Cahill's "magical, elegant work" is about the life of Margaret Fuller, the "groundbreaking writer, early feminist and the inspiration for the protagonist in The Scarlet Letter."
Charm was part of the SLAC New Play Sounding Series in October 2008. Its world premiere will be April 14-May 9.
Of the new work, Gibson said in a statement: "The characters' comic take on their exasperation with that society and its endless rules is what I love. …I'm humbled by how bad it was for we girls — how far we've come — and aware of frankly, how far we still have to go. The difficulties are just subtler. I never thought I could direct in this lifetime. It was a dream I discarded at 18. I was convinced it was a man's job. Here I am halfway through my life and I'm directing theatre. I think of what Margaret Fuller had to wade through and what I have had to do and there is really no comparison. Her neck was way further out than mine is. And, yet, I do know to the bone how she felt.
"Like Margaret I know the only way to get on is to have a miraculous tenacity, a hunger for life. I get to renew that quest with Charm."
New Yorker Gibson will also direct Too Much Memory, the play she wrote with Keith Reddin. The "theatrical explosion of myth and revolution retells the classic Greek story of Antigone." It will play Feb. 3-28, 2010. The Salt Lake Acting Company's 2009-10 season will also include Harold Pinter's The Caretaker (Sept. 16-Oct. 11), directed by Seattle guest director John Vreeke and featuring Gene Pack, Daniel Beecher and Matthew Ivan Bennett; an encore run (after a decade) of Anne Cullimore Decker as opera diva Maria Callas in Terrence McNally's Master Class, directed by David Mong (Oct. 14-Nov. 8); Go, Dog. Go!, a play for kids, directed by Jerry Rapier, with musical direction by Dave Evanoff and choreography by Cynthia Fleming (Dec. 2-27); and the topical Saturday's Voyeur, by Allen Nevins and Nancy Borgenicht, "which celebrates all that is Utah" (June 29-Aug. 29, 2010).
For tickets call (801) 363-SLAC, visit www.saltlakeactingcompany.org, or in person at 168 West 500 North, Salt Lake City, UT.
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The 2009-2010 season is dedicated to the spirit and memory of Tony Larimer, an SLAC actor who died in March. The Salt Lake Acting Company and Rowland Hall School have established a merit-based award called the Tony Larimer Performing Arts Award. Beginning in May 2010, the award will be presented annually to a graduating Rowland Hall senior who excels in the arts.
