UTAH FESTIVAL OPERA AND MUSICAL THEATRE PRODUCTIONS SHINE LIGHT ON SOCIAL ISSUES

By Chuck Nunn,
The Herald Journal
Published: Thursday, July 7, 2016

From still-relevant messages on race and class presented in theater classics to a fresh, empowering take on one of the stage’s oldest controversial portrayals, the Utah Festival Opera and Musical Theatre’s 2016 season is addressing a number of social issues that have been front and center in the United States and worldwide this year.

“This whole season is about the challenges of stereotypical racial, ethnic, gender roles, and we’re taking it very seriously this year,” UFOMT Director Michael Ballam said. “And who would have thought this year would have turned into such a year about those issues? Because we’re usually in these works over at the Eccles talking about last century, the turn of the last century, where racism, immigration challenges, all of those … we’re still there. It’s a different century, but the challenges are still the same. We haven’t solved the problem. So I think it’s very important.”

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