I’m delighted to announce that UtahPresents has commissioned the exclusive premiere engagement of The Bridge, a contemporary ballet I helped to invent, produce, and write. This official premiere will take place for three nights in Kingsbury Hall (the University of Utah’s flagship, 2,000-seat performing arts center) in November 2018, produced in collaboration with SALT Contemporary Dance and NYC-based choreographer Brendan Duggan.
Kingsbury Hall has been home to many, many incredible performances, and I have so many personal memories in that building. (Sitting 15 feet from the Wynton Marsalis quintet, anyone?) I couldn’t be happier about, or more humbled by, this commission and incredible opportunity. Not only will the show (music, dance, technical design) be substantially more developed after a year+ of careful work, but it will also be spoiled by being produced and presented at the highest level.
To be clear, a production like this results from a large team of creative collaborators. The list is long, but I want to tip my hat to those involved in the February 2016 workshop performance at BYU’s Harris Fine Arts Center in Provo, Utah:
- Glen Nelson, for finding and adapting Ambrose Bierce’s short story
- Stuart Maxfield, my brother, for being willing to push his own boundaries and collaborate on a genre-bending production
- Chris Clark and Jenny Barlow, director and choreographer of the workshop performance, and our extended our technical team
- Mark Ammons and the very many faculty, staff, and student collaborators at BYU for sponsoring and executing the workshop
- Kevin Dazet, for creating jaw-dropping motion graphics
- Daniel Henderson, for gorgeous ensemble arrangements
- The cast, who brought the story to life with such enthusiasm
- And the ~850 ticket buyers who came on a random Wednesday night in the middle of winter to see a show they had never really heard of
Kingsbury Hall, here we come!