Salt Lake Acting Company - Free Reading
New Play Sounding Series Continues Record-Breaking 25th Year with SWIMMING POOL by Will Snider
Salt Lake Acting Company Presents Free Reading of New Play from DEATH OF A DRIVER Playwright
Summer, 1998. Once popular, Arrowhead Community Pool has seen membership decline for years. Retired pool president Dorothy Wilson blames video games and air-conditioning. But when new pool president Freddie Rosedale abolishes Dorothy's longstanding alcohol ban and installs a frozen margarita machine, the place comes back to life, and a battle begins. SWIMMING POOL is a dark ensemble comedy about American excess and restraint on the cusp of the 21st Century.
Featured in the one-night-only reading are Sean Carter, Barb Gandy, Tamara Johnson-Howell, Dan Larrinaga, Tito Livas*, Morgan Lund*, Kimiko Miyashima*, Nicki Nixon, and Lane Richins*. Robin Wilks-Dunn (I’LL EAT YOU LAST, GOOD PEOPLE) serves as director, Natalie Keezer will read stage directions, and Katelyn Limber* is stage manager.
Founded in 1994, Salt Lake Acting Company’s New Play Sounding Series (NPSS) continues its record-breaking 25th year with Will Snider’s SWIMMING POOL. The NPSS is the longest-running play reading series in Utah. Past works that have been workshopped in the NPSS to later receive full productions at SLAC (and elsewhere) include SILENT DANCER and HARBUR GATE by Kathleen Cahill, MERCURY by Steve Yockey, STAG’S LEAP by Sharon Olds, THE AGONY AND THE ECSTASY OF STEVE JOBS by Mike Daisey, A SLIGHT DISCOMFORT by Jeff Metcalf, and THE RECEPTIONIST by Adam Bock. Elaine Jarvik’s FOUR WOMEN TALKING ABOUT THE MAN UNDER THE SHEET, featured during last season’s NPSS, will receive its world premiere at SLAC in 2020.
SLAC's 2019 NPSS reading of FOUR WOMEN TALKING ABOUT THE MAN UNDER THE SHEET by Elaine Jarvik
SWIMMING POOL is free and open to the public. Reservations are required and can be made via SLAC’s website or by calling 801.363.7522.
*Member of Actors’ Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States
SLAC acknowledges the Jarvis and Constance Doctorow Family Foundation for their generous support of the New Play Sounding Series.
A TINY TASTE OF KUSHNER
On Monday February 2nd, the words of Tony Kushner will once again reverberate off the walls here at the Salt Lake Acting Company. SLAC is proud to present TINY KUSHER, a series of five short one-act plays by Kushner that is presented in conjunction with the Tanner Humanities Center's lecture with Mr. Kushner on February 5 at Kingsbury Hall, with support from Lee and Audrey Hollaar. Kushner's work is no stranger to the SLAC stage; SLAC was one of the first regional theaters to produce ANGELS IN AMERICA in 1995. It was brought back to the SLAC stage in 2010 for the company's 40th anniversary. Keven Myhre, Executive Producer at SLAC and director of the 2010 re-envisioning of the play, said that ANGELS was the one play that "encapsulated SLAC's mission to produce vibrant new work in contemporary theater... [it] defined that moment in our history."
TINY KUSHNER, unlike ANGELS, won't keep you in your seat for seven hours. Out of the five short plays, all but one feature characters who really existed, including Laura Bush. In typical productions of TINY KUSHNER, only four actors play the multitude of these eccentric personalities, but SLAC will be using a total of twelve different actors for each play. Director Robin Wilks-Dunn says, "When I heard Tony Kushner was coming to Kingsbury Hall, I thought it would be a nice community event to do a reading of one of his scripts that hasn't been done in Salt Lake before. And I thought the perfect partner would be Salt Lake Acting Company."
If you have never had the chance to hear the words of award-winning Tony Kushner in person, TINY KUSHNER is the perfect opportunity for you. You'll get five different samples all for the price of nothing! Bon appetit, theater goers! It is not to be missed.
-Olivia Custodio
