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The facade of The Towne Hub theater in American Fork advertises the Utah Valley Pride Theatre Festival on Saturday, June 10, 2023.

Harrison Epstein, Daily Herald

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Zack Elzey, creator of the Utah Valley Pride Theatre Festival, sits on a stage in The Towne Hub theater in American Fork on Saturday, June 10, 2023. The Towne Hub is hosting the festival.

Harrison Epstein, Daily Herald

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Born and raised in Utah County, Zack Elzey, wanted to make sure there was some kind of Pride recognition in the valley during June. A member of the theater community and founder of the Utah Valley Players, a local acting troupe, Elzey created the Utah Valley Pride Theatre Festival.

“We still wanted to have some sort of event where Utah Valley people could come and celebrate and experience different kinds of stories and experiences in different types of theater,” Elzey said. “I think a lot of the same types of theater gets produced in the valley and I think, with this, this is a theater that people don’t usually experience.”

The festival is continuing through this weekend, having premiered with a performance of “Cabaret” on June 9 and concluding this coming Tuesday with several performances. All shows have been and will be held at The Towne Hub in American Fork.

Having the festival in American Fork goes beyond the relationship Elzey has with The Towne Hub, having performed and organized shows before in the Main Street venue. He called the city the center between Provo — “kind of it’s own thing” — and the Lehi/Draper area.

The festival is an 11-day endeavor with multiple stagings of four different shows for various types of theatergoers. It includes “Cabaret,” a risqué show set in a nightclub; “The 54th Step,” an original show set in a state legislature discussing an anti-bullying bill; a pair of Shakespeare works in “Twelfth Night” and “The Tempest;” and “The Laramie Project,” a play chronicling the aftermath of the 1998 murder of Matthew Shepard.

Each show has a different cast and director, with Kacey Spadafora, also a lifetime Utah County resident, taking the lead on “Cabaret.” People were given carte blanche, he said, to put on their show and he selected “Cabaret” because of the messaging and how he sees it translating from the time it was originally written, 1966, to now.

“‘Cabaret’ just has a strong message of the banality of fascism, the rise of fascism. It just kind of comes slowly and it’s not gonna ring the bells, it just kind of slowly creeps up on you,” Spadafora said, citing “parallels it draws with a lot of legislation going on recently, anti-trans, anti-drag and just generally anti-LGBTQ.”

Having the variety between shows was important for Elzey. He sought a balance between somber stories and upbeat ones. In the first round of performances and in the lead-up to the festival, there were few negative interactions. Elzey mentioned a few signs advertising it getting stolen while Spadafora said only a few people walked out of “Cabaret.” “They didn’t raise a huff or anything, they just quietly left,” he said.

Still, the decision to hold the Pride festival was to send a message about awareness to members of the LGBTQ+ community and others in the valley.

“I think there is a lot of people that, not necessarily are anti-LGBTQ people, but just aren’t comfortable with it. And I think that’s just a lot to do with exposure,” Elzey said. “When you’re sitting in a theater, with a group of people, you’re empathizing for someone’s life, and you are sharing that empathizing with somebody — together — as a community.”

While far from a solo project, leading the Pride Theatre Festival has taken a significant amount of Elzey’s time and energy. With it being the first such festival, in particular, involvement by others was done with faith everything would work out.

Now halfway through, Elzey hopes the festival has proven a desire for LGBTQ+ stories to be told in the area and that others would be willing to participate next year “either financially or be more involved in shows.” In addition to the private sponsorships, Elzey received a grant from the Hamsam Foundation, he said, which provides grants to different theater companies.

Elzey and his group are also working to organize a Mental Health Theatre Festival for August, for which they are still looking for donors and potential sponsors. The goal is similar to the Pride Theatre Festival, to give people a venue to learn about other people and their lives.

Tickets and the full schedule for the festival are available at http://utahvalleytheatrefestival.com/.

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