2021-2022 Season

Letters, pictures, voice recordings, journals, videos. There are so many ways to remember and communicate our experiences long after we or the people and the places we made the memories with are gone. Jane Austen wrote not only novels and poems, but also many letters and journals. Unfortunately for us, most of her personal writings were burned by her sister Cassandra upon Jane Austen’s death to keep Jane’s personal life private. Additionally, throughout Pride and Prejudice, letters are used as confessions of love, anger, and sadness.

What kind of person are you at a dance? Are you more like Lydia, who loves to dance and be the center of attention? Or are you more like Mr. Darcy, who sticks to the walls and maybe eats a few refreshments. Or are you somewhere in between?

While music has always been an integral part of many cultures, for Native Americans dance and music are very special to their culture. From healing dances such as the Jingle Dress dance to spiritual ones like the Eagle Dance to more fun PowWow style dances such as the Fancy Dances, their culture is very connected to the Heavenly Spirit in many ways. So we invited some people who were Native American to come and speak to the cast and crew. We were able to invite Cheyanne Elton, a dancer with Living Legends in the Native American section who’s also minoring in American Indian Studies, and we invited Naabaahii Tsosie, a Native American dancer who travels the world and shows off his culture. Cheyanne was able to talk with us a lot about their culture, and Naabaahii was able to talk with us and show us some of the things behind dance in his culture.

References compiled in connection with the BYU Contemporary Voices Reading of The Thanksgiving Play by Larissa FastHorse.

Being a white woman, I have no place to make commentary on Native American/Indigenous People’s lives and their culture. So work on this production was very hard to approach because we needed the points of view that the characters strive for in the play but we needed actual resources. Through The Tribe of Many Feathers and some other connections, I was able to find Cheyanne Elton who is of Navajo descent, dancing in the Living Legends Native American Section (with a minor in American Indian Studies), and Naabaahii Tsosie who is also of Navajo descent. He is the previous President of the Tribe of Many Feathers at BYU, and he also travels the world dancing Native American dance. Both were able to come and were willing to talk with the cast about their families and their connections with the culture. After the cast did some research and sent me questions for the special guests, Cheyanne and Naabaahii were prepared to share their perspectives. They both have connections with the Navajo tribe and were very willing to talk about their experiences as well as their families’ experiences, jobs on reservations, experiences they’ve had with racism, and their thoughts on representation. They answered many hard questions.

In honor of 4th Wall Dramaturgy, here’s a quick Q &A with members of the Opera Team for the Dreams and Nightmares Opera Scenes. Scroll down to learn about our team!

What dreams have you or are you daring to dream?

Learn a little bit more about the performers in the Opera Scenes!

Things to Mention About Opera @BYU

Grasp four facts in any of these four lists to enhance your operatic education:

Sprinkle this opera jargon into your conversations and converse like a pro!

Follow these steps and you’ll be in-step with the operagoers.

2021-2022 SEASON, AS YOU LIKE IT by Reyna Workman, dramaturg

Have you read the study guide in the playbill for As You Like It? Did you notice the page titles sounded like familiar ’80s pop songs? Do you remember the artist/band who performed them? Read on below if you want to see which ones you remembered correctly!

I looked across the room. Standing there, holding a cup, was the most beautiful person I’d ever seen. They looked up and caught my eye and I knew immediately—I was in love.

If Anatevka is like a fiddler balancing on a roof, then the show Fiddler on the Roof also performs an impressive balancing act between its cultural specificity and enduring appeal. Whether or not audiences can relate to the practice of arraigned marriages in Orthodox Ashkenazi Jewish communities, they can understand the tension between personal desire and the social expectations around marriage. The relatability of Tevye’s world—made of hay and cows but also the love of family and dreams of wealth—stems from its timelessness. As a show that premiered 78 years ago and takes place half a century before that, Fiddler on the Roof’s greatest feat is that time does not chip at its relevance.

Here are the answers to the study guide’s trivia questions. How many did you get right?