The recent Utah Theatre Association Conference held at UVU gave BYU students and faculty the chance to come together for a weekend of workshops, networking, and motivation.
Carrie Lopez took a group of Theatre Education students to attend the conference from January 12-14. Also in attendance were high school students and other universities all throughout Utah.
The conference included workshops led by BYU students, nightly theatre productions, prospective student booths for various universities, a Broadway keynote speaker, showcases of short student-written plays, and auditions.
BYU Theatre Education students were given the chance to teach workshops to high school students, enjoying being able to teach theatre while receiving insight into which ages of students they want to teach in the future. They also had the opportunity to be representatives at BYU’s booth for prospective students, sharing their experiences and answering questions.
The conference participants attended local high school theatre productions each night, enjoying Les Miserables at Timpview High School and Legally Blonde at Pleasant Grove High School. It was a special moment for the BYU group to be able to meet and talk with the director of Les Miserables at Timpview, who was a former BYU Theatre Education student. They shared insights about the show and learned more about his experience teaching high school theatre.
Carrie Lopez explained that the conference was a good opportunity for her to get to know the students better, as well as for the students to bond with their peers. She shares that the students also valued the experience of meeting educators from other schools, and they came away feeling inspired and more excited to teach. Overall, the students felt a big support system and spirit of cooperation among theatre educators. One student said that she wished she had attended in prior years and encouraged others to take advantage of the opportunity to attend in the future.
Carrie and her students came away from the conference feeling motivated and empowered to do good in theatre education.