Salt Lake Acting Company, Utah’s Premier Professional Equity Theatre dedicated to the production of brave, contemporary works, is proud to introduce the playwriting team for our upcoming annual tradition of SLAC’s Summer Show: The Secret Lives of the Real Wives in the Salt Lake Hive! A trio of familiar faces our audiences know and love will serve as this year’s writers, creating the hilarious new script for SLAC's annual summer extravaganza. It’s the same Summer Show experience you’ve known and loved for decades. Pack up your food and drink and laugh at the quirky, peculiar, sometimes infuriating, always entertaining life and culture of the Beehive State, written every year by Utahns, for Utahns. Don’t miss the fun by joining in on the laughter and treating yourself and your friends to a great time. Running from June 25th to August 17th, 2025, in our Upstairs Theatre, tickets and more information are available here.
This year’s head writer will be Austin Archer who audiences adore for his acting on and off at SLAC for the last 17-years, and returning to the team after our wildly successful previous two productions of 2023’s SLAC’s Summer Show: A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, and 2024’s SLAC’s Summer Show: Close Encounters in the Beehive, will be Olivia Custodio and Penelope Caywood. No strangers to SLAC’s audience, Olivia has appeared on our stage several times, and served as head writer for the previous two SLAC’s Summer Shows. Penny has directed our annual children’s show in December for more than a decade, and recently directed our main season production of Yoga Play, and co-directed this season’s smash hit World Premiere The Robertassey by Kathleen Cahill. Learn more about this year’s fabulous writing team below!
Austin Archer’s previous writing credits include The Warehouse Phase (Peacock) Jump, Swipe Right, and Swipe Left (Plan-B), Marty Has Cancer (Prufrock Productions), Thick Metal Ball (Weber State University). Outside of his work that has been produced he has written seven plays, four screenplays, and five shorts. A songwriter as well, you can find his music on most major streaming platforms. He also writes and produces long form video essays for YouTube, as well as short form content for other platforms. We had some quick questions for him about the show and his long history with SLAC.
Austin, please tell us a little bit about your relationship with SLAC.
“Since 2010 SLAC has been a consistent artistic home for me. I've acted in over 15 projects on the SLAC stage and have always been challenged to grow and explore in new and interesting ways as an artist. I even acted for five consecutive summers in the Summer Show back when it went by a different name. I never imagined I'd be writing it one day. I haven't lived in Utah since 2015, but Utah will always be home. A piece of my heart will always be fundamentally tied to, and informed by, the Beehive State. I love explaining the idiosyncrasies of Utah culture to my friends in LA and NYC who have never been there before.”
What has your experience writing this year’s Summer Show been like so far?
“I am loving the opportunity to satirize life in Utah as part of this long-standing SLAC tradition. The word I'm focusing on this year with my incredible writing team is catharsis. That's what I think the Summer Show is all about. That's what I think SLAC is all about. A cathartic release for the sane citizens of Salt Lake City who vote for humane and rational leadership and policies despite so seldom getting that. I hope the show this year is a cathartic release for the SLAC audience. I hope they laugh their asses off and have a great night out seeing some live, original, homegrown theatre on the SLAC stage."
Olivia Custodio is entrenched in the arts. As an actress, opera singer, and playwright, she considers herself very lucky to be surrounded by creatives at nearly all times. Most recently she served as head writer of Salt Lake Acting Company’s Summer Show 2024: Close Encounters in the Beehive and performed the role of Eleanor in The Antipodes with Voodoo Theatre Company, but you may recognize her from numerous SLAC productions over the years. Olivia has her BFA from Carnegie Mellon University in Vocal Performance and her Masters of Music from the University of Utah. Olivia currently serves as the Director of Major Gifts at the Sphinx Organization where she is deeply committed to social justice work within the arts and the advancement of equity, inclusion, diversity, and accessibility.
Penelope Caywood is thrilled to have contributed to the writing team as a lyricist for this year’s production. She deeply appreciates the opportunity to showcase her versatility, extending beyond her work in Theatre for Young Audiences. Her directorial highlights include the World and Utah premieres of The Robertassey and Yoga Play at SLAC, and Fremont Junior High is NOT Doing Oklahoma! at Good Company Theatre, among others. An Adjunct Assistant Professor for Theatre Teaching and Artistic Director for Youth Theatre at the U, Penny continues to nurture emerging talent through her award-winning youth theatre program where she also directs, writes and composes original works with students. She also serves on the boards of the Utah Advisory Council of Theatre Teachers and the American Alliance for Theatre and Education, advocating for the advancement of theatre education and young artists' development.
Stay tuned for more announcements about this year’s hilarious new production of SLAC’s Summer Show: The Secret Lives of the Real Wives in the Salt Lake Hive, coming soon! Information on group discounts and Green Room reservations is available by contacting out Box Office team at (801)363-7522.
See you soon!
