Warm Your Spirit Watching The Spitfire Grill

Published: November 03, 2016 | Author: Ashley Pollock | Read Time: 2 minutes

The Department of Theatre Arts and Dance is warming this fall season with the musical The Spitfire Grill. Performances will be held in the Randall L. Jones Theatre on November 4, 5, 7, and 11 at 7:30 p.m. with matinee performances on November 5 and 12 at 2 p.m.

The Spitfire Grill musical is the story of a town that has lost its purpose and hope after losing their hero during the Vietnam war. Percy, a 21-year-old ex-prisoner looking for a new start on life arrives to the town of Gilead, and an idea to run a raffle to sell the Spitfire Grill offers the people of the town and grill a chance for a new life.

Director and Assistant Professor of Theatre, Melinda Vaughn, said of her time working on the production, “What a pleasure it has been to spend this fall in Gilead and the Spitfire, both shells of their glory days when they offered places of hope and belonging for the people who inhabit them. We begin our story in stark winter: the perfect setting for a journey to something else. To connection, to redemption, or belonging. Perhaps, for the people of Gilead, a journey back to themselves. To each other. To home.”

Trent Dahlin, a junior from Cedar City, is playing Sheriff Joe Sutter. Dahlin said, “My biggest challenge is playing a character with dialogue that is so grounded, realistic and normal on the outside while still infusing it with the high-stakes energy that is boiling under his thick skin.”

Tickets for The Spitfire Grill are $15 for adults, $12 for Alumni with their card, and $7 for youth. Southern Utah University faculty, staff, and students are free with a valid ID card. Faculty and staff IDs are allowed one guest. Tickets are available at the SUU Ticket Office (435) 586-7872 on Monday-Friday from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., in person at the Centrum Ticket Office, or at suu.edu/pva.

Jordyn Cardwell, a senior candidate for the Bachelor of Fine Arts in Musical Theatre, said, “One of my favorite parts about working on this production is developing the relationships.” Cardwell is performing the role of Perchance (Percy) Talbot. Her hope is that “the audience leaves the show with their own feeling of redemption. I believe that your past does not define who you are and that is exactly what this show demonstrates. Stephen Chbosky has it right in The Perks of Being a Wallflower, that ‘We accept the love we think we deserve.’ The Spitfire Grill is about separating what we think we deserve, and what we truly deserve.”

Feel the strength and warmth of community as you watch the heartwarming musical The Spitfire Grill. For more information, please visit www.suu.edu/pva/ta.

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