SALT LAKE CITY, Utah, Feb. 5, 2024 (Gephardt Daily) — Productions of Shakespeare plays are few and far between in Salt Lake City these days, but this month, you can see a riff on “The Merchant of Venice” produced by Plan-B Theatre Company.
The world premiere by Debora Threedy is directed by Cheryl Ann Cluff and features Lily Hye Soo Dixon and Jason Bowcutt. The show plays from Feb. 15 to March 3 in the Rose Wagner Performing Arts Center’s Studio Theatre at 138 W. Broadway in Salt Lake City. Portia is a noblewoman in 16th century Venice; she wants to be a lawyer, but that profession is reserved for men. Her lawyer cousin Bellario won’t teach her. Her husband Bassanio is in serious legal trouble… and he’s in love with his best friend Antonio. Things are not going well. What’s a girl to do? The play takes on this premise: “What if Portia’s appearance as a male lawyer in court wasn’t the first — or last — time she dressed in drag?”
The piece, a life-and-death journey through the law, love, and gender identity, was previously workshopped at Plan-B as part of its Playwrights’ Lab and Script-in-Hand series, as well as being included Words Cubed, a week-long, intense development process at Utah Shakespeare Festival.
We spoke to both Bowcutt and Dixon ahead of the show’s opening next week, touching on their feelings about the piece, how rehearsals are going, and why “Balthazar” is particularly relevant in today’s world.
Dixon, who plays Portia, has appeared in the Plan-B shows “Mestiza, or Mixed,” “P.G. Anon,” “Singing to the Brine Shrimp,” and “Radio Hour Episode 13: Troll,” as well as “Sleeping Giant,” “Mercury” and “4,000 Miles” at Salt Lake Acting Company. Dixon, who received her BFA in classical acting from Southern Utah University, also teaches theater and sits on the board for Plan-B.
Bowcutt, who plays Bellario, is a graduate of the University of Utah’s Actor Training Program and spent many years working as a professional actor, director and producer in New York and at theaters across the country such as the Guthrie Theater, McCarter Theatre, the Shakespeare Theatre and many more. Bowcutt has appeared in shows for Plan-B including “An Evening With Two Awful Men,” “Based on a True Story” and “The End of the Horizon.” He also directed “Singing to the Brine Shrimp,” “One Big Union,” and “Adam and Steve and the Empty Sea” for Plan-B, as well as “Fun Home” and “Four Women Talking About the Man Under the Sheet” for SLAC and most recently, “From June to August” for Meanwhile Park. He joined the staff of the Utah Division of Arts & Museums in 2006 and now serves as the community arts manager. Before joining the division, Bowcutt held the role of co-founding executive director of a nonprofit community building organization in New York called the Innovative Theatre Foundation.
Bowcutt talked about what first drew him to the script.
“You know how it is with theater in Utah, sometimes you’re approached, and they say, ‘hey, I’m wondering if you’re available to do a reading,'” he said. “And since we’ve been in rehearsals Debora has been reminding me of the different iterations of ‘Balthazar’ there have been. And there was one I saw long ago; I can’t even remember when it was but I was just there as an audience member seeing a reading of it, really thinking it was an interesting play. Debora is so smart. I love the way that she can take material like this and she poses big questions for herself; questions that she delves into, and then they become really interesting. So I remember being really intrigued by the script, but not thinking it was something that was going to be on my radar.
“Of course, many, many years later, they approached me about doing a reading of it, I was thrilled with the idea, did a reading and then years later, it came back again. And they, because I had done that one reading, I was still in the running I guess. And so then we got the connection of me and Lily Hye Soo. And then that’s kind of been the path it’s been since then.”
We also asked him what he enjoys about his character.
“One thing I love is Debora’s writing,” he said. “It’s so bright, but it’s so actable. There’s such clear drive of these characters, what it is they’re trying to accomplish, and it just makes it so meaty and fun to get into. But I also love the character of Bellario. He’s a character that appears to have a clear drive; he has this really prominent great outward reputation, great legal mind, this very successful lawyer. And yet he has the secret world underneath himself, which he has to keep very safe. And that’s always fun to play, when there’s those underpinnings, those secret worlds. And it juxtaposes to Portia’s character of having this outward world she has to abide by, but also has a passionate, secret, hidden world that she is also trying to explore. I like very much how the play has this juxtaposition between those two characters, and their outward and their inner world.”
Dixon added of the script and her character: “What drew me to the script was firstly, my love for Shakespeare. I’ve always had an affinity for his work. And Portia is a character I’ve always wanted to play because of how headstrong she is and she knows what she wants. She isn’t afraid to speak up. I feel she’s a wonderful role model. And she’s so unlike other female characters, like a Juliet or, I don’t know, like a Hero. She’s very outspoken. Also, I was able to hear my friend Anatasha Blakely; she was able to do the workshop for this at USF, back when they were doing this for their new plays, and so I got to hear her talk a lot about it and hear her, you know, talk about her experience and that made me also excited, to dive into and really be attracted to the work.”
We also asked them how they are enjoying rehearsals; Bowcutt and Dixon have worked together as a director and actor but not as fellow actors.
“It’s pretty rare nowadays for me to act,” Bowcutt explained. “I was pretty nervous going into it, because it has been since ‘An Evening With Two Awful Men’ [in February 2019]. But I have just been loving this. You know, I’ve been working on the script since October; well, even before that, when you think about the reading and the thinking about the show and talking about it. But really I started, once we had the finalized script, I started working in October and I’ve been living it for a while now. Really enjoyable, to live it outside of myself. Because really, I was memorizing it mostly while I was at the gym working out; like that person you don’t want to approach.” He added of the show being a two-hander: “It’s just the two of you, and you want to keep it active and interesting.”
Dixon added: “It’s actually going really well. I didn’t know how it would be, because yeah, Jason was my director for ‘Brine Shrimp.’ He’s such a giving partner on stage and I feel like he’s just very supportive to what I’m doing. And it’s been such a beautiful, collaborative process with Cheryl and Jason, being able to feel like I can speak up when I am feeling like my character should be doing something or vice versa, and I definitely feel like it’s been so smooth. It’s been really nice.”
Dixon said about the production values of the show: “Oh my goodness, when I came in on the first day, I was so blown away by Janice [Chan’s] design. I think that also just made me so excited, to see that level of caliber in the set design and then with Aaron [Swenson’s] costumes, everything just feels so elevated and I feel like it’s really just, I don’t know, with Debora’s text, everything feels so good.”
She also touched upon who the show is suitable for, saying it should be good for around ages 13 and up.
“I feel like that age where you’re going through puberty and you’re questioning who you are; am I normal?” she said. “Like there’s this whole speech of Portia, in scene three, where her and Bellario are talking about like, ‘you think me unnatural?’ She gets really emotional about it. And he’s like, ‘no, no, no,’ and she is having a teaching moment to him. He’s like, ‘I’m just different.’ And then I say, you know, ‘pearls, you know, are different than most stones, that makes them rare and wondrous, not unnatural.’ And I think just that scene in and of itself, for someone to hear that who is having a hard time and who needs that kind of message, is important.”
I also asked the two whether they find acting easier or harder as they get older.
Dixon said: “In some ways, yes, it’s easier because of the lived in experience and because you kind of get to a place where you’re like, I don’t care what people think of me and I feel like you’re just more in tune with yourself and in your decisions and objectives. So as an actor, there’s a sense of what’s working for you. But then there’s also this element of acting of, feeling not old per se but like, dusting off my old chops because I don’t maybe always get to do it as much. But I will say there’s also the sense of as I get older, you know, your focus is all over the place. You’re like, I have my daytime job, I have my nighttime job, I have bills to pay, the kid to take care of or whatever. So your attention is less laser focused, as it would be when you’re young, and you’re like, this is the only thing I’m doing. Now I’m like, oh, I’m having to compartmentalize, you know, daytime job teaching, OK. Now I’m a mom, OK, now I’m in rehearsal.”
“I totally think it’s harder,” Bowcutt laughed. “I don’t know, there’s a certain quality of everything’s gonna be OK, when you’re exploring and crafting in your youth. In my youth was like, well, I’ll do this and it’s OK if something fails, because no big deal, let’s do the next thing. And it still is OK to fail. But it just feels different. I feel like this is why I’ve been working on this since October. Being an actor who is older than I used to be, I feel very aware of needing to make sure I bring my best. Probably in my youth, I would have said the same thing. It just simply feels different being a little bit older.”
Dixon added about “Balthazar” as a whole: “It’s such a beautiful exploration of identity. And that at the end, I just think it’s a very warming story that, I feel as an actor; I leave feeling so good. Some roles you step into, they’re really hard, and you don’t always feel great. This is a play where I come to rehearsal, and I’m excited because it just feels so good to be in this role. And uplifting.”
“Balthazar” plays on Thursdays and Fridays at 8 p.m., Saturdays at 4 p.m. and Sundays at 2 p.m. For tickets and more information, click here.
