BWW Blog: Living in Rexburg: A Small Town and a Theatre Major

My name is Rebecca Prior, I'm a student at Brigham Young University in Idaho, and I am a Theatre Tech and Design major. The university is located in the small college town of Rexburg, Idaho which feels like the middle of nowhere (almost).

One more thing that will be important to know - BYU-I's schedule is on a 3-track system as far as semesters go. This means that we have 3 semesters during the calendar year. (Fall semester is September to December, Winter is from January to the beginning of April, and Spring is mid-April through July). Each student is assigned 2 of these tracks and those are the semesters you go to school. I am on the fall-winter track, but I will be coming back for the spring semester to get ahead on my classes.

Anyway, so as I am writing this blog I am finishing up the winter semester and preparing for the spring semester to start. Over the course of this blog, I will be taking you along with me through my life as a theatre major here at BYU-I and a student living in small-town Rexburg.

Last week and this week our Theatre and Music departments have been performing "Pirates of Penzance" as one of the two theatrical productions that they produce every semester. I was invited to attend the final dress rehearsal for the show on the 19th. My roommate (who happens to also be a Theatre major) and I went together to see the dress rehearsal which was a lot of fun and a great end to a Tuesday night.

Theatre Tip of the Day: Take dance classes

A couple of weeks ago, we had a department chair for dance come in to talk to us about the use of dance in theatre careers. To sum up what he told us: take dance classes. Theatre is including more and more dancing and choreographed movement in every show. As a tech and design major, it is important for me to have dance skills so that if I decide to go into directing, I have at least a basic background. On top of it being good for your future career, it's also a good workout which can help when the stress of finals starts to hit.

On Friday night I attended a dance performance that is performed every semester by the dance department called Extravadance. This is a showcase of all of the different styles of dance and the routines they have been learning all semester. This semester, the show was dedicated to one of the buildings on campus that is getting torn down next semester. The Kirkham building was home to a beautiful theatre where the dance department performed most of their shows as well as has many art studios. The show was an amazing display of talent as well as a beautiful send off to the building.

Another fun fact about me, I like performing and teching shows. I've been performing since I was young, and only recently have I started doing the technical side. Even though I am a tech and design major, I still have the desire to perform in a show every once and a while. On Thursday this coming week, I will be auditioning for a community production of Beauty and the Beast. I have never auditioned for this particular company before and I've never seen any of their previous productions, so I'm kind of going in blind. I am, however, very excited to be auditioning for a musical. The last musical I performed in was a high school production of "Footloose" about a year ago so I'm excited to finally be getting back on the stage. Wish me luck on the upcoming audition and I will keep you updated as that production progresses. I will continue my journey next week and hope you come back for more.