Last year, Michael Piper traveled here from Phoenix, Arizona, to spend his summer living like a true Cache Valley local — hiking up Logan Canyon, dining along historic Main Street, and attending every performance of Michael Ballam’s Utah Festival Opera and Musical Theatre’s season.
“I loved it,” Piper said. “It was wonderful, high-quality performances.”
It was his first year in the valley’s Summer Citizens Program, which welcomes hundreds of seniors from across the country — particularly Arizona — to take classes, join local activities, enjoy Logan’s arts scene, and, most of all, escape the desert heat.
For Cache Valley, the program is an important economic driver. The nearly 600 seniors rent apartments, support local restaurants, and shop at grocery stores, said Program Director Jennette Esplin. Some, she added, even come to the area for medical procedures or to buy new vehicles.
So when the Utah Festival Opera and Musical Theatre announced earlier this year that it would pause its mainstage productions for 2025 — mostly because of financial strains left over from the COVID-19 pandemic, and shifting audience tastes and funding — community leaders were worried.
And Piper was disheartened. “That’s going to be a real loss,” he said. “I know several friends who decided to cancel their reservations when they found out. We had a cadre of folks from the church I attend in [the town of] Surprise, and when they found out about the curtailment, they decided they were going to do other things this summer.”
Wendi Hassan, director of CacheArts, the community hub for arts in the valley, warned the County Council earlier this year that action was needed.
“If we have any hope of retaining destination cultural tourists, we need to knock it out of the park,” Hassan said, “or those folks, if we can wrangle them into theaters in the first place, will opt to go to Tuacahn [in Ivins], Utah Shakespeare [Festival in Cedar City], Hale [Centre Theatre in Sandy], and the Salt Lake Eccles [Theater] in the future.
“And it will be very hard to get them back.”
Arts groups, theater companies and community leaders worked together to fill the gap — determined to keep the valley’s vibrant summer arts tradition alive.
Arts groups step up
Esplin directs the Summer Citizens Program, now in its 49th year, for the Chamber of Commerce. The chamber, which took over the program from Utah State University last year, surveyed 2024 participants about their spending.
The 231 people who responded said they spent an average of $61.75 per day, Esplin said. She knew the opera was a major draw. So after its announcement, she quickly began meeting with local stakeholders to find alternatives.
And arts groups stepped up, Hassan said.
Music Theatre West and Cache Theatre Company quickly added new productions to their schedules, despite the short notice and financial challenges, while touring acts were brought in to help fill out the season.
Four Seasons Theatre Company, Riverside Theatre, the Pickleville Playhouse, Heritage, and Old Barn were already planning summer shows. They’ll be joined this year by a new company, Valley Actors Club, which stepped forward to produce Larry Shue’s comic play “The Foreigner,” and the American Festival Chorus and Orchestra added a special concert with the vocal trio Gentri.
To support these efforts, the Cache County Council approved one-time interim Recreation, Arts, Parks and Zoo tax funding earlier this year to help organizations attract and retain cultural tourists. Hassan said the council also received money from an anonymous donor.
With all the groups chipping in, Hassan said, the valley will have nearly the same number of performances as last season.
“These companies took a huge risk and took on a significant workload in ramping up to fill dates in the Ellen Eccles Theatre,” Hassan said, “and we are so grateful to them.”
Vanessa Ballam, the opera’s associate artistic and educational director, said this year it will focus on community and educational shows. They are putting on family-friendly plays like “Elephant and Piggy” and the student edition of “Les Misérables,” plus late-night cabarets and silent films with live organ music.
For next year, the opera plans to present year-round programming, such as the musical “1776,” starring Michael Ballam, and the Gilbert & Sullivan operetta “The Pirates of Penzance.”
“Our hope is that in a couple of years,” Ballam said, “we’ll be back doing our regular five-show repertory season in the summer, and that folks will be there for us.”
‘Our second home’
As it turns out, this summer’s loss of the opera hasn’t affected participation in the program, Esplin said — with 563 people registered as of Friday, just slightly below last year’s count of 595.
“Many of the Summer Citizens have said to me that they are going to be so busy this summer with all the activities that are available,” Esplin said, “that they will need to go home for a rest.”
Instead of canceling, Piper came back this past week, excited to see how the community has responded with new shows, events and activities.
Nancy Danley came, too, making the long, three-day journey from Georgetown, Texas, for her 12th year in the Summer Citizens Program.
“It’s our second home,” Danley said. “We love it here. It’s fabulous.”
She had been nervous about coming this year because of the opera’s cutbacks — especially since this is her last summer attending, as she doesn’t think she’ll be able to make the trip again.
But after attending the program’s welcome event on Thursday, she said she felt completely reassured. “We’re going to really enjoy it this year,” she said.
But she’ll head out long before the season changes to fall — and the cold of winter that follows. “I would move here,” Danley said, “if it weren’t for the W word.”
