Voices of Utah women playwrights will be heard loud and clear in the Rose Wagner Performing Arts Center next season, in Plan-B Theatre Company’s 2019-2020 season.
The season, announced Tuesday, will deliver three new original works in its subscription season, a free children’s play and two of its “Script-In-Hand” reading series performances — all written by women. Also scheduled are a reading of short plays from the Theatre Artists of Color writing workshop and the annual radio play for KUER’s “RadioWest.”
Here are the three plays in the subscription season, with synopses provided by Plan-B:
Nov. 7-17 • “Oda Might,” by Camille Washington • “A doctor, a medium and an orderly walk into a mental hospital. ... A psychological thriller blurring the line between truth and reality.” The play, Washington’s Plan-B debut, is presented in partnership with the David Ross Fetzer Foundation for Emerging Artists.
Feb. 13-23, 2020 • “Singing to the Brine Shrimp,” by Jenny Kokai • “A madcap comedy about learning who you really are and what you truly value. With puppets and songs and the Great Salt Lake.” Ken Plain is writing the music for this, Kokai’s third Plan-B production (after “Zombie Thoughts,” which she wrote with her son, Oliver Kokai-Means, and “(In)Divisible”). Co-produced with Puppets in the City.
March 26-April 5, 2020 • “The Audacity,” by Jenifer Nii • “Josie, Ann & Elizabeth Bassett — a trio of women from Utah history — share what was, to reveal what is, to question what might be.” This is Nii’s eighth production with Plan-B.
Subscriptions, at $60 each, are on sale now at the company’s website, planbtheatre.org, or by calling 801-297-4200.
An add-on to the subscription is the annual one-night event “Rose Exposed,” on Aug. 24. The event features works by the six arts groups that have residence at the Rose Wagner Performing Arts Center, 138 W. 300 South, Salt Lake City: Plan-B, the Gina Bachauer piano competition, PYGmalion Productions, Repertory Dance Theatre, Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company and SB Dance. Plan-B’s part of the evening will be a new short play by Olivia Custodio. Tickets are $15 each.
Rounding out Plan-B’s schedule are the free shows. First is the free elementary school tour, set to be performed at Title I schools this fall and winter. This year’s play is Morag Shepherd’s “Flora Meets a Bee,” about an 8-year-old foster child whose new friendship with Bee changes everything. The play is aimed at audiences kindergarten through third grade.
The “Script-In-Hand” series has three shows scheduled (admission is free, but tickets are required and can be picked up starting April 4):
• Julie Jensen’s “P.G. Anonymous,” billed as “a play-in-progress about reproduction, fear and fury,” on Nov. 13.
• Jenifer Nii’s “Suffrage,” in which “two sister wives navigate Utah’s little-known place in history as the second U.S. territory to give women the vote,” on Jan. 12, 2020. The cast from Plan-B’s 2013 production will reunite to perform the play, to mark the centennial of the 19th Amendment, as part of the Better Days 2020 celebration.
• The short plays from the Theatre Artists of Color writing workshop, on Feb. 9, 2020, as part of the Edward Lewis Theatre Festival.
Lastly, Plan-B’s annual “Radio Hour” will present its 14th installment, Matthew Ivan Bennett’s “Circle,” presenting “a little sentient AI for the holidays,” on Dec. 12. The play will be produced live at 9 a.m. and aired on KUER’s “RadioWest,” and rebroadcast on KUER, 90.5 FM, at 7 p.m. that night.
