Having first “entered to learn” over 60 years ago, Brigham Young University (BYU) graduate and emeritus Professor Dr. Harold Oaks has pioneered a charge that reflects “going forth to serve.” Theatre for Young Audiences/USA (TYA/USA) has recently announced the creation of an annual award honoring significant contributions by individuals and organizations in the Theatre for Young Audiences field in the US; and BYU graduate and emeritus Professor of Theatre, Dr. Harold Oaks, has been chosen as the namesake. “It is unusual for this organization to have such an award as many were fearful of the organization becoming solely about that. It was only after lots of discussion that the board decided on it being the right thing to do,” said Dr. Oaks. “For them to choose my name to be associated with the award is truly humbling.” Karen Sharp, Executive Director of the TYA/USA board has this to say in a TYA Today article on the creation of the Harold Oaks Award: “There were several on the board who really saw the value in honoring an organization and an individual who have impacted our field. After lots and lots of discussion we settled on it being the right thing to do and on Harold Oaks being the right namesake.” Dr. Oaks has attended BYU as a student or faculty member for a total of 38 years. His love for theatre and teaching are underscored by his time as a professor and department chair in the Theatre and Media Arts (1980-1993) and as Associate Dean of the College of Fine Arts and Communications (2000-2002). He credits his time at BYU with giving him the skills necessary to excel after graduation. “I had some outstanding teachers who set an example of excellence in the field. From them, my life view was broadened so that I could better interact and respond in the real world. I also learned how secular knowledge and the gospel can be used together to strengthen testimonies and bless lives,” said Oaks. “The greatest advantage regarding a BYU education is being able to discuss the relationship of gospel knowledge with students in the classroom and in personal contact discussions.” Much of Dr. Oaks’ life’s work has been devoted to promoting the power of professional theatre for young audiences. He attributes his passion for teaching youth with an experience that he had shortly after taking over the BYU Child Drama program. “I woke up early one morning impressed to look up all the references about children in the scriptures. That was a life changing experience! The Lord loves children. One cannot read the accounts of His blessing the children without feeling that powerful love! It is a privilege and a blessing to work with and for children,” said Dr. Oaks. “I have always felt BYU should lead the world in blessing the lives of children with both drama and theatre for young audiences. I founded the BYU Young Company (formerly known as the Whittlin’ Whistlin’ Brigade) as a tool to bless lives and train students to work in the area.” Dr. Oaks hopes that the TYA/USA award bearing his name will likewise serve as a clarion call that encourages the teaching of theatre to young, eager audiences. Since its creation in 2013, the Harold Oaks Award has been awarded to Joette Pelster (2013), People’s Light & Theatre Company (2013), Scot Copeland (2014) and Metro Theatre Company (2014). The 2015 award recipients will be announced in May of this year. For more information on Dr. Oaks, click here.

In light of the April Gala Celebration, the CFAC Student Association has teamed up with the Dean's Office to hold a creativity competition, with awards for the most-liked entries on social media. The rules for the competition are as follows: ● Create an entry (can be an art piece, choreography, musical arrangement, etc. etc..) that connects the present of the College of Fine Arts and Communications and its students with their past. It must relate to the theme “From This Place Into All the World.” We want to emphasize that the HFAC has had a big global impact as they have been at BYU as students and left them as professionals. To post their submission, students need to tag their photo on their personal social media accounts (Facebook or Instagram) with the hashtag #icreateHFAC and another hashtag with their department name (ie. #Dance #Music #Comms #TMA #Art #Design). As a committee we will look over the submissions and organize them by department and decide which entries will make the final cut for voting on the college social media sites. Each department will have one winner ($300 for each department and a prize for the best interdisciplinary collaborative project, with at least two different departments involved from the college). They will win based off the number of likes they get on their entry. The final submission date will be March 15 so the CFAC-SA can judge and decide on the winners well before the HFAC 50th Anniversary Gala. For any questions, email Shelbi Anderson at sja1@byu.edu.

Graphic Design alumni Kevin Cantrell (BFA '08) and Arlo Vance (BFA '09) were featured in Communication Arts Typography Annual 5 this month for their 7 Days Series. Cantrell's craftsmanlike nature shines through in his meticulous design details. The Terra poster (above) is third in the series. The text quotes the first few verses in Genesis on the creation. The four corners of the work represent the seasons. Cantrell and Vance bring text and image together with the blossoming type face reading, ' let the earth bring forth.' In the corner representing the transition between summer and fall, the typeface begins to wilt. The 7 Days Series if printed in fourteen versions, including a laster etching on cherrywood. To see more of Cantrell's work click here. for Vance's work, click here. Visit Kevin Cantrell's HFAC 50th profile

Funded by $2 million NSF grant, BYU-Maryland team targets STEM learning for teens

PROVO – While most students at Brigham Young University were studying for final exams and readying themselves for the winter break, a team of students was busy producing comic pratfalls and double-takes.

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 BYU Jazz Legacy Dixieland Band will kick off the new year with a free concert at 9 p.m. on January 16. The concert will take place in the Madsen Recital Hall in the Harris Fine Arts Center. The BYU Jazz Legacy Dixieland Band specializes in 1920s jazz, bringing swinging beats and complex tunes to stage.

CFAC's Laycock Center for Creative Collaboration in the Arts is the hub of a major project engaging disciplines from all over campus–trying to teach STEM subjects to the rising generation by using the same technology that normally distracts kids away from learning, and get them back into learning.

The BYU Department of Theatre and Media Arts and interdisciplinary Music Dance Theatre program will present the U.S. premiere of The Count of Monte Cristo, a new musical from Tony Award-nominated composer Frank Wildhorn and Tony Award-nominated lyricist and book writer Jack Murphy. It will be presented in the de Jong Concert Hall of the Harris Fine Arts Center and will run from Thursday, Jan. 22 to Saturday, Jan. 31, 2015.

The KCACTF Region VIII board has extended an invitation to TMA’s production of Our Town, directed by Stephanie Breinholt, to perform at the festival in February. Our Town was one of eight productions invited to the festival which will be held in St. George at Dixie State University, February 10-14 in the Cox Theatre, the only production that will be performed that evening.

PRWeek

Encompassed by the cold of winter’s night, soldiers on both sides of the line gradually peered beyond their own trenches, captivated by a violinist’s tune of “Silent Night.” One hundred years ago, a series of widespread but unofficial ceasefires along the Western Front of World War I led to what is now known as the Christmas Truce of 1914. In commemoration of this historic centennial, the work of Brigham Young University Illustration professor Robert T. Barrett has been chosen to bring to life what happened that Christmas as part of a worldwide peace initiative called the Christmas Truce and Flanders Peace Field Project. As part of the initiative, eleven of Barrett’s illustrations have been presented to the mayor and people of Messines, Belgium. “Most people think that the Christmas truce was a small, incidental event,” Barrett said. “But it actually went about two thirds up the militant line, all the way into Germany, France and Belgium. It was a massive showing of Christmas spirit, with Messines as the epicenter.” Having found motivation and meaning from his own family’s relationship with the events surrounding World War I, Barrett encapsulates the sober background of war-torn Europe with the powerful and poignant story of soldiers who laid down their weapons to exchange gifts and special holiday traditions. “If you can make the project personal to you, you will see it reach more people and it will be much more meaningful. My family’s ties to World War I did that for me on these illustrations,” Barrett said. “The thought of a German soldier standing up to play the violin when he could have been shot touched me. That kind of message reaches people.” Barrett first developed the illustrations for a children’s book, “Silent Night, Holy Night,” which includes choral additions from the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and narration from Walter Cronkite. “It’s not often that your illustrations have a second life,” he said. The illustrations have since been used for additional harmonious celebrations such as Peace Quest, an organization that seeks to mark the anniversaries of World War I with commemorations that emphasize peace. Soon the eleven original pieces will be permanently installed in the crypt of St. Nicolas Cathedral in Messines, Belgium. It was in the crypt of St. Nicolas that Adolf Hitler recovered from wounds he received at the “Bethlehem Farm,” a farmhouse that continues to stand erect in Messines. Although he was based in Messines at the time, Hitler refused to take part in the spontaneous Christmas truce because he considered it dishonorable. Don Mullan, the force behind the Christmas Truce and Flanders Peace Field Project, said about the history and hope of Messines, “We intend to make Messines the antithesis of all that Hitler represented. And, as we remember World War I, commemorate peace.” Barrett hopes this project will illustrate the truce for what it really was, an epoch of peace in a time of war, inspired by a sense of common humanity and the Christmas spirit.