a

F E ATU R E D

Yes, there are theater jobs in Utah

by Elle Griffin / April 17, 2020 / H 3.5k

The chandelier fell to the floor with a

sizzling crack. Bulbs burst, and a startling
scream rang out in the impending
darkness.

This was not the first chandelier drop I’d

ever seen―as a patron of the arts I’ve seen
The Phantom of the Opera more times than
I can count―but this was the first time I’d
ever seen the sparks fly, or felt the crash
reverberate in the seats around me.

It was thrilling―and I have to admit that I

wasn’t expecting it to be.

I’d heard of the Hale Centre Theatre in

passing, discussed in the wings of the arts
world, but I was a season ticket holder to
the Eccles and I lived downtown―I had
little need of attending a community theater
in the suburbs.

But then, this was no ordinary community

theater. The production alone is more
advanced than any Broadway theater has
the liberty to be. The $12.5 million stage
rotates and lifts and lowers and produces
entire sets out of nowhere. Complex cogs
of machinery move 47 pieces using 130
motors, choreographing every movement
with perfect precision.

In the introductory scene of the theater’s

Phantom, a trapdoor is opened in the floor
with a ladder jutting out of it. An actor then
proceeds to drop down into it, descending
the ladder as the entire floor lifts, revealing
the phantom’s lair in the dungeon beneath.
It was outstanding and silent, a feat of
engineering and awe.

And the talent was so moving I could

actually feel the sadness of the
misunderstood Phantom, and hear in his
voice the trembling of a troubled youth. It
was a beautiful voice, I might add. One I
could easily have seen on Broadway, albeit
from the second or third tier. Hale Centre,
as it turns out, allows everyone in the
audience a front-row view.

Utah loves the arts

To understand Hale, I think it’s important to
understand the community that raised it.
Not the family legacy that created it (it’s still
owned by Mark and Sally Dietlein, the third
generation of Hale’s), or the theaters that
housed it (it’s third, and most beautiful
iteration opened in 2017) but the culture of
the state itself.

Utah, as it turns out, is fertile soil for the

arts. According to the National Endowment
for the Arts, 84.5 percent of our state
attends performing arts performances in a
given year, far more than any other state.
As Elizabeth Funk, administrative assistant
in the theater department at BYU told me:
“There’s so much love for musical theater in
Utah, that those semi-professional
venues―Hale, Tuacahn, and the
Shakespeare festival―have a lot of
audience members, and can actually make
money on those ventures.”

That’s why the county is adding the Mid-

Valley Performing Arts Center to its already
impressive portfolio of stages. “Our venues
are some of the most heavily used facilities
nationwide,” says Sarah Pearce, executive
director at Salt Lake County Arts & Culture,
which owns and operates Abravanel Hall,
Capitol Theatre, Eccles Theater, and Rose
Wagner Performing Arts Center. “Our
average annual utilization rate is 80
percent, compared to a nation-wide
average of 62 percent utilization.”

To satiate all that demand, the new Mid-

Valley Performing Arts Center will open in
2020, and it is set to include a 400-seat
mainstage theater, a 200-seat studio
theater, as well as rehearsal and event
space. And because we have an audience
that supports so many professional
theaters, we also have plenty of theater
jobs―a true rarity outside of New York and
California.

That being said, theater jobs here are…

different. Despite the high production value
of our theaters, they are still community
theaters, and thus don’t quite provide the
payscale of a Broadway show. Can you be
a full-time actor living in Utah? “I would say
no,” says Adam Dietlin of Hale Theatre, “I
think it’s a great side gig, and if you’re a
single dude you can do it, but in order to
get the work you have to be willing to travel
and go places. You might be able to make
the money, but maybe not enough to build a
family, and you wouldn’t be seeing your
family much.”

That’s not necessarily a bad thing.

So do actors
Adam Dietlin, by the way, is the son of
current Hale owners Mark and Sally Deitlin,
and he grew up―ok, wanting to be an NBA
basketball player―but also, acting in his
parents theater. Eventually he moved to
New York City where he acted on Broadway
in Beautiful: The Carole King Musical, and
off-Broadway in Interview: A New Musical.
And yet, despite all that success, he made
the decision to come back home last year.

“When I was in New York, I was very

fortunate to have great success. But I knew
it was always a chapter. Because if you
want to maintain being a theater actor, and
you can’t get work in New York where your
family might be, you have to go and travel
and do regional theater just to get a gig.
That’s why I knew that, for me, it was just a
chapter, and now I’m here and now I have
the best of both worlds.”

This strikes both of us as a very Utah way

of looking at the world. In San Francisco,
where I moved from, and New York, where
Dietlin moved from, that sacrifice of lifestyle
in favor of career was the norm. In both
places, long commutes, long hours, and
long stretches of time away from family
were de rigueur, but that’s exactly why both
of us decided to move here.

Adam Dietlin photographed by

Ori Media for Utah Business

Utah’s has a certain je ne sais quoi that

calls us like a siren to it’s salted shores.
Sure, we don’t have the San Francisco Bay
or the mountains of Tahoe. We don’t have
the Met or New York City’s Broadway
theaters. But, actually, we do have the
mountains, and we do have the arts, and
we have far more capacity to enjoy both
one of those things because we can leave
the office by four and be at either
destination in a manner of minutes.

As an editorial writer and editor, I get it. I

live in a place far removed from my chosen
profession―most editorial publications are
headquartered in San Francisco, New York,
and Washington DC. I’m fortunate enough
to work for one of very few editorial
publications that exist in this city, but before
I did, I moved to this state knowing I was
choosing lifestyle over career, even if I still
harbored some hope that my career goals
could be obtained from afar.

They can be. And in fact, many of us have

opted for lifestyle, and yet found a way to
make a career happen here, too. As I have
managed to find an editorial job, maintain
my freelance career from afar, write a book,
and participate in Sundance’s screenwriting
program, actors in Utah have also found a
way to have their cake and eat it too.

But they love the lifestyle even

more
“We have a lot of friends in New York and
Los Angeles,” says Bre Welch, an actress
at Hale Theater. “But it’s very hard to have
a family. They’re in survival mode all the
time. They work this great job and can
afford to eat for another month, but then it’s
over and they need to go out and do
auditions again. That’s always been
overwhelming for me.”

Welch and her husband now operate

Pepper Fox Photo, taking headshots for
actors and musicians by day―she does the
shooting, he does the editing―while acting
in musical theater productions by night.
They alternate being in shows so that the
non-acting member can stay home with
their kids. “We have two kids, a house, I
work five hours a week on this business,
and then we can do shows at night and still
feel like we’re actors and we’re
creating―but it’s a great way to still
maintain the lifestyle we want to live.”

Deitlin agrees. “I just looked at the picture

long-term. I was having great success in
New York, I could have stayed out. There
was another show in workshop until it got to
Broadway. I was getting more into TV, film. I
just got a new agent,” he says. “But the
other thing that was pulling me was coming
back, working with my parents, my brother
Quinn, and that whole theater family again.”

Dietlin did later admit to me that he’d left

too soon, that he wishes he stayed in New
York for at least another year. “People think
I’m crazy for what I did,” he says. “But since
being back I got married and this is the kind
of life that I wanted. I didn’t want to
constantly be traveling, because I want to
have kids and I want to be there for their
soccer games or whatever it may be. And
that’s what I envisioned when I moved here,
knowing I can have all that and still be
involved in the theater.”

Dietlin now works on the business side of

things―even if he can’t define exactly what
it is he does apart from “being with the
theater.” But he loves it. Acting, to him, was
never about the stardom, it was always
about the community. He grew up in the
shows, his brother Quinn was in a band and
his wife is a singer. He gave up living on
Broadway, but he actually likes his life
better here. He is still fulfilled creatively, but
he’s also fulfilled communally. He has
balance.

“So many people go out to New York and

have zero success and they’re so
passionate, it’s their one love. I love theater,
but I’m not on the crazy end of the
spectrum where I’ll do anything for it
because I’ve realized the realities of people
in that industry. I love acting, and it’s
absolutely necessary in society, but I don’t
need the accolades. I’m very happy.”

Welch also sees the virtues of a part-time

passion. “We didn’t want performing to be
the thing we revolved around,” she says.
“Theater and acting is something you give
up a lot of control for. You don’t know what
role you’re going to get cast in. So when we
moved back to Utah, the photography
business was a way to still feel like an
artist, but I had more control over it. It
provided us some balance.”
Dietlin and Welch are currently
understudying for the main roles in Bright
Star, a mesmerizing Steve Martin musical
with a bluegrass band that plays live on
stage. The show is beautiful, bright, and
breathtaking. They may not be on
Broadway, but they’re both much happier
that way. So, might I say, is the audience.

Adam Dietlin photographed by

Ori Media for Utah Business

Tags:
Articles, featured

Elle Griffin

Elle is the editor-in-chief of Utah Business

and a freelance writer for Forbes, The
Muse, and The Startup. She is also a
literary novelist and the author of a weekly
newsletter called The Novelleist. Learn
more at ellegriffin.com.

ABOUT

SUBSC RI BE

THE ARCHIVES

BOOK OF LI STS

FA ST 50

B EST COMPANI ES TO WO R K FO R

C EO OF T HE YEA R

LIVI NG COLOR G A L A

Sign up for our newsletter

Email

SEND

Privacy - Terms