Salt Lake Acting Company - nancy borgenicht

Note: Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, this production has been canceled. 

Casting for the 42nd iteration of Utah's longest-running theatre tradition, SATURDAY'S VOYEUR, has been solidified. Co-created by Allen Nevins and Nancy Borgenicht, SATURDAY'S VOYEUR 2020 promises to once again pay homage to the Beehive State through biting satire and irreverant wit in Utah's biggest summer party.

This year's production will feature Voyeur alumni Daisy Ali All, Joseph Paul Branca, Eric Lee Brotherson*, Justin Ivie*, Dan Larrinaga, Matthew Tripp, Julie Silvestro Waite*, Jacob Weitlauf*, and Annette Wright.

Making their SATURDAY'S VOYEUR (and SLAC) debuts are Kimi Brown, Makena Reynolds, and Mina Sadoon. 

The returning creative team includes Michael Leavitt (musical direction), Michael Horejsi (scenic design), Jesse Portillo** (lighting design), Heidi Ortega (costume design) and Jennie Sant* (stage management). The production will once again be helmed by SLAC's Executive Artistic Director Cynthia Fleming.

SATURDAY'S VOYEUR 2020 makes its world premiere at Salt Lake Acting Company June 17 - August 23, 2020. Tickets are currently on sale here. 

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

** The lighting designer of SATURDAY'S VOYEUR 2020 is represented by United Scenic Artists Local 829 IATSE

Salt Lake Acting Company's 49th season continues with the Utah premiere of Lucas Hnath's A DOLL'S HOUSE, PART 2. The 8-time Tony Award-nominated play is being produced in SLAC’s Upstairs Theatre February 5 through March 8, 2020.

Nora Helmer leaving her husband and children at the end of Ibsen’s 1879 masterpiece was the “door slam heard ‘round the world.” Fifteen years later, there’s a knock at that same door. Nora’s back. But why? And where has she been? Lucas Hnath’s brilliantly funny sequel to Ibsen’s classic was nominated for 8 Tony Awards and now makes its Utah premiere at SLAC.

“Whether you view Nora’s actions at the end of A DOLL’S HOUSE –‘Part 1’—as radical or an act of #selfcare, ‘Part 2’ examines the aftermath and reality of her choice,” said SLAC’s Executive Artistic Director Cynthia Fleming. “It’s why I was drawn to this work. So often plays with a feminist message are anything but subtle or balanced. A DOLL’S HOUSE, PART 2 is nuanced, yet bold, and heartbreaking, and comedic. I adore it and our audiences will as well.”

Stacey Jenson in A DOLL’S HOUSE, PART 2 at Salt Lake Acting Company. Photo: dav.d daniels/ dav.d photography

• Stacey Jenson in A DOLL’S HOUSE, PART 2 at Salt Lake Acting Company. Photo: dav.d daniels/ dav.d photography Stacey Jenson in A DOLL’S HOUSE, PART 2 at Salt Lake Acting Company. Photo: dav.d daniels/ dav.d photography
• Annette Wright, Stacey Jenson, Rachael Merlot, and Paul Mulder in A DOLL’S HOUSE, PART 2 at Salt Lake Acting Company. Photo: dav.d daniels/ dav.d photography Annette Wright, Stacey Jenson, Rachael Merlot, and Paul Mulder in A DOLL’S HOUSE, PART 2 at Salt Lake Acting Company. Photo: dav.d daniels/ dav.d photography
• Paul Mulder, Annette Wright, and Stacey Jenson in A DOLL’S HOUSE, PART 2 at Salt Lake Acting Company. Photo: dav.d daniels/ dav.d photography Paul Mulder, Annette Wright, and Stacey Jenson in A DOLL’S HOUSE, PART 2 at Salt Lake Acting Company. Photo: dav.d daniels/ dav.d photography
• Stacey Jenson in A DOLL’S HOUSE, PART 2 at Salt Lake Acting Company. Photo: dav.d daniels/ dav.d photography Stacey Jenson in A DOLL’S HOUSE, PART 2 at Salt Lake Acting Company. Photo: dav.d daniels/ dav.d photography
• Stacey Jenson and Paul Mulder in A DOLL’S HOUSE, PART 2 at Salt Lake Acting Company. Photo: dav.d daniels/ dav.d photography Stacey Jenson and Paul Mulder in A DOLL’S HOUSE, PART 2 at Salt Lake Acting Company. Photo: dav.d daniels/ dav.d photography
• Paul Mulder in A DOLL’S HOUSE, PART 2 at Salt Lake Acting Company. Photo: dav.d daniels/ dav.d photography Paul Mulder in A DOLL’S HOUSE, PART 2 at Salt Lake Acting Company. Photo: dav.d daniels/ dav.d photography
• Stacey Jenson and Paul Mulder in A DOLL’S HOUSE, PART 2 at Salt Lake Acting Company. Photo: dav.d daniels/ dav.d photography Stacey Jenson and Paul Mulder in A DOLL’S HOUSE, PART 2 at Salt Lake Acting Company. Photo: dav.d daniels/ dav.d photography
• Stacey Jenson, Paul Mulder, and Annette Wright in A DOLL’S HOUSE, PART 2 at Salt Lake Acting Company. Photo: dav.d daniels/ dav.d photography Stacey Jenson, Paul Mulder, and Annette Wright in A DOLL’S HOUSE, PART 2 at Salt Lake Acting Company. Photo: dav.d daniels/ dav.d photography
• Rachael Merlot in A DOLL’S HOUSE, PART 2 at Salt Lake Acting Company. Photo: dav.d daniels/ dav.d photography Rachael Merlot in A DOLL’S HOUSE, PART 2 at Salt Lake Acting Company. Photo: dav.d daniels/ dav.d photography
• Stacey Jenson and Rachael Merlot in A DOLL’S HOUSE, PART 2 at Salt Lake Acting Company. Photo: dav.d daniels/ dav.d photography Stacey Jenson and Rachael Merlot in A DOLL’S HOUSE, PART 2 at Salt Lake Acting Company. Photo: dav.d daniels/ dav.d photography
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Stacey Jenson* makes her SLAC debut as Nora Helmer. She has been seen elsewhere in GIDION’S KNOT (Pinnacle). Jenson is joined by Paul Mulder* (SEEING THE ELEPHANT) as Torvald, Annette Wright (BLOODY BLOODY ANDREW JACKSON, SATURDAY’S VOYEUR) as Anne Marie, and Rachael Merlot, who is also making her SLAC debut with this production, as Emmy.

Directing the production is SATURDAY’S VOYEUR creator Nancy Borgenicht, who has been an integral part of Salt Lake Acting Company since 1974. Her previous directing credits at SLAC include ANGELS IN AMERICA, WHITE MAN DANCING, OLEANNA, WOMEN AND WALLACE, CABBIES, COWBOYS AND THE TREE OF THE WEEPING VIRGIN, SATURDAY'S VOYEUR (from 1993 to 2003) and 2018’s STAG’S LEAP.

In reference to Borgenicht, Fleming stated, “Because the play so masterfully blends comedy, drama, classic characters, and a modern sensibility, I knew that the perfect person to lead the production would be SATURDAY’S VOYEUR Co-Creator Nancy Borgenicht. She hired me in 1998, entrusting me with growing our audience base. Having Nancy at the helm is a wonderful full-circle moment, not unlike Nora’s return to Torvald and her children.”

Borgenicht is joined on the creative team by Erik Reichert (Scenic Design), La Beene (Costume Design), Matt Taylor** (Lighting Design), Katelyn Limber (Sound Design), and Sara Shouse (Hair Design). Heather Nowlin serves as Dramaturg and Jennie Sant* is Production Stage Manager.

A DOLL’S HOUSE, PART 2 runs February 5 through March 8, 2020.  Tickets can be obtained via tickets.saltlakeactingcompany.org, in person at the SLAC box office, or by calling 801.363.7522.

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

**The lighting designer of A DOLL'S HOUSE, PART 2 is represented by United Scenic Artists Local 829 of the IATSE

If you’ve never read or seen A Doll’s House by Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen, you still may have heard of it---that really old play about Nora Somebody who slams the door and leaves her husband and children.  Shocking when it was first seen in 1879 Copenhagen---shocking still.  It was a revolutionary work of domestic realism ---the first of its kind--- taking us into the marriage of a 19^th Century middleclass Norwegian family.  It changed theatre forever.  Ibsen’s A Doll’s House is now 141 years old and continues to be one of the most performed plays in the world.

Playwright Lucas HnathLucas Hnath, DHP2 playwright ----pronounced “Nayth,” loves Ibsen. Hnath asked himself the same question audiences have been asking the past hundred plus years: When Nora Helmer slammed the door and left--- what happened to her?  Hnath wanted to get inside Ibsen’s skin. Hnath found a bad translation of A Doll’s House online and started cutting and pasting Ibsen’s dialogue, re-writing it his own way.  He spoke to women scholars, read George Bernard Shaw’s essays on marriage, and found inspiration in the Greeks and their love for argumentative dialogue. He kept futzing and playing until he got to the essence of what he wanted to say about marriage, divorce, family.  He culled his characters down to four:  Nora, the wife; Torvald, the husband; Anne Marie, Nora’s childhood Nanny and now her children’s Nanny; and Emmy, Nora’s grown daughter, whom she left when Emmy was four.  DHP2 premiered at South Coast Rep and on Broadway in 2017.

So. It’s fifteen years later---1894--- and Nora comes back!  Why and what’s become of her?  In those days, a woman on her own, could be a seamstress, a factory worker, a clerical worker, a prostitute, or a wife.  Divorce was rare, shameful, one lost the respect and weight of one’s name, a scandalous black mark that lasted a lifetime.  Norwegian public records from 1894 list only seven divorces!  The husband, of course, could divorce in a snap.  The wife had to prove infidelity, impotence, desertion--- or that, thanks to her husband, she now had syphilis.  The husband had absolute custody of the children no matter who left whom.   A married woman could not sign a loan, a bank check, a contract, an agreement of any sort.  Had she come into the marriage with money, it now belonged to her husband.  Women could not vote, could not own property, were treated like little dolls who could not think for themselves. 

Stacey Jenson and Annette WrightIn DHP2, Nora has lived now for fifteen years as an unmarried woman under an entirely different set of legal and societal rules. Using a pseudonym, she becomes a well-known feminist writer who believes women should leave unhappy marriages.  That life is about to be shattered.  She is being threatened by a Judge whose wife left him after reading Nora’s books.  He digs into Nora’s past and discovers she is a fraud and still married.  He is determined to ruin her.  Turns out Torvald has never divorced her. She comes back, determined to get that divorce.

Hnath has said in interviews that one doesn’t need to know Ibsen’s A Doll’s House to see DHP2.  And no question, DHP2 stands on its own.  For us though, the beautiful audacity of Hnath to take on this hugely famous iconic play and character --- gave us no choice but to immerse ourselves in the original.  Turns out it’s riveting. You also see why every serious actress dead or alive has played Nora or wants to play her still. The original, as well as DHP2, asks the same questions:  Is marriage a viable institution?  Is it even necessary?  What do men want?  What do women want?  What does the world want and why is the world so often wrong?  Can it ever be a good thing to leave or be left?  How much has changed?  How much has not changed?

Ibsen’s A Doll’s House is also very much about not talking.  “We never talk,” Nora says, minutes before she leaves and slams the door.  DHP2 is all about talking!  It is a two-person verbal boxing match between Nora and Anne Marie; Nora and Torvald, Nora and Emmy. We are witnesses to four points of view where no one wins and everyone is right. 

DHP2 is funny, sad, ridiculous, tragic, brave, sweet, loving, stupid, hurtful, selfish, touching, maddening---like life.    DHP2 moves like a bullet train.  You are totally transported into 1894 Norway ---but for some micro seconds, you may find yourself right here, right now!  It’s a trip.  Thank you so much for coming.  Vote.    

- Nancy Borgenicht

Director, A DOLL'S HOUSE, PART 2

Nancy Borgenicht (center) with Annette Wright, Production Stage Manager Jennie Sant, Paul Mulder, and Stacey Jenson

Casting has been finalized for A DOLL’S HOUSE, PART 2 by Lucas Hnath. The sequel (of sorts) to Ibsen’s A DOLL’S HOUSE makes its Utah premiere after a successful run on Broadway that was nominated for eight 2017 Tony Awards.

Nora Helmer leaving her husband and children at the end of Ibsen’s 1879 masterpiece was the “door slam heard ‘round the world.” Fifteen years later, there’s a knock at that same door. Nora’s back. But why? And where has she been?

Stacey Jenson* makes her SLAC debut as Nora Helmer. She has been seen elsewhere in Utah in GIDION’S KNOT (Pinnacle). Jenson is joined by Paul Mulder* (SEEING THE ELEPHANT) as Torvald, Annette Wright (BLOODY BLOODY ANDREW JACKSON, SATURDAY’S VOYEUR) as Anne Marie, and Rachael Merlot, who is also making her SLAC debut with this production, as Emmy.

Directing the production is SATURDAY’S VOYEUR creator Nancy Borgenicht, who has been an integral part to Salt Lake Acting Company since 1974. Her previous directing credits at SLAC include 2018’s STAG’S LEAP.

Borgenicht is joined on the creative team by Erik Reichert (Scenic Design), La Beene (Costume Design), Matt Taylor (Lighting Design), Katelyn Limber (Sound Design), and Sara Shouse (Hair Design).

A DOLL’S HOUSE, PART 2 plays in SLAC’s Upstairs Theatre February 5 through March 8, 2020.  Tickets can be obtained via tickets.saltlakeactingcompany.org, in person at the SLAC box office, or by calling 801.363.7522.

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