By Nina Logan
For graduates ready to mark the end of their college careers, there is always one last hurdle to jump. For some it is an exam, for others a thesis and for acting majors, it is one last show.
Students graduating from the Theatre and Media Arts Department?s acting program are required to participate in a final BFA acting project. In an effort to push the students to fine-tune their skills, the roles are usually very different from those they are used to playing.
?Actors have to use every little nook and cranny of their own personalities when creating a role that is not very similar to themselves,? said Tim Threlfall, an associate professor in the TMA department and director of the senior project. ?This forces them to really examine their own lives as well as the imaginary lives of their characters.?
Threlfall said while being cast against type can be frightening for an actor, it can also have many benefits.
'It forces the actor to take the task seriously and work even harder than in other roles they find easier to create,' he said. 'Whenever you have to work that hard and that long, the rewards are usually equal to the effort expanded.'
Working hard is what the cast of the final project did when they came together to play the characters in William Inge?s ?Bus Stop.? Although the project proved to be a learning experience for many, others felt it was something that should have been avoided.
The 1955 non-musical play ran for 13 months on Broadway, making it one of the most successful performances of the decade. The story is about the past and present lives of an odd assortment of people stuck in a diner just outside Kansas City, Kan.
? are colorful and unique and just slightly larger than life while still maintaining a sense of being real human beings,? Threlfall said. ?All the characters the seniors portray are complex characters. We see many sides to their personality, which is always a wonderful challenge for the actor.?
Of the small, eight-member cast, six seniors played title roles. Ashley Ogzewalla, a senior from Olathe, Kan., was cast as Elma, a young wait-ress in the diner. She was one of the few who was type-casted, but she said she had many new experiences through this role.
?Through Elma I listen to everybody talk in the play,? she said. ?It really gives me a chance to under-stand people. Elma has taught me that everyone deserves their time and everybody has worth and value.?
While some actors stretched their skills and found new ways to play familiar characters, others took on roles very different from themselves.
Such was the case with Amanda Schutz, a senior from Harrogate, Tenn., who played Grace, the middle-aged owner of the diner.
'This character is very physically different than other characters I''ve played at BYU,? she said. ?I''ve mainly worn a corset in all the other shows.?
Playing Grace required Schutz to speak, move and even laugh differently. Despite the physical challenges, it was easy for her to connect to her character emotionally.
?Being 43 through the whole show without having the luxury of middle-age make-up, that was interesting,? she said. ?It was a great, fun challenge to be able to play Grace and it?s been wonderful.'
While many enjoyed BYU?s rendition of Inge?s play, others did not. One of those people was Kristi Moulton. The Orem resident purchased 35 tickets to the first performance of 'Bus Stop' for a church activity. She expected to see a romantic comedy, but was instead surprised by the story''s references to extramarital relationships.
Moulton said she is aware there are people who choose to live like the characters in ?Bus Stop,? but BYU is not an appropriate place to portray that.
?I feel as though BYU should shoulder the responsibility to stand as a great example to the world and not compromise their standards in the way they portray their art,? said Moulton in a letter to LDS Church Headquarters. ?I feel that BYU should be the one place where I might be able to escape from these life situations.? In addition, Moulton felt the consequences of the characters? actions did not come through enough on stage. Though the TMA department provides forums to discuss the themes of plays, Moulton was not aware of the opportunity.
?I appreciated the fact that the program started with a word of prayer,' said Moulton in another letter to BYU President Cecil O. Samuelson. 'However, it didn?t take long for me to think that having a prayer before this particular play was a mockery.?
Moulton appreciated the talents of the cast, but felt the material was inappropriate.
?The acting was great, but the context was horrifying,? she said. ?Our Beehive girls were quite impressed with the language. They informed us afterwards about the exact number of swear words in the play.?
Moulton said other more tasteful plays could have been performed that would have also taught the values of what love is and what it should be.
Despite the fact the play addressed a mature topic, the director and cast tried to convey the uplifting and positive spirit of the play to the audience.
'I think everything was modestly done,' Schutz said. 'Nobody was doing anything inappropriate on stage. It was referenced to and we tried very hard to make sure that we were teaching a moral.'
When Schutz received the role of Grace, she thought long and hard about the part she was taking on.
?I had to think about it a lot,? she said. ?I thought, ?What am I teaching the audience? What am I going to show them with this?? I had to think about it a lot, and I worked that into my character.?
Schutz hopes people understand the play was not done to promote or condone adultery.
?We were doing it to say, ?Look, people are lonely, people do things, we need to still love them,?? she said.
When word got out about the mature themes in ?Bus Stop,? the TMA department took action. Patrons were informed about the content through e-mails and offered ticket exchanges or refunds. In addition, signs were posted outside the theater that notified audiences of the play?s content.
Moulton said although the TMA department accommodated her, it would have been better if the problem had just been prevented.
?I feel like they?re understanding and concerned, but art has its place,? she said.
In response to Moulton, Department Chair Rodger Sorensen, said the plays chosen for performance are selected carefully.
?We have a season selection committee that takes very seriously the responsibility of choosing the plays we perform for our audiences,? Sorensen said. ?These men and women seek the guidance of the spirit when making their choices. They read many plays. They seek to find works that not only entertain, but also teach truths.?
The intriguing, complicated characters of ?Bus Stop? was one of the reasons the play was chosen for the final project and Sorensen said he hoped Moulton would consider looking at the play in a different light.
?We chose to produce this play because it is not a simple, single-dimensional exploration of relationships,? he said. ?It is complex, just like relationships in life. And it informs some of the struggles of intimacy we human beings face, whether we are LDS or not. How many of our youth are going to face these very questions about loneliness and intimacy? How many are already facing them??