Ted Chiang @ U of U Guest Writers Series
Not many writers get off to as auspicious a start as Ted Chiang, whose very first published story, "The Tower of Babylon," won the Nebula Award for Best Novelette in 1991. Over the rest of his 30-year career applying his background in computer science to science-fiction writing, he's been honored again multiple times—including for the 1998 novella Story of Your Life which was the basis for the hit film Arrival—but remains his own hardest critic. When he was offered a Hugo Award nomination for one of his stories in 2003, he declined on the basis that he didn't actually believe it was up to his own standards.

It's clear from Chiang's work over the years that self-awareness is a particular fascination of his. And it has offered him a way to think about the power of stories themselves. In his 2009 short story "Exhalation," an artificial-intelligence entity muses, "People are made of stories. Our memories are not the impartial accumulation of every second we've lived; they're the narrative that we assembled out of selected moments. Which is why, even when we've experienced the same events as other individuals, we never constructed identical narratives."

Ted Chiang shares his work and his thoughts on writing as part of the University of Utah Guest Writers Series, with a reading on Thursday, March 31 at 7 p.m. in the Tanner Humanities Building, and a conversation on Friday, April 1 at noon in the Languages and Communications Building, both free and open to the public. Visit English.utah.edu for additional information. (Scott Renshaw)

Pioneer Theatre Company Fireflies
Everyone loves a love story—yet it too often feels like love stories are left entirely in the realm of the young. There are unique emotional avenues to explore when a romance involves those with a few extra miles on the tires of their lives—which is something Annette Sanford realized in crafting her 2003 novel Eleanor and Abel. Playwright Matthew Barber saw the potential in Sanford's story for a stage production titled Fireflies, which debuted at Connecticut's Long Wharf Theatre in 2017, and now gets its Utah premiere.

The Eleanor of Sanford's original story is Eleanor Bannister, a 69-year-old retired schoolteacher and what would be referred to in a bygone era as a "spinster." A fixture of her small Texas community, she's always concerned about appearances, and that includes not having a shoddy roof on the cottage she had long used as a rental property. Along comes Abel, an itinerant handyman who offers his services in exchange for lodging, and brings both Eleanor and Abel into a relationship situation with which they're unfamiliar. As Barber says on his website, "Our willingness to open ourselves to change later in life may be just as strong as when we were young, but that willingness is now up against an equally strong pull to not let go of what we had."

Fireflies plays at Pioneer Theatre Company (300 S. 1400 East) April 1 – 16, with performances Mondays-Thursdays at 7 p.m., Fridays at 7:30 p.m. and Saturdays at 2 p.m. & 7:30 p.m.. Tickets are $33 - $55; visit pioneertheatre.org for tickets and additional event information. (SR)

Leigh Cowart: Don't Pity the Fool
On April Fool's Day—an occasion when people are at least more okay with getting punked, pranked and hoodwinked—it's worth contemplating what it is that makes people willing participants in suffering. That experience can take many forms, from emotional to physical, but it's undeniably true that some folks are not just willing participants in experiencing discomfort, but enthusiastic participants. Welcome to the world of maschoism.

This week, S.T.E.A.M.punk Academy presents journalist and author Leigh Cowart for a presentation titled Don't Pity the Fool: The Euphoric Pursuit of Agony. In this adults-only presentation, built largely around Cowart's 2021 book Hurts So Good: The Science and Culture of Pain on Purpose, the author will address the physiology and psychology of why some people seek out painful experiences. In Hurts So Good, she explores subjects ranging from the body chemistry facts that can make pain pleasurable, to practitioners ranging from religious flagellants to ultramarathoners. And as Cowart puts it in the introduction to Hurts So Good, it's important that "masochism" not be associated exclusively with sexuality: "Today, when I use the word masochist, I am describing something universal, timeless, human: the deliberate act of choosing to feel bad to then feel better. To feel pain on purpose. It's not weird. And it's not rare."

Join Cowart for the presentation—with an opening-act burlesque presentation by Madazon Can-Can—at Shades Pub (366 S. State St.) on April 1 from 7 p.m. – 9 p.m. Tickets are $18 general admission; the event is 21+ and proof of vaccination is required. Visit steampunk.academy for tickets and additional details. (SR)

Ballet West: Carmina Burana
When German composer Carl Orff created his 1935-1936 cantata Carmina Burana inspired by the medieval poetry text of the same name, he intended it as part of the "Theatrum Mundi" principle in which music, movement and speech were inseparable artistic forms. As such, purely concert-style performances of the work would have been anathema to him—and balletic interpretations, like the one choreographed by Nicolo Fonte that premiered at Ballet West in 2017 (pictured), would have been right up his alley.

The company brings back that successful production of Carmina Burana this season by popular demand, again offering the spectacle of a full choir overseeing the dynamic on-stage choreography. Indeed, the soloists at times interact with the dancers on stage, with thematic components that might explore cloistered religious venturing out into the sensual, physical world.

Carmina Burana shares the program with a presentation of Glass Pieces, by legendary West Side Story choreographer Jerome Robbins. The 1983 work, so named for setting the dance pieces to music by composer Philip Glass, takes Glass's characteristically minimalist compositions and gives them what Robbins described as a "ritualistic sense," all leading up to a boldly energetic finale.

Ballet West's production of Carmina Burana runs April 1 – 9 at the Capitol Theatre (50 W. 200 South), featuring both 7:30 p.m. evening performances and 2 p.m. weekend matinees. Tickets are $29 - $109; face masks are currently required during performances for all patrons regardless of vaccination status. Visit balletwest.org for tickets and additional event information. (SR)