| Dallyn Bayles will perform at 7 p.m. in Green River on April 27. |
Dallyn Vail Bayles will perform at 7 p.m. in the Green River High auditorium. Anyone who has heard Bayles sing understands how rich an offering he presents. With poise and presence he tenders not only a performance, but an experience. “Performing must be selfless,” Bayles says. “It is an opportunity to give my heart and soul to an audience. I want to be so open and extroverted in my performance that the spirit of the music can flow through me uninhibited. I shouldn’t control it or manipulate it in any way. I should be an instrument that the music and its message can work through.”
Growing up the second of six children, in the small town of Green River, Bayles was surrounded by good people with good values and a family supportive of his performing activities. Summers were spent working the family business or going to live with his grandparents in Utah Valley so he could perform in local community theatre productions.
“Being a small town boy with big city dreams, I would grow impatient at times living in Green River,” Bayles says. “I was very independent and I focused myself on taking advantage of every opportunity to develop as a performer. Now though, I can see the great blessing it was to grow up and go to school there.”
In sixth grade Bayles was introduced to his first mentor, the high school music and drama teacher, Ms. Jessica Jenkins. It was “Ms. J” who instilled in him a love for the performing arts and introduced him to the world of Broadway musicals.
In ninth grade she took a group of students to see the national tour of Les Mis�rables. “I marveled how anyone could sing and act like that, and be able to move me so deeply emotionally,” Bayles says. “I knew in that moment the profession I would pursue.” Little did he know, as a young high school student what opportunities the future would hold for him.
From that moment on Bayles worked diligently pursuing a career in the performing arts, which led him to the Music Dance Theatre program at Brigham Young University. While in college, he shone in such roles as Father in Children of Eden, Paul Bratter in Barefoot in the Park, Frederic in The Pirates of Penzance, and as a featured singer and dancer in the Young Ambassadors. He also performed lead roles in the LDS Church productions of Savior of the World and Light of the World, which was presented during the 2002 Winter Olympics.
He was cast as Feuilly in the Broadway touring company of Les Mis�rables, and soon after performed in the show’s China premier with Broadway legend and original Jean Valjean, Colm Wilkinson. He later took over the leading role of Enjolras in the touring company which he enjoyed playing throughout the next year.
“Performing in the Broadway tour of Les Mis�rables was more than a dream come true,” Bayles says. “I remember walking around the stage just before the show would start, looking at the barricades, backdrop, lights and turntable, realizing that I was performing on the very same set I saw more than 10 years previous. Now everything had come full circle. My feeling of amazement was overwhelming, and I never got over it for the entire 14 months I was with the company.”
Bayles also ventured into the world of film. He portrays Hyrum Smith in the LDS Church’s feature-length film Joseph Smith The Prophet of the Restoration and has starred in three films for the Liken the Scriptures series. With the release of Prayer, a dramatically intimate collection about communion with Deity, Bayles is now establishing himself not only as a powerful recording artist but also as an instrument through which others might feel the spirit of God.
“Each song on this album was carefully chosen not just because it fit the concept of prayer, but because each one has a personal and spiritual connection to my life experience. When people listen, I hope they are inspired, uplifted, comforted, taught, and/or made better. It is a reverent and worshipful album. It is heartfelt.” Bayles and his wife Rachel live in Utah with their three children.