This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2017, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Logan • Vanessa Ballam and Stefan Espinosa like to joke that they could write off every meal together as a business expense.
She's a newly tenured assistant professor of theater and head of the acting program at Idaho State University in Pocatello, where he's a lecturer in theater and dance, teaching four to six classes each term. She directs the education programs at Logan's Utah Festival Opera & Musical Theatre, while he runs the organization's after-school conservatory program. And she's directing him in "Seussical," which kicked off UFOMT's 25th season in mid-June.
The couple's 5-year-old son, Sebastian (named for the character in Shakespeare's "Twelfth Night"), is also in the "Seussical" cast, playing a Who while his dad plays the Cat in the Hat. If that isn't enough family togetherness, Espinosa also plays opposite his father-in-law, company founder and general director Michael Ballam, in "Rex," a Richard Rodgers/Sheldon Harnick musical about Henry VIII. The elder Ballam stars as the much-married monarch, with Espinosa as his faithful sidekick, Will Somers. (In addition to those roles, Espinosa plays the narrator Clopin in "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" and is fight choreographer for the rotating-repertory company, while Ballam plays Marian Paroo in "The Music Man.")
Both knew at a young age that they wanted to be actors. Ballam joined Ruth Call's Unicorn Theatre in Logan when she was 5; Espinosa was cast in a student production at the University of Arizona in Tucson at age 8. "I had a knack for memorization," he said. "I would memorize everybody's lines and correct people in rehearsals" until the director gently asked him to stop.
Despite growing up in a family in which it was perfectly normal for the creator of "Fiddler on the Roof" to show up at your birthday party, it wasn't a given that Ballam would take up her father's trade. Though all five of her siblings have appeared in UFOMT shows, she's the only one to make a career of it.
"She saw what she was getting into," Michael Ballam said. "She saw me work hard; she saw the stressful life."
Vanessa Ballam earned a bachelor's degree in political science and theater at Utah State University with the plan of becoming "a lawyer by day and a Broadway star by night," then a master of fine arts in acting at Indiana University. Espinosa, meanwhile, earned his degree in musical theater at the University of Arizona. (He earned an MFA from the University of Houston after he and Ballam married.)
The couple met on a production of "Seussical" at the Pacific Conservatory of the Performing Arts in Santa Maria, Calif. She was Gertrude McFuzz; he was a Wickersham Brother. (You know, one of the simian gang intent on boiling Horton the Elephant's clover in beezlenut oil.) "There's something very attractive about a beautiful woman who is willing to be silly," Espinosa said, recalling that first sing-through.
"Then she began to sing," he continued, and he remembered thinking: "Ah, so that's what they mean by 'out of my league.' " Nevertheless, he persisted. They agree that she asked him out first, via text message during a shared car ride. "She texted something like, 'When are you going to ask me out?' " Espinosa said. "I texted back, 'What are you doing right now?' "
Ballam had not told her father that she and Espinosa were dating seriously when the actor auditioned for UFOMT's 2009 season and was cast in two prominent roles. A few months later, Espinosa called Michael Ballam to ask for his daughter's hand — unaware that the elder Ballam was in a UFOMT board meeting and had put him on speaker phone.
"She could not have found anyone who understands her better," Michael Ballam said of his reaction to another actor joining the family. He'd already been impressed with Espinosa's sensitivity and ability to listen onstage. "They're good catalysts for each other."
The couple married in spring 2009. They've been regulars at UFOMT ever since, though they aren't often paired romantically. "I got to twist my mustache as she kissed other men many, many times onstage," Espinosa said. A notable exception was an Old Lyric Repertory Company production of "Little Shop of Horrors" when Ballam was eight months pregnant. She played Audrey, her husband played Seymour, and it still amuses her to remember audience reactions when he fed her to the giant plant. The gasps grew louder as the run went on and her pregnancy became more obvious.
"I have seen her do so many roles," Espinosa said of his wife, "and she commits to the role with every atom of her being. She is one of the most honest, authentic performers I've ever watched. … She's a consummate professional, a consummate performer. She can do anything — comic, serious, opera, musical, straight play. There's literally nothing she can't do. As a director, she's everything I'm not. She's disciplined and organized and smart as a whip."
Ballam said the actors complement one another. "He is so creative and so playful," she said. "He constantly brings something new to the table. I'm a planner. He's able, in the moment, to be so adaptable. Stefan plays a lot of evil characters … but he has a way of finding the humanity within these really broken individuals."
ISU hired the couple in 2012. Espinosa had never set foot in Idaho before, but he now knows the road between Pocatello and Logan well, as he travels it at least once a week. Sometimes he keeps driving south — he made two well-received appearances with Salt Lake Acting Company last season.
"We have a fantastic dean in Kandi Turley-Ames," Ballam said. "She understands the benefit to the college" of having working actors on the faculty, Espinosa added.
"They bring real-world acting expertise that's very helpful for our students," associate dean Randy Earles said. "The students really appreciate both of them."
"It's nice to be someplace where you feel you make a difference," Ballam said. "Our mantra is that great art can exist anywhere. Your ZIP code shouldn't define the caliber of art you can create."
Summer in Logan
P Utah Festival Opera & Musical Theatre presents its 25th season. Visit utahfestival.org for the full schedule, ticket information and more details.