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A Wilder Night'Showcases Three Thornton Wilder One-Act Plays

The student cast hopes to encourage audiences to recognize beautiful and meaningful moments in their own lives

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Members of the company of "A Wilder Night." (Rebekah Baker/BYU Photo)

The Department of Theatre and Media Arts will present three one-act plays from Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Thornton Wilder in "A Wilder Night."

The plays — "The Long Christmas Dinner," "The Happy Journey to Trenton and Camden" and "Pullman Car Hiawatha" — were published together in 1931 and laid much of the groundwork for Wilder's beloved "Our Town." The one-acts also share a common thread in their complementary explorations of the universal human experience. 

"I believe these plays are works of art that reveal truth about our lives," said director Adam Houghton. "There are notable moments of humanity, and the plays also have profound and potentially enlightening moments of spiritual dimensions."

Despite the heightened language and period setting of the plays, there is a timelessness to the characters and themes that Houghton and the student cast hope will resonate across generations.

Read more about the performance and find tickets at byuarts.com.