Active independent groups include the Salt Lake Acting Company, which presents avant-garde plays; the Hale Center Theaters in Salt Lake and Provo, which present original dramas written by Ruth and Nathan Hale as well as other family entertainment; City Repertory in the Utah Theater, which presents musicals, musical reviews, and children's theater; the Page's Lane Theater in Centerville, which presents family drama and musicals; and the Desert Star Playhouse in Murray, which focuses on musical melodramas. The Theater League of Utah, formed in the early 1990s to bring New York touring company productions to Utah, sponsored extremely popular productions of Les Miserables and Cats. The Capitol Theater in Logan, first opened in 1923, was restored and reopened as the Ellen Eccles Theater in 1993.

Despite the financial demands of live stage productions and the competition from movies, television, and video, Utah theater on the community, school, church, and professional levels continues to draw audiences, invite participation, and inspire creativity.

See: Gary James Bergera and Ronald Priddis, Brigham Young University: A House of Faith (1985); Keith M. Engar, History of Dramatics at the University of Utah from Beginnings until June 1919 (1948); Helen Garrity, "The Theater in Utah" in Utah--A Centennial History (1949); Myrtle E. Henderson, A History of the Theater in Salt Lake City 1850-1870 (1934); John Shanks Lindsay, The Mormons and the Theater (1905); and Clarence Ronald Olauson, Dramatic Activities at BYU from Earliest Beginnings to the Present (1962).

Ann W. Engar