Harold Oaks
From College of Fine Arts and Communications
Contents |
Overview
Harold R. Oaks loves the theatre and teaching it to his students. He specialized in Theatre for Young Audiences, presenting papers and workshops in various parts of the world. He has directed 48 college, university and community theatrical productions. He was Chair of the Theatre Department at Brigham Young University for over 12 years, and helped found the Film program. He founded the BYU [Young Company] (formerly known as the Whittlin’ Whistlin’ Brigade) and was its Artistic Director for 25 years. His students have worked in theatres and taught in schools, colleges and universities across the United States.
Education and Career
Harold Rasmus Oaks was born June 20, 1936 in Provo, Utah. He attended grade schools in Vernal, Roosevelt and North Ogden and graduated from Weber High School. He attended Brigham Young University, earning BA and MA degrees and his Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota (1964) where he was an Instructor and an assistant in the Office for Advanced Drama Research. He also taught two years each at Frostburg State University, the University of Nebraska at Kearney, Colorado State University; and for 32 years at BYU. He served as Associate Dean of the College of Fine Arts & Communications for the two years prior to assuming Emeritus status in 2002.
Oaks was a founding member of the Utah Theatre Association, Co-Chair of the Utah Alliance for Arts Education and President of the Rocky Mountain Theatre Association. He was Vice President of the American Theatre Association, Vice President of the University and College Theatre Association, President of the American Alliance for Theatre & Education, Treasurer of the National Association of Schools of Theatre and on the Board of the American College Theatre Festival and on the Education Advisory Panel of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C.. He was also elected President of the United States Center for International Association of Theatre for Children and Young People (ASSITEJ) and President of ASSITEJ International, based in Stockholm, Sweden, with centers in over 70 nations.
Awards & Honors
Oaks is a member of the College of Fellows of the American Theatre, and received the Medallion of the Children’s Theatre Foundation and the Gold Medallion of Excellence from the American College Theatre Festival. He has received both teaching and research awards from the College of Fine Arts & Communications.
Personal & Family Life
He and Virginia traveled with the Young Company in the United States and to Yugoslavia and Austria. Virginia accompanied him when he served as Tour Manager for the Young Ambassadors to Japan and China in 1986.
Oaks has held various Church positions, including Branch President, Bishop and Counselor in a Mission Presidency.
Following a long battle with cancer, Virginia passed away in 1996. The next year he married Ima Jean Peck Farley. They have served two missions together – in Puerto Rico San Juan and Philippines Manila – and have traveled extensively in the United States and in Asia, Africa, Europe, South America and Australia.
In 2008 they received yet another mission call to serve in the Germany Frankfurt Mission, helping with Church public relations.
