Another of Utah County’s favorite summer activities, Sundance Summer Theatre, has been postponed due to COVID-19. The season’s production of “Footloose” has been delayed for one  year and will take place during the summer of 2021.

Usually held from mid-July through the first weeks of August, Sundance Summer Theatre productions play on the Eccles Outdoor Stage, an amphitheater set among the picturesque mountains of the Sundance Mountain Resort.

“The Sundance Summer Theatre provides an important engaged-learning opportunity for UVU School of the Arts students to get professional experience,” Stephen Pullen, dean of UVU’s School of the Arts, said this week. “UVU has had this partnership with Sundance for over a decade. It’s a tradition that brings art, culture, and the environment together, and it will be sorely missed this summer.”

It was expected that this season’s production of the musical “Footloose” would have been seen by over 1,000 patrons per performance. The shared production experience was in its 13th year, Pullen said, and UVU students serve as assistant designers, technicians, and crew members for the show as well as actors.

Pullen said contracts will be extended for those who have already signed on to the show, professionals, students, and others, and are being given right of first refusal for next season.

“Although summer will feel quite different without the theater, we know this is the best course of action in the midst of these challenging and uncertain times,” says Sundance Resort President and General Manager Chad Linebaugh. “We look forward to continuing our partnership with Utah Valley University and its talented students and faculty in 2021.”

Dozens of other festivals and arts activities have faced the challenges of social distancing, including the Utah Festival Opera and Musical Theater, Old Lyric Repertory Company, Days of ’47, Provo Freedom Festival, and Orem Summerfest.