What if some of the most powerful drama you could experience doesn’t start with a camera, but with a stage?
When we talk about drama today, most of us picture what we watch on a screen, such as that emotional moment in a dimly lit church when Siegfried gently presses Tristan to share what he’s been carrying since he returned from war—a stellar performance by both actors. These scenes of vulnerability, honesty, and trust are why we love drama. We watch characters wrestle with difficult truths, reveal hidden wounds, and connect with each other that reflect our own humanity. Film is one of the most powerful storytelling mediums of our time. But drama didn’t begin with cameras. For centuries, audiences gathered in theaters to experience stories unfolding live through actors, music, and movement.
Opera and ballet are part of that same dramatic tradition. They tell stories of love, jealousy, sacrifice, and triumph—sometimes through soaring voices, sometimes through choreography rather than dialogue. At PBS Utah, one of the things I value most is that we get to serve as a kind of cultural curator for those stories. Through programs like Great Performances, Utahns experience world-class opera, ballet, symphony, and theater without the barrier of cost or a lengthy road trip. For some viewers, PBS is their only pathway to these art forms. Actor David Hyde Pierce has spoken about watching Great Performances as a young person and later realizing how much it shaped his love of the stage — a reminder that exposure matters.
Did you know that local PBS stations get to decide if they broadcast operas and other artistic productions? Maybe it’s my earlier career working in the arts, but I believe Utah’s love and strong tradition of performing arts needs a place that will continue to present this kind of drama, so I continue to schedule these productions on our channel. Without local commitment, these art forms can quietly disappear from people’s daily lives. The nice thing is, PBS Utah doesn’t have to choose between the screen and the stage. Drama fans get programs like Great Performances where stage and screen meet. In many ways, PBS uses the screen to expand the stage, bringing extraordinary performances from around the world into our living rooms.
Some of my earliest PBS memories were watching Great Performances with my mom. PBS is where I first encountered the Broadway production of Into the Woods which would become a favorite of mine through adulthood. She set a good example for me because last winter I casually tuned into PBS to watch The Barber of Seville in the background as I got ready for dinner and the teenagers in the house casually watched and asked questions—which is pretty great coming from a couple of kids who would never let me take them to a three-hour opera without some serious bribery.
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