Production directed by Darin Hathaway, director of Judge Memorial’s drama department

• 16 Utah students in Scotland performing in “world’s largest arts festival”
• August 4, 2011
• Salt Lake City article link

When members of the University of Utah Youth Theatre were told last fall they would fly to Scotland to perform at Edinburgh Festival Fringe, they immediately posted the news on Facebook and Twitter.

Months later, they proceeded to rehearse an original musical about the impact on youth of Facebook, Twitter and other social-media tools.

“Irony? Of course!” said Quita Christison, an administrative assistant at the youth actor program. “That’s the kind of world we live in.”

Here’s another irony. Although the play will be performed by 16 teenagers gathered from Utah high schools, few in the state will have the opportunity to see their production. The privilege goes to international audiences at what’s widely acknowledged to be “the world’s largest arts festival.”

“Viral” tells the story of Harmony Faust, a talented high-school student who feels invisible to those in her school. When a classmate suffers humiliation after online distribution of a viral video, she then taps the Internet’s power to launch her own campaign of personal notoriety. As in the Faust legend informing Christopher Marlowe’s famous early 17th-century play, she finds that negotiating its power with its price is a hard bargain.

Nicholas Dunn, a freelance film and theater producer in Salt Lake City, said he conceived the idea both as an homage to one of his favorite dramatic works and the ideal way to adapt a story that would find resonance with the current social-networking obsession of most teenagers.

“They wanted to try something darker and closer to their own concerns as high-school students,” Dunn said. “I thought it remarkable that our modern culture is grappling with the powers of new communication advancements in ways similar to the England of Marlowe’s time, when knowledge, advancements in health and new ideas about religion were first taking hold.”

The youth theater group started raising funds for trip expenses last fall, soon after receiving the invitation to perform at Edinburgh Festival Fringe through the American High School Theatre Festival. The invitation was based on the past strength of works performed by the U. of U. Youth Theatre.

Initial rehearsals were held in late winter after students finished their classes, Christison said, ending with a solid four weeks of six-hour rehearsals every day at the Youth Theatre’s camp at the West Institute building right across from the U. campus. Penelope Caywood, the U. of U. Youth Theatre director who wrote music for the production, left Salt Lake City late last week with the student group and Darin Hathaway, director of Judge Memorial High School’s drama department, who will direct the production.

Dunn said travel arrangements to Scotland fell consequence to his own hard bargain. Although he was slated to direct it, an automobile accident between Salt Lake City and Logan meant relinquishing those duties to Hathaway.

“Just having the credit of your work performed at an international venue like that is incredible,” Dunn said. “The kids really put it together before they left. If anything got a little out of hand, all you had to do was remind them why they were there. Then it was as if you were in a roomful of professional actors.”