tickets and additional information. (SR)

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In the nearly 30 years since Jurassic Park became a cinematic blockbuster, dinosaurs have only continued to grow more compelling in the public imagination. They seem like things from another world, even though they were once part of ours. And thanks to an exciting touring attraction, it can feel like that again.

Jurassic Quest is a large-scale event that feels like a touring dinosaur-themed amusement park, with walk-through exhibits showcasing the Cretaceous, Jurassic and Triassic eras. But the real stars of the interactive event are more than 100 life-size recreations of those eras’ giant historical occupants, all of them painstakingly designed and brought to moving, sound-making life. Guests get a chance to dig up fossils, experience a dinosaur play area, participate in science and art activities, get their faces painted, take rides on their favorite life-size dinosaurs and even have close-up encounters with puppeteered baby dinosaurs. There really isn’t anything like it in terms of the chance for youngsters—and perhaps also their young-at-heart caretakers—to get up close and personal with the mammoth beasts that ruled the earth 60 million years ago.

Jurassic Quest makes its local stop at the Salt Palace Convention Center (100 S. West Temple) Oct. 29-31, 9 a.m.-8 p.m. FridaySaturday and 9 a.m.-6 p.m. Sunday. Tickets are $18-$36, varying by basic admission vs. unlimited ride options; some premium activities will require additional charge on-site. Masks are recommended but not required; visit jurassicquest.com to purchase tickets and for additional health & safety and event information. (SR)

Nick Bagley’s Abandoned Utah chronicles little-seen places left behind by time.

BY SCOTT RENSHAW scottr@cityweekly.net @scottrenshaw

Nick Bagley, a professional medical photographer, combined his passions for photography and exploring abandoned places for a new book titled Abandoned Utah, which combines images from his journeys with information about those places’ history. Bagley spoke with City Weekly ahead of an author event this week at Weller Book Works.

CW: What is about abandoned places that fascinates you?

My Mom kind of has similar interests, and we’d go on walks. There’d be some cool building, and she’d go over and look in the window. As I got older, I met other people who are into it too, and you realize you’re part of this community. It’s about the mystery, I guess. When I go into these buildings, it’s like you’re trying to explore the past.

CW: You relocated to Utah from the East Coast. Did you start researching ahead of your move to find out if Utah had the kind of places you liked exploring?

I didn’t move here with that even in the back of my brain. I liked to ski, and I got a job offer. But I got really into the abandoned stuff a few years after I moved out here. It was an afterthought, but a happy afterthought.

CW: How long did the process of developing the book take?

I was fortunate. I didn’t even submit a book proposal; the publisher saw my photos, and asked if I wanted to be part of this series. So it was just a year-and-a-half. … But I’d

CW: Do you do your research about the places you visit before you go, or does the visit lead to the research?

It’s kind of a mix of both. A lot of times, I go and take the photographs, then when I sit down to write about it, I find out more. But even when you go in, it’s still a mystery. It’s natural for the human mind, when they go in a creepy place, to wonder. Hollywood has a lot to do with it; I’ll go into some of these places, and it’s like right out of Universal Studios. If I were in the movie, I’d expect something creepy to come from around a corner.

CW: Your photographs are a mix of color and black & white. What determines which format you choose?

A lot of it just has to do with the colors of the buildings. A lot of these places aren’t really colorful anymore. If I see an abandoned house in a field, it’s going to look so much spookier and intriguing in black & white. On a blue-sky day, I’m going to want to use color. But a lot of it has to do with the vibe, and how I feel while I’m there.

CW: It seems like abandoned places really become a history of economic decisions, of places that have been left behind because they weren’t of value anymore.

That’s one of the really curious aspects of every place I go. Especially if I don’t research, and just find something, you wonder, what happened here? In some places, the mines didn’t necessarily run out; it was World War II and they had to shut them down so people could go fight, but when they returned, they weren’t profitable enough to reopen.

CW: The way you write about your visits to many of these places, it’s clearly somewhat dangerous. Is there a thrill-seeking component to this interest?

It’s a hundred percent part of it. A lot of these locations are relatively safe, but then you go into the abandoned mine shafts and stuff like that. I can’t recommend that to people, especially if you don’t know where you’re going. … I always let at least two or three people know [where I’m going]. Then there are times when I’m on my way and find something else and take a detour, and I don’t have cell service, and it’s like, oh well.

CW: A lot of these photos are full of graffiti at these abandoned places. What do you think the appeal is of leaving art in a place where almost nobody is likely to see it?

The people you see [tagging] billboards want the attention; the people in the basement of a building, they’re doing it for the pure art aspect. I’ve talked to a few of them. There’s people that are in it for a pure art form, in a place where they’re not going to get harassed.

Fisher Mansion

CW: What do you hope people get out of the book?

I want people to get out and start doing things, even if it’s not necessarily what I’m into. With the pandemic and stuff, people got stuck at home and stuck in their minds, so I try to encourage people to get out and create their own adventure. CW