Composer Frank Wildhorn visited BYU for the opening of Wonderland last week. He attended both the final dress rehearsal and opening night, hosted by Tim Threlfall, Gayle Lockwood, Megan Sanborn Jones, and Bridget Benton. At the end of the play on opening night, Frank was recognized and given a standing ovation from the audience. For more information about the production and BYU’s relationship with Frank Wildhorn’s musicals, go to https://arts.byu.edu/2019/01/byu-theatre-workshops-frank-wildhorn-musical-wonderland-in-preparation-for-de-jong-production/
And just for fun, here are some of the whimsical renderings of costume designer, Erin Bjorn, for the production.
You may be interested in the article posted on Friday about our own Megan Sanborn Jones, written by media arts alum Martha Duzett. “Megan Sanborn Jones Talks about her New Book, ‘Contemporary Mormon Pageantry,’” where she discusses her research and newly released book. To read the article, go here: https://cfac.byu.edu/department-of-theatre-and-media-arts/megan-sanborn-jones-talks-about-her-new-book-contemporary-mormon-pageantry/
From the interview: “… As a theatre historian, pageants are a dinosaur that is still alive and tromping around, which is rare. It’s rare to have an unbroken line of performance practice last long beyond its popularity — you don’t go to Broadway and see a fully articulated melodrama anymore. The form went away in American popular culture. Mormon pageants, largely because of the longevity of the Hill Cumorah pageant, have been around since pageants were popular. When it closes, it will truly be the end of an era.”
Sixteen theatre education students and six theatre faculty and staff, including Adam Houghton, Kris Jennings, Michael Kraczek, David Morgan, Rory Scanlon, and Lindsi Neilson, attended the Utah Theatre Association Conference January 17-19, 2019, at Weber State in Ogden. Rory and Kris taught workshops. Faculty from Design/Tech and Acting watched the auditions and portfolio sections of the conference. Ten of our Theatre Education students taught workshops. The keynote speaker of the conference was Betsy Wolfe (known for her acting in Falsettos!, Waitress, and The Mystery of Edwin Drood on Broadway). Attendees also saw Stansbury Park High School’s production of Mamma Mia! and Weber High School’s production of Newsies. Here are some comments from students about the conference:
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- Becca Stevens: I really enjoyed the workshops I attended on Theatrical Marketing and Viola Spolin. The Spolin workshop inspired me to think about how I could create an improv troupe in my future high school program-it’s not as scary as it sounds! The marketing workshop gave me the desire to learn more about the Adobe resources we have here at BYU. I need to take advantage of the free services we have here so I can pass these skills on to my future students. Seeing the show at Weber High School reinforced the importance of having a strong team behind you. There’s no way that production could have happened if it was just up to the theatre teacher and their students. They had business sponsors and parents GALORE. It was really cool to see the production values you can accomplish in a high school.
- Emily Trejo: For myself as an educator I enjoyed watching the instructors and how seamlessly they were able to mix activities with learning. It was cool to see how all of the students were having fun and learning at the same time. I hope that someday I will be able find that balance and master the skill of teaching and having fun.
- Kate Tullis: This year, I taught two workshops. It was wonderful being able to teach these workshops a couple times throughout the duration of the conference because I learned how to adapt these lessons for different audiences. It was particularly thrilling to me to see these students work with theatre concepts and ideas that they had not been exposed to before. It was wonderful to help them realize that theatre is so much more than escape from self by being someone else onstage. I felt that I was able to help them get at least a glance of their story and other student’s stories and how to have empathy for others through the beautiful world of theatre.
- Laynie Calderwood: I think the thing I learned most at UTA is how to keep experiences simple, yet meaningful. I tend to be someone who overthinks things and tries too hard, but some of my best experiences at UTA were very simple workshops, with no extra materials required, just discussion and mutual creation.
- Pollyanna Eyler and Melissa Longhurst contributed the photos below.
Alumni News
The TMA faculty may remember MDT alum Adam Daveline, who applied for the Acting Faculty position a few years ago. Since April of 2017, Adam has been in The Play that Goes Wrong on Broadway, as the understudy/replacement for five different characters. This version of the play recently closed on January 6, 2019. Adam is also on the original soundstage recording of Paul Gordon’s Emma that was released last Friday, available for order at www.BroadwayRecords.com. He is also artistic director of MOD Theatre Company in NYC along with other BYU grads.
The Sound and the Fury 