Pygmalion Productions Is on a Mission To Elevate Women’s Voices

Quickly approaching its 30th anniversary, PYGmalion Productions enters the milestone much as it began: committed to staging stories centered on women’s lives and experiences. Founded in Ogden in 1995 by actors Reb Fleming and Nancy Roth, the company emerged from what Fleming describes as a deep friendship and a sudden creative spark.

The two soon realized the kind of work they wanted to produce needed a wider reach, so they moved down to Salt Lake City. In this transition, PYGmalion formalized a mission focused on elevating women’s voices — not just telling women’s stories, but also giving the opportunity to shine for women writers, directors, playwrights, lighting designers, costume designers and actors.

Over the years, the company staged works exploring subjects ranging from immigration to aging to the pressures of body image. “As I think back on some of the pieces that we did … They tell an inclusive human story,” Fleming says. There was Fat Pig, which deals with women’s body issues, and Living Out, a bilingual play that examines immigration issues. Others, like Knowing Cairo, considered themes of aging and caretaking, while Welcome Home, Jenny Sutter focused on the story of a female veteran. She also pointed to uniquely Utah stories like The Passion of Sister Dottie S. Dixon, about an LDS woman with a gay son.

“Without narrative, we are dates and times and places.”

Sarah Ruhl’s Becky Nurse of Salem is a new comedy running Feb. 6-21, with tickets available at pygmalionproductions.org. Fleming will play the lead in the seven-cast crew directed by Morag Shepherd. The play comments on The Crucible and how narratives around female desire and accusation have endured. In Ruhl’s version, Shepherd says, “she’s bringing up how we have demonized younger women as being lustful, and she completely upends that tale and says that she wasn’t lustful at all.” It’s also written as a commentary on the Trump administration, with other current issues included like the opioid crisis and how it affects women.

The company’s current artistic director Frances Pruyn, who has served in her role for over two decades, says when it comes to selecting PYGmalion’s season of shows, they have a strict litmus test. “Most importantly, does it fit our mission statement?” Pruyn says. “Will it attract an audience? Does it have great or at least good literary value and great theatrical value? Can we cast it? Is it affordable?”

Pruyn says despite challenges with the current political climate, the company’s focus has intensified in following its mission. “I think it’s intensified over time,” she says. “I think we’ve become clearer and clearer about what our mission statement is, how broad it can be, how inclusive it can be and the demographic that we serve.”

“Who was she? How did she live? What made her laugh? What did she sacrifice? What did she bring that nobody else could bring?”

Like many Utah arts organizations, PYGmalion recently faced new pressures after the passage of House Bill 261, Pruyn says. “In interpreting House Bill 261, the Utah Division of Arts & Museums this year said, ‘OK, we like you. We like the work you do. For the last 20-odd years, we have been supporting you with a grant. We can’t do it this year,’” she recalls. The board met and decided not to alter its programming in response, and after sharing the situation publicly, Pruyn says supporters raised twice the amount they would’ve received from the grant. “I think if anything speaks to the need for these stories to be told, it was the fact that our community, our audience, is seeing need and will support us,” she says.

“That’s the narrative that in women’s lives is neverendingly rich … That’s the story, and that’s the magic for me of theater.”

As PYGmalion moves into its next decade, Fleming says that the heart of the work remains unchanged. “Without narrative, we are dates and times and places,” Fleming says. “Who was she? How did she live? What made her laugh? What did she sacrifice? What did she bring that nobody else could bring? That’s the narrative that in women’s lives is neverendingly rich and brave and courageous, strong, vulnerable and fragile. That’s the story, and that’s the magic for me of theater.”

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