BYU’s Department of Theatre and Media Arts released its 2014–2015 season lineup, full of past favorites and new premieres that will bring music, laughter and drama to the stage to celebrate the 50th anniversary theatre season in the Franklin S. Harris Fine Arts Center.
The theatre department took to the past when creating this year’s schedule, including “Our Town,” the 1938 winner of the Pulitzer Prize in the Drama category, following the residents of Grover’s Corners, New Hampshire, and observes the transient nature of life.
“Our Town” was in one of the very first theatre seasons that was held in the HFAC, but audience members will experience a twist in the adaptation of the show this November.
“It’s actually going to be very contemporary and have a lot of media and film elements involved, so it will be a very modern kind of look at a classic play,” said BYU’s art manager, Jeff Martin.
Every other year the department puts on a musical in the de Jong Concert Hall; audience members will have the pleasure of attending the U.S. premiere of the epic musical based on Alexander Dumas’s classic story of revenge, romance and love’s redemptive power, “The Count of Monte Cristo,” in January of 2015.
“It’s been done quite a bit in Europe and Asia to great success,” Martin said. “But it has not been performed anywhere in the United States, so it will be the very first and hopefully give it a start to a very long life here.”
BYU has the pleasure and honor of premiering this production due to developing a really good relationship with Frank Wildhorn, multi-Grammy and Tony Award-nominated composer and producer of more than eight Broadway shows, including “The Count of Monte Cristo,” when he came to do a concert here last fall and extended the opportunity.
Bravo!, the professional presenting arts series that BYU puts on, will bring theatre majors, dancers and musicians from all across the world together to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Harris Fine Arts Center.
It will be bringing back past guest artists, which will be a “nice return to our roots,” Martin said.
Guest artists in a variety of different disciplines, ranging from traditional Cambodian dance to Broadway’s sweetheart, Sutton Foster, are invited this year to perform and supplement the teaching and experiences of the students and faculty here at BYU. Each group holds a workshop or master class for the Theatre and Media Arts students when they come, allowing them to learn the craft and then see it performed, which Martin deems as a “really important component” to their training.
Season tickets for BYU theatre go on sale May 28. Tickets to individual performance go on sale four weeks before the start of each production.
For more information on the line up for the 2014–2015 season, visit arts.byu.edu.
