Six Utah arts companies will come together in a way they haven’t before — to produce a single, full collaborative piece, to be staged for one night only.
That’s according to Jerry Rapier, the artistic director of Plan-B Theatre, one of the companies involved in the production. The other companies are: Gina Baucher International Piano Foundation, PYGmalion Theatre Company, Repertory Dance Theatre, Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company and SB Dance.
“Pictures at an Exhibition: ReFramed” — to be performed Saturday, 8 p.m., at the Rose Wagner Performing Arts Center, 138 W. 300 South, Salt Lake City — is a show set in a small museum that exhibits paintings that inspired Russian composer Modest Mussorgsky’s piano suite “Picture at an Exhibition.”
In Mussorgsky’s original work, each movement of the suite corresponded to artworks from artist and architect Viktor Hartmann. In the Utah version, soon after the artwork is put up, it starts to cause chaos.
(Daniel Charon) Projections created by Daniel Charon, artistic director of Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company, for “Pictures at an Exhibition: ReFramed."
“ReFramed” is the next iteration of “Rose Exposed,” a combined show put on by all the resident groups that have used the Rose Wagner Performing Arts Center for more than a decade.
Utah playwright Melissa Leilani Larson created the framework for the night, and wrote the script for the production, with input from all the companies, Rapier said. Rapier worked with Larson on the script and helped assemble the cast. Frances Pruyn, artistic director at PYGmalion, will direct the production.
Daniel Charon, Ririe-Woodbury’s artistic director, designed the projections that will accompany the production and is choreographing Ririe-Woodbury’s portion.
This year’s event is different, Charon said, because the groups are collaborating from the beginning, instead of bringing their separate creations together.
“One thing this year that we’re really excited about in planning, it was the idea of more integrated collaboration,” Charon said. “A lot of times, we conceptualize what the project will be, each company goes away separately and makes their part, and then we come together and sort of string all those sections together. But this time offered a lot more opportunities to integrate companies.”
For example, Charon said he’s been working with Nick Cendese at RDT to integrate their rehearsals.
When it comes to the choreography, Charon said every year the goal is to make it fun, spontaneous and to say yes, “which is kind of the beauty of it,” he said, while spending time with the music and Larson’s script to make sure everything relates back to the paintings.
(Daniel Charon) Projections created by Daniel Charon, artistic director of Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company, for “Pictures at an Exhibition: ReFramed."
“The nice thing is that [the companies] have built a relationship over the years that we’ve been doing it. This is my 11th year, and it’s pretty much the same group as when I started, so we’ve been working together in different capacities for a long time,” Charon said. “We’re all kind of colorful characters and have our own points of view … everybody kind of has their specialties.”
Larson said the idea of using the museum exhibition as a framework was part of the original proposal that was brought to her when she was commissioned.
“I can’t claim credit for that, but I kind of took it and ran with it,” Larson said. “I love paintings. I love art. It’s something in two of my most recent plays. The creation of painting is a very major thing that characters are doing.”
Larson added: “The tricky thing about it was to figure out how to make sure that everybody has their moments, so we can feature all of these companies, and yet have the whole thing still feel very cohesive.”
In the past, Larson said the “Rose Exposed” show has been more of a showcase for each company, each working off a common theme.
“In this case, the theme is both a theme and a piece of music that is shared by everybody, so the structure kind of came out of that very naturally, because the key to this music is that it sounds like you’re walking around a gallery in an audience,” Larson said. “We are kind of, in a way, putting together an exhibition of these big companies. So that just made sense very, very naturally.”
Charon said that, as a choreographer, he is usually working from a blank canvas to create something. “The beauty of working with a script gives me limitations that are really helpful and really exciting to actually work from,” he said. “I like the limitation that the script serves as a backbone for us for this production.”
As for the classical music composition, Charon said they’re “tearing it apart.”
“We’re not taking it too seriously, in a really good way,” he said. “That sense of humor around it is actually really refreshing and really fun.”
Larson said working on this production has been a good challenge, different from anything she’s ever done — and anything that the performing arts coalition of the six involved companies has done before.
“What makes this show original … is that everybody plays the necessary part in it, like it’s all demonstrative. The show has the potential to be demonstrative of what the Rose is, and what it offers the community, which is the space where all of these different artistic entities can exist and produce and perform.”
It’s a great way. Larson said, for Utahns to get to know all six companies in one night.
“Pictures at an Exhibition: ReFramed” is happening one night only, Saturday, at the Rose Wagner Performing Arts Center, 138 W. 300 South, Salt Lake City, at 8 p.m. Tickets are available for $15, available at Arttix.org.
