A Streetcar Named Desire ‘pops up’ this weekend and if you don’t get your butt in a seat by March 28, you’ll surely miss a most memorable evening. The dinner theater-in-the- round is the brainchild of a new non-profit calling themselves Radical Hospitality Theater and while the program and its director are still nascent they seem to want to shake things up in the very plain, white state of Utah.

Radical Needs More Hospitality

The Tennessee Williams’ play (made famous by Marlon Brando’s onscreen howls of “STELLLLA” in the Academy Award-winning film) is rife with adult themes from spousal abuse to rape and a swift departure from the G-Rated musicals local talent and audiences have been regularly handed over the past two decades. “The disillusion, the struggle with ego, and the lies we tell ourselves and others just trying to survive “Life.” It’s powerful. It’s earth shaking stuff, really,” Producer Tara Norton told the City Weekly. “This cast is bringing that to the table and doing this Pulitzer Prize winner and Oscar winner justice.”

While Norton’s desire to challenge audiences and talent is well-placed, her partner Yolanda Stange takes it a step further with a combative, elitist attitude that presupposes Utah audiences will naturally “fail to get it.” The chip on her shoulder must be back breaking. 

The small audience at the show’s preview in a pop-up space in the Gateway Center should take offense to the lack of confidence.  Although the backdrop was a canvas and a few pieces of furniture, we felt as if we were eaves-dropping on real people as they fight, they lie, they cry and they dream. Williams brings that forth with his poignant writing. We don’t need a director trying to rub our noses in it. 

The Radical Hospitality Is Forced

Streetcar is not for the squeamish as my prim and proper British friend quickly discovered. The cast as a whole is terrific while Deena Marie Manzanares’ Blanche DuBois is riveting. Sila Agavale held his own in the role of Mitch, Blanche’s conflicted suitor but Aaron Adams as Stanley Kowalski is a bit too much like a cardboard Calvin Klein underwear model to be completely believable as the base, bowery boy Stanley Kowalski. Nonetheless this really is a vehicle for Manzanares.

Photo by Jill Adler

It was Stange’s idea to make the event “dinner theater” but each course was served between scenes so it lent to awkward silences as real people moved around the room instead of the actors. We were well into the third course of JT Culinary Events/Chef J Looney’s ‘dirty noodles’ when Blanche entered. The audience didn’t know whether to clap so we stayed quiet. Weird. The continual morphing from moment to moment was like a forced dance. I suppose the silence was appropriate; it held the tension whereas clapping would bring us out of their world but you still felt like you were wandering in some grey area.

When you come, plan to stay a while; you’re a dinner guest in the Kowalski house. The eve runs long with two short intermissions but this immersive combination of food, art and thought is exhilarating.

A Streetcar Named Desire

 General Admission March 20th-22nd & 26th-28th 7:30 p.m.

Dinner Theater March 20th, 21st & 27th, 28th 7 p.m.

Gateway Mall

116 S. Rio Grande St. Salt Lake City, Ut. 84101

The Old Anthropologie Space

GENERAL ADMISSION TICKET:
$25.00

DINNER THEATER:
$110.00 – with wine/beer pairings
$ 85.00 – food only

It’s a no brainer. Someone hands you a cute chocolate bunny and the first thing you munch down on? The ears. According to a survey conducted just in time for Easter by the Chocolate Manufacturers Association (CMA) and National Confectioners Association (NCA), not only are chocolate bunnies the number one “must have” item in an Easter basket but they are to be consumed ears first.

“Apparently, this is the most appropriate way to enjoy a chocolate bunny,” said Larry Graham, president of CMA and NCA. Graham admits he’s no different. One thousand adults were surveyed and 76 percent said they start with the ears while only five percent head for the feet. I usually bite the butt but I’m in the minority (four percent).

When you’re done with the bunny you will most likely have a handful of jelly beans to contend with. More than 90 million chocolate bunnies and 16 billion jelly beans find their ways into our bellies.  But skiers, on the other hand are destined to consume more jelly beans than bunnies on Easter. There’s just no room for Bugs in those plastic eggs EB tosses out on the slopes.

Grab a basket and see for yourself on April 5-

Park City Mountain Resort

The Easter Bunny supervises a special egg hunt for kids under 6 in the Kid’s Korral at 9 a.m. sharp. Older children have an Easter Egg Hunt on the First Time face and adults can comb the mountain in search of the Golden Egg (containing a season pass) in the all-mountain hunt. EB scatters more than a hundred eggs for early risers to find. some have candy, others have fun prizes like alpine coaster tickets.

Deer Valley

The Easter Bunny visits Deer Valley’s Snow Park Lodge from 9 to 11 a.m.

Alta

Make sure you have the kids in front of Alta Java at Albion Lodge at 11 am. sharp to meet the Easter Bunny and find some of his hidden treasures buried in the snow. They will have three groups: 4 & under / 5-8 years / 9-12 years.

Brighton

Dress like the Easter Bunny this Sunday and ski for free!! The Easter egg hunt in and around the Milly Chalet begins at 8 a.m. and will keep all ages entertained. Make sure to bring your boots, because you never know where the Easter Bunny hid his eggs! Grab some pancakes at the Milly Chalet. There will also be hard boiled eggs to dye and decorate.

Snowbird

Snowbird’s Easter begins with the annual Sunrise Service on Hidden Peak followed by a Pancake Breakfast Buffet at the Rendezvous or the Aerie Easter Brunch. Kids 6 and under are free.

The egg hunt starts in Chickadee Bowl at 9 a.m. for children up to 11. The three age divisions are: 4 & under, 5-7 and 8-11.

Snowbasin

Bring the children up to Snowbasin Resort for an Easter Egg Hunt and to see the Easter Bunny before enjoying a delicious Easter Brunch. Kids under 6 scramble at 10 a.m. Those 7-12 can get their eggs at 11. The Easter Brunch is from 10:30 am – 4:30 pm. Reservations required.

This Build Your Blog conference has got my mind in a whirl. So many ideas, so many plans of action, so many questions. But where BlogHer14 confused and dismayed me, BYBC has set me on a distinguishable path. What do I do? First thing is to move off the free wordpress.com and find a paid hosting service (said this before but now I will do it); then start building my Pinterest boards, Facebook profiles, Instagram followers, etc. Apparently blogging is 20 percent content and 80 percent social media. Those who network like Rocky will make it. It’s time to step into the ring.

Brands embrace bloggers more than any other form of media and they look for ways to get products into our hands. I want to ask why: Why, after 20 years of journalistic integrity, is a blogger courted more arduously than a writer? Just because someone gives me something for free doesn’t mean they own me. Never has. Other bloggers I’ve spoken with say the same thing about their opinions. So why is blogging considered so differently?

I’m told that brands know bloggers have a personal connection with their audience that far surpasses anything you get with a print publication or a general interest website. People rarely pick up a magazine to read one particular author. They want to see photos and stories about their favorite subjects but it’s very one-sided. You really never know those in the editorial column. Blogging, on the other hand, is interactive. You get to know me and if you don’t like me you don’t even have to turn a page, you just don’t ‘click’. But those who do like what I have to say will read on, and know that if I like something, they will too. It’s akin to seeing a killer top on a friend; you want to know immediately where she got it. Whereas there isn’t that kind of excitement reading about it in a paper. The author writes in the voice and tone of the publication. The blogger uses her own voice.

The hardest thing I have to deal with at this event is having that confidence in my voice. But my God, I see 12-year-olds sitting next to me in these lectures. KIDS are getting in on the action. The woman next to me does a family travel blog but she’s not very nice; could she be intimidated too? The two people behind me; one writes a fitness blog and the other will write a lifestyle blog shortly once she figures out the business end of it all. They’re more my speed – very open, super friendly and eager to connect and learn. I look forward to reading their blogs and they boost my confidence. There will definitely be many, many more bloggers to meet at this conference even though it’s only two days long. But two days is enough. Any more and my mind might explode.