Student Projects

By Jessie Pew, dramaturg

Christmas Around the World is a well-established tradition at Brigham Young University, with this year’s production marking its 60th appearance in the BYUarts season. While primarily a cultural celebration, there is always a theme arching over the production and informing the text and music performed in between the dance numbers. Previous years have seen themes, most recently, “A Light in the Window” (2019), which highlighted the importance of cultural roots being maintained despite immigration, and promoted empathy and compassion for those who have had to leave their ancestral homes against their will. With such a lofty preceding theme, the 2021 theme, “Rejoice” can seem rather simple in comparison. However, I think more than ever, today we are aware that rejoicing is not an inherently simple action.

Rejoice, we’re back in person. Rejoice, the semester is almost over. Rejoice, that your family member is coming back to health. Rejoice, Jesus wins in the end. Whatever it is, rejoice. The theme of Christmas Around the World this year is Rejoice. But rejoicing isn’t always joyful. Just as Adam and Eve had to learn joy from pain, good and bad often go hand in hand. So while we celebrate this Christmas season, let’s reflect back on what we’ve had to experience to help us rejoice. In this modern day and age, the pain and hardship we see with the Covid-19 pandemic have affected us all. The announcement of a global pandemic, and finally the world moving forward, has been a major part of our history. March 12, 2020, will forever be remembered by many as the day Brigham Young University shut down and everyone left. Not knowing what the future would hold or how long the hardships were going to last, we pushed forward. The pandemic remained dominant and still rages on. With the 60th anniversary of Christmas Around the World being postponed, we learned even more what that pain can do to foil our joy and rejoicing.

by Laynie Hunter, dramaturg Below you will find the program for this student theatre lab ("mask club") production of Disconnect, written by Rob Ackerman. It was directed by Marion Pack, with dramaturgy by Laynie Hunter. Spotify Playlist Apple Music Playlist

by Lillian Bills and Spencer Fields, dramaturgs This student theatre lab (mask club) production of Talking With... by Jane Martin was directed by Sarah McDonald, with dramaturgy by Lillian Bills and Spencer Fields. Below you can scroll through the virtual program for this production, or download the PDF version if you prefer. Thanks for watching!

by Shelley Graham, dramaturgy supervisor Each fall semester we offer a course called "Writers Dramaturgs Actors Workshop." Throughout the semester, students in the class will workshop, develop, and offer feedback on select plays by fellow student writers. The plays are carefully selected for this opportunity from among numerous student entries so that each week in class we get to improve our skills as dramaturgs while we help playwrights improve their skills as writers. At the end of the semester, we get to work on our acting skills, when we offer public concert readings of the plays we've been working on all semester. New eyes and ears on these drafts are immensely valuable, and so we invite the public to these readings. An invaluable aspect of the concert reading is the brief discussion that immediately follows when we have those in the audience (who haven't been working on these scripts all semester long) share their first impressions and questions about the new plays. We invite everyone to join us for these readings performed on Zoom this year - we would love to share our work with you and hear your feedback! You are welcome to join any and all of these performances! Click here to join.

by Ty Hawton, dramaturg

For this student mask club adaptation of Thumbelina, dramaturg Ty Hawton made this short video introducing the crew and sharing a little more information about the project.