This weekend, you could be stepping into the stage door at Kingsbury Hall to experience intimate Utah theatre like no other. UtahPresents and Flying Bobcat Theatrical Laboratory are presenting Footpath Theatre Company’s Western Minerals and Their Origins by Connor Johnson and Footpath Theatre Company as part of UtahPresents’ Stage Door Series, which has the audience seated on stage for up-close storytelling encounters.
Western Minerals and their Origins which won Best of Fringe at the 2024 Great Salt Lake Fringe Festival, “aims to push the bounds of fringe theater, incorporating a live electronic score and capturing the rough-edged, unhinged energy of independent theater without sacrificing the quality and clarity of story,” UtahPresents said in a press release. The show follows a woman’s psychedelic journey as she clears out the garage of her canyoneering brother and contemplates the past—both of geology and of her own relationships.
Not only will this be a uniquely Utahn theater experience, but the show also showcases the talents of the University of Utah Department of Theatre community. Associate Professor Alexandra Harbold directs Western Minerals, and Associate Professor Robert Scott Smith, Head of the Actor Training Program, provides creative and production support through Flying Bobcat Theatrical Laboratory (which he and Harbold co-founded and co-artistic direct). Meanwhile, Footpath Theatre Company features three U Theatre alumni—Connor Johnson (BFA ATP ‘21), Jessica Graham (BFA ATP ’21), and Harrison Lind (BFA ATP ’20)—who can show students what’s possible beyond the classroom.
Since the show’s premiere at the 2024 Fringe Festival, it has gone through several iterations and is now in its peak. In Kingsbury Hall, the production has space to fully explore the Utah landscape and the emotions it elicits.
“Nothing short of magical.” — SLUG Magazine
“When I think about Utah, I think about scale,” said Smith. “Red rock. Cliffs. Open sky. Landscapes that make you feel wonderfully small. This story belongs in a space that has that same sense of possibility. Theater is already an incredible creative landscape, but Kingsbury gives us room to dream a little bigger. Between the creative team at UtahPresents, Footpath's process, and Flying Bobcat's approach, it feels like we get to fill that space with something that's both intimate and epic at the same time. That's incredibly exciting."
“Part neo-western, part environmentalist, and full theatrical,” says UtahPresents, Western Minerals and their Origins plays August 27, 28, and 29 at Kingsbury Hall. Find tickets and more information here. University of Utah students can get $5 tickets to the show via the Arts Pass Program.
WESTERN MINERALS & THEIR ORIGINS
by Connor Johnson and Footpath Theatre Company
Produced by UtahPresents in partnership with Flying Bobcat Theatrical Laboratory
August 27–29, 2026 | Kingsbury Hall