<h6 style="text-align: center"> <a href="http://4thwalldramaturgy.byu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/20171102_193817_Burst01.jpg"><img class="size-medium wp-image-6305 aligncenter" src="http://4thwalldramaturgy.byu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/20171102_193817_Burst01-206x300.jpg" alt="" width="206" height="300" /></a>Mikah Hansen practicing the play
Mikah Hansen practicing the play,
Happy Holidays by Chelsea Mortenson
The upcoming Microburst Theatre Festival features six plays written by BYU students and directed by George Nelson. To bring new plays to the stage takes a lot of editing, revision, and workshopping over months to maybe years. For Microburst, these playwrights get to have life breathed into their plays thanks to the four actors of Microburst; Clara Richardson, Jacob Khalil, Mikah Hansen, and Ren Cottam.
Clara Richardson and Mikah Hansen, both BFA acting majors at BYU, shared their thoughts of being actors in Microburst. “The best part of working with new plays is the freshness of the material! They're not stories I've heard over and over before or performed in multiple times.” Hansen said as she discussed debuting these new plays for audiences. Richardson agreed, “ I have been learning a lot about how to create a character for the first time as an actor. None of the characters in these scripts have ever been portrayed on stage and we only have ten minutes to create a character the audience can relate to”.
Jacob Khali, Clara Richardson, and Ren Cottam
practicing the play Untapped by Rylee Witbeck
Besides the fact that these are new plays, the actors also have to perform as multiple characters throughout the show. “ It is a smaller cast which is fun and each of us are playing anywhere from 2-4 characters,” Richardson explained, “…we need to make each of them very different so we aren't just playing the same character every time.” Hansen also added to the difficulty of portraying more than one character, “Microburst is different than other productions I've been in because it involves so many different stories. Normally, you're only performing one show as one character, but Microburst requires actors to play multiple parts in multiple shows--sometimes back to back.”
Performances will be held at the Nelke Experimental Theater at the Harris Fine Arts Center onNovember 2 through December 2 at 7:30, with a matinee on December 2 at 2:00. Tickets are available at the box office.
Before a show opens its doors to audiences, before there are costumes and props, before sets are built and actors are cast, it starts simply as an idea. This idea is known as the ‘director’s concept,’ which a director presents to the designers at the show’s first production meeting. After that, it is the designers’ job to transform that concept from an abstract idea to a physical manifestation that can be seen onstage.
One of the great things about working as a production dramaturg is the time spent in rehearsal working with the actors. For this production of 12 Angry Jurors, we spent quite a bit of time exploring the world of the play. To help the actors interact with the courtroom drama world of Boston in 1953, we created a dramaturgical website for the actors. We put a link to this website on QR codes that were printed and hung throughout the rehearsal space, so that the actors could have access to the website at any time.
One of the first things many people think of when they hear the word Christmas is gifts. Gifts and Christmas have been interchangeable for a very long time in our world’s history. But over time, what people think of as gifts has shifted. Each new era or generation defines it differently. There were monetary gifts such as gold, frankincense, and myrrh in the days of Christ, when all things were handcrafted and only the wealthiest of people could have precious ore or spices from distant lands. Or perhaps, during the great wars of the twentieth century, a gift of war bonds was precious when patriotism and the survival of the world made things like toys seem trivial to many. Now, everyone wants the latest iPhone or the newest technology. Throughout our lives, what we want also changes. Gifts shift from toys, games, and candy to technology or clothes–all inconsequential things that provide short-term entertainment. However, all of these things fade and have less impact on our true joy. Joy can really be found in the simple things of life.
