November 15, 2007
For Immediate Release
The UVSC Theatrical Arts Department continues their 2007-08 season of “The American Experience” with the original script, “Canyon Suite” by Charles Erven. With an all student cast as well as student directors, the “Canyon Suite” premiere will be performed November 29-December 8 at the Black Box Theater on the UVSC Orem campus at 7:30 p.m.
Against the backdrop of the Grand Canyon, relationships and the threads through time are explored in this poignant piece. More than three decades in the same hotel room, a wide array of complicated characters, from fickle lovers to lonesome cowboys, collide and intersect in the quest for truth, hope, love and identity.
After “Canyon Suite,” a new and original script, was presented at last year’s Kennedy Centre’s Association of College Theatre Festival, the UVSC Theatre faculty was so taken with the play, they sought to premiere the show in Utah.
“We have not presented a contemporary production quite like this before,” said Terry Petrie, chair of the UVSC Theatrical Department and one of the three directors of “Canyon Suite.” “All humanity aches to be loved and we often sacrifice too much for this need. It is interesting to examine these human conditions on the stage.”
Also directed by UVSC students Mahonri Stewart and Ruth Carlstrom, “Canyon Suite” is presented as three acts that center on nine people who meet in the same motel room near the Grand Canyon over a period of three decades.
“This piece appears at first to be three separate unconnected one-act plays that span more than 20 years,” said Petrie. “It becomes very intriguing to the audience as they are able to make connections about each of the lives of the characters even though the characters portrayed are unable to recognize or make the connections themselves.”
“Canyon Suite” is about connections present, past, and lost and explores the idea that our lives and relationships are irrevocably connected. “In this piece some of the relationships are a wreck – emotionally unhealthy. Some of the relationships have a healing influence,” said Stewart. “But all these bring out the universality of human nature among distinctly different experiences.”
The directors’ hope is that “this will be a story that stays with the audience,” said Carlstrom. “Real love is hard to find, but in the end it’s worth it.”
The all student cast of “Canyon Suite” includes Aaron Willden (Tremonton, Utah) as August, Kyla Curtiss (Libby, Mont.) as Cassie, Jacob Nilsson (Bluffdale, Utah) as Man, Trisha Samiko Nozumi (Santa Cruz, Calif.) as Older women/Clementine, Jamie Denison (West Jordan, Utah) as Woman, Jana Grass (Springville, Utah) as Laura Meyers, Scott M. Stringham (Springville, Utah) as Shelly Meyers, Rebecca Minson (Boring, Ore.) as Grace and William Cooper Howell (Cedar Hills, Utah) as TJ.
For more information or tickets for “Canyon Suite” call (801) 863-8797 or visit www.uvsc.edu/campusconnect/events. Ticket prices range from $6 to $10.
UVSC Theatrical Arts Department presents
“Canyon Suite”
By Charles Erven
Directed by Terry Petrie, Ruth Carlstrom and Mahonri Stewart
Dates: November 29-December 8 (excluding Sunday)
Time: 7:30 p.m.
Location: Black Box Theater, UVSC, 800 West University Parkway, Orem, UT
Tickets: $6 for UVSC students, $8 for other students, UVSC faculty/staff and seniors, $10 general admission
Box Office: UVSC Campus Connection, (801) 863-8797
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