With so much hype around productions outside of Utah, it may be easy to forget the amount of immense talent located here in Provo.
A group of BYU students is performing “The Fantasticks” August 9-11, giving students and community members the opportunity to see these young stars before they hit the big time.
“The Fantasticks” is the world’s longest-running musical and is packed with humor, love and meaning.
“I decided to do ‘The Fantasticks’ because it’s kind of quirky and fun and it has a really beautiful message,” said Bergen Goesch, a theater art studies major who is directing the show. “It supports things I believe. It’s important
for me to choose plays with a good message.”
The story is about two fathers who want their children to fall in love and marry each other. The fathers stage a series of events and feuds between their families, hoping to make the young boy and girl fall in love. Throughout the play, the couple begins to learn what real love is and what it means.
“It has some really insightful things about relationships,” said Ben Isaacs, a music dance theater major who plays the character El Gallo. “It really has some interesting, mature relationships that happen throughout it, and it shows that going through trials is how we can really understand our relationships better.”
Ted Bushman, a music dance theater major who is both acting in the production and directing the music, said that the characters go through transformations that change their perceptions of love and life.
“[The show] is full of life and it’s so real,” Bushman said. “My character goes through this whole transformation about what it really means to be a hero. It makes you look at the way you express love and how you show it. It’s very uplifting and edifying.”
“The Fantasticks” is playing at the Covey Center for the Arts in Provo. Tickets and information can be found at the Covey Center website.
