The House of Desires creative team has made multiple connections across campus and disciplines this semester, and we are excited to share this unique production with so many university community members outside the Theatre and Media Arts department.
Kathryn Isaak invited members of the cast and creative team from House of Desires to join her Interdisciplinary Humanities class on Friday, March 1st and share about their experiences working on the show. Students in Professor Isaak’s class are going to be watching House of Desires and writing an essay analyzing how technical elements highlight themes present in Sor Juana’s work, or describing how artistic choices came together to create meaningful moments in the story. Some of Professor Isaak’s students have not had many experiences watching live theatre, which makes us all the more excited to welcome new theatre goers into our audience! We know there is so much to learn from looking critically at Sor Juana’s work and these students will get so much out of this experience.
In a discussion with the students, Hunter Aro, our fight choreographer for this production, highlighted how his work was influenced by a Chinese performance in which a sword fight occurs in the dark. He also talked about his experiences choreographing the fight in our previous BYU Theatre production of Wait Until Dark, and the different challenges that come from choreographing a fist fight and a sword fight in the dark.
As the assistant dramaturg for the show, I was able to share my experiences studying Sor Juana’s original script, Los empeños de una casa. Studying the original Spanish play allowed me to give directors and designers a better understanding of the more literal meaning of Sor Juana’s words and insights on why Catherine Boyle may have translated parts of the story in certain ways. Thomas Jenson who plays Don Pedro talked about how his background in dance helped him create his character’s flirtatious, fun personality.
Students had many great questions for the designers and actors. They were curious about the actors’ process of embodying their roles. The actors talked about how they have been learning how to trust their impulses, especially because this play is a comedy, and often their instincts have helped them discover these hilarious moments within the story. Adam Houghton, the director of the show, shared how he had the actors do the first thing that came to their mind as he was staging the show and then developed the comedy from there.
Designers and actors will also be joining Professor Valerie Hegstrom’s Global Women’s Studies and Spanish Golden Age Literature classes on March 21st to discuss their work on the show. Professor Hegstrom's students have been studying and discussing House of Desires in class, and we are so excited to hear their thoughts on Sor Juana’s work and how our performance compares with discussions they have had in class. We enjoy sharing the work we are doing in the theatre with other students across campus and hearing about their perspectives and experiences with these stories we love!
