CEDAR CITY — As an invited guest, in preparation for the Forge’s Open house on June 7, I experienced a behind the scenes tour for an amazing new theater company that was created right in Cedar City six months ago. Centering in the values of Iron County, this new theater company, The Forge, is committed to creating engaging theatrical performances and hoping to foster and encourage all types of performance arts. The two front ladies I had the privilege to interview from The Forge were Marketing Director Kathy Heer and Ellen Wheeler, Director of Theatrical Productions and Goddess Over Everything. Kathy insisted this is Ellen’s true title and by the end of the interview I was in much agreement.
The Forge was created by five founding members who met through engaging in local theatrical events over the years. They all saw the need for an in-between or more cozy venue that could facilitate live theater for the Community of Cedar City and its surrounding cities. Cedar City technically has two other theaters: The Heritage Center, which is highly popular but booked out for about 2 years at a time and is viewed by some to be a bit too large for more intimate performances. Additionally, the theaters that are part of Southern Utah University and home to the Utah Shakespeare Festival are not widely available for community use because its priority is student populations. After serious conversations, The Forge piloted this idea quickly last December.
By week one they decided they were a Company and in week two, they started production on their first two shows. They talked to the local Cedar Fun Center about using one of their movie theaters for theatrical performances and the dates were set. The first two performances the community saw were two live radio shows: Santa Claus is Coming to Town (a retelling of A Christmas Carol) and The Star Still Shines (a collection of historical Christmas stories). These shows had the actors do live readings and a bit of acting with help from the audience doing the sound effects. It was a hit. This propelled them to move forward into producing their first full live musical. In March, “The World According to Snoopy delighted about a full house of locals for several days. One of the movie theaters in the Cedar Fun Center had several seats removed to make room for a theatrical stage. The casting call for the musical was achieved through a partnership with IMPAC (Intermountain Performing Arts Conservatory). The Forge advertised for both their current show and IMPAC’s current show, and in turn IMPAC shared their space for casting calls. Both companies worked together to schedule shows in a way that allowed them to share cast members. This is a gift to both starting-out and veteran actors because the more they can build their work resume the better. Truly this embodies The Forge’s theme of Collaboration Over Competition.
Continuing their momentum, The Forge is almost done with turning the movie theater into a real theatrical stage through the work of local carpenters Shannon and Ollie using materials purchased by Ellen. Ollie has two children who will be performing in upcoming summer shows. His children are very proud of their dad for helping to build an awesome stage. Shannon is coming full circle with turning the movie theater into a real theatrical theater because his father built the original movie theater building years ago. He commented that when he was in high school, he helped put in the movie theater seats and it’s ironic that as an adult he is the one to remove them to build a stage. The Summer lineup for this new stage includes 3 theater productions that honor America’s 250th anniversary. They are “1776,” which focuses on the story of the founding fathers, “Oklahoma,” which tells the story of America’s expansion; and “High School Musical,” a taste at what current life and pop culture are like now. The thread that ties them all together is the theme that when you have problems coming together as a people is the solution. All three shows are currently deep in production. “High School Musical” will be performed June 10-13, “Oklahoma” will be performed June 18-22, and “1776” will be performed June 26-27. Specific times and tickets for these performance dates can be found online at theforgearts.com.
The Forge would like to invite the public to their open house of their new theater located at 170 E. Fiddlers Canyon Rd, Cedar City on Sunday, June 7th at 5:00 pm. At 5:30pm there will be an Inaugural Performance on the stage that will include actors giving a taste of their summer lineup of shows Highschool Musical, Oklahoma and 1776. This will last about 45 minutes. At 6:15pm it will be an open Broadway mic. Anybody is welcome to then sing a song or do a little performance to try out the new stage. Come and experience the new stage at The Forge!