"The Unsinkable Molly Brown" was neither Jayne Luke's favorite show nor her favorite role. But the artistic director and sometimes actress at Sundance Summer Theater believes that's how she will be remembered.
The musical, first staged at Sundance in 1977 with Luke in the title role, is about a small, gutsy woman who started out with the odds against her and succeeded because of her drive.Dee Winterton, under whose direction Luke worked for seven years before becoming director herself, told her, "Jayne, you are Molly Brown." And, Luke concedes, her dad - the late newspaperman Theron Luke - associated that role with Jayne, too.
Luke reprised the role last summer in the show directed by Charles Metten. She said she understood the first part of the play - the rebellious teenager/young woman - in 1977. Last year, at 37, she understood the last part.
"It paralleled my career," Luke said. "I feel I no longer have to prove myself. Molly Brown's life is about home and being who you are."
Luke, a Provo native, was a member of Virginia Tanner's Children's Dance Theater when she was 10. But she felt she had to choose between the dance she loved and the stage, introduced to her by Provo High School drama teacher Ray Jones. It was when she went to BYU that she discovered, with the help of Winterton, that she could do both.
She spent the next several years balancing school with theater: classes at BYU interspersed with acting classes in New York City, then acting, dancing, choreographing and directing shows for local companies - Walk-Ons Inc., Shire West Theater and Sundance.
Then, in 1984, after getting a master's degree in theater, Luke took off to Europe alone for five weeks to think things over. "I decided theater really was worth doing," she said. "I felt a sense of obligation to contribute something to the world. I feel I can contribute the most through theater."
And she feels she can do it right here, in Utah. "You can do theater anywhere," she said. "You choose to live where you want to, and if you can act, you'll act."
Acting was Luke's first experience at Sundance Summer Theater, during its third year, 1972. She was cast as the lead in Buddy Youngreen's "Calico Katie" musical revue. She's been there ever since, having taken over as artistic director in 1981. The two shows during Luke's first summer as director were the popular "Shenandoah" and her original creation, "Satin Lady," of which she says, "Never again!"
A musical revue she put together in 1986 was far more successful. "Sundance Celebrates American Music and Dance" was Luke's personal expression and a tribute to the legacy Winterton left her as a director and choreographer, she said. "I'm a firm believer that theaters hold the spirits of everyone who's ever worked there. I still feel Dee there." She added, "Once you've worked at Sundance, you feel it's a part of you; it's your home."
As for the role of Molly Brown, said Luke, "I doubt I'll ever play it again. I think I've learned all that the role has to teach me. My life has gone kind of the same way."
Through the past 18 years - from actress to artistic director/choreographer - Luke feels she has grown up at Sundance. "That mountain is my mountain. That's my home," she said. "Together, we've grown up there, as a theater and as human beings." - Laurie Williams Sowby