Author Archives: Mahonri Stewart

About Mahonri Stewart

Mahonri Stewart is a national award winning playwright and screenwriter who resides in Arizona with his wife Anne and their two children. Mahonri is currently attending graduate school in ASU's Dramatic Writing program. Mahonri has had over a dozen of his plays produced by theatre venues and organizations such as Utah Valley University, Zion Theatre Company, BYU Experimental Theatre Company, Art City Playhouse, the Little Brown Theatre, Arizona State University's Binary Theatre, and the Off Broadway Theatre in Salt Lake City. Mahonri also loves superheroes, literature, film, board games, lasagna (with cottage cheese, not ricotta!), and considers himself an amateur Church Historian. He is also a tireless advocate for Mormon Drama.

Literary Darwinism: Melissa Leilani Larson and Adapting Characters Into a Dramatic Medium

Posted on April 16, 2013 by Mahonri Stewart

Melissa Leilani Larson is a literature fiend. Before she was roped into the world of theatre by taking playwriting courses from Elizabeth Hansen and Eric Samuelsen,[1] she was firmly entrenched in BYU’s English department. Before the playwriting bug bit her, … Continue reading →

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“Upon the Stage of a Theatre”: Reflecting on Mormon Drama at the Advent of the Saints on Stage Anthology

Posted on March 12, 2013 by Mahonri Stewart

Christopher Bigelow (publisher), Ben Crowder (layout), and I (chief editor) have been pounding out the last minor details of the upcoming Saints on Stage: An Anthology of Mormon Drama being put out by Zarahemla Books. Considering that I pitched this … Continue reading →

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Terryl Givens: The Mormon C.S. Lewis

Posted on February 12, 2013 by Mahonri Stewart

Having just finished Teryl and Fiona Givens’ masterful The God Who Weeps last night, I’m still digesting the impact the slim but powerfully wrought volume is having on my thought, inner life, and worldview. In conjunction with other work I … Continue reading →

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The Retreat of Cynicism

Posted on January 15, 2013 by Mahonri Stewart

Perhaps it’s a fluke. Perhaps it’s a perfect storm. But I was very interested to see so many of the most popular films this year (and many of them Oscar contenders!)  to be so earnest, so lacking in snark, so… … Continue reading →

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Needful Opposition: Addressing Conflict and Controversy in Mormon History Plays

Posted on December 18, 2012 by Mahonri Stewart

How to present Mormon History has often been a sensitive thing within the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Especially with the understandable impulse to protect the faith and culture of an entire people, it can be tempting to … Continue reading →

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Old Problems, New Opportunities: Looking Towards the Future of Mormon Drama

Posted on November 20, 2012 by Mahonri Stewart

We recently completed the last leg work for the editing of Saints on Stage: An Anthology for Mormon Drama, which I’ve been spearheading for Zarahemla Books. It includes important plays from some of Mormonism’s best playwrights… Robert Elliott, Thomas Rogers, … Continue reading →

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Zion Theatre Company: The Agony, the Ecstasy and the Spirituality in Trying to Push Forward a Religious Theatre Company

Posted on October 16, 2012 by Mahonri Stewart

A little less than two years ago I created Zion Theatre Company. The venture was born out of necessity, as the theatre group I was collaborating with previous to that suddenly dropped a re-mount of my play Farewell to Eden, … Continue reading →

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The Divine Feminine, Mormon Style: Carol Lynn Pearson’s _Mother Wove the Morning_, Joanna Brooks, and Faithful Mormon Feminism

Posted on September 17, 2012 by Mahonri Stewart

Feminist. It’s a divisive word among Mormons. When I’ve told people that I consider myself a Mormon feminist it gets a wide range of reactions, from pleasant surprise from my more secular friends and peers who have a firm idea … Continue reading →

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Writing the Hard History

Posted on August 21, 2012 by Mahonri Stewart

I have posted this elsewhere in the past, but with the publication of The Fading Flower by Zarahemla Books recently, and that play being more readily available now, I wanted to drag this post back into the light: I have … Continue reading →

Posted in On-stage, The Past through Literature, The Writer's Desk | 10 Comments

Film Review: _Unicorn City_ is Quick, Quirky and Quite Good

Posted on July 17, 2012 by Mahonri Stewart

Unicorn City Trailer Unicorn City has played the independent film festival circuit over the last year and had a limited theatrical release in Utah. It has won some honors as it has traveled the circuit, including a couple of Best … Continue reading →

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