by Rick Curtiss Dramaturg

ox·y·mo·ron

/ˌäksəˈmôrˌän/

noun

a figure of speech in which apparently contradictory terms appear in conjunction (e.g., faith unfaithful kept him falsely true ).

I learned about this word (I assume in the same way everyone did) from a scene in the 1994 movie Renaissance Man where Danny DeVito’s character explains it to a group of students. I don’t remember anything else about the movie, but the oxymoron scene is etched so deep in my memory that I can still here Danny DeVito say "girly man" over the crackly drive-in speaker.

It was the first time I realized that watching a movie and learning something new could happen simultaneously, which was a revelation to my eleven-year-old mind. Two seemingly opposite things could both be true, education and entertainment, fun and serious,

happy and sadness

happysadness is both an oxymoron and the title of a new play by Chandra Lloyd. Last year it was workshopped in WDA, and this year it is the show performing for the Microburst Theatre Festival--a full production directed by Taylor Hatch and almost entirely created by students and alumni. It is performing in the Nelke this February 23-25. As the dramaturg for happysadness, I would sum up the show as personal and wide reaching / or fictional biography / or simply complicated.

The contrasting title serves it well.

Oxymorons challenge the notion that categorizing is easy; that objects, emotions, experiences and people can be ranked; and that choices are either good or bad. When seeing opposites together, the viewer must make consideration. “Girly man” puts into question what it means to be a girl and to be a man. Jumbo shrimp allows for different descriptions depending on the viewpoint, and happysadness states that some of the greatest moments happen during the hardest times.

happysadness approaches difficult personal issues while never feeling sorry for itself. It digs deep and is deeply funny. It is rooted in reality and explored through fantasy. It is an oxymoron that demands consideration. I invite you to meet those demands and join us February 23-25. I guarantee that it is better than Renaissance Man.

Also, there are puppets.

http://arts.byu.edu/event/happy-sadness/all/

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by Shelley Graham, dramaturg [caption id="attachment_7692" align="aligncenter" width="960"] Director Tim Threlfall works with four actors in an early rehearsal.[/caption] Each performer in this production had a unique opportunity to create a character in ways we've never tried before. Such singular opportunities bring with them challenges. I reached out to our performers in the middle of blocking and choreography rehearsals, to see what they thought about the process. Here's what a few of them had to say. One of the challenges I've experienced with this production is the need to exactly replicate every inflection in my dialogue. People speak and inflect the same words differently in different contexts, on different days, and for endless reasons. Because we recorded the audio before filming, the challenge was to match our performance with the inflection we had on the recording day. I'm a fairly emotive person, and I rarely say things exactly the same way twice. In order to be successful with this production, I had to spend a lot of time listening to the recordings of myself, a strategy I've not used in preparing for roles in the past. Brendon French During this process, it was a challenge to not have in-person rehearsals when learning the score. I personally learned how to plunk out my notes on the piano, worked with those in my vocal part, and was able to meet privately with Korianne [Johnson, music director] to confirm that I was on the right track vocally, and that I was ready to record in a group! This has been such a wonderful experience despite the challenges! I have learned so much and am grateful to be a part of this production Riley Holmes I think an obvious challenge is covid. It's been affecting this whole process! The worst part about it is that not everyone can be on the stage, so I feel like it is a little more difficult to be able to react to the other actors that are "on stage." You just have to imagine that they are there! Luke Gonzalez I think the biggest challenge for me was having to learn everything alone, without any guidance or direction from either the vocal or acting directors at first. It was super interesting and a great learning opportunity, because I got to put my own spin on everything before it was altered by the directors, but it was still really hard. I think the way that I overcame this challenge was just lots of time putting into memorizing and learning and practicing. Practice makes better! AJ Klomp Highlights from Gilbert and Sullivan's Pirates of Penzance is live streaming March 31, April 1-2 at 7:30 pm. Don't miss it!

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Oxymoron

ox·y·mo·ron

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