Editor's note: This is the sixth story in a series highlighting arts organizations around Utah.
It was a moment months in the making.
A single idea was cultivated and refined. Dialogue was written, accompaniment composed, costumes sewn, characters developed and sets painted.
After hours of practice, the cast took to the stage.
It was a proud moment for the crew members to see their hard work pay off, as was evident as one of the actors excitedly declared after the show, “Mom! I wrote that!”
The third-grader had just performed the opera he had written with his class over the course of several months as part of the Opera by Children program. With the help of the artists at Utah Festival Opera & Musical Theatre, the children engaged in the process of artistic creation.
UFOMT exists for moments such as this — experiences that bridge the gap between viewers and professional performers.
“Bringing the two sides of the curtain together is quite a magical experience,” said Karen Keltner, who has conducted the orchestra for festival performances for 18 years.
Whether through its roughly one-month-long performance season each summer or through its annual youth educational programs, UFOMT constantly seeks to give everyone the chance to create and grow through the performing arts.
Those involved with UFOMT fully expect that the opportunities it provides will have a profound effect, as reflected in its mission statement: “Bringing people together to share ennobling artistic experiences.”
Michael Ballam, the festival’s founder, noted that the word “ennobling” was not included flippantly. The board deliberated over the use of the word and included it to provide a very specific focus and vision for its programming and educational outreach.
“It means that we will only produce works that will make you a better person when you leave than when you came in,” he said.
The beginning
The festival and its life-changing opportunities exist partly because of illness and an old building.
Ballam made his career performing with opera companies around the world, but that abruptly came to a halt in 1986 when he became seriously ill. During what he had been told would be his “last chapter,” Ballam and his family returned to Logan, where he was born and raised, to seek treatment.
Thanks to what Ballam refers to as “serendipity or divine providence,” surgery and recovery time not only led to him overcoming the illness but also put him at the right place at the right time for an old building to change the course of his life. It was during this time that he learned Logan’s historic Capitol Theatre was to be sold, and his crusade began.
The building, which had been built in 1923, served Cache County as a performing arts venue until it fell into disuse in the late 1950s. After 30 years with an empty stage, the building had been sold to Ballam’s acquaintance Eugene Needham as part of a block of buildings. Ballam convinced Needham to give the theater to the city, and the city agreed to let Ballam coordinate efforts to restore the building. He headed a $6.5 million fundraising campaign and led hundreds of volunteers as they donated hours and hours of service to restore the building.
The 1,100-seat theater “reclaimed its glory” when it reopened in 1993 as the Ellen Eccles Theatre, according to the festival’s website at utahfestival.org. It seemed natural to Ballam that there needed to be something to perform in it.
“With this beautiful theater that had been equipped to perform the most elaborate form of art, which is opera, it just seemed we needed to have an opera festival,” Ballam said.
With the experience he had gained performing at various opera venues throughout the world, Ballam knew Logan had what it would take to be the home of an opera festival.
The festival’s curtain rose for the first time in 1993 with three operas and an operetta. Over the course of its now 22-year history, the initial budget of $300,000 has grown to $3.5 million this year, with more signs of growth to come. An additional theater, the Utah Theatre in Logan, is set to open in October to provide an additional stage and space for the festival to help more people be a part of the art.
Programming
In working toward the goal of providing “ennobling” experiences, Ballam and his staff at UFOMT have always known they would need to approach things a little differently than most festivals.
“Let’s just say Broadway has become rather crass and vulgar,” Ballam said, “and we want people to feel safe to come here.”
With clean art as the standard, the festival’s programming began with the formula of two operas, an operetta and a musical. The festival organizers started to run out of operettas after a while, so they decided to begin presenting musicals that the general public may not have seen due to Broadway receptions that were less successful.
Years later, one of the festival’s staff members brought up the idea of performing “The Sound of Music.” Ballam initially balked at the idea because it was a musical that many patrons had already seen. But the staff member persistently reminded him that with orchestras and casts shrinking throughout the country, few people had seen the musical fully staffed with singers and instrumentalists as the musical’s writers had initially envisioned it.
“At that moment, I had an epiphany, I think, that we ought to specialize in grand opera but also the musicals that had the kind of musical integrity and deserved to be heard the way they were created,” Ballam said. “And I suspect we’re one of the few places in America where you can actually do that.”
Now, UFOMT continues to seek programming that not only is well-written, complements the other shows and is technically possible for the stage crew, but also enhances lives.
“It’s never just about fluff. It’s never just about singing,” said Vanessa Ballam, Michael Ballam’s daughter and UFOMT's education director. “You will have beautiful singing, but it’s about the story and trying to change lives — trying to make an impact to those that come to Logan to see the shows.”
As part of the effort for programming that resonates, the festival offers over 125 events throughout the festival season. On top of the operas and musicals, classes and concerts further create meaningful connections between the viewers and the performances.
The Utah Festival Academy seeks to “enhance your Utah Festival experience,” according to the festival’s website. Academy offerings include free sessions, called Informance, that take place before each show to provide additional context to patrons, as well as ticketed classes on topics such as stage combat, improvisation, history, singing, makeup, painting and conducting for $5-$10 each.
“I feel like they really open the eyes of our patrons who attend our classes and also attend our shows to get the inside track from the performers, from the artistic team and then also some historical perspective,” Vanessa Ballam said.
According to Keltner, it’s an experience that allows professionals and patrons alike to find ownership in the festival.
“(Patrons) appreciate that kind of coming together, getting to see how something works,” she said. “It becomes something they understand and therefore appreciate more ... (and) I think we’re all the better for it.”
Education
Opportunities to be a part of the performing arts don’t stop when the summer is over.
UFOMT prides itself in constantly providing enriching experiences, especially to youths.
Among the opportunities it provides to foster growth and achievement is the Utah High School Musical Theatre Awards. Staff members attend musicals throughout the year at high schools that wish to participate and select the 10 best shows, actors, actresses, supporting actors and supporting actresses. The actors and actresses then compete for a chance to attend the National High School Musical Theatre Awards and work with Broadway professionals during a weeklong camp.
This year, the festival sent Matthew Richards, who played Percy Blakeney in Northridge High School's “The Scarlet Pimpernel,” and Aitana Alapa, who played Aida in Woods Cross High School’s “Aida,” to compete in New York. Richards recently became one of three finalists at the national competition and received a $2,500 scholarship, according to Vanessa Ballam.
Additional educational outreach includes the Opera by Children program, through which UFOMT sends drama, music and art mentors to participating classrooms throughout the state to help students write their own opera, set it to music and create scenery.
“We don’t go there to show them how to do it, and we don’t go there with hoops they have to jump through to create it,” Michael Ballam said. “We’re there to empower them to do their own work.”
The goal is that participating teachers will eventually be able to fill the roles of drama and art mentors themselves so that resources can be spread to more and more classrooms. This school year, the program will embark on its 18th year of providing hands-on opportunities. The program reached 183 schools throughout Utah during the 2013-14 school year, and over the course of its existence has given approximately 75,000 students the opportunity to engage in the creative process and find a voice.
“That’s what this program does, is that it celebrates the individual and also shows how the individual voice is able to work in a community,” Vanessa Ballam said.
And whether it’s with students in a classroom, patrons at the festival’s classes or professionals on the stage, building an artistic community is what the UFOMT is all about.
“Opera, by definition, is an art of collaboration,” Keltner said. “It’s a wonderful experience of teamwork and creating something bigger together than any one individual could.”
UFOMT’s 1993 opening season
“Naughty Marietta” by Victor Herbert
“La Boheme” by Giacomo Puccini
“Trial by Jury” by W.S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan
“The Impresario” by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
UFOMT’s 2014 season
“Les Miserables” by Claude-Michel Schönberg and Alain Boublil
“Vanessa” by Samuel Barber
“Oklahoma!” by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II
“The Student Prince” by Sigmund Romberg
If you go …
What: Utah Festival Opera & Musical Theatre
When: July 9-Aug. 9
Where: Ellen Eccles Theatre, 43 S. Main, Logan
Cost: $13-$77
Website: utahfestival.org or arttix.org
Phone: 435-753-0300 or 801-355-2787
Email: wbutters@deseretnews.com, Twitter: WhitneyButters