Welcome to the Margetts Theatre

by Abram Yarbro, dramaturg

It's a week until opening night and last night's rehearsal was the first on set in the Margetts Arena Theatre. The designers, set shop, and builders have worked tirelessly to whip the performance space into shape and we couldn't be more excited (to see an interview with a set designer, click here).

See How They Run will be performed in the Harris Fine Arts Center on BYU campus. This year celebrates the 50^th anniversary of the HFAC; built in 1965 by architect William Periera and named after BYU's 5^th President (read the HFAC's Dedication News Release from 1965 here). It houses the College of Fine Arts and Communication's School of Music, Department of Theatre and Media Arts, and Department of Visual Arts. It has 281 rooms, 5 performance spaces, 2 galleries, and over 280,000 square feet.

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The Harris Fine Arts Center on BYU Campus[/caption] [caption id="" align="alignright" width="115"]

Philip N. Margett[/caption] Our particular production will be presented on the first floor of the Fine Arts Center in the Philip N. Margetts Arena Theatre. The Margetts Theatre is named in honor of Philip N. Margetts, an early LDS pioneer and prominent actor. He was born in 1829 in Kineton, England and moved to The Salt Lake Valley in 1850. He performed for more than fifty years in Utah and earned critical praise from the community, including Brigham Young. He died in 1914, and is remembered as a respected and influential contributor to Utah theatre. Unlike traditional proscenium theatres, the Margetts is an adaptive performance space, commonly referred to as a Black Box or Arena Theatre. It was specifically designed to give the director more flexibility in terms of where they placed the actors AND the audience. While proscenium theatres have a fixed seating arrangement, a "black box" allows the director to decide where seats are placed, and where the "stage" is located - providing her complete control over the audience-actor relationship.

Our set designer adapted the space to fit the demands of our script. Although it is usually produced on a proscenium stage, the use of a black box theatre for See How They Run gives the play tight and fun feel. With only a few feet separating the seating from the acting space, it feels like the audience has been dropped into the living room of an English vicarage. Tickets are going fast! Purchase yours here: 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.

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Welcome to the Margetts Theatre

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