Plays Archives - BYU College of Fine Arts and Communications

Young Company Presents “Luna,” a Magical Tale of Friendship and Connection

Alyssa Anderson — Wed, 29 Sep 2021 22:17:18 +0000

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BYU Announces 2021 Winter Lineup of Streamed Performances

Chris Hayes — Tue, 08 Dec 2020 06:00:10 +0000

BYU College of Fine Arts and Communications continues livestreamed events throughout the winter term BYU Arts, in partnership with the BYU College of Fine Arts and Communications, has planned an ambitious and inspiring lineup of music, dance, and theatre performances for the Winter 2021 semester. “This semester of COVID challenges has resulted in wonderful creativity and ingenuity, allowing the School of Music to continue to do what we love — make and share music!” said Diane Reich, Director of the School of Music. “I have been thrilled to see (via streaming) and hear the levels of excellence achieved by the ensembles in short amounts of time,” she continued. “Winter semester performances promise to deliver the superior quality you might expect, with the passion for music-making that has been ignited by our current circumstances!” Read the full article at BYU Arts.

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‘An Ideal Husband’ Marks Final Theatre Performance for BYU Fall Season

Chris Hayes — Tue, 24 Nov 2020 18:13:37 +0000

Director Andrea Gunoe presents a fresh take on the Oscar Wilde classic Livestreamed Performances: December 3, 7:30 p.m. December 4, 7:30 p.m. December 5, 7:30 p.m. For the final theatre performance of the fall season, the BYU Department of Theatre and Media Arts has chosen the classic comedy “An Ideal Husband” by Oscar Wilde. Written in 1893, the story addresses themes of politics, marriage and masculinity. Director Andrea Gunoe is currently a PhD candidate in Theatre and Performance Studies at the University of Pittsburgh. She explained why this play felt like the right choice for 2020. “The department really wanted to do a comedy to brighten up this year that has been so difficult for so many. ‘An Ideal Husband’ is so funny and witty in that unique Oscar Wilde way, but it also has important social commentary that feels very current,” she said. “It asks questions about what it means to perform a sense of perfection for the world, versus actually living a virtuous life.” Read the full article at BYU Arts.

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Hispanic Productions Take Center Stage for BYU Department of Theatre and Media Arts

Chris Hayes — Thu, 12 Nov 2020 19:41:38 +0000

Three evenings of performances explore the work of Cuban American playwright María Irene Fornés Livestream performance schedule: November 19, 7:30 p.m. November 20, 7:30 p.m. November 21, 7:30 p.m. Please note: A free ticket is required to attend one of the livestreamed performances. See BYU Arts for full details. At a time when important conversations about race are taking place across the BYU campus and throughout the country, the Department of Theatre and Media Arts is producing two livestreamed plays that feature a Hispanic cast, director and playwright. “Letters from Cuba” and “Manual for a Desperate Crossing” were written by Cuban American playwright María Irene Fornés, who passed away in 2018. “Letters from Cuba” is based on three decades of letters Fornés received from her brother in Havana, while “Manual for a Desperate Crossing” is about a fictional crossing from Cuba to Key West, inspired by interviews with survivors who fled Cuba on homemade rafts. Director and BYU theatre professor Kris Peterson was scheduled to direct “Wendy and Peter Pan,” this past March, only to have the event postponed until fall when campus shut down due to COVID. When the play was canceled for a second time, Peterson was asked if she would like to direct one of the fall virtual performances instead. Read the full article at BYU Arts.

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‘Illusionary Tales’ Premieres as First Theatre Production of Fall 2020 Season

Chris Hayes — Thu, 22 Oct 2020 20:11:26 +0000

The cast and crew will present three nights of livestreamed performances Three casts. Three directors. One unforgettable experience. The BYU Department of Theatre and Media Arts presents “Illusionary Tales,” three short plays based on legendary stories from around the world. With theatre productions heavily impacted by COVID safeguards this semester, the department has found unique solutions that allow performances to continue in a virtual format. “In order to multiply opportunities in this new creative process, we chose to commission three new plays, each written to meet the needs of our unique technical requirements,” said associate chair and Artistic Director Adam Houghton. “Illusionary Tales” features the work of three BYU alumni. “Balete Drive,” by Melissa Leilani Larson, is based on the Hispanic legend of La Llorona. “For Such a Time as This,” by James Goldberg, builds on the Jewish tradition of a golem or clay guardian. And “The Tell-Tale Heart,” by Andrew Justvig, references the famous story of the same name by Edgar Allan Poe. Read the full article at BYUArts.

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Cast and Crew Members Share Lessons Learned from BYU’s Cancelled ‘Wendy & Peter Pan’

Martha Duzett — Fri, 05 Jun 2020 19:17:57 +0000

The theatre department is currently working to reschedule the production — which was cancelled due to COVID-19 concerns — for the Fall 2020 semester On March 12, life in the Department of Theatre and Media Arts was turned upside down as rehearsals ground to a halt, performances were cancelled and students were instructed to return home due to COVID-19 concerns — all just a week before mainstage production “Wendy & Peter Pan” was set to open. Despite their disappointment after months of preparation, members of the cast and technical crew of playwright Ella Hickson’s retelling of the J.M. Barrie classic look back on the rehearsal process as a formative experience and highlight of their BYU education, audience or no audience. “I was really excited to be one of the ones creating the magic, since Neverland is such a vivid location for so many people,” said student set designer Elisabeth Goulding. “The challenge of bringing a beloved story to stage is always one of managing expectations. You’ve got to find a balance between creating a distinct Neverland that’s unique to the needs of this production but still has a spark of the familiar Neverland that we already know and love. I wanted to help capture the same sense of wonder and excitement that I remember feeling when reading about Wendy and Peter’s adventures.” For theatre education major Skyler Denfeld, who played Slightly, one of the most impactful parts of working on “Wendy & Peter Pan” was watching director Kris Jennings Peterson unite the cast in common goals for what they needed to convey in their performance and develop as actors. “Kris asked us to really think about the play’s exploration of light and dark,” said Denfeld. “We talked a lot about the light in our lives and the shadows that we all have, and how we deal with the contrast that the light and the dark create. We also talked about learning to fight the shadows and accept the light.” Read the full story at the Department of Theatre and Media Arts website.

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Share Your Story: #CFACGrad Cameron Cox

admin — Wed, 15 Apr 2020 19:32:45 +0000

Graduating theatre student Cameron Cox reflects on his time at BYU What I appreciate most about having a major centered in the arts is that I can point to specific projects and performances that have shaped who I am as a theatre maker and what each performance taught me. I am disappointed to have the last year of my undergraduate cut short, but am happy to comply with responsible social distancing measures advised. Given my lack of a formal graduation and the opportunity provided by the College of Fine Arts and Communications #CFACGrad campaign, I would like to pay tribute to the academic opportunities my BYU experience has given me. My first BYU production was stage managing a student Mask Club production of Sarah Ruhl’s “Dead Man’s Cell Phone.” I was young and eager, and definitely had a learning curve realizing all of the different responsibilities that I would have to adopt as a part of this job. But the text was beautiful and introduced me to a subspecies of less mainstream theatre to discover. Working on this also provided me with the contacts to become a resident stage manager of the Nelke Experimental Theatre. That job has been the catalyst for my volunteer work on so many different Mask Club projects including stage managing a production of “The Little Prince,” which to this day may be the most successful concept execution of a student performance I have ever seen. This also allowed me to jump into the world of lighting design by working on a production of “Finding Nemo: The Musical” and “Lord of the Flies,” most recently. I was then somewhat thrown into the world of new play development, becoming the third stage manager in as many months of an original work entitled “happysadness.” This script tackled the difficult subjects of anxiety, depression and suicide with the stark juxtaposition of bright colors and puppetry. It may be the most powerful text I have been able to help bring to life. Anyone who worked on the project will agree that on several levels there were organizational shortcomings along with misunderstandings on every level. But I was taught the important lesson that shows that have the most obstacles put in front of them often have the messages that need to be heard the most. I was also later able to take my experiences working with a new work on tour as stage manager of “Romeo y Julieta.” My junior year I began to expand my interests. I continued to stage manage, starting with work on the production of “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead.” But my close work with directors and dramaturgs on my previous productions led me to explore directing and dramaturgy as well. I found myself in the position of taking directing classes during the day and watching those principles at work in the evening. This process also helped me develop one of the skills I most treasure: the ability to make myself enjoy whatever I am working on. I will be the first to admit that absurdism is not my favorite genre, and I really struggled with “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern” at first. But prolonged exposure offered me the choice to either be miserable or expand my horizons. I chose the latter and developed a love of the text and the show we were creating, even if I still won’t be going out of my way to watch another absurdist piece. Concurrent to my work on “Rosencrantz” was my introduction to dramaturgy through Mask Clubs “The Twilight Zone’s The Monsters are Due on Maple Street” and “Weirder Things.” I am captivated by the flexibility of its scope and its potential to reach out so directly to audiences as well as to the rest of the production team. I packed my senior year with projects, and while at times I certainly felt overwhelmed, I could not be prouder of the work that I produced in this period. I stage managed the opera “The Magic Flute,” was assistant director on “Much Ado About Nothing,” lead dramaturg on BYU’s “Little Shop of Horrors” and directed a 35-minute Mask Club adaptation of the film “What’s Up Doc?” This year was a culmination of all of my experiences up to this point. Assistant directing “Much Ado About Nothing” was probably the most fun I have had in a rehearsal room ever. Watching my professor and peers put together this show was so informative. The love and sense of community that this cast was able to foster with one another epitomizes what I love about what live performance can do. The final product was also so good. This was the first time where the show I worked on did not require my physical presence for every performance, but I couldn’t stay away because I just wanted to see how the audience was going to react every night. “Little Shop of Horrors” is the most ironic project I worked on in my college career. As lead dramaturg, I was able to dive into a research hole about the history of the story and its various adaptations. I also had a really fun time exploring the history of science fiction as a genre and creating articles about it for the BYU dramaturgy website and an engaging study guide. I also created fun lobby displays that highlighted everything I love about dramaturgy. The irony is that despite all the work I put in, I never actually got to watch the show with an audience due to social distancing. I am very happy with the work I have done at BYU but the most rewarding project I did in my time here was the directing capstone Mask Club production of “What’s Up Doc?” that I staged in February. The idea of adapting that text for the stage came to me when I was in high school. Through my years working on projects at BYU, I compiled a list of what I think makes the most successful work. From that, I cast, rehearsed and mounted the show. I am so proud of what my cast was able to create and the final product that came together. This idea — five years in the making — was only possible because of the forum provided to me by the department and the experiences, also provided by the [...]

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Theatre Alum Ariel Mitchell’s ‘A Second Birth’ Has Professional Debut

Martha Duzett — Wed, 20 Mar 2019 16:56:02 +0000

Mitchell reflects on her BYU experience Every aspiring playwright hopes for the chance to see their work performed. Department of Theatre and Media Arts alumna Ariel Mitchell is living a dream that began nearly a decade ago as her play “A Second Birth” receives its first professional production in New York. The seeds for the dramatic comedy were planted in 2010 when Mitchell was seeking inspiration for a one-act script in Eric Samuelsen’s introductory playwriting course. Mitchell came across a New York Times article titled “Afghan Boys Are Prized, So Girls Live the Part” which introduced her to the concept of bacha posh, a cultural practice in which families disguise one of their daughters as a boy in order to afford her educational and social opportunities and improve the family’s standing in the community. As she began to develop the story of a young Afghan woman navigating her family’s social and economic circumstances, Mitchell was particularly fascinated by what happens when a bacha posh faces adulthood — and marriage — and is expected to start life again as a woman. “What really made me want to write this story was the women themselves and their relationship with womanhood,” said Mitchell. “It was much more complicated than what we usually imagine or read about the Middle East. There was definitely mention of the oppressive state of the society, but there was also a surprising amount of gratitude that they could have a childhood with freedom and education and also get to embrace who they really are: women.” Read more about Mitchell’s BYU experience and the THML Theatre Company production of her play at the Department of Theatre and Media Arts website.

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‘Romeo y Julieta’ Actors Share Their Experience Portraying Iconic Shakespearean Characters

Leslie Owusu — Tue, 27 Feb 2018 20:44:57 +0000

Rachel Leishman, Maximillian Wright and Daniel Mesta share their experience portraying the characters of Shakespeare’s most famous tragic love story Rachel Leishman | Julieta Capuleto For Rachel Leishman, the highlight of “Romeo y Julieta” has been the opportunity to work with director Julia Ashworth. “Julia is a wonderful director who is kind and supportive,” said Leishman. “At the same time, she knows how to push us to take risks and grow in this particularly creative process. This experience has been quite different from any show I’ve done before due to the highly collaborative nature of the work.” Leishman said she has never been in a production where she had a say in the script and in other large elements of the show. During the rehearsals for “Romeo y Julieta” the whole cast was involved in workshopping the script, as well as contributing their ideas for images, sound and movement. Amongst the many experiences this production has brought into Leishman’s life, she said the most significant has been the desire to connect with her Hispanic heritage more actively than she has in a long time. “Because I grew up in the United States,” said Leishman, “it was quite easy to assimilate into popular American culture and language and to neglect the beautiful traditions and language of my family. In my attempts to fit in I sometimes stifled or tried to disassociate myself from Hispanic culture because I was ashamed for some reason or another. This show has been a catalyst in making my heritage a really important part of my everyday life and has encouraged me to make a deliberate effort to speak more Spanish and to practice Hispanic traditions.” How has your experience been playing Julieta Capuleto? “I have really enjoyed getting to know Julieta. Playing her has been a blast and a challenge. In her actions throughout the play, she demonstrates the devastating effects of broken and distrustful communication and relationships. This play is all about miscommunication, especially that which occurs between generations. What strikes me the most about Julieta is all the opportunities she has to tell the truth and confide in her mother yet she does not. I think the fatal consequences of their lack of communication illustrates how hurtful miscommunication can be in all our lives whether physically, emotionally or socially. In trying to bring Julieta to life I have read and read and read the script looking for acting clues and motivations behind words and actions. I have also used my own experiences with my Hispanic family to shape my interactions with Señora Capuleto and El Ama.” Have you had a favorite rehearsal experience or moment? “Yes! My favorite moment was when we were rehearsing scene 5, the scene where Señora Capuleto, Ama and Julieta talk about Paris’s marriage proposal as they prepare for the masquerade. As we worked through the scene, the choices that I had originally envisioned I would make changed entirely because of the choices and energy I received from my fellow actresses. When I let go of preconceived notions and used what was given to me in the moment, I felt all of our relationships became more defined and meaningful than they had been before. It’s sometimes frightening to let go of control when acting, but I’m grateful for this moment that taught me how truth comes from trusting and taking risks.” What has been the most challenging or trying part of your role in this production? “The most challenging part of this production was to open my mind to being more than just an actress in a show. I’ve never done a show where the director wanted to know how I felt personally about the script or sound effects, or about the development and choices of characters I don’t even interact with. I really had to push myself to look outside my part and work towards the bigger picture, but it has been so rewarding. I am so personally invested in this show now and in the story we are telling. This collaboration has definitely made me a more creative and selfless theatre maker and I am so grateful to have had this opportunity.” Maximillian Wright | Romeo Montague Maximillian Wright said his experience rehearsing for “Romeo y Julieta” has been absolutely fantastic. “It is unlike any other show that I’ve been a part of,” said Wright. “It continues to evolve and develop as we work through each scene—it’s alive.” He said audience members will experience a timeless Elizabethan classic performed in a new, fresh light and may even grasp concepts that were previously hidden to them. Those in attendance can expect to witness golden treasure buried in Shakespeare’s text brought to the surface and displayed for all to behold. “Come ready to laugh, to cry, to despise and to sympathize, as we execute this work to the best of our abilities and offer the audience a greater understanding and desire to form healthy, openly communicative relationships with their parents and children, or friends and neighbors, if they are eager to invest in the journey.” How has your experience been playing Romeo Montague? “I love Romeo. Throughout the past couple of months I have enjoyed the privilege of stepping into his shoes, observing the world from his perspective and trying to glimpse what truly is inside his heart, which, at its core, is bursting with feelings of pure intent. Although virtuous, Romeo struggles with expressing those feelings, and fails in clearly communicating his struggles to those who surround him. For example, he struggles to communicate with his own mother. It has proven very interesting to investigate the reasons and motives propelling his behavior. His actions and demise serve as a warning of what ill fortune can sputter forth from the confines of closed, distant, non-communicative and unloving hearts. Having recently passed through the later teenage years of life myself, and having experienced similar difficulty in always remaining totally honest in connection with my parents and family, personifying this character of Romeo has helped me revisit that era of my life and confront some of those past problems. It has allowed me to feel a certain level of closure and acceptance, and consider what changes I can make in my future to avoid miscommunication’s calamities.” Have you had a favorite rehearsal experience or moment? “One of [...]

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OFF THE MAP: EVERY BRILLIANT THING

Bailey Fruit — Tue, 10 Jan 2017 19:24:49 +0000

“Heart-wrenching, hilarious…possibly one of the funniest plays you’ll ever see.” The Guardian You’re six years old. Mum’s in hospital. Dad says she’s “done something stupid.” She finds it hard to be happy. So you start to make a list of everything that’s brilliant about the world. Everything that’s worth living for. You leave it on her pillow. You know she’s read it because she’s corrected your spelling. Soon, the list will take on a life of its own. This sold-out hit of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe is a new play about depression and the lengths we will go to for those we love. Based on true and untrue stories. Every Brilliant Thing is supported by Anne McMeehan and Jim Roberts and was developed with the support of nabokov and the Jersey Arts Trust. OFF THE MAP is generously supported by the BYU Mary Lou Fulton Endowment in Theatre and Media Arts. Approximately 60 minutes

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