Dubbed as “a love story that isn’t spoiled by the trailer,” the new musical Single Wide has attracted national attention, awards and the opportunity to be performed Off-Broadway in the 2015 New York Music Theatre Festival (NYMF). What started as a joint project between Brigham Young University’s George D. Nelson, the head of the playwriting program in the Department of Theatre and Media Arts, and Jordan Kamalu, a commercial music major in the School of Music, is now exploding into a star-studded venture. Jeff Whiting, a BYU Music Dance Theatre alumni and acclaimed Broadway director has just signed on to direct Single Wide’s world premiere at the NYMF festival in New York in July. “I’m honored to have been asked to help develop Single Wide and take it to the stage in New York,” said Whiting. “I love the piece! I think the story is going to translate well on the stage in the context of the dialogue and the music that’s been created, it’s going to make a real big splash in New York.” In addition to this privilege, Single Wide received the Blanche and Irving Laurie Musical Theatre Award from The Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival (KCACTF). This award recognizes the best new musical to be written and performed on a university campus in 2014-2015. Excerpts from the musical will be showcased at the KCACTF national festival in Washington D.C., this April. Single Wide follows a community of single women living in a trailer park in the southern United States. Katy, a single mother, living with her own single mother, is trying to get her son out of their “single wide” situation. For her, this means hard work and avoiding men, especially the type that left her there in the first place. But when her son befriends the reclusive new move-in two trailers down, she sees something different in him that makes her take a second look. “At the core of this musical is the story of an unlikely family that begins to come together. No one could have done this better than George,” said Whiting. “George has this ability to really create dialogue that sounds like people, the way they actually exist in their world. Then it’s Jordan’s score that really makes it fun. His music gives wonderful life and vibrancy to this piece. Their collaboration is what makes this project so brilliant and clever. “ “It’s thrilling that Single Wide has won these recognitions,” said Nelson. “These honors belong to our entire department and the atmosphere here that is supportive and conducive to the development of new works. I hope these awards are momentum-building.”

Congratulations to our CFAC Theatre and Media Arts Alumnus, Christian Jensen, for the Oscar nomination of his film White Earth in the Short Documentary category. Jensen was also awarded the Jury Special Mention for Cinematography in a Documentary Short for White Earth, screened at the 2014 SlamDance Film Festival. White Earth also received the Full Frame Jury Award for Best Short at the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival in Durham, North Carolina. About White Earth Thousands of desperate souls flock to America’s Northern Plains seeking work in the oil fields. White Earth is the tale of an oil boom seen through unexpected eyes. Three children and an immigrant mother brave a cruel winter and explore themes of innocence, home and the American Dream. About the filmmaker J. Christian Jensen graduated from Brigham Young University in 2009 with a degree in Media Arts Studies. Jensen began working in media as a journalist — a passion that evolved into more creative work as a documentary and hybrid filmmaker. Between 2002 and 2006, he filled a variety of production roles on several short and feature-length fiction films including Together Again for the First Time and The Flyboys. In 2006, while pursuing a degree in Media Arts Studies at Brigham Young University, Jensen was awarded an Oscarson Discovery Grant which enabled him to relocate to Washington D.C. where he interned for National Geographic Television & Film. He also worked on PBS FRONTLINE and American Experience, and with the co-production of The Mormons. Between 2006 and 2010, Jensen continued to work in non-fiction helping to create The Soul of Kalaupapa, a documentary about the remote Kalaupapa leprosy (Hansen's Disease) colony on Molokai, Hawaii. He also worked as an editor and camera person at BYU Television International and was an editor on Messiah: Behold the Lamb of God, and Storytellers, which were both produced for BYUtv by Kaleidoscope Pictures. In 2008, Jensen received funds from ORCA, The Laycock Center for Creative Collaboration in the Arts, and the Kennedy Center for International Studies, to write and direct a broadcast-length documentary called Sou da Bahia (I’m from Bahia) about art and Afro-Brazilian identity in Northeastern Brazil. He also co-curated a multiple medium art exhibit by the same name to accompany the film’s television premier throughout the U.S. and Latin America. In 2011, after a year living abroad in China, Jensen was accepted to Stanford University's MFA Program in Documentary Film & Video where he received the Carmen Christensen Fine Arts Fellowship. He also received graduate fellowships to attend The Robert Flaherty Film Seminar (2012), the Telluride Student Symposium (2013), and the annual University Film & Video Association (UFVA) Conference (2013). Within Stanford's program, he produced and directed the following documentary and experimental short films: Out of Body (2011), Between Land and Sea (2012), ALPHA & OMEGA (2012), and White Earth (2013). The films have since played at major festivals throughout the United States including Napa Valley, DOC NYC, Palm Springs ShortFest, Mill Valley, and NextFrame. ALPHA & OMEGA was also a finalist in the Student Academy Awards. White Earth was a national recipient of the Carole Fielding Student Grant and was screened at the 2014 Slamdance film festival. Jensen received his Master of Fine Arts from Stanford University in 2013. After graduating, Jensen was a finalist for the International Documentary Association, David L. Wolper's Student Documentary Award, with his film, Between Land and Sea. In 2014, Jensen was awarded the Jury Special Mention for Cinematography in a Documentary Short for White Earth, screened at the 2014 SlamDance Film Festival. White Earth also received the Full Frame Jury Award for Best Short at the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival in Durham, North Carolina. Jensen also won second place in the Student Academy Awards in 2014 in the documentary category for White Earth.

The 42nd College Television Awards will take place this Saturday, April 1 at 7 p.m. and will be livestreamed. Thirteen BYU students have received nominations for various awards. Check out this article to read more about their nominations and to see where to view.

The University Accessibility Center has helped students achieve their academic goals by providing them with the resources they need and fostering inclusion in the campus community.

Alex Boyé visited BYU to perform with two MDT students in the recent “Stories of Life'' event.