jennifer a. kokai

The year is coming to a close, and what a year it has been! At UTBA, we published a record-breaking 259 reviews in 2023, including our first reviews for productions…

OGDEN — Going to see a world premiere of a new musical can be, as Forrest Gump says, a box of chocolates—you never know what you’re gunna get. Instead of…

OGDEN — As a sixth grade student and fifth grade teacher, my son and I were an ideal audience for the world premiere of Zombie Thoughts. Written by Jennifer A.…

Jennifer A. Kokai is a name that pops up regularly in the UTBA archives as a director. A faculty member at Weber State University, Dr. Kokai is also the author…

Last year at the Utah Shakespeare Festival, I came across a term that I had never heard before: “Henriad.” After hearing a few Festival artists throw the term around, I…

OGDEN — The classic play, The Tempest, by William Shakespeare, is a tale about a father and his daughter marooned on an Island by family traitors seeking for the power…

OGDEN — Often as an audience member, I want to passively sit and relax and to just let the performance happen—to simply be entertained. I see nothing wrong with this—and…

OGDEN — Sarah Saltwick’s play Of Myth and Mud explores the power of women in an assortment of vignettes based in world mythology. While independent of one another, these short…

OGDEN — “The truth is the truth because it is the truth.” Or so declares Tiresias, the blind prophet of Sophocles’s Oedipus Rex who serves as the narrator in this…

OGDEN — Tartuffe is a classic comedic play written by Molière in the year 1664. A play that is still being staged 348 years after its creation deserves a great…