Noted Latter-day Saint playwright and LGBT ally Eric Samuelsen dies

Playwright Eric Samuelsen, who ran Brigham Young University’s playwriting program for a dozen years, died Friday at age 63. A noted playwright and three-time winner of the Association for Mormon Letters drama award, he saw more than two dozen of his plays produced across the United States.Samuelsen, who graduated from BYU in 1983, returned as a member of the faculty in 1992. From 1999 to 2011, he headed up the university’s playwriting program. Diagnosed with polymyositis — a ra