Yes, there are theater jobs in Utah ... and lots of them: There are plenty of acting jobs in Utah for those who prefer the Utah pace of life to NYC.

AuthorGriffin, Elle

THE CHANDELIER FELL TO THE FLOOR WITH a sizzling crack. Bulbs burst, and a startling scream rang out in the impending darkness.

This was not the first chandelier drop I'd ever seen--as a patron of the arts I've seen The Phantom of the Opera more times than I can count--but this was the first time I'd ever seen the sparks fly, or felt the crash reverberate in the seats around me.

It was thrilling--and I have to admit that I wasn't expecting it to be.

I'd heard of the Hale Centre Theatre in passing, discussed in the wings of the arts world, but I was a season ticket holder to the Eccles and i lived downtown--I had little need of attending a community theater in the suburbs.

But then, this was no ordinary community theater. The production alone is more advanced than any Broadway theater has the liberty to be. The $12.5 million stage rotates and lifts and lowers and produces entire sets out of nowhere. Complex cogs of machinery move 47 pieces using 130 motors, choreographing every movement with perfect precision.

In the introductory scene of the theater's Phantom, a trapdoor is opened in the floor with a ladder jutting out of it. An actor then proceeds to drop down into it, descending the ladder as the entire floor lifts, revealing the phantom's lair in the dungeon beneath. It was outstanding and silent, a feat of engineering and awe.

And the talent was so moving I could actually feel the sadness of the misunderstood Phantom, and hear in his voice the trembling of a troubled youth. It was a beautiful voice, I might add. One I could easily have seen on Broadway, albeit from the second or third tier. Hale Centre, as it turns out, allows everyone in the audience a front-row view.

UTAH LOVES THE ARTS

To understand Hale, I think it's important to understand the community that raised it. Not the family legacy that created it (it's still owned by Mark and Sally Dietlein, the third generation of Hale's), or the theaters that housed it (it's third, and most beautiful iteration opened in 2017) but the culture of the state itself.

Utah, as it turns out, is fertile soil for the arts. According to the National Endowment for the Arts, 84.5 percent of our state attends performing arts performances in a given year, far more than any other state. As Elizabeth Funk, administrative assistant in the theater department at BYU told me: "There's so much love for musical theater in Utah, that those semi-professional venues--Hale, Tuacahn, and the Shakespeare...

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