By Willow Becker
Although BYU Arts in Provo is known for bringing family-friendly fare to the stage, the Contemporary Voices series of Tony-winning, Pulitzer Prize fare is a boundary-pushing welcomed addition to their season. The project, a labor of passion and love for the Artistic Director Megan Sanborn Jones and Dramaturg Shelley Graham, is the first ever of its kind on the BYU stage. The concept is beautiful in its simplicity: bring the best theater writing to life through a series of contemporary classics performed in script-reading style, giving the audience an intimate and, in some instances, life-changing connection with the stories on stage.
The three-show run includes some of the most impactful and well-written shows in modern history, including Margaret Edson’s Wit, Stephen Sondheim’s Company, and Patrick Shanley’s Doubt: A Parable. While each show has been carefully curated for content (Graham explained that all of the texts were edited for the BYU stage with approval from the playwrights), this is not a typical set of shows normally seen on the predominantly Latter-day Saint campus. Both Wit and Company include light swearing, sexual situations and innuendo, with Company portraying the effects of drug use. In Doubt, the main issue of the plot revolves around whether a Catholic priest has sexually abused a young student. Needless to say, these are heavy adult themes and this series is not recommended for youth under the age of 18.
Yet, despite the controversial content, all of the shows are developed in such a way as to keep the BYU audience in control of the experience at all times. Before each performance, Artistic Director Sanborn Jones clearly gives an overview of the type of content that may be offensive to the audience, in addition to a 5-minute period where Sanborn Jones encourages those who feel uncomfortable to exit the auditorium at leisure.
“The shows have been heavily edited,” Dramaturg Graham tells the reviewer. “We wanted to give students on campus a chance to see shows that they would never see on a BYU mainstage. The educational aspect of this is the most important one.”
Wit, by Margaret Edson
This hilarious and thought-provoking script was an instant success when it first appeared on the stage at the South Coast Repertory in Costa Mesa, CA in 1995. By 1998, it had become an Off-Broadway sensation, and by 1999, it had won both a New York Drama Critics’ Circle winner and a Pulitzer Prize winner for Drama. The story, which is told to the audience, often breaking the fourth wall, is of Vivian Bearing, a college literature professor who is dying of Stage 4 ovarian cancer. Throughout the play, we see countless examples of Edson’s wit in Bearing’s character as she gains new insight from the effects of her disease and its accompanying treatment.
This production of Wit is astounding, both in that it adheres so firmly to the original story and that it maintains the same weight and lightness of the original. For the Contemporary Voices reading series, Graham brought in Edson to both oversee the play edits and engage with the students and actors portraying the iconic roles. This attention to dramatic integrity does not go unnoticed by the audience, as the force of Bearing’s spirit and the quixotic hilarity and horror of death leave us laughing and crying long after the final lights go down.
The cast, though young, brings the show to a phenomenally powerful conclusion that is difficult for actors twice their age. Sydney Howell as Bearing is pitch perfect as the acid-witted, relentless professor. Her physical skill at playing both a 50-something matron and 7-year-old girl is matched only by her vocal prowess. Each line is delivered in a clipped, acerbic way that captures the characters harshness and provides the necessary foil for the softness we see in her at the end of the show. And even though the hospital gown is the only indication that we are seeing anything other than a college student read a script, Howell is able to transport us across time and through multiple spaces as Bearing reflects on the act of death and dying.
The rest of the cast is just as strong, with excellent performances by Kyle Hollingshaus (Jason) and Natasha Rivas (Susan). As foils, they are perfect, working opposite as the metaphorical mind and heart of Bearing’s cancer journey. Hollingshaus is at once awkward and neurotic in all the best ways, performing some of the most hilariously embarrassing moments with honest indifference. Rivas works with a natural warmth that jumps off the stage in stark contrast to the chilly characters of Howell, Hollingshaus, and the other medical professionals, providing the audience with a character that is too human to ignore, and a believable catalyst for the final transformation of Bearing.
Other notable performances include Erik Rytting as Dr. Kelekian and Bearing’s father, Alison Rino as Dr. Ashford, Bearing’s educational mentor, and Tommy Kindall, Caleb Andrus, and Tiffany Parker as various members of the cast. The cast works seamlessly together, and the “Grand Rounds” scene is a particularly wonderful example of Rytting’s poise and articulation, Parker’s facial expression, Kindall’s unstoppable stage presence, and Andrus’s subdued intelligence. Rino, while having just two scenes, is captivating in her interactions with Howell, providing a physical benchmark of the time that has passed, and a gentleness at the end that the audience has been craving the entire show.
Kudos go to Stage Directions reader Reyna Shumway, who is both ever-present and invisible (as good stage directions should be), and Sanborn Jones and Miranda Clement for the creative staging of a concert-style show that takes place in six different locations. The overall effect is personal and engaging, and is only enhanced by the 15-minute post-show discussion regarding life, death, and eternity.
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Company, Book by George Furth and Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim
When the musical was first produced on Broadway in 1970, Company pushed the envelope of what could be shown on stage. As the main character, Bobby, prepares to blow out the candles on his 35th birthday cake, he reflects on being single in a world of married friends. Not only does his journey deal with honest concepts of what marriage and relationships look like behind closed doors, it includes drug use, some language, and an implied sex scene. It was met with critical acclaim instantly, and was nominated in 1971 for 12 Tony Awards, taking home six including Best Musical, Best Score, Best Lyrics, and Best Book.
The concert version of Company from the BYU Contemporary Voices masterminds is much more than just a script-in-hand reading of the musical. Directors Jennifer Reed and David Morgan—with a huge helping of choreography by Becky Phillips—are able to bring this musical to life in a way that is innovative and refreshing. It is rare that the direction and choreography of a show outshine the individual performances, but this production is a perfect marriage of all of the above. From the opening number (which creatively utilizes a minimal set of black boxes) to the slow-motion fight scene (which creatively utilizes the entirety of the Nelke Theatre stage), this is a brilliantly produced “concert” version of Company that would make Sondheim himself proud.
One of the standout performances of the show is not even a listed cast member. Music Director Mark Johnson is truly impressive with the complex Sondheim music, easily directing the pace and musicality of the actors even as the audience is watching every move. From the dreamy ballad of “Marry Me a Little,” to the fast-paced New York frenzy in “Another Hundred People,” he seems to take it all in stride and keeps the show moving.
Spencer Hunsicker as Bobby is reflective and affable, in addition to having an awkward grace that is completely endearing. His vocals are strong, and he plays a perfect straight man against the cast of wacky characters that are his best friends. Kelsey Phillips (Amy) astounds with her lightning-fast vocals and perfect timing on “Getting Married Today,” as well as her frenetic energy that consumes the stage—a fantastic foil to the slow-moving, love-smitten Paul (played by Daniel Wallentine). Jaymie Inouye (Marta) is also a standout, with a range of both vocalizing and acting that is astonishing. Her impeccable belt on “Another 100 People” is impressive, but not as surprising as the perfect high Gs she pops out on “You Could Drive a Person Crazy.” In addition, her New York swagger is on point, and she steals some of the best laughs of the show in her two meager scenes.
There are incredible vocal performances throughout the show, most notably from Andrew Jefferies (Harry) and Parker Waters (David), whose beautiful voices are almost distracting during the power-ballad “Sorry-Grateful.” Jefferies especially shows incredible vocal and emotional range during the show, providing some of the most amazing physical acting along with his counterpart Bronwyn Reed (Sarah) during a carefully crafted (and side-splitting) slow-motion fight scene.
Waters and his stage partner, Miriam Edwards (Jenny), are the most convincing couple on stage, and their work together is some of the best in the show. Edwards is beguiling as the “square” Jenny, and her elastic face is fast and funny when it needs to be, but slow and honest when it matters. Ellora Latin (Susan) and Kristian Huff (Peter) are also an adorable onstage couple, his down-to-earth demeanor perfectly playing against her portrayal of Southern gentility. Latin also has a strong singing voice, and breaks out an operatic solo during “Getting Married Today,” that is an impressive paradox to Phillips’ manic ramblings. The least believable onstage couple is Chris Rollins (Larry) and Nikole York (Joanne), which actually plays to their advantage. Rollins gentle, soft-spoken demeanor almost fades into the background as York’s huge personality takes over during “Ladies Who Lunch,” which is exactly the dynamic the couple needs in order to set up the show’s climactic moment.
Hunsicker and the rest of the cast work incredibly well together, especially with both Sadie Veach (Kathy) and Brigitta Teuscher (April). As “the one who got away,” Veach is sweet and believable, bringing a level of chemistry to the stage that is refreshing. Teuscher is convincing as the air-headed stewardess, her naivety compelling.
In the final moments of the show, Hunsicker reminds us who the star is, however, as he presents a rendition of “Being Alive,” that is both poignant and passionate. The themes of this show—marriage, relationships, fidelity—don’t stop there, however. In the post-show discussion, audience members are reminded why relationships are so difficult and also why they are worth it.
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Doubt: A Parable, by John Patrick Shanley
Originally produced off-Broadway before transferring to the Broadway stage, Doubt only ran for 525 performances and yet won a Pulitzer Prize for Drama (2005), the Tony Award for Best Play (2005), and was made into an Academy Award-nominated film starring Philip Seymour Hoffman (Father Flynn) and Meryl Streep (Sister Aloysius). The play surrounds a fictional Catholic school in the early 1960s where a nun suspects one of the male teachers of sexually abusing a student. The content is very adult and not recommended for younger viewers, but the concepts are universal: How do we know what we believe, and what do we do if we’re wrong?
The BYU Arts performance of Doubt: A Parable, directed by Julia Ashworth and Kate Tullis, is the simplest staged show in the series. The four characters, Father Flynn (Michael Avila), Sister Aloysius (Rebecca Wing), Sister James (Sydni Bringhurst), and Mrs. Muller (Sariah Lyles), present the show in standard concert style, talking directly to the audience throughout. Costumes are minimal and in dark colors, perhaps evoking the “black or white” thinking that is pervasive by the main character, Sister Aloysius, who is convinced of Father Flynn’s guilt regardless of the lack of evidence. Reyna Shumway is also on hand to read stage directions, and presents them clearly and without detracting from the inherent drama of the 90-minute production.
Wing is excellent as Aloysius, her character as cold and calculating as is necessary in order to set the audience against her from the beginning. In contrast, Avila is very sympathetic, managing to convincingly play far beyond his years. The middle-man becomes Bringhurst, who brings a spark of genuineness and vitality to the stage that is much appreciated. The harmony of the three on stage is inescapable, and nowhere is it more present than the confrontation “tea party” where Aloysius makes it clear her doubts about Flynn’s actions toward a never-seen Black student, Donald Muller. During this scene, lumps of sugar become metaphors for vice that Wing wields effortlessly, while Avila manages to present a crescendo of discomfort, then rage in his face and body that is remarkable.
Lyles’ portrayal of Donald Muller’s mother is heartbreakingly believable, presenting us with new information through physicality and vocal variability that makes us doubt whose side we are on. Her interactions with Wing are tentative at first, then become stronger as their shared scene climaxes, leaving the audience reflecting on the role of race and social bias in our judgement of character.
Out of all the pieces presented during the 1st Annual Contemporary Voices Festival at BYU, the after-show discussion of Doubt is the most necessary and impactful. Concepts of race, religion, belief, and judgement are included, and audience members leave feeling that they have more questions than answers—a vital position to be in considering the power of theater to educate and inspire us to reflection.
BYU Arts presents:
Doubt: A Parable, by John Patrick Shanley March 7, 7:30 PM, 2019
Wit by Margaret Edson. March 8, 7:30 PM, 2019
Company, Book by George Furth, Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim. March 9, 7:30 PM, 2019
Nelke Theatre, Franklin S. Harris Fine Arts Center, BYU, 800 E Campus Dr, Provo, UT 84602
Tickets: $3-7
Contact: 801-422-2981
BYUArts.com
BYU Arts Facebook page
Contemporary Voices: Play VoicesFacebook Event
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