Photo Flash: In Rehearsal with ANGELS IN AMERICA at Provo's An Other Theater Company

After making their mark in the local community as a theater for audiences interested in works outside of the area's typical family-friendly fare, An Other Theater Company will be presenting Tony Kushner's groundbreaking Angels in America beginning February 9th.

Despite, or perhaps because of, its unique connection to the LDS religion, Angels in America, described in its subtitle as a "Gay Fantasia on National Themes" has rarely, if ever, been previously produced in Utah County.

Set in the midst of the AIDS epidemic, the play follows a cross-section of characters in New York City--a gay man dying of AIDS, his Jewish boyfriend, a black former drag queen, an infamous lawyer, and most notably to a local audience: a closeted, married Mormon man struggling with both his relationships to his Valium-addicted wife and his strict Mormon mother. Their paths begin to cross as a heavenly voice calls down to him, telling him to "prepare the way."

Directing the production is Kacey Spadafora, who acts as one of the company's artistic directors along with Taylor Jack Nelson. "During the rehearsal process, I've been struck by how relevant many of these themes that were being dramatized initially in 1993 are to us, here, today," says Spadafora. "Not only does it examine a wide variety of people with a wide variety of opinions and outlooks, but it does so always from a place of compassion and understanding."

The company will be presenting Millennium Approaches, part one of the two-part play, as a full production, running Fridays and Saturdays February 9th through March 3rd. A staged reading of part two, Perestroika, will be presented on March 11th and 12th.

Since opening within the Provo Towne Centre in September of 2017 after previously producing plays in found spaces or the Great Salt Lake Fringe Festival, An Other Theater Company has set out to produce art rarely found in the area. They seek to provide a voice to many who are overlooked in the mainstream local theatre scene, including stipulations in its season selection process to highlight works by and about women as well as the LGBT community.

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