Salt Lake Acting Company - Silent Dancer

Kathleen Cahill's world premiere Jazz Age romance runs April 10 through May 12th

Salt Lake Acting Company presents the world premiere of SILENT DANCER by Utah-based playwright, Kathleen Cahill, beginning April 10th. The play recieves its premiere following several developmental workshops both at SLAC (including a New Play Sounding Series reading in March, 2017) and Sacramento’s B Street Theatre.

Set in the tumultuous world of Manhattan in the 1920’s, SILENT DANCER is being billed as a “groundbreaking dance/play/romance about dangerous love, secret identities, criminals, silent movies, and the most famous couple in New York.” In it, Cahill populates an original story about an aspiring dancer with real-life historical figures—F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald, as well as infamous gangster Jackie “Legs” Diamond.

Mikki Reeve as Rosie Quinn in SILENT DANCER. Photo: Joshua Black

• Mikki Reeve as Rosie Quinn in SILENT DANCER. Photo: Joshua Black Mikki Reeve as Rosie Quinn in SILENT DANCER. Photo: Joshua Black
• Savannah Roberts in Salt Lake Acting Company’s SILENT DANCER. Photo: Joshua Black Savannah Roberts in Salt Lake Acting Company’s SILENT DANCER. Photo: Joshua Black
• McKenzie Barkdull in Salt Lake Acting Company’s SILENT DANCER. Photo: Joshua Black McKenzie Barkdull in Salt Lake Acting Company’s SILENT DANCER. Photo: Joshua Black
• Austin Archer in Salt Lake Acting Company’s SILENT DANCER. Photo: Joshua Black Austin Archer in Salt Lake Acting Company’s SILENT DANCER. Photo: Joshua Black
• William Richardson as Michael Quinn in Salt Lake Acting Company’s SILENT DANCER. Photo: Joshua Black William Richardson as Michael Quinn in Salt Lake Acting Company’s SILENT DANCER. Photo: Joshua Black
• Alice Ryan and Mikki Reeve as Zelda Fitzgerald and Rosie Quinn in Salt Lake Acting Company’s SILENT DANCER. Photo: Joshua Black Alice Ryan and Mikki Reeve as Zelda Fitzgerald and Rosie Quinn in Salt Lake Acting Company’s SILENT DANCER. Photo: Joshua Black
• Makayla Claussen, Jorji Diaz, McKenzie Barkdull, and Savannah Roberts in Salt Lake Acting Company’s SILENT DANCER. Photo: Joshua Black Makayla Claussen, Jorji Diaz, McKenzie Barkdull, and Savannah Roberts in Salt Lake Acting Company’s SILENT DANCER. Photo: Joshua Black
• Austin Archer in Salt Lake Acting Company’s SILENT DANCER. Photo: Joshua Black Austin Archer in Salt Lake Acting Company’s SILENT DANCER. Photo: Joshua Black
• Darrell T. Joe as Perry in Salt Lake Acting Company’s SILENT DANCER. Photo: Joshua Black Darrell T. Joe as Perry in Salt Lake Acting Company’s SILENT DANCER. Photo: Joshua Black
• Noah Kershisnik as F. Scott Fitzgerald in Salt Lake Acting Company’s SILENT DANCER. Photo: Joshua Black Noah Kershisnik as F. Scott Fitzgerald in Salt Lake Acting Company’s SILENT DANCER. Photo: Joshua Black
• Alice Ryan as Zelda Fitzgerald in Salt Lake Acting Company’s SILENT DANCER. Photo: Joshua Black Alice Ryan as Zelda Fitzgerald in Salt Lake Acting Company’s SILENT DANCER. Photo: Joshua Black
• Austin Archer as Jackie “Legs” Diamond in Salt Lake Acting Company’s SILENT DANCER. Photo: Joshua Black Austin Archer as Jackie “Legs” Diamond in Salt Lake Acting Company’s SILENT DANCER. Photo: Joshua Black
• Alice Ryan and Noah Kershisnik as Zelda and F. Scott Fitzgerald in Salt Lake Acting Company’s SILENT DANCER. Photo: Joshua Black Alice Ryan and Noah Kershisnik as Zelda and F. Scott Fitzgerald in Salt Lake Acting Company’s SILENT DANCER. Photo: Joshua Black
• Alice Ryan as Zelda Fitzgerald in Salt Lake Acting Company’s SILENT DANCER. Photo: Joshua Black Alice Ryan as Zelda Fitzgerald in Salt Lake Acting Company’s SILENT DANCER. Photo: Joshua Black
• Jorji Diaz in Salt Lake Acting Company’s SILENT DANCER. Photo: Joshua Black Jorji Diaz in Salt Lake Acting Company’s SILENT DANCER. Photo: Joshua Black
• Makayla Claussen in Salt Lake Acting Company’s SILENT DANCER. Photo: Joshua Black Makayla Claussen in Salt Lake Acting Company’s SILENT DANCER. Photo: Joshua Black
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Costume Designer: Nancy Hills | Assistant Costume Designer: Ally Thieme

SILENT DANCER runs April 10 through May 12. Tickets can be obtained via tickets.saltlakeactingcompany.org, in person at the SLAC box office, or by calling 801.363.7522. 

New Play Sounding Series
Free Reading: THE ROBERTASSEY

A Comedy by Kathleen Cahill

Monday, April 29 @ 7pm

Director: Penelope Caywood

Actors: Joe Crnich, Olivia Custodio, Alexandra Harbold, Robert Scott Smith

Reader: Valerie Kittel

Stage Manager: Miranda Giles

Roberta Mahoney is 40, unemployed, and taking a trip to Dublin, her father’s birthplace, with his ashes in her suitcase. Her pregnant sister Carol, talked her into it. Roberta hated her father, Hiker, an alcoholic veterinarian who loved animals – especially a pet skunk – more than his family. Roberta arrives in Dublin but her suitcase doesn’t.  Her trip turns into a magical mystery tour and the lost suitcase comes to represent her life of loses –her inability to develop intimate relationships, or to find something to do in life that matters to her – all caused, she believes, by her alcoholic father who keeps appearing, carrying her suitcase and singing his old songs. She meets a woman in a second hand clothing store with a skunk’s tail, a hotel concierge who shows up wearing Roberta’s shoes, and two baggage handlers named Garth and Aemon, who insist they are different people but who look exactly alike; one of them seduces her with his “orphic songs.” Everyone in Dublin seems to be involved in Roberta’s predicament.

THE ROBERTASSEY is a comedy about grief, loss and love; a comical metaphor for the process of learning how to live. As the recorded voice in the lost luggage department says: “Please continue to hold. Don’t give up.  Hold on for as long as you possibly can.“

SLAC thanks the Jarvis and Constance Doctorow Family Foundation for their generous support of this vital program.

Reserve Tickets Here

Doors open at 6:30pm. Open seating; first come, first served.

Pictured clockwise from top left: Playwright Kathleen Cahill, Olivia Custodio, Robert Scott Smith, Alexandra Harbold, Joe Crnich, and Valerie Kittel

Described as "dance/play/romance" by Utah-based playwright Kathleen Cahill, SILENT DANCER is a world of dangerous love, secret identities, maids, dancers, criminals, silent movies, and the most famous couple in New York--Zelda and Scott Fitzgerald. A groundbreaking theatrical experience which expresses the pulse, the change, and the infinite possibilities of life in America.

The world premiere engagement of the Jazz Age romance will feature Mikki Reeve as Rosie Quinn, William Richardson* as Michael Quinn, Darrell T. Joe* as Perry Branfield, Austin Archer as Jackie "Legs" Diamond, Alice Ryan as Zelda Fitzgerald, and Noah Kershisnik as F. Scott Fitzgerald. Completing the cast are ensemble members Jorji Diaz, McKenzie Barkdull, Savannah Roberts, and Makayla Cussen.

Comprising the creative team are SLAC's Executive Artistic Director Cynthia Fleming (director), Christopher Ruud (choreographer), Loren Ruud (assistant choreographer), Michael Leavitt (music composer), Martine Kei Green-Rogers (dramaturg), Dennis Hassan (set design), Nancy Hills (costume design), Michael Horejsi (lighting design), Jen Jackson (sound design), Joshua Roberts (projection design) and Justin Ivie (stage manager).

SILENT DANCER makes its world premiere at Salt Lake Acting Company April 10-May 12, 2019. Tickets can be purchased here.

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• Alice Ryan Alice Ryan
• Austin Archer Austin Archer
• Darrell T. Joe Darrell T. Joe
• Jorji Diaz Jorji Diaz
• Makayla Cussen Makayla Cussen
• Mikki Reeve Mikki Reeve
• McKenzie Barkdull McKenzie Barkdull
• Noah Kershisnik Noah Kershisnik
• Savannah Roberts Savannah Roberts
• William Richardson William Richardson
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Media inquiries: please contact Joshua Black, Director of Communications, at

*Member of Actors' Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States