Is the Past Truly in the Past?

by Sydney Southwick, dramaturg

In March of 2020, BYU canceled classes in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. At first, many students felt like celebrating when a few extra days were added to their typical one-day spring break. A few days were soon extended to “two weeks to stop the spread” as classes moved completely online for the rest of the semester. Flattening the curve began to feel impossible as more and more events were canceled without a rescheduled date in sight. The conversations about the global pandemic changed. People started to realize that we were living through history; it was happening right before their eyes.

The realization that future posterity would be asking what it was like to live through the year 2020 was amplified by the increase in Black Lives Matter protests during the summer. Masked demonstrators protested in the city streets of the United States (including Provo, UT) and other parts of the world. Watching the news was met with mixed feelings of hope and fear. [caption id="attachment_7616" align="aligncenter" width="685"]

Photo by Life Matters from Pexels[/caption] [caption id="attachment_7617" align="aligncenter" width="656"]

Photo by Life Matters from Pexels[/caption] The idea of living through history is not a new feeling for Gloria Bond Clunie, playwright and director of BYU’s North Star.

As a small child growing up in North Carolina in the sixties, I faintly remember the ‘colored’ signs and vividly recall my mother refusing to eat in a store where blacks had to stand and whites could sit at the counter.- Gloria Bond Clunie

On February 1, 1960, four university students (Franklin McCain, Ezell Blair Jr., David Richmond, and Joseph McNeil) sat down at a segregated lunch counter and asked to be served in Greensboro, North Carolina, sparking the sit-in protests that spread across the South. This was only sixty-one years ago. [caption id="attachment_7618" align="aligncenter" width="481"]

Franklin McCain, Ezell Blair Jr., David Richmond, and Joseph McNeil sitting at the segregated Woolworth’s lunch counter[/caption] Because of the many brave activists of the fifties and sixties, like these four men, much progress has been made in the area of civil rights. But if one thinks about the entire history of humankind, the Civil Rights Movement is not far in the past. Many people alive today can still remember what life was like during these events. Just how far in the past is the past? In North Star, Aurelia looks back on her past to help her deal with racism in her present life.

I can’t believe he called my daughter...It was under his breath, but she heard it. A whisper, but in the dark it echoed down the street like cold wind on a mission. And she heard it. I saw it in her eyes, and she sees in mine...It rattled something deep. Something I’d put away a long time ago. She’s waiting. What do I do? What do I say?- Aurelia, from North Star

Join Aurelia on her journey to the past during BYU’s production of North Star on March 4-6 at 7:30 PM. Photo References: Greensboro News Photo. “Civil Rights Movement Archive Freedom Movement Photo Album.” Civil Rights Movement: Photos and Images of a Peoples' Movement., web.archive.org/web/20201117182847/www.crmvet.org/images/imghome.htm.

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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.

Is the Past Truly in the Past?

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