EVERYMAN Approaches: Publicity Photos

Publicity shots taken in the basement of the Rose Wagner Performing Arts Center and sent to various local news outlets.

Michael Gardner as the devil Tutivillus with Julia Goldman as Angel.


Josh Thoemke as Works and Rebecca Marcotte as Everyman.


Rebecca Marcotte as Everyman and Josh Thoemke as Death.

EVERYMAN in full swing

Props and costumes for EVERYMAN and JUDGMENT DAY are coming together. Since the two plays oppose one another thematically, so too must all of the "plastics". Where JUDGMENT DAY illustrates how to get into heaven by merely accepting Christ as your personal savior and filled with devils, angels with attitudes, dead souls, and the 4 horsemen of the Apocalypse--EVERYMAN shows how a person's deeds in life will determine what happens after death, and is filled with energetic allegorical characters, hip hop beats, and a rousing musical number of "We Are Family."

The devils in JUDGMENT DAY start out as displaced workers: sort of THE OFFICE-meets-a-BDSM convention. In order to avoid being judged themselves, the devils decide to repackage themselves. They transform from "Average Joe's" dodgeball team to something out of a Terry Gilliam movie. Toby and Dorcas change their names to "Misery" and "Retribution", while Tutivillus mutates from used-car-salesman to demonic chieftain. Rachael Zimmerman is costuming the show and chose a mask for the transformed Tutivillus: an exaggerated Commedia dell'Arte mask, bright red.

A picture is the mask in the the process of being built.

Admiration for Pioneer's 42nd Street

We love spectacle on stage. For us, the battles in HENRY V will forever trump the seemingly endless yammering of WAITING FOR GODOT. So when Pioneer Theatre's recent production of 42nd Street started with 20 dancers slamming out the same tap step simultaneously, we were in heaven!

And although some of the students in the Playwrights' Laboratory complained at the sappy script, they were countered by others who pointed out that there has to be a reason this story has floated across the American stage for almost 80 years. The play lives on its spectacle.

Thanks to Charles Morey's direction, Kevin Alberts' costumes, George Maxwell's sets, and Patti D'Beck's choreography for the reminder that not every play has to enlighten or save the world--that the word "play" has more than one meaning.

Photo: Lea Kohl and Jeffrey Pew star in Pioneer Theatre Company's production of the Tony Award-winning "42nd Street." (Tom Smart, Deseret News)