Twelfth Night's Unexpected BYU Story
Believe it or not, it has been 35 years since Twelfth Night last appeared on the BYU Theatre mainstage. (In the intervening years, the Young Company toured shorter versions for young audiences, but the full comedy has not returned to campus in decades. You can read more about the history of this comedy on the BYU stage here.) So when preparations began for the 2026 production, the team expected to uncover design notes, archival photos, and perhaps a few familiar names.
What we found was something sweeter.
In the 1991 production, Olivia was played by then-student Kim Wright. Fabian—reimagined as Fabia in the 2026 staging—was played by fellow student Dennis Wright. It was during that production that the two met and formed a friendship that, before long, turned into something more. A Shakespearean comedy, it turns out, had quietly staged its own love story.
Reflecting on that experience more than three decades later, Dennis recalls, “I remember her at callback auditions. Sparks flew. And I didn't even know what it was at that point — I hadn’t seen her before. She had been on a mission and hadn’t been around. I thought, who is this girl? It was very clear she was a favorite and probably going to get the role. And then the rest is history.”
Kim remembers it a little differently: “Dennis and I were both dating other people at the time, so we were really just building a genuine friendship. But Denny had beautiful blonde hair, which was lighter blonde than my medium-blonde wig. So the designer had him put brown mousse in his hair every night so his hair wouldn’t upstage mine.” That was a talented cast, and they both remember "talking and laughing backstage a lot."
Today, both Kim and Dennis Wright serve on the Theatre faculty, with Dennis now Artistic Director of BYU Theatre. And in a twist worthy of Illyria itself, their youngest daughter, Maitlyn Wright, is the hair and makeup designer for this year’s production.
Describing her opportunity to design Twelfth Night, Maitlyn says, “I got to choose whatever I wanted to work on as a designer. And I thought it would be cute to do Twelfth Night, because it comes full circle — this is how my parents met. That’s one of the things I’ve always known about them, that they met in a play at BYU. When we had our first production meeting, the director said, ‘We’re going to do something you've never seen before.’ And I was reinvigorated — this is actually going to be my style, my passion. And it’s been awesome. It’s like my parents are reaching through the past. I just kind of connected with them through the story, even though it’s wildly different from the way they did it in ’91.” (You can read the 4th Wall Dramaturgy article about her design process here!)
Both parents have reflected on Maitlyn’s work with pride. “Maitlyn has done an amazing job on this high-concept, challenging design,” Kim says. “She is so creative and dedicated to her craft. It’s thrilling to watch.”
Watching a dress rehearsal as artistic director, Dennis adds, “It looks great. She’s done some really cool things that we don’t often get to do. Adam loves it. And her collaboration with La [Beene, costume designer] has created a lovely visual.”
Thirty-five years separate the two mainstage productions, but the thread of Twelfth Night runs straight through them — a legacy not only of wit and romance onstage, but of connection, collaboration, and love behind the scenes. In a play where “journeys end in lovers meeting,” it seems only fitting that this journey continues still.
