Meet Sally Dietlein: She thought her time in the arts was over after college, then she met Mark Dietlein.

• Author: Haraldsen, Tom

Sally Dietlein majored in speech communication and minored in theater while a student at Brigham Young University in the '70s, and her career plan was to teach school. But as part of the university's performing group, the "Young Ambassadors," she met her future husband, Mark Dietlein, and her career path took a turn she never expected.

Ms. Dietlein is the executive producer and coowner, along with Mr. Dietlein, of Hale Centre Theatre in Sandy. "Mark's grandparents were Ruth and Nathan Hale," she says. "They started a community theatre after moving from Utah to Glendale, California, where Grandpa Hale wanted to break in to acting. Their story is pretty well documented--how they opened a new Hale Centre Theatre here in South Salt Lake in the '70s, performing original plays, and how audiences grew and Hale continued to expand."

Mr. Dietlein and Ms. Dietlein took over operations when Mr. Dietlein's grandparents left on an LDS mission in the early 1980s. Needing a larger space, they worked with West Valley City to construct an $8.2 million theater near the Maverik Center. It still wasn't enough. "We knew about 2008 that we needed to grow and find a solution," Ms. Dietlein recalls. "We had 15 different entities approach us about partnering up--cities, companies, etc. Sandy Mayor Tom Dolan stated that he felt 'to make a city feel whole, you have to have arts.' He recognized that arts can breathe nightlife into an area. He pledged the city's support, so we embarked on a plan to build a new theater in Sandy."

It led to many sleepless nights, as the Dietleins took on an incredible task--raising the $81 million it would take to build...