Twelfth Night and Fulfilling the TMA Mission
At Brigham Young University, we are grateful for the opportunity to produce theatre and focus on our divine role as children of God. Two parts of the Theatre and Media Arts mission statement say that we, “celebrate the infinite potential of the human soul” and “build on the great works of the past.” In talking about infinite potential, one of those potentials is the process of creation. We believe that there is a divine process in the creation of theatrical productions. As theatre creators, we are able to create stories and worlds. Not only do we want to create stories and worlds, but we want to create unique stories and worlds. Building on the "great works of the past," like the works of Shakespeare, allows us to fulfill our TMA mission at BYU.
Shakespeare wrote plays from 1592-1614 roughly. Here we are more than 400 years later putting on his plays. Shakespeare famously wrote for the Globe theatre which had very minimal set possibilities. Most of the performances were done in the middle of the day, so there were very few opportunities for lighting as well. Even his scripts are minimalist, mostly just dialogue with entrances and exits explained. The themes of his plays are universal. Twelfth Night, for example, deals with the themes of innocence, love, and social ambition.
Because of its universal themes and structure, we at BYU are able to use our divine creative talents to make a unique and exciting production in 2026. We at BYU have been putting on productions of Shakespeare since 1923. There is something extremely inviting about the open possibilities of Shakespeare. That is one of the reasons we continually produce his work, to use our creativity to tell stories for modern audiences.
This is not the first time BYU has produced Twelfth Night. Far from it! Here we can see how past creative teams at BYU have used their ‘infinite potential’ to ‘build on the great works of the past.’ Take a look at some past programs and pictures of the 8 past productions of BYU’s Twelfth Night. What similarities do you see? What is different?
There were BYU productions of Twelfth Night in 1939, 1950, 1962, 1972, 1974, 1991, 2006, 2016, and 2026.
