The U’s Theater Department is a multifaceted machine. The department brims with opportunities and choices, which include the actor training program, the musical theater program, the performing arts design program, the stage management program and a London study abroad. There are also classes offered to students not seeking a theater degree.
“For the most part, productions are designed and acted by students in the program. [Faculty] members of the Department of Theater direct the shows, or guest directors are brought in to give the students a greater breadth of experience,” said Amy Oakeson, program coordinator for the Department of Theater. “It is exciting that so much of the work produced in the Department of Theater is created by the students.”
Each season, the department selects a theme around which to structure each performance. This season has been dubbed “A Season to Love,” and as a result, every play on the schedule aims to explore love’s various forms.
“Last year, we had a very dark, heavy season … Blair Howell of the Deseret News jokingly referred to [last year’s] season as the season of sin [because each play] seemed to [explore] the seven deadly sins … As planning for this season developed, it was interesting that each play seemed to explore some kind of incarnation of love,” Oakeson said.
Based on Ovid’s myths, the play “Metamorphoses” focuses on the central idea of change. In the story, change, usually represented by water, is often the result of love. The play also explores both the results of love fulfilled and love ignored.
“For the production of ‘Metamorphoses,’ [the theatre department has] literally built a swimming pool on stage, and the entire action of the play takes place in and around this real pool of water. It creates a stunning and vivid experience that you can’t find anywhere else,” Oakeson said.
Translating ancient myths that maintain relevancy and excitement is a difficult experience. However, to director Jamie Rocha Allan, a representative for the Royal Shakespeare Company with over ten years of experience, it is a challenge worth taking on.
“Metamorphoses” runs from Sept. 20-29 and will be performed at the Babcock Theatre, located on the lower level of the Simmons Pioneer Memorial Theatre.
Another upcoming show is Tom Stoppard’s “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead.” This clever and fast-paced story takes Shakespeare’s “Hamlet” and turns it on its head. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, minor characters from “Hamlet,” are pushed under the microscope — now on center stage, they struggle to piece together the fractured world around them and their displaced identities.
“It’s a terrifically funny, modern classic that’s seldom performed in Utah, and we’ve got an amazing director, design team and cast,” said Mark Fossen, who will play Rosencrantz.
“It’s one of those plays that people like to analyze and dissect, but at its heart, it’s just a comedy. If Michael Cera and Jonah Hill got dropped into the middle of ‘Hamlet,’ this is what you’d end up with,” Fossen said.
“Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead” runs from Sept. 26 to Oct. 6.  It will be performed at Studio 115 located in the Performing Arts Building.