Salt Lake Acting Company - NPSS
THE VALUE by Nicholas Dunn NPSS Headshots & Bios
WHITELISTED Headshots & Bios
Let Down You Hair Headshots & Bios
SLAC's NPSS Festival Concludes March 29th with EGRESS
Announcing SLAC's First-Ever (Virtual) NPSS Festival
SWIMMING POOL by Will Snider
New Play Sounding Series
Free Reading
Monday, October 14 @ 7pm
Director: Robin Wilks-Dunn
Actors: Sean Carter, Barb Ganddy, Tamara Johnson-Howell, Dan Larrinaga, Tito Livas*, Morgan Lund*, Nicki Nixon, Lane Richins*, Natalie Keezer
Stage Manager: Katelyn Limber*
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.
SLAC thanks the Jarvis and Constance Doctorow Family Foundation for their generous support of this vital program.
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.
FOUR WOMEN TALKING ABOUT THE MAN UNDER THE SHEET by Elaine Jarvik
New Play Sounding Series
Free Reading
Monday, March 4 @ 7pm
Director: Jason Bowcutt
Dramaturg: Camille Washington
Actors: Colleen Baum, Dee-Dee Darby-Duffin, Susanna Florence, Tamara Howell, Nicki Nixon
Reader: Michelle Love-Day
Stage Manager: Katelyn Limber
On the morning of February 21, 1895, the day after the great man died, Susan B. Anthony shows up on his widow’s doorstep. She is there to grieve — but is she also feeling guilty? FOUR WOMEN TALKING ABOUT THE MAN UNDER THE SHEET is an exploration of feminism and race, asking “what compromises should you make in pursuit of a cause?”
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.
GRAB THEM BY THE P**** by Jeanette Munzert
New Play Sounding Series
Free Reading
Monday, October 29 @ 7pm
Director: Per Smedegaard
Assistant Director: Cynthia Fleming
Actors: April Fossen, Nicki Nixon, Topher Rasmussen, Lane Richins, Cassandra Stokes-Wylie
Reader: Joshua Black
Stage Manager: William Richardson
Sound Technician: Katelyn Limber
From Denmark's Teatret Svalegangen, comes this racy, absurd, yet painfully relatable new play about the many faces of feminism.
SLAC thanks the Jarvis and Constance Doctorow Family Foundation for their generous support of this vital program.
Doors open at 6:30pm. Open seating; first come, first served.
RESERVE YOUR TICKETS HERE
PART OF THE STORY by David Kranes
Adapted from the short story "Part of the Story" by Stephen Dobyns
New Play Sounding Series
Free Reading
Monday, April 30 @ 7pm
Director: Robin Wilks-Dunn
Actors: Daniel Beecher, April Fossen, Jacob Johnson, Teresa Sanderson, Matthew Sincell, Cassandra Stokes-Wylie
Stage Manager: Jordan Simmons
Five adult birth-children. Their birth mother. A first-time, get-together, potluck brunch in a trailer-home in Michigan. A dead lover in the back room. Story-telling; joke-telling. Bad behavior. Good behavior. Y'all come, now.
SLAC thanks the Jarvis and Constance Doctorow Family Foundation for their generous support of this vital program.
Doors open at 6:30pm. Open seating; first come, first served.
REYKJAVIK by Steve Yockey
AMERIKIN by Chisa Hutchinson
New Play Sounding Series
Free Reading
Monday, September 25 @ 7pm
Director: Adrianne Moore
Actors: Daisy Blake, Nicholas Dunn, Jacob Johnson, Kathryn Mungin, Matthew Sincell, Darryl Stamp, Cassandra Stokes-Wylie
Reader: Mary-Helen Pitman
Stage Manager: Kallie Erickson
A man takes an ancestry test a part of his initiation into a white supremacist group gets an unsettling surprise.
SLAC thanks the Jarvis and Constance Doctorow Family Foundation for their generous support of this vital program.
AMERIKIN by Chisa Hutchinson
New Play Sounding Series
Free Reading
Monday, September 25 @ 7pm
Director: Adrianne Moore
Actors: Daisy Blake, Nicholas Dunn, Jacob Johnson, Kathryn Mungin, Matthew Sincell, Darryl Stamp, Cassandra Stokes-Wylie
Reader: Mary-Helen Pitman
Stage Manager: Kallie Erickson
A man takes an ancestry test a part of his initiation into a white supremacist group gets an unsettling surprise.
SLAC thanks the Jarvis and Constance Doctorow Family Foundation for their generous support of this vital program.
NPSS: Streetlight Woodpecker
SLAC's New Play Sounding Series presents a free reading of STREETLIGHT WOODPECKER by Shawn Fisher on Monday, April 28th at 7:00 PM.
ABOUT THE PLAY
STREETLIGHT WOODPECKER follows the story of Benji, an undersized Marine who has returned to his Irish-Catholic neighborhood in Philadelphia after being critically injured during battle. He bears not only the medals he earned but also the scars, and now that he has come home he must face the emotional wounds he avoided by going to war.
When his father’s suicide renders him homeless just days after his return, Benji moves in with his childhood friend Sam. Soon questions that threatened Benji throughout his youth resurface, questions about his manhood and his relationship with Sam, and he distracts himself with booze, pills, and reckless fighting. Meanwhile, as Sam tries to protect him from self-destruction, Benji plots to kill a woodpecker that loudly bangs the metal streetlights in the neighborhood.
Shawn Fisher (Playwright) original scripts include SCOPE, THE CROW SONG, CHUMMING, STREETLIGHT WOODPECKER, and DO NOT HIT GOLF BALLS INTO MEXICO which was a National Finalist for the MetLife Nuestras Voces Playwriting Award and the David M. Cohen National Playwriting Award. HOW TO MAKE A ROPE SWING, which had a rolling premiere at both Salt Lake Acting Company and Cape May Stage, won an Edgerton Foundation New American Play Award, was a national finalist for New York's Urban Stages Emerging Playwright Award, and was a nominee for both the Steinberg/American Theatre Critics Association and the Barrie & Bernice Stavis national playwriting awards. His work has been produced or had staged-readings at Cape May Stage, the Spanish Repertory Theatre (Off-Broadway), the Los Angeles Theatre Center, Urban Stages (Off-Broadway), and Salt Lake Acting Company, among others. Shawn is also the Co-founder and Director of the National Playwrights Symposium at Cape May Stage. He earned his MFA in Theatre from Brandeis University and currently serves as a Professor and Head of Graduate Studies in Theatre at Utah State University. He is a native of New Jersey and is a proud member of The Dramatists Guild of America.
Richie Call (Director) is thrilled to be directing a reading for the first time at SLAC. He was previously part of the cast of SLAC's presentation of Do Not Hit Golf Balls Into Mexico, also by Shawn Fisher. Richie's acting credits include work for American Globe Theatre and Gorilla Rep in New York, Mile Square Theatre in New Jersey, and Pioneer Theatre Company, Salt Lake Shakespeare, and the Old Lyric Repertory Company in Utah. Richie is currently an Assistant Professor of Acting at Utah State University, and he is serving as a Co-Artistic Director of the Old Lyric Repertory Company. He received an MFA in Acting from Rutgers University, Mason Gross School of the Arts and a BFA in Performance from Utah State University.
Stefan Espinosa (Benji) is thrilled to be joining SLAC on this project – there is truly nothing more exciting or artistically satisfying than helping to bring a talented playwrights' new work to life. A native of Tucson, Arizona,Stefan has been fortunate to perform with wonderful theatres across the country. Favorite past regional theatre credits include: The Importance of Being Earnest, Urinetown (PCPA); The Pirates of Penzance, Sherlock Holmes: The Final Adventure, Pride and Prejudice (Arizona Theatre Company); Richard III, Henry V, Wild Oats (Wortham Theatre); Big River, Amadeus, Little Shop of Horrors, Lend Me A Tenor (Old Lyric Repertory); Camelot, The Mikado, Guys and Dolls, Fiddler on the Roof (Utah Festival Opera and Musical Theatre) and Stefan will be playing Thenardier in UFOMTs upcoming summer production of Les Miserables. Stefan has a BFA in Musical Theatre from the University of Arizona, and an MFA in Acting from the University of Houston. Stefan also runs the Utah Festival Conservatory for the Performing Arts and is an adjunct member of the Theatre faculty at Idaho State University.
Jason Spelbring (Sam) is thrilled to be a part of SLAC's New Play Sounding Series. Jason is an actor, director and educator. He is currently an assistant professor of acting at Utah State University's Caine College of the Arts. Theatre credits include six seasons at the Tony Award winning Utah Shakespeare Festival, Great River Shakespeare Festival, Kentucky Shakespeare Festival, Ensemble Theatre Company, Santa Barbara and PCPA Theaterfest. This fall Jason will be directing Pierre Marivaux's The Game of Love and Change for the Caine College of the Arts. www.jasonmichaelspelbring.com
Angela Roundy (Elizabeth) attended Utah State University where she earned her BFA in Acting. While at USU she appeared in such productions as KING LEAR, JAMES and the GIANT PEACH, TARTUFFE, and ROSENCRANTZ & GUILDENSTERN ARE DEAD. Her acting training began at the College of Eastern Utah where credits included THE CRUCIBLE, PICASSO at the LAPIN AGILE, and THE CRIPPLE OF INISHMAAN. Angela also appeared in The Neil Simon Festival's production of COME BLOW YOUR HORN.
Richard Johnson (Matt) is thrilled to make his SLAC debut with a talented and seasoned cast of peers. Richard has been seen locally this past summer in THE ODD COUPLE with Old Lyric Repertory Company. California credits include AS YOU LIKE IT with New Village Arts/Moonlight Cultural Foundation, LOST APOLLONIA and PICTURING MY SISTER with New Village Arts/Playwrights Project, JACOB MARLEY'S CHRISTMAS CAROL with Oceanside Theatre Company, and HENRY IV pt1 and THE TEMPEST with North Coast Repertory Theatre/MiraCosta College.
Lance Rasmussen (Reader) has performed for three seasons at the Old Lyric Theatre Company where he played in THE ODD COUPLE, JAMES AND THE GIANT PEACH, and AMADEUS among others. He is about to graduate from Utah State University with a BFA in Theatre Performance. At USU he has acted in plays including CANDIDA, LEARNED LADIES, TALKING PICTURES, A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM, OUR COUNTRY'S GOOD, and TWENTIETH CENTURY. He intends to pursue an MFA in acting.