By Valerie Chapman
This summer, 22 of BYUs music, dance, theater students and alumni have performed at Tuacahn, one of Utah?s largest summer theater companies.
Each summer, Tuacahn produces two musicals that alternate performance nights. This year, the shows were Disney?s ?Beauty and the Beast? and Andrew Lloyd Webber?s ?Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.?
Summer Wood, a recent BYU graduate is playing the lead role of Belle in ?Beauty and the Beast? and Potiphar?s wife in ?Joseph? until Oct. 15.
Wood said she is excited to be performing with Tuacahn for her third season in her biography at the Tuacahn website.
Mimi Adams, a junior from Orem, performed in both shows this summer at Tuacahn, but had to leave the productions early so she could return to BYU for fall semester.
It was extremely hot having to perform in heavy costumes and stage makeup in the desert of Southern Utah, Adams said. It was so much fun performing.
What she enjoyed most about the St. George theater company was the level of professionalism she encountered throughout the summer.
?We were able to get so much stuff done very quickly because everyone was so professional,? Adams said. ?The directors and actors really knew what was going on, which made it much easier to work.?
Tim Threlfall, associate professor of theatre at BYU and director of ?Beauty and the Beast? stressed professionalism in his show, and attributes the level of professionalism his show achieved mainly to the BYU students involved in the production.
Threlfall auditioned over 500 people from Los Angeles, New York and Las Vegas for the small cast of 43 for both shows. Over half of the cast who made the final cut were BYU alumni or students.
?One of our equity ? actor?s union ? actors was worried at first when he heard that most of the cast were not ?professional actors,? ? Threlfall said. ?But after working with the cast for only two weeks, he told me how surprised he was at how great the BYU students were.?
While 17 of the 22 BYU performers are still performing at Tuacahn, five of them have returned to BYU to attend fall semester.
Both performances at Tuacahn continue to run this weekend through October 15, and tickets can be purchased over the phone or online at www.tuacahn.org.
