“Mawwiage! Mawwiage is what bwings us togeder today!” The familiar quote from the 1987 film “The Princess Bride” opened the Broadway Cabaret on Jan. 16 and 17, presented by the Department of Music and Theatre Arts and Michael Belnap. The Cabaret show followed a fictional Relief Society and Priesthood group throughout a week as their members’ romances escalated to engagements and friend zone escapes. One young man decides to serve a mission after kissing the Relief Society president. This young man was played by Chris Cornelison, a sophomore from Punalu’u studying English education. A lot of practices and rehearsals went into the preparation of the Cabaret, especially during the first week of school. “The week before the show, we met every day from 5 to 9 p.m. That was probably the biggest challenge because it was such a huge chunk of time and it was a bit tough juggling all of the stuff that needs to be done during the first week of school,” Cornelison said. It was especially strenuous on their voices, he said. Another actor who said she faced challenges before opening night was Libby Templeton, a freshman from Washington majoring in history education and minoring in theatre. Templeton came back from break feeling ill. After a visit to the doctor, she was told she had an ear infection. Not only was her body feeling ill, but also the Tuesday before the show Templeton was told she was singing her part wrong as well. “That Wednesday, for two hours, I sat down and watched all these videos to try and learn this technique that people had been working on for years in three days,” Templeton said. It was a lot of rehearsing when you’re not feeling well, Templeton added. Despite all these stumbling blocks, the performance was very enjoyable, said Templeton. “I absolutely loved being able to do theatre in a spiritual setting at BYUH,” she said with a big smile. “It was really great to see everybody praying together before starting a show or before rehearsal and people talking about how they were fasting for the show. It was great just to see that I’m not the only one who cares about theatre in a spiritual setting,” Templeton added. The performance reached the crowd too, said audience member Carina Aldrich, a senior from Georgia studying political science. “I thought the actors were great—although most of them are my friends, so I’m kind of biased—and that they all did very well, especially considering the short rehearsal time they had,” she said. The cast members made lots of memories in preparation for the final performance of the Cabaret, said Cornelison. “We all got along really well, and sometimes our director, Pononui Cabrinha, had a hard time trying to wrangle us and get us to learn our choreography. But we just always had a blast and I made some really great new friends,” Cornelison added.Uploaded January 22, 2015
Writer: Kaitlin Broyles~Multimedia Journalist
