PRIDE AND PREJUDICE: Meeting Members of the Cast & Crew, Part 3

March 26, 2014 12:00 AM

<a href="http://4thwalldramaturgy.byu.edu/pride-and-prejudice-meet-members-of-the-cast-crew-part-1/pnp-pride-and-prejudice-publicity" rel="attachment wp-att-2509"><img class="size-full wp-image-2509 alignnone" alt="PnP Pride-and-Prejudice-publicity" src="http://4thwalldramaturgy.byu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/PnP-Pride-and-Prejudice-publicity.jpg" width="580" height="200" /></a> Anne Flinders “It’s a distinct pleasure to make your acquaintance.” Brigham Young University’s world premiere production of Melissa Leilani Larson’s adaptation of Pride and Prejudice opens this week. Coinciding with opening weekend

By Anne Flinders “It’s a distinct pleasure to make your acquaintance.”

Brigham Young University’s world premiere production of Melissa Leilani Larson’s adaptation of Pride and Prejudice opens this week. Coinciding with opening weekend, we want to introduce you to some of the people behind the scenes and on the stage of this exciting new play. Following is the third part in a series of interviews with cast members and designers whose work you will see when you see the show. REBEKAH SILVER JACKSON, ASSISTANT COSTUME DESIGNER, BYU STUDENT “Oh, Miss Bennet. That is such a lovely color on you.”

[caption id="attachment_2531" align="alignleft" width="225"]

Rebekah S. Jackson, asst. costume designer, BYU's PRIDE AND PREJUDICE.[/caption] Rebekah is from Mapleton, Utah where she spent much of her time hiking, horseback riding, sewing and crafting. She says she always wanted to attend BYU. She is a Theatre Art Studies major with Costume Design as her emphasis. The extent of her theatre experience before attending BYU was a small play in sixth grade! This is Rebekah’s first time assisting or designing for a show. She says, “I have learned a lot from Melanie Lamb, the costume designer, as we worked through the research, concept, sketches, final designs, shopping and fittings together. It has been particularly fun to work on the costumes of the Bennet sisters, as I have my own four sisters who remind me of them sometimes!” To Rebekah, an important message in the play is how Jane Austen shows how family can be one’s best support in difficult times. “The important thing that we learn from Elizabeth's example is that while she does not condone some of her family's actions, she never abandons them and continues to love them throughout the play. She remains a friend with them all, and learns from both the good and bad of their decisions. ALLYSON THAXTON, GEORGIANA DARCY/HILL, BYU STUDENT “How I long to see Miss Darcy again! Such a countenance, such manners.”

[caption id="attachment_2532" align="alignright" width="300"]

Allyson Thaxton, appearing as Hill & Georgiana Darcy in BYU's PRIDE AND PREJUDICE.[/caption] Allyson comes from a military family from San Antonio, Texas. As a family tradition and desire, BYU was her number one choice for college. Besides her interest in theatre, there are other activities Allyson enjoys as well. “I am a member of the BYU Ballroom Dance Company; I love to compete and perform in that. I also enjoy interior design, especially in homes.” Allyson told us that she loves the book Pride and Prejudice, so it was a natural choice for her to audition. “I was excited when I got in, but it has been difficult to be a character without any spoken lines, especially since I had quite a few in the last main stage I was in.” Allyson says, “I have had to learn to love my roles because they are the extra little details that make the play. Consequently I have enjoyed exploring my two characters and their thoughts and feelings regarding other characters [in the play].” The message Allyson hopes to share through BYU’s production of Pride and Prejudice is that sometimes the road to gaining true love can be difficult. There will be trials and bumps thrown in the way. “But despite this, love can overcome anything if it is set with the right mind and attitude, setting aside our differences and prideful attributes.” LOGAN HAYDEN, COLONEL FITZWILLIAM, ASSISTANT LIGHTING DESIGNER, ASSISTANT SCENIC DESIGNER, BYU STUDENT “We have already met, oh, so many fine-looking officers.”

[caption id="attachment_2533" align="alignright" width="180"]

Logan Hayden, asst. lighting and scenic design; also appearing as Colonel Fitzwilliam in BYU's PRIDE AND PREJUDICE.[/caption] Logan Hayden, clearly a jack-of-all-theatre-trades, is from Arbon, Idaho. In choosing to come to BYU, Logan said, “My dad and all his siblings attended BYU years ago, but all of my five siblings went other places. [Eventually], however, they were all lead to the promised land of BYU. (Well, all but one traitor who did his grad school at the U, but we try to not speak of him.) I attended BYU-I, and served a mission in Oaxaca, Mexico. When I returned to school, my brother who was attending BYU and I would tease each other about which was the "true" church school. One day I was reading my weekly emails and Austin teased me about taking care that our sister Chelsea not get to me; that she was going to try to convince me to move down so we could all be close. I let out a few hearty laughs but the 3rd or 4th got caught in my throat as I thought, "Wait... Why don't I transfer?" A week later after prayer & pondering, I decided to make the switcheroo. And that is the epic tale of how this Arbon-ite Idahoan ended up in the Happy Valley!” KRISTIN PERKINS, CAROLINE BINGLEY, BYU STUDENT “I sense an invasion.”

[caption id="attachment_2534" align="alignleft" width="224"]

Kristin Perkins, appearing as Caroline Bingley in BYU's PRIDE AND PREJUDICE.[/caption] We asked Kristin if it’s always been acting for her. “My mom put me in a YMCA theatre camp when I was really young with the logic that it would somehow help me get over my shyness. I’m not sure it did but I did find a passion in creating stories and forming characters. I figure it is for similar reasons that I have always enjoyed reading and writing. As a child I ran around the backyard with a stick pretending to be an elf, and last year I was published in Inscape, BYU’s journal for literature and art, with a short story. My current pursuits in writing and art don’t seem all that different.” Kristin told us that playing Caroline Bingley has been a really exciting opportunity for her. “She is different from me in many ways, but underneath the layers and layers of pretense Caroline puts on there is an insecure woman capable of loving and hurting.” When we asked her what she felt the message she wants to convey through this production is, Kristin shared this with us: “For me that awareness [of Caroline’s insecurities] has been the theme and thesis in my journey through Pride and Prejudice: that relationships require a give, a take and, most importantly, a risk. As misinformed and ill-conceived as Caroline’s attempts to pursue Mr. Darcy are, there is still vulnerability in her desire and that is something I truly believe everyone in the audience can relate to. This is where I found my connection to the character and to the story. Investing in another person is often scary and confusing, and inherently puts us in a position of being unprotected, even exposed. Sometimes it works out, like for Elizabeth and Darcy, and sometimes it doesn’t, like for Caroline, but there is always something beautiful in the attempt to connect.” Be sure to get your tickets soon; they are going fast!

data-content-type="article"

overrideBackgroundColorOrImage= overrideTextColor= promoTextAlignment= overrideCardHideSection= overrideCardHideByline= overrideCardHideDescription= overridebuttonBgColor= overrideButtonText= promoTextAlignment=

data-content-type="article"

by Makenna Johnston, dramaturg In a ‘special projects’ theatre class held between January and March of 2020, four students and their professor began devising a show. Their devising team? David Morgan (professor), Clara Wright, Mikah Vaclaw, Sten Shearer, and Dylan Wright. Their source text? The Turn of the Screw, a novel by Henry James. Though the team’s original devising process was cut short due to the Covid-19 pandemic, aspects of their invaluable contributions to the production live on. Each student deviser's unique perspective about the story and devising process are explored below. Clara Wright Our professor David Morgan had the idea to create a devised piece of theatre to take to the Edinburgh fringe festival with a group of students. He was drawn to the script of the Turn of the Screw, but wanted to do his own take on it, so he decided to create a new adaptation of the original book with a group of students. He was drawn to the eerie nature of the piece, the elements of horror, and the slow descent into madness of the governess. I joined Dave's class to write and devise this script because, first of all, working with Dave has always been a pleasure, but the story was intriguing to me as well. I loved the idea of studying and understanding a layered female character. I don't think there are enough interesting female characters out there at the moment. The governess was affected greatly by societal pressures and a deep, depressing history that drove her to madness when she arrived at Bly. The story was mesmerizing. I was also excited to work the muscle of creating a new piece of theatre. I am not confident in my writing abilities, but it was exciting to take a piece of literature that already existed and make something new and interesting out of it, using visual elements that you can't get from reading a book. We not only wrote dialogue, but we also wrote out ways we could use movement, sound, lighting, puppetry, and more to tell the story in the most effective way possible. The devising process was a blast! Dave would tell us what scene he wanted us to write and we would each go home and write out our own interpretation of the story. The next class, we would get together and go over which elements of people's scenes we liked best, which moments were the most clear, and which lines we for sure wanted to keep in the final script. Sometimes our interpretations were so different and unique that it was difficult to choose which direction the piece needed to go. Ultimately, Dave would piece together each of our scenes into a cohesive script. Other moments I enjoyed were when we would put scenes on their feet and act them out to see how they translated to the stage. The introduction especially benefited from this exercise. The last exciting part of the devising process that I'll talk about is writing the music. I hadn't written original music like this before so it was such a cool experience creating sound like this for the first time. I didn't ever think about what scene I was writing for, but Dave told me what tone he was looking for in a piece of music and then I experimented until I found something I liked by layering on different sounds I could make on my violin. It was an overall thrilling experience! Turn of the Screw example music Turn of the Screw example music 2 Mikah Vaclaw Because of COVID, we didn’t get to fully get the script up on its feet, so we focused a lot on writing. First, we all read the book over Christmas break, and when we had our first meetings as a group, we talked about what stood out to us in the story and what we wanted our retelling of the story to be. Something we really wanted to explore was the idea that the ghosts were actually things born out of trauma the governess had experienced in her youth, and how she was the only one that could see them/was affected by them. We also wanted to explore jealousy between Mrs. Grose and the Governess. Once we had fleshed out what was important to us, we started writing. Dave would tell us what scene he wanted us to write for homework, and we’d all come back with our different written versions of that scene. Then, in class, we would read them aloud together and talk about what we thought worked, and what didn’t. Dave would then take all of our scripts and compile them together into one cohesive scene. We were able to start toying with the introduction to the play, and Clara wrote some really cool violin music for it. Sten Shearer The process of devising the script was the five of us (David Morgan, Clara and Dylan Wright, Mikah Vaclaw, and myself) would get together a couple times a week. Initially, David gave us some conceptual ideas he had for the show (like using movable screens that could utilize shadow work). Then we all read the original story. At each meeting, we would assign a chunk of the original story as our writing assignment. Using that chunk of the story as inspiration, the four students would go home and write a scene that translated that section of the original story into a play scene. Through that process, we collaboratively came to an understanding of the themes that we wanted the play to explore as well as theatrical devices and ideas that we thought would work well in putting the play on its feet. Simultaneously to writing these scenes, we were also using our class time to experiment with staging and blocking using the earlier scenes that we had written. So for instance, when we were about halfway through writing the script, we were also staging what the early scenes would look like to help test if the script we were writing worked in practice as well as on paper. Dylan Wright We chose this project because we obviously needed something in the public domain that we wouldn't need to pay royalties for, but aside from that this story really highlights the mental turmoil of a young governess as she grapples with her duties as a woman and her place in the world religiously as well. We took this story to an extremely dark place-- it has since been edited for this particular production-- that orbited around this idea of religious toxicity, something all too familiar in Utah. We felt that it was important to excavate and expose the uncomfortable and truly ugly parts of religion and the toll it can take on us. I wanted to work on this project because Mikah, Sten, Clara, and Dave are some of my favorite people and artists. The driving force really, as mentioned earlier, is that we wanted to create. We were all itching to create something. None of us needed this class credits-wise so the idea of coming together to tell a ghost story that echoes modern themes in a bare-bones, devised manner was extremely appealing. Unfortunately we were never able to perform this production because of COVID. But the devising process was an invaluable gem. We would each read the same chapter of The Turn of the Screw and then come to class with our own interpretation of this chapter in scene-form, creating dialogue and stage directions. Dave would then pull the pieces from each that rendered a clearer, more specific story and then we would go from there. When we would arrive in class we would also read each other's scenes out loud to get a feel for them. It was a marvelous process.

PRIDE AND PREJUDICE: Meeting Members of the Cast & Crew, Part 3

Related Articles

Post Mortem Photography

Interviews with the Student Devising Team

Turn of the Screw Study Guide