By Whitney Sorenson
Theatre enthusiasts should make BYU’s annual Microburst Theatre Festival, now in its fourth year at the Harris Fine Arts Center in Provo, a regular appointment on their performance calendar. At this year’s Microburst Theatre Festival, you’ll hear clever dialogue from talented playwrights-in-training and see solid acting from four students who can change character even faster than they change costumes.
The event opens with Rylee Witbeck’s Untapped. This play presents a creative and odd way for talented singers to be discovered while they warble in the shower. Witbeck has skills with both physical comedy and verbal wordplay, making the scene a live-action cartoon.
Playwright Brittni Henretty’s two offerings, A Night In and Game Four, appealed most to my personal sensibilities (but that could be my love for romantic comedies and baseball in general). A Night In examines what happens when a ghost declares her presence right before a man’s longtime girlfriend arrives at his apartment for a date. It felt similar to the 2005 film Just Like Heaven but more efficiently arrived at its point.
Henretty’s Game Four is the centerpiece of this year’s Microburst Theatre Festival. It already has a few accolades to its credit, including being the regional 10-minute play winner in the 2017 Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival. The program proudly declares this achievement, so I found myself anticipating this performance from the moment I sat down.
During the scene, two Boston Red Sox fans meet after the team’s final loss to the Yankees in the 2004 American League Championship Series. The Red Sox would go on to not only win the ALCS but the World Series as well, a feat they hadn’t achieved in 85 years. Henretty’s words and characters play off the dramatic irony inherent in the moment to make a statement about hope. Director George Nelson and Assistant Director Soren Barker wisely keep the lights dim for this one-act. That design decision allows the actors’ emotional shifts to contrast against their hopeless surroundings.
It’s hardly surprising that several BYU-educated playwrights chose to examine marriage relationships in their 10-minute plays, but Microburst’s three scenes featuring married couples were sufficiently different to hold my interest. Alyssa Aramaki’s London looks at how communication breaks down between husband and wife. The young actors portray a tense chemistry well, but their age doesn’t quite suit a scene meant to depict a marriage that has been strained for years.
Jessica Holcomb’s Elephant Partially in the Room also examines communication within marriage, making it a nice piece to compare with London, but Elephant also dives quick and deep into the realm of absurdist theatre. This play earns the most laughs—and deserves them—but I confess I felt as confused as the husband in the scene while I watched. He repeatedly seeks explanation from his wife for her strange behavior and outlandish statements but never gets a satisfactory answer.
Completing the trio of plays about marriage, Chelsea Mortensen’s Happy Holiday uses the age-old debate about when it’s appropriate to start listening to Christmas music to examine how newlyweds learn to compromise. This scene is also played for comedy but doesn’t have quite the emotional depth of memorable wordplay of the other plays.
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A review of this year’s Microburst Theatre Festival would be incomplete without some major praise for the four actors who took on all the roles in each of the six plays. Clara Richardson, Mikah Hansen, Jacob Khalil, and Ren Cottam each demonstrate the skills any actor should have in his or her tool bag—namely, an ability to find the comedy in sadness and the sadness in comedy. Kudos to the playwrights who gave them words that bring out those nuanced emotions and two dedicated directors who combined the creative elements to make the students the stars.
Microburst Theatre Festival 2017 plays at BYU’s Harris Fine Arts Center in Provo. Just head to the Nelke Theatre, one floor below the main lobby. Make sure to stay for the post-show discussion where you can give feedback to the playwrights and actors, but speak up fast because the talk speeds by (and could stand to be a bit longer).
BYU’s Department of Theatre and Media Arts presents Microburst Theatre Festival 2017 with plays by Rylee Witbeck, Alyssa Aramaki, Brittni Henretty, Jessica Holcomb, and Chelsea Mortensen
Nelke Theatre, Harris Fine Arts Center, BYU campus, Provo
November 30, December 1-2 7:30 PM
Tickets: $6.00
BYU Arts Facebook Page
Microburst Theatre Festival 2017 Facebook Event
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