An Actor's Perspective

by Abram Yarbro, dramaturg

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Betty Davis said, "Without wonder and insight, acting is just a trade. With it, it becomes creation." We are fortunate to have a very talented cast for Microburst Theatre Festival. Usually an actor plays one role in a show but in Microburst, each actor plays multiple roles which requires them to quickly jump from one character to another. These actors have worked hard to discover the "wonder and insight" in each play. This week we asked two of the actors, Emily and Cooper, to share their thoughts on the show and the production process.

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Emily Lyons plays Jade in Playing Around, Stephanie in A Death in the Family, Maggie in D&D and the Big Date, and Jane in Goodnight, Graham.

“My experience with Microburst so far can be summed up in two words: fun and scary. This play has been fun from the very first callback. Playing original roles has allowed me to put so much of myself into every character. Even though I’m playing four different women, they are essentially four different versions of myself. It has been so fun to experience the development of the plays and to work with such a small cast. As an actor, this show has made my work feel important.

So that’s the fun part. The scary part is sitting across from the inventors of the characters I am playing as I experiment with their creations. These plays are the writers’ babies, and I am the brace-faced babysitter nervously bouncing their offspring on my knee, trying to keep it from crying.

Putting this work in front of an audience will be equally scary. With a well-known show, the work already has a history of being entertaining as long as the performance is solid. With this new work, we have no idea how an audience is going to react. The cast is small and the set is minimal, which means the quality of the performance essentially rests on the shoulders of we actors. Microburst is for workshopping and showcasing these playwrights, so if I don’t do my job, I am doing everyone an injustice. No pressure!!!

Acting in general is both fun and scary. A good performance requires a level of vulnerability from an actor that can be intimidating to provide, but if achieved gives such a feeling of satisfaction. I’m excited for all the fun and scariness ahead as audiences finally get to see all the work we’ve put into this show! Come and see it!!!!”

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Cooper Sutton plays Jase in Playing Around, Hunter in A Death in the Family, Jeff in Memory Jar, and Graham in Goodnight, Graham.

“When we first began meeting for Microburst, we started out doing table readings. We would all come together, the playwright, the director, the stage manager, the dramaturgs, and us actors, to discuss the plays. We were able to build off of each others’ ideas, and adjust and improve each night. One of my favorite parts of our rehearsals was to come in each night and receive a new script. On Tuesday my character, Jase, would leave the scene and his girlfriend, Jade, would have a scene with her father. On Wednesday, Jase got to stick around and a whole new scene with Jade developed. It was a work in progress, and we progressively saw things improving. Soon we had the plays on their feet, and as we blocked and added all the various action to them, the playwrights were there working and adjusting the scripts. As our wonderful director, George Nelson said, ‘This is about the playwrights’, and it has been an exciting journey working together to bring these plays to life.”

Microburst Theatre Festival opens Thursday, March 5 and runs through Saturday, March 14. Tickets are available at arts.byu.edu.

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[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="376"] Margaret Roper[/caption] Margaret More Roper: Scholar and Daughter by Adam White, dramaturg Thomas More was a family man; he was married twice and had four children with his first wife, Jane Colt. After being married for six years, Jane Colt More died, leaving More with four children: Margaret, Elizabeth, Cecily and John. However, More quickly remarried to the widow Dame Alice Middleton, marrying her within a month of his wife’s death. While many of his friends resisted the rapid nature of the arrangement, More went through with it. Thomas and Alice More would raise the four children Thomas More had with Jane, as well as Alice’s daughter from her previous marriage and a foster daughter. Certainly, More valued his family and the welfare of his children. More also valued the power of education. He insisted that his daughters be educated through rigorous schooling, and this was unusual in 16th-century England, as society at large believed women unfit for scholarly pursuits. Despite cultural and institutional norms, Margaret More, the eldest of the More children (and More’s favorite, some would argue), would grow to become one of the most educated people in all of England, a woman of great scholarly knowledge. Margaret More Roper was tutored at home and became well-known for her studies, particularly for her adeptness in Greek and Latin. Her skill in writing and speaking Latin would impress the clergy of England. This specialty is reflected in a scene in Bolt’s A Man for All Seasons where Margaret and King Henry VIII engage in a bit of Latin language sparring. She would also become the first woman who was not of royal birth to publish a translated book. In October 1524, Roper published an English translation of a book called ‘Precatio dominica’ written by Thomas More’s good friend Erasmus. This book was based on the Lord’s Prayer. Instead of translating the book directly from Latin to English, Roper would use her extensive knowledge of both languages to construct the themes and the meanings Erasmus had written in to the treatise with her own words. [caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="291"] Erasmus, Dutch humanist and good friend to Thomas More[/caption] It was Margaret who would visit the imprisoned Thomas More the most often. They were very close, writing letters to one another regularly the duration of their relationship. It was in a letter to Margaret that Thomas More confided, “I do nobody harm, I say none harm, I thinke none harm, but wish everybody good. And if this be not enough to keep a man alive, in good faith I long not to live.” We have good reason to believe that Margaret More Roper very well understood what would be her father’s fate. After Thomas More’s execution, Margaret More Roper and her husband William Roper would continue to carry on his legacy in their own ways. William Roper would write the first biography of Thomas More, a glowing and gracious document that would influence our understanding of More’s personality for hundreds of years to come. Margaret More Roper actually kept her father’s head after his beheading, pickling it to preserve it from decay. While many of us may find that historical tidbit a tad macabre, I would like to believe that Margaret More Roper had deep admiration for her father; perhaps it was out of this feeling she kept his head. Please stay tuned to the 4th Wall Dramaturgy Blog to catch clips of my interview with Mallory Gee, the actress who will portray Margaret More Roper in BYU’s A Man for All Seasons. Bibliography: Abernathy, Susan. "Margaret Roper, Daughter of Sir Thomas More." Early Modern England. N.p., n.d. Web. 04 Feb. 2014. Duerden, Richard. "A Man for All Seasons." Telephone interview. 31 Jan. 2014. "Margaret Roper." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 28 Sept. 2013. Web. 02 Oct. 2013. "Sir Thomas More Quotes and Quotations." Sir Thomas More Quotes and Quotations. Luminarium. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Nov. 2013.

An Actor's Perspective

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