LOGAN – The guest of honor at the 7th annual Vosco Call Spotlight event on July 7 was Wendi Hassan, the executive director of the Cache Valley Center for the Arts here.
The CacheARTs organization manages the Ellen Eccles Theatre, the brightly shining jewel of the performing arts community in Cache Valley. But Ms. Hassan has been that group’s heart, brain and spirit since 2015.
Of her many accomplishments in that role, Spotlight host Richie Call cited Ms. Hassan’s “save-the-day” reactions during two periods of crisis within the local theater community.
The first of those crises was when local theaters went dark as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. Ms. Hassan responded by organizing local individuals and groups to perform so-called Random Acts shows at the Ellen Eccles Theatre, proving that the arts were not dead in Cache Valley and that entertainment could co-exist along with mask mandates and social distancing.
In our current year, fiscal concerns forced the Utah Festival Opera & Musical Theatre to take a hiatus from their normal summer productions. Ms. Hassan not only invited replacement performances by Music Theatre West and Cache Theatre Company, but also beefed up with CacheARTS National Touring Season with shows geared to the valley’s summer citizen population.
The Vosco Call Spotlight events honor Lyric artistic director Richie Call’s grandfather, who was a legendary actor, one of the pioneers of Utah State’s modern theater program and founding-director of the Lyric Repertory Company.
Now in the format of a chatty talk show, those events are also used honor special guests like Ms. Hassan.
While she holds a theater degree from USU, Ms. Hassan developed a passion for arts administration while pursuing graduate studies at Ohio State University.
Prior to joining CacheARTS as executive director in 2015, Ms. Hassan’s professional experience included five years as an education and outreach coordinator here in Logan (2003-2008); a year as director of the local Alliance for the Varied Arts (2009 to 2010); and five years as an administrator with the Utah Division of Arts & Museums (2010 to 2015).
Also on the program were USU professors Nick Morrison, now heading the Caine School of Arts, and Joseph Ward, recently appointed dean of the College of Arts and Sciences.
Morrison provided a brief update on the state of the renovation of the Caine Lyric Theatre in downtown Logan, which is slated for completion in time for the Lyric Repertory Company’s 60th anniversary season in 2026.
Ward thanked audience members and donors for their support of the Lyric Rep and made an appeal for additional contributions to build the company’s endowment.
Also performing was the Spotlight Band, conducted by USU music professor and director of choral activities Dr. Cory Evans.
While Evans sang and played drums, the Spotlight Band include Kelin Gibbons on guitar and Lizzy Prettyman on keyboards.
Evan sang a few solos numbers, including “Only the Lonely” by the 1980s band the Motels and “You Raise Me Up,” a tune popularized by singer Josh Groban.
The evening ended with Ms. Hassan matching wits with her husband, Lyric artistic designer Dennis Hassan, in an amusing contest by trying to identify relatively contemporary movie themes hummed by members of the Lyric company.
Ms. Hassan won that contest hands down.