Melissa Leilani Larson: Getting to Know the Playwright, Part I

By Anne Flinders, dramaturg

Melissa Leilani Larson is the playwright of BYU’s 2014 production of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. I had the opportunity to ask Mel a few questions about herself. I want to share a little of what I learned about her with you. [The following is Part I of a two-part interview.]

Tell me a little about yourself. Where are you from? What brought you to Utah?

I was born and raised on the North Shore of O’ahu in Hawai’i. My family moved to Utah just before my thirteenth birthday. My parents live in Provo; my sister and her husband just built a new house in Draper. I also have two aunts and several cousins who are in Provo. I went to high school in Orem and then did my BA in English at BYU. I started studying theatre in the MA program, but ultimately earned my MFA from the Iowa Playwrights Workshop.

How did you get back to Provo and BYU at this time?

After three years in the Midwest I came back to Provo to work and teach. For the past few years I have taught theatre courses at BYU and UVU. My current day job is as a content specialist/writer for a tech support company; I do theatre and film craziness for fun nights and weekends.

Why Pride and Prejudice?

I’ll be honest: I didn’t want to touch Pride and Prejudice with a 10-foot pole. I found it incredibly intimidating. Yes, I adapted Persuasion, but that had been a personal challenge: Persuasion is my personal favorite of Austen’s canon, and at that point I had not done an adaptation, so doing it was very different than anything I had done before; it is also lesser known. Persuasion has enjoyed several successful productions, including one at BYU, and there is one coming up in Minnesota in April. As a result of that success, BYU commissioned me to adapt Pride and Prejudice.

How did you feel about taking on that project?

Naturally I was terrified. Pride and Prejudice is by far the most popular of Austen’s novels. It has been adapted the most, for stage and film. As a struggling playwright, what could I possibly bring to the table? It’s no exaggeration to describe the book and its many dramatic iterations as beloved. It’s arguably the most popular novel ever written in English. Egad! How’s that for pressure? On top of all that, Austen fans are not terribly forgiving. They love the characters, they love the stories. What happens if I “get it wrong”? Can my fragile ego take it if the Jane-ites don’t like my spin on the story?

[Interviewer’s note: “Jane-ites” are the Jane Austen super-fans. They are notorious for their meticulous admiration of Austen’s novels.]

That being said, some of the greatest things I’ve done as a writer have come out of projects that were, well, terrifying. Stories I’ve had to confront and wrestle and overcome. Yes, I was intimidated by the project. But if I didn’t do it—well, someone else would, and I would regret letting Jane get the best of me. I would have been disappointed in myself for giving up—and why? Because everyone loves this book? Well, so do I. Who’s to say I can’t put it on stage? Now, just about two years since beginning the process, I can say with confidence I’m pleased with what I’ve done, and I think the Jane-ites may be, too.

Why is now the “time” to do Pride and Prejudice?

Pride and Prejudice is good for us now because it’s always good. Austen’s novels are so specific in their time and place that they have become timeless. They are character-driven, realistic, and relatable. Yes, Elizabeth and Darcy eventually finding each other is beautiful because of the language Austen employs to tell it; but also because it’s full of truth. They stumble, they judge, they make mistakes, and ultimately they learn. Lizzy and Darcy speak and act honestly, and never out of step with who they are as people. Miss Austen rocks at follow-through.

[Be sure to check back for the second part of the interview with Melissa Leilani Larson. We’ll learn about what goes into writing a new play, about the process by which this new adaptation of Pride and Prejudice came from the pen of the playwright.]

Melissa Leilani Larson is an award-winning writer whose work has been produced all over the country. Awards and honors include KC/ACTF Meritorious Achievement, Trustus Playwrights Festival Finalist, Lewis National Women’s Playwriting award, Mayhew Playwriting award, LDS Film Festival Feature Writing award, and the Association for Mormon Letters Drama Award. Pride and Prejudice is her fifth BYU production after Lady in Waiting, John Gay’s The Beggar’s Opera, Martyrs’ Crossing (produced under the title Angels Unaware), and Persuasion. Mel holds a BA in English from BYU and an MFA from the Iowa Playwrights Workshop. She is a proud member of the Dramatists Guild of America.

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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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Melissa Leilani Larson: Getting to Know the Playwright, Part I

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