Reflection on Spark in Salt Lake City

Pygmalian Theatre Company, Salt Lake City, UT

November 7, 2012

Directed by Alexandra Harbold

                                                   by Fran Pruyn

Pygmalion Theatre Company had the honor and privilege of coordinating and presenting a reading of Spark on November 7, 2012, at the Rose Wagner Black Box Theatre in Salt Lake CityUtah.

Beyond having intriguing characters, vivid and poetic imagery, and a language that can be spoken interracially; Spark speaks about the American soldier's experience, and how it impacts everyone touched by it.  

Spark is a play about class and war.  It is a play that reveals how the military uses money and the ideals of heroism to seduce young people to enlist.  It is a play that exposes the collateral damage to any family that results by sacrificing a family member to any war.   

Spark captures an entire family in PTSD.  The play speaks in the rhythms and poetry of a Southern poverty --  where military service is a solution, and violence and war is an intergenerational disease.

Spark’s magic is in revealing how people get stuck in their private but collective pain, and how getting un-stuck is a miracle. 

Fran Pruyn is the Artistic Director of Pygmalion Theatre Company.