Utah Shakespeare Festival to Present 9/11 Commemorative Reading of "The Guys"
By Kathryn Neves, guest writer
The Utah Shakespeare Festival will commemorate the 25th anniversary of September 11 with a special one-time presentation of Anne Nelson’s The Guys on September 11 at 9:30am in the Anes Studio Theatre. All proceeds from the performance will benefit 9/11 first responders.
Directed by Festival Artistic Director John DiAntonio and starring longtime Festival artists Melinda Pfundstein and Chris Mixon, this production will be a staged reading with the actors reading from scripts, akin to the Festival’s Words Cubed new play program.
According to DiAntonio, the simplicity allows for an intimacy that will deeply move audiences. “That simplicity is at the heart of the play. It doesn’t need elaborate scenery or theatrical effects to have an enormous impact. It’s about two people, their words, and what happens between them. A staged reading allows that humanity and intimacy to come through with great directness.”
The Guys follows the true story of a journalist who, in the days following the attack on the World Trade Center, helps a New York fire chief write the eulogies for eight of his men who were killed. Through this reading, the Festival hopes to commemorate and honor those first responders who gave their lives responding to the 9/11 attacks. To that end, all proceeds from the event will go to helping 9/11 first responders and their families.
“It’s a beautiful and tender script—so simple, so intimate, and perfectly suited to the Anes Theatre. I’m incredibly excited about our cast: Melinda Pfundstein and Chris Mixon are both beloved members of the Utah Shakespeare family, and I know our audiences will be thrilled to see them together,” said DiAntonio. “I hope you can join us for what will be a very special morning. The Guys is a small play about an enormous event, but its power lies in its humanity—in two people trying to find the words when words seem impossible. Twenty-five years after September 11, that feels like a story still worth telling.”
In this anniversary year, The Guys offers audiences a chance to remember the lives lost on 9/11 and the people who were left behind to tell their stories. Tickets for the performance are $11 and can be purchased online here or by calling the Ticket Office at 800-PLAYTIX (800-752-9849).
