CORRECTION: An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated where the reading will take place. The reading will take place in the ArtsCenter in Carrboro. The article has been updated with the correct location. The Daily Tar Heel apologizes for this error.
The Triangle Playwrights began crafting "Past Imperfect," an upcoming reading at the ArtsCenter in Carrboro, by selecting historical figures whose specific and unique life stories surprised or resonated with them.
Among the group of 10 selected characters are a slave who bought her freedom and established herself as dressmaker and confidant of Mrs. Lincoln, a doctor who attempted an early form of Viagra by transplanting goat testicles and a labor organizer who had 10 children by the time she was 28 years old. The common thread linking all these people together is that some part of each of their stories took place in North Carolina.
Tasked with the challenge of representing these complex stories in one short monologue per character, seven playwrights have been working since June to bring specific scenes to life to introduce the people of North Carolina’s past to their audience.
Named by Annie Taft, playwright and President of OdysseyStage, "Past Imperfect" aims to represent these characters in the most authentic way rather than the way we might normally perceive them, Taft said.
“We tend to look back on the past and see it with rose-colored glasses," Taft said. "The truth is, life is life, and nothing is ever perfect. These people were just people like us. They were struggling to get along, a lot of them. And so I wanted to show them as they were.”
The reading paints a diverse picture of North Carolina’s past by presenting the stories of creatives and honorable change-makers alongside those who had more sinister agendas — “scoundrels,” as Taft called them — like Bob Jones, the Grand Dragon of the Ku Klux Klan in North Carolina, and John Brinkley, a doctor who was charged with malpractice suits.
“I think that hopefully these stories are entertaining and illuminating something about the state and the diversity of people,"said Keith Burridge, playwright and professor in UNC’s School of Medicine. "Most people will enjoy it, but they may feel very uncomfortable at times.”
In addition to entertaining and educating their audience about figures they may not have read about in their history textbooks, the playwrights of "Past Imperfect" aim to emphasize the cyclical nature of both the human condition and history itself.
