The staged readings will be followed by audience discussions
The Department of Theatre and Media Arts will present BYU’s first Contemporary Voices play festival featuring three notable works performed through script-in-hand readings.
The three plays — “Wit,” directed by Megan Sanborn Jones; “Company,” co-directed by Jennifer Reed and David Morgan; and “Doubt: A Parable,” directed by Julia Ashworth — are all award-winning works that students will likely encounter in their study of contemporary theatre.
“We’re starting the festival to introduce our students to curriculum that they read in classes, but have not made it onto our mainstage seasons for a variety of reasons — the limited season we can fully produce, casting concerns, special requirements of the script or challenging topics,” explained Jones. “We want our students to see and hear these plays more than just read them, so this provides an opportunity to support curriculum, provide roles for students and give our faculty the ability to work one-on-one with and really mentor students.”
The festival will open on Feb. 28 with “Wit,” following playwright Margaret Edson’s visit to campus to speak to TMA students and faculty.
“It’s a magic time for ‘Wit,’” said Jones. “It’s been 20 years since it won the Pulitzer, and it is a simply remarkable show in the canon of American theatre history, because it’s the only play that Margaret Edson ever wrote. Learning the story of how it got produced shows our students the work and labor involved in getting a single show produced. As a staged reading, the students also have a chance to play roles significantly different than themselves in age, education and health, which is a great challenge.”
The student performers will meet similar challenges in John Patrick Shanley’s “Doubt.”
“It’s a beautiful script,” said Ashworth of the Pulitzer-winning play. “I think one of the greatest benefits of having this staged reading right now — particularly in this divided country and culture that we live in — is that it embraces the idea of doubt being a positive thing. People are often so couched in their certainty that they don’t know how to have a civil dialogue. Doubt can be a bond between people and uncertainty can connect people.”
Reed also sees a timely relevance in Stephen Sondheim’s Tony Award-winning “Company.” The musical centers on Bobby, a single man observing the marriages of his friends and trying to work out the importance and necessity of a committed relationship.
“It speaks to some of what’s going on in our own culture with trying to find the perfect relationship and the perfect companion,” said Reed. “The last song that Bobby sings, ‘Being Alive,’ is really the turning moment when he realizes that he has to take a chance. He knows that it might not be perfect, but it’s still worth it. He’s afraid, and I think a lot of students can relate to that.”
In addition to the student experience, the festival directors hope that audiences will connect with the material and the performers through a discussion following every performance.
“This festival is primarily for students who take our classes, who love theatre or who have read these plays, but have not had the chance to see them,” said Jones. “But we hope all audience members — ages 14 and older — will also welcome the opportunity to come and engage with award-winning American theatre.”
Reed looks forward to the conversations that the play festival will inspire. “These are three amazing plays, and they all have truths that are still relevant today,” she said. “It’s such a cliché thing to say, but a work can live on — it makes you think, it moves you, it makes you look at things or people differently. Any time any of that happens, it’s a success. That’s what good theatre does.”
Tickets and Show Details
Performance Dates and Times:
“Wit” | Feb. 28, Mar. 8 | 7:30 p.m.
“Company” | Mar. 1, 9 | 7:30 p.m.
“Doubt: A Parable” | Mar. 2, 7 | 7:30 p.m.
Location: Nelke Theatre, Franklin S. Harris Fine Arts Center, BYU
Price: $3-7
Tickets: Available in person at the BYU Ticket Office in the HFAC or Marriott Center, by phone at 801.422.2981 or online at byuarts.com