BYU'S PRIDE and PREJUDICE goes #BYUPandP

By Anne Flinders, dramaturg The cast of BYU’s Pride and Prejudice has been in rehearsals for over a month, working together four nights a week and Saturdays. With that much time together, friendships are developing on social media as well as on the rehearsal floor. Here is a sampling of Facebook posts from the cast, staff and fans. [Names in bold are the names of the people who made the posts.] Laurie Koralewski Payne: Tra-la!! Marvin Payne will be playing Mr. Bennett in the fabulous Melissa Leilani Larson’s adaptation of Pride and Prejudice directed by the also fabulous Barta Lee Heiner at BYU this season! What could possibly be more awesome than that? Misty Flinders: I started rehearsals today! I'm playing Lady Catherine de Bourgh's dog Pippa in BYU's PRIDE AND PREJUDICE. Melissa Leilani Larson: It's Pippa Wentworth. For the record. Misty: Pippa Wentworth Fitzwilliam de Bourgh. ;) [caption id="attachment_2319" align="aligncenter" width="225"]

Misty Flinders (Pippa Wentworth Fitzwilliam de Bourgh) and Hillary Andrus Straga (Lady Catherine de Bourgh)[/caption] Hillary Andrus Straga: I amused myself on the drive home by reciting my Lady Catherine lines in my best Jennifer Tilly impersonation. I was "charmed, charmed, charmed." Melissa Leilani Larson: Meet the Bennets. [caption id="attachment_2320" align="aligncenter" width="640"]

Back row: Aubrey Reynolds (Jane Bennet), Laura Wardle (Mrs. Bennet), Marvin Payne (Mr. Bennet), Karli Hall (Elizabeth Bennet). Front row: Pearl Corry (Mary Bennet), Lindsay Clark (Lydia Bennet), Cosette Hatch (Kitty Bennet)[/caption] Lindsay Clark: "Humidity is a refreshing trait in a gentleman." #misreadlines Melissa Leilani Larson: Laughter in this rehearsal room always seems to melt into coughing. New title: BYU presents PRIDE AND THE PLAGUE. Many cast members shared a version of this post: In the rehearsal room: a chalkboard character map of Pride and Prejudice:

A picture of the playwright’s “Command Center” as Melissa Leilani Larson revises during rehearsal...

Melissa Leilani Larson: If Lydia Bennet were here today, I would admire two things about her: 1) her tenacity and 2) her Pinterest page. Lindsay Clark: She'd have a board devoted entirely to bonnets. Becky Maskell: When you show up to rehearsal in coordinating colors it only means one thing...family portrait! [caption id="attachment_2325" align="aligncenter" width="403"]

Becky Maskell (Anne de Bourgh), Ted Bushman (Mr. Darcy) and Hillary Straga (Lady Catherine de Bourgh).[/caption] Melissa Leilani Larson: The regiment is leaving for Brighton. Sad day. [caption id="attachment_2324" align="aligncenter" width="526"]

Lindsay Clark (Lydia Bennet) and Cosette Hatch (Kitty Bennet)[/caption] Ted Bushman: Purple was the order of the day for the cast of Pride and Prejudice. That's my aunt, and that girl I dig, and her sister. [caption id="attachment_2326" align="aligncenter" width="526"]

Hillary Andrus Straga (Lady Catherine de Bourgh), Aubrey Reynolds (Jane Bennet), Karli Hall (Elizabeth Bennet) and Ted Bushman (Mr. Darcy).[/caption] Becky Maskell: I'm scheduled for another costume fitting next week! Real silk...custom made dress...just for me! This is so exciting guys!!!!!!!!!! Hillary Andrus Straga: Hey, Ted! Where's that purple picture? Ted Bushman: Look up. Hillary Andrus Straga: Lizzy and Jane [far left] cuttin' a rug. [caption id="attachment_2327" align="aligncenter" width="403"]

Karli Hall (Elizabeth Bennet) and Aubrey Reynolds (Jane Bennet)[/caption] And Pearl Corry made a Lapse-It video: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=1397855047142036 Lindsay Clark: Getting ready to run through Act 2 of Pride and Prejudice tonight. Have we really almost blocked the whole show? #timetostartmemorizing Cast members are posting on media sites like Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. You can follow them at #BYUPandP.

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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.

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BYU'S PRIDE and PREJUDICE goes #BYUPandP

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