Cedar City Performance Space History

 Having a Place to Play (column for Iron County Today)

by Sara Penny, CCAC Vice President

Putting on a concert requires having a place to perform. The original Social Hall, public school auditoriums, SUU facilities, and the Heritage Center Theater have all provided venues for concerts, plays, and dances. We are now looking forward to the opening of the new SUU Music Building, which includes a concert hall. 

Cedar City has embraced music since the first people who called this valley home.  The Paiute traditions remain strong, as domonstrated by  the annual Restoration Pow Wow. 

 

By the time the pioneers arrived in Cedar City, there was already both an English choir and an American choir according to Morris Shirts, whom my daughter interviewed for a school project. 

When the pioneers began settling the area in 1851 they held dances accompanied by fiddles.  By 1861, they needed a place for concerts and community events, so a Social Hall was proposed. Today, the historical marker stands on 100 East near the entrance to the parking terrace. The actual building was located where the Cache Valley Bank parking lot is now. It remained in use until 1897. By then, school facilities were available for concerts and other performances.

Branch Normal College (now SUU) had an auditorium on the top floor of the Braithwaite Liberal Arts Center, built in 1899. I remember attending my first orchestra rehearsals in that space when I was in sixth grade. The building has since been completely rennovated. The current SUU Auditorium originally housed  the library in the west portion of the building. More recent additions to the campus include the Randall, Engelstad, and Anes Theaters, in the Beverley Sorensen Center for the Arts. 

The old auditorium on 300 West hosted the Lyceum programs in the 1920s and the first performances organized by Cedar Music Arts, now in its 97th year. That building later housed the school district offices and stood next to the old Cedar Middle School. The Orchestra of Southern Utah used it for several seasons before the Heritage Center was built.  It was eventually demolished when the new schools and the district office were built.

The Johnson Center for the Arts provides space for both indoor and outdoor concerts on 100 West. In addition to a small performance stage, it also includes classrooms for art instruction. The outdoor stage hosts summer concerts on the third Friday of each month. I particularly enjoy the murals. This is also one of the venues for music during the Final Friday Art Walks.

The new Forge Theater has rennovated a movie theater in the Cedar Fun Center into a new performance space. Movies can still be shown in the space. I was impressed with the quality of this summer's shows. They even presented the musical 1776 on opening night using a generator after the power went out.  Creating this venue involved much more than simply adding a stage. Lighting, sound equipment, sets, and many other improvements were required.

Today, we can enjoy a full summer season of theater with the Utah Shakespeare Festival and American Crossroads Theatre. The shows I have seen so far  have been excellent and I look forward to seeing more. Be sure to ask about the local discounts. I especially love the Utah Shakespeare Festival student discount which helps our local youth take advantage of these outstanding performances.

As Cedar City continues to evolve,  we add performance spaces  because having live music, dance, and theater have always been important parts of our community.