By CHRIS PETERSON
The rock opera, “A Place in the Sun,” helped a Pleasant Grove family heal 25 years of pain and struggle.
The opera, performed by Grain Thursday, Friday and Saturday at the Nelke Theater, told the true story of a misunderstood teen suicide.
It was based on the life of Alden Barrett who died in March 1971 of a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head. Jay’s Journal, a book based loosely on Barrett’s suicide and journal, started rumors about his life. It portrayed Alden as a disturbed LDS teenager involved in occult and demoniac activities that lead to his suicide.
Grain, with permission from the Barrett family, read Alden’s journal and realized that not one entry made mention of satanic activities. They decided to write an opera that would reveal that severe depression and family troubles, not occult activities, were the reasons behind Alden’s suicide.
Members of Grain, with the help of Alisha Christiansen, a theater graduate student, successfully merged a live performance by Grain with movement and dance. The opera, performed by 13 actors, was an emotional representation of the torment and frustration facing a misunderstood teen-ager.
Grain not only showed that they were talented musicians but also sensitive individuals who wanted to help the Barrett family.
After the performance, 36-year-old Scott Barrett, Alden’s brother, said he was extremely happy with “A Place in the Sun.” “Alden would have thoroughly enjoyed it,” Scott said. “He was very much into the arts. Grain did a wonderful job in the unique way that they put together the beautiful music.”
Scott said members of his family had flown in to see the performance.
“My family enjoyed it,” he said. “There was a great healing involved. It opened up some old wounds and cleaned them out.”
Grain played a total of 36 songs while actors played people close to Alden. Included in the set was a large screen on which home movies of Alden were projected.
Jack Donaldson, vocalist and guitarist for Grain, represented the voice of Alden. “Feel me. You may not have seen what I’m dreaming. Hear what I am, what I see,” Donaldson sang.
Lance Powell from Dallas studying broadcast production, symbolized Alden’s personage through movement and dance.
To add a personal touch to his character, Powell wore clothing actually worn by Alden.
Powell, who was given permission to read Alden’s journal, said the impression Alden’s journal conveyed was a boy searching for acceptance and understanding by family members and friends who he felt had abandoned him.
“That is why I wanted to do the part,” Powell said. “I think we can all relate to those feelings in some way or another. We’ve all lived it or lived with someone that has gone through it.”
Bryan Hall, guitarist for Grain, said that after three hard years of work on this piece, Grain was happy with the serious performance by the actors. Hall also said he was pleased with how perfectly they portrayed the emotion and statement Grain was trying to make.
The name “A Place in the Sun” was derived from the last line of a poem Alden wrote in his journal. “And don’t deny the broken one from his own share of the sun,” Alden wrote.
Grain said they hoped the music and story might help audience members remember a lonely acquaintance, or find it easier to forgive someone they might have misunderstood.
Grain will be performing “A Place in the Sun” again in mid-September at Utah Valley State College.
