BYU‑I student’s play premiers on campus
The play The Fact of Twilight, written and directed by Steven Holiday, a senior from Centerville, Utah, was performed Jan. 18-20 in the Kirkham Actor’s Studio.
The play began with Gwyneth, a 30-year-old woman, living in New York with her gay roommate, Oliver. Their lives seemed normal; they go to work, they make lunch, they have conversations.
Playing a gay role was an eye opening experience,
said Jeff Pringle, a freshman from Houston, Tex, who played Oliver. I didn’t know what to expect or how the audience would react to it, but it stretched me.
Gwyneth’s life is interrupted by Dave’s visit, a friend that had died 12 years earlier. She thinks Dave is haunting her, but he is really trying to help her. Dave leaves and comes back eight years later, then 16 years later, then 32 years later. All the while Gwyneth continues to grow older.
This play has been a challenge, but once it all came together it was really rewarding and it reaffirmed that everything was worth it,
said Tricia Packer, a freshman from Kirtland, Ohio who played Gwyneth aged 30-42.
Through conversation with Dave and certain experiences, Gwyneth realizes that she is dead. The life that she continued living was a waiting period. Dave was sent to be her guardian, to help her remember and understand things about her life and to help her reach heaven.
The idea of the afterlife has always been fascinating to me, and really we know so little about it,
said Holiday. Is it going to be different from the life we live now, and do we have to figure things out? That is why I wrote this play.
There were moments of humor, sadness and hope in the play. It focuses on the fact that people can change and receive redemption.
One of the greatest things about this play is the ray of hope that Steven gives people. The themes are hope and redemption, and that is something we all need,
said Elizabeth Bossard, professor in the Communication Department, who played Gwyneth aged 90.
Holiday said writing this play was a cathartic journey for him, and he is proud that he was able to premier it here at BYU-Idaho.
After seeing this play I hope people think about how quick we are to judge each other,
Holiday said. I want them to realize that we need people, and we shouldn’t write people off merely because they are different. If anything, I want them to have a new hope.
