Plan-B Theatre's 34th Season to Feature FULL COLOR, THE BEATRIX POTTER DEFENSE SOCIETY, and More

Plan-B Theatre's 2024/25 Subscription Series is comprised of three world premieres: FULL COLOR by Tatiana Christian, Chris Curlett, Courtney Dilmore, Dee-Dee Darby-Duffin, Bijan Hosseini, Tito Livas, Iris Salazar, and Darryl Stamp and THE BEATRIX POTTER DEFENSE SOCIETY by Janine Sobeck Knighton in the Studio Theatre at the Rose Wagner Performing Arts Center; and KILO⚡️WAT by Aaron Asano Swenson in a co-production with UtahPresents at Kingsbury Hall.

Our 2024/25 Free Elementary School Tour (our 12th annual!) is the world premiere of EllaMental by Dee-Dee Darby-Duffin. Public performances are also free.

Subscriptions are $66, a savings of 26%, and available at this link or by calling or texting the Plan-B Theatre office at 801.297.4200. Single tickets go on sale July 1, 2024.

THE 2024/25 SUBSCRIPTION SERIES

FULL COLOR

A WORLD PREMIERE BY TATIANA CHRISTIAN, CHRIS CURLETT, DEE-DEE DARBY-DUFFIN, COURTNEY DILMORE, BIJAN HOSSEINI, Tito Livas, IRIS SALAZAR, AND DARRYL STAMP

OCTOBER 24-NOVEMBER 10, 2024
STUDIO THEATRE, ROSE WAGNER

FULL COLOR is simple and straightforward and authentic and ordinary: it is also bold, barrier-breaking, and extraordinary.

Eight BIPOC actors speak the truths of their eight BIPOC playwright counterparts, in a bold declaration that their experiences are not monolithic, dispelling stereotypes, and presenting the depth and breadth of BIPOC experiences here and now in Utah.

FULL COLOR is comprised of:

I Still Have to Live Here by Tatiana Christian
Fox and the Mormons by Chris Curlett
Here by Courtney Dilmore
Fried Chicken by Dee-Dee Darby-Duffin
At Least One by Bijan Hosseini
Let's Not by Tito Livas
Life is Color by Iris Salazar
American Survival Story by Darryl Stamp

Some of these monologues will bring you joy. Some will make you uncomfortable. You will definitely feel the feels. Collectively, they'll provide space for you to learn how to see us differently and how to hear us differently. How you respond, how you activate what you feel, is up to you.

FULL COLOR is the third installment of our Color Series. …OF COLOR (2019) and LOCAL COLOR (2021) featured fictional characters in fictional worlds, influenced by the playwrights' personal experience. In FULL COLOR, each playwright writes in first person, combining writing acumen with personal experience.

Playwrights: Tatiana Christian, Chris Curlett, Courtney Dilmore, Dee-Dee Darby-Duffin, Bijan Hosseini, Tito Livas, Iris Salazar, and Darryl Stamp
Actors: Estephani Cerros, Pedro Flores, Talia Heiss, Terence Johnson, Alec Kalled, Yolanda Stange, Abyanna Wood, one more TBA
Director: Jerry Rapier
Lighting Designer: Emilio Casillas
Scenic Designer: Janice Chan
Sound Designer: Cheryl Ann Cluff
Stage Manager: Tahra Veasley
Scenic Builder & Electrician: TBA

KILO⚡️WAT

A WORLD PREMIERE BY AARON ASANO SWENSON

A CO-PRODUCTION WITH UTAHPRESENTS AS PART OF THE STAGE DOOR SERIES

FEBRUARY 14-16, 2025
KINGSBURY HALL

KILO⚡️WAT explores the life and legacy of point guard Wat “Kilo⚡️Wat” Misaka, who led the University of Utah men's basketball team to the 1944 NCAA Championship at the height of World War II, when persons of Japanese descent from California, Washington, and Oregon were incarcerated in camps such as Topaz.

As residents of Utah, the Misaka family was spared incarceration.

Immediately following the Championship, Wat was drafted into the U.S. Army and, after the war ended, was assigned to interview survivors of the atomic bombing in Hiroshima.

When he returned home, he led the team to the 1947 NIT Championship, completed his degree in mechanical engineering, and was drafted by the New York Knicks, breaking the color barrier in professional basketball.

KILO⚡️WAT explores what it means to make history within history.

The University of Utah retired Wat Misaka's number 20 in 2022.

Playwright: Aaron Asano Swenson
Actor: Bryan Kido
Director: Jerry Rapier
Lighting Designer: David McKain
Projections Designer: Aaron Asano Swenson
Scenic Designer: Janice Chan
Sound Designer: Cheryl Ann Cluff
Stage Manager: Maisie Bunker Nelson
Scenic Builder & Electrician: TBA

THE BEATRIX POTTER DEFENSE SOCIETY

A WORLD PREMIERE BY JANINE SOBECK KNIGHTON

MARCH 27-APRIL 13, 2025
STUDIO THEATRE, ROSE WAGNER

THE BEATRIX POTTER DEFENSE SOCIETY explores the early life of Beatrix Potter. And now you're thinking of Peter Rabbit. As anyone would.

But Beatrix Potter was much more than Peter Rabbit. She was a literary subversive, employing the interplay between the wild and domestic worlds to help her worldwide readership view and interact with the natural world differently.

Much of her story lies in the journal where she sketched the artwork that would become synonymous with her name. But her real story lives in the coded text accompanying those sketches, coded text that chronicles both her discovery and harnessing of her personal power, anathema to Victorian gender norms.

Although much is made historically of how Beatrix's connection to the vicar Hardwicke Drummond Rawnsley enhanced her writing career, there are also hints that his wife Edith was Beatrix's true guide. Yet it's virtually impossible to find information about her. It's as if she's been erased.

THE BEATRIX POTTER DEFENSE SOCIETY explores that erasure in an attempt to crack the code of how Edith and Beatrix may have set each other on anarchic-for-the-times journeys of artistic independence.

Playwright: Janine Sobeck Knighton
Actors: TBA
Director: Cheryl Ann Cluff
Costume Designer: Victoria Bird
Lighting Designer: Emma Belnap
Projections Designer: Daniel Charon
Scenic Designer: Janice Chan
Sound Designer: Cheryl Ann Cluff
Stage Manager: Taylor Wallace
Scenic Builder & Electrician: TBA

FULL COLOR and THE BEATRIX POTTER DEFENSE SOCIETY will serve high school students in grades 11-12 with free student matinees via our A Week With A Play program, wherein students read a play, see that play, and then discuss it with the playwright(s). KILO⚡️WAT will serve middle and high school students in grades 7-12. If you would like your students to attend,  please email Sharah Meservy, our Education Coordinator, today!

THE TWELFTH ANNUAL, 2024/25 FREE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL TOUR

EllaMental

A WORLD PREMIERE BY DEE-DEE DARBY-DUFFIN

Created specifically for grades 4-6, EllaMental centers on Ella, a Black, twelve-year-old sixth-grader struggling to make sense of her Big Feelings from the pandemic—grief, loss, fear, and anger—in a post-COVID world.

EllaMental engages students in an accessible, real-time, comforting conversation, one as barrier-free as possible, one that instantly invites students to live inside the play rather than searching for a way in. Instructive without feeling preachy, EllaMental provides a much more chill experience than students in grades 4-6 might expect: one that is natural, aspirational, and even inspirational.

EllaMental will serve 100 Utah elementary schools in person and another 100 virtually. If you would like to bring EllaMental to your elementary school, anywhere in Utah, please email Sharah Meservy, our Education Coordinator, today!

Playwright: Dee-Dee Darby-Duffin
Actors: Noelani Brown, Talia Heiss, Mak Milford, and Taylor Wallace
Director: Jerry Rapier
Designer: Arika Schockmel
Education Coordinator: Sharah Meservy
Tour Manager: Kallie Filanda

12TH ANNUAL FREE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL TOUR: A WORLD PREMIERE BY DEE-DEE DARBY-DUFFIN

Created specifically for grades 4-6, EllaMental centers on Ella, a Black, twelve-year-old sixth-grader struggling to make sense of her Big Feelings from the pandemic—grief, loss, fear, and anger—in a post-COVID world.

EllaMental engages students in an accessible, real-time, comforting conversation, one as barrier-free as possible, one that instantly invites students to live inside the play rather than searching for a way in. Instructive without feeling preachy, EllaMental provides a much more chill experience than students in grades 4-6 might expect: one that is natural, aspirational, and even inspirational.

EllaMental will serve 100 Utah elementary schools in person and another 100 virtually. If you would like to bring EllaMental to your elementary school, anywhere in Utah, please email Sharah Meservy, our Education Coordinator, today!

Playwright: Dee-Dee Darby-Duffin
Actors: Noelani Brown, Talia Heiss, Mak Milford, and Taylor Wallace
Director: Jerry Rapier
Designer: Arika Schockmel
Education Coordinator: Sharah Meservy
Education Liaison: Penelope Caywood
Tour Manager: Kallie Filanda