Fall arts preview:
Spanish Fork’s own Sister Dottie Dixon previews the fall arts season for you.
By Roxana Orellana
Busy rehearsing her triumphant return to Salt Lake City’s Broadway, “The Passion of Sister Dottie S. Dixon–Second Helpings,” Sister Dixon took a break to share her thoughts on the upcoming arts and entertainment season.
“Just trying to keep life together,” said the character embodied by actor Charles Lynn Frost, a fictional Mormon wife, married to Don, and mother of a fictional gay son. “It’s hard being famous.”
Pygmalion Productions decided to open its season with the flamboyant character, which helped raise the small theater company’s visibility last season. “Dottie was a success both financially and critically,” said Fran Pruyn, artistic director.
The company dedicated to women-centric plays had considered not mounting another season or cutting a show from its schedule due to funding issues — before the success of “The Passion of Sister Dottie S. Dixon” last spring. As Pruyn explained: “We didn’t know how much theater we could afford.”
Reviving the show gave co-creators Frost and Troy Williams a chance to make changes in the script. “We are less than a month away,” Sister Dixon said in an interview this week. “There are some nights when I toss and turn with all those lines going through me in my head. My memory is not so good to begin with, so when you cram all those lines in there, I can’t remember my neighbor’s dog’s name.”
Symphony or the ballet?
“Tough choice: I love them both. I go to the symphony a whole lot more than I do that ballet. Don took me last year as an anniversary gift to that “Mostly Mozart.” I was crying. My emotions were flowing. I had to run and get myself some paper towels from the bathroom ’cause I didn’t have enough handkerchiefs. It’s just so beautiful. That symphony just sends me over the edge. Love them, love
them. And of course we always go to the “Messiah” sing-along. We never, never miss it, kid. Sing, sing for Jesus.”
Visual arts?
“I go over to that Springville art museum now and again with the sisters in my ward and the Daughters of the Utah Pioneers. We had a quilt show in one of the wings there a couple of years ago. One of my quilts hung on that wall. I was so honored. I guess my favorite visual art is cross stitching. I have cross stitched over 30 Mormon temples. You’re probably impressed with my talents the good Lord gives me.”
Besides your show, what theater production are you must excited about?
“The next thing we’re going to is that “Caretaker,” up to the Salt Lake Acting Company. To tell you the truth, [Donny, my gay son] has a little crush on that Matthew Ivan Bennett. Oh, he is a cutie, I will
say this. I say to Donny, ‘Donny, he is not gay.’ He goes, ‘I don’t care, Mommy, he is eye candy,’ whatever that means.
“Of course, we will go see “A Chorus Line.” Love it, love it, love it. And [Pioneer Theatre Company] just happened to be doing one of my very favorites. They’re doing ‘Our Town.’ I simply love that play. I played Emily in high school, way back in Spanish Fork High School when I was a junior.
“I’d walk or crawl to Salt Lake City to see this “Master Class” with Anne Cullimore Decker. She is my favorite actress in all of Salt Lake City. She gives me goose pumps, I tell you.”
As a performer, what other skill do you wish you had?
“Lordy, we have added some choreographying into the next play and heaven, I wish I was a better dancer than tumble and stumble all over. Now, my gay son Donny can dance up a storm. I don’t know where he inherited that. You should see him two-step up to that bar in Salt Lake City. I think it’s called the Entrapment or something like that.”
Why should people get out and spend money on the local art and entertainment scene this season?
“I’ll tell you, God has certainly sent his good share of talent to Utah. We are blessed. He has provided us with more gay reality TV contestants than any other religion on the planet. I say, ‘Why stay home and watch another re-run of something — get out spend your dollars and expand your brain. We have just too many offerings to be sitting at home waiting and watching the silly television.’”
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