Plan-B's 'Wallace' about the meaning of home

At first glace, Wallace Stegner and Wallace Thurman have very little in common … other than a first name.

Stegner is a Pulitzer Prize-winning author, known as the Dean of Western Writers. And Thurman is a young, gay black man, in the heart of the Harlem Renaissance. Both men called Salt Lake City home.

"It's really about the meaning of home," said Jerry Rapier, producing director with Plan-B Theatre Company, "Stegner wasn't born here. He moved from place to place, and he never really felt rooted until he lived here."

"With Thurman, he was born here. Even though he tried not to be connected to Salt Lake, it was his home."

Plan-B opens "Wallace," two intertwined solo plays — "Where I Come From," by Debora Threedy, and "Fire," by Jennifer Nii.

"I had this harebrained idea to weave the two stories together based solely on the fact that they're both from Salt Lake and they're both named Wallace," Rapier said.

"The Stegner Center at the U. was looking for proposals to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Stegner's birth," Threedy said. "Once my idea for a one-man play was accepted, I had to go out and buy all of his books and start reading," she said with a chuckle.

"Most people are familiar with Stegner the author," she said of the man who penned many novels and short stories, including "Angle of Repose" and "The Big Rock Candy Mountain." But the part that resonated with Threedy "was his personal life. His relationship with his parents and his father," she said.

"He was very affected by his abusive and domineering father," Rapier said. "People actually questioned Deb about the truthfulness of it — of the portrayal of the relationship," he said about the initial presentation of Threedy's work for the Stegner Center. "But it's all in the documents."

"My piece ended up being about how you get beyond that," Threedy said. "All of us are wounded by our parents. How do you come to terms with your parents and move beyond being their child, to being your own you."

Threedy's one-man portion of "Wallace" will be performed by Richard Scharine, who is "wonderful in the role," Rapier said. "It's a neat connection because he's been teaching in Utah for 30 years, his career spans 50 years, he's in his early 70s and his understanding of Stegner is surprising and beautiful."

Rapier also noted that Scharine and his wife, who passed away several years ago, "were Stegner-philes. They loved him and understood his work. So in a way it's like she's with us," he said.

As for the other piece to the interesting Wallace/Salt Lake puzzle, Wallace Thurman, Rapier said, "Jennifer had much less to work with."

"Thurman died at 32 of alcoholism and tuberculosis. He lived a short, tragic life, and his work isn't on the same level as Stegner's," Rapier said.