JANE AUSTEN RETURNS TO THE SHAKESPEARE THEATRE OF NEW JERSEY'S MAIN STAGE WITH SENSE AND SENSIBILITY

 

Why Does Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility Continue to Captivate Audiences?

Long before Bridgerton enchanted our screens, a young writer named Jane Austen was already setting hearts ablaze across England. Her timeless tales of love, societal expectations, and sisterhood continue to resonate today, and now, fans of Austen’s work have a new reason to rejoice.

What’s Happening at The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey?

The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey (STNJ) is bringing Austen’s beloved novel Sense and Sensibility to life with a stage adaptation by the acclaimed Jessica Swale. This production promises to overflow with humor, style, and the unmistakable wit of Austen herself.

CPP COMMUNITY THEATRE: AUSTEN ON STAGE IN AUSTRALIA

 

AUSTEN ON STAGE IN AUSTRALIA

CPP Community Theatre (previously Croydon Parish Players) is a not-for-profit theatre group,  based in Bayswater, Victoria, Australia. As a not-for-profit amateur theatre group CCP encourage an appreciation and understanding of dramatic art. This year marks their 67th year performing for the public! In April they will be performing in a brilliant adaptation of Sense and Sensibility. The show premieres on Friday 14th April  and will be on until  22nd April  2023.   What about peeping behind the curtain and having a glimpse at the last rehearsals? Just click and watch the short promo video right below.

EMMA THE MUSICAL STREAMING ONLINE: SPECIAL DISCOUNT FOR MY JANE AUSTEN BOOK CLUB READERS!

I love musicals and theatrical performances. I go to the theatre as often as I can, which is not that often considered that I live in a very small town in the centre of Italy with no cinemas and no theatres. When I read or post about Austen inspired stage shows I'm really jealous of those lucky audiences who will have the chance to enjoys those performances in the UK or the US. 

AUSTEN ON STAGE - EMMA WOOD PRESENTS HER "MR BENNET'S BRIDE" + GIVEAWAY

It’s a pleasure to have a chance to connect with other Jane Austen enthusiasts. I’m an English and drama teacher as well as a playwright, actor and director. Like many people, my passion for Jane Austen grew hugely with the 1996 mini-series of Pride and Prejudice. The theatricality of the characters and the beauty of her dialogue delivered by that magnificent cast made that series one that was watched time and time again for me!

My first full length play (Water Child) was produced in Newcastle Australia in 2012. Having won an award for that play and received very enthusiastic reviews and comments from audience members, I was keen to write another. But I had no particular idea about what until one day, like a gift, an idea presented itself. Mr and Mrs Bennet. How – ? why – ? And what inspired this unlikely union? I read Pride and Prejudice again eagerly with those characters in focus, and noted that very little context is provided for their past.

Chapter 42 opens with reflections on their courtship and marriage:

‘HAD Elizabeth's opinion been all drawn from her own family, she could not have formed a very pleasing picture of conjugal felicity or domestic comfort. Her father, captivated by youth and beauty, and that appearance of good humour which youth and beauty generally give, had married a woman whose weak understanding and illiberal mind had, very early in their marriage, put an end to all real affection for her. Respect, esteem, and confidence had vanished for ever; and all his views of domestic happiness were overthrown.’

AUSTEN ON STAGE: PRIDE AND PREJUDICE WITH 2 ACTORS - INTERVIEW WITH TWO BIT CLASSICS' S JOHANNA TINCEY

Hello Johanna and welcome at My Jane Austen Book Club! First of all congratulations on your excellent work  in this extraordinary adaptation of Pride and Prejudice.  While reading about your show, “Pride and Prejudice with Two Actors”,  I got really curious. How’s that possible? Two actors, twenty-one characters? Does that mean Nick, the other half of Two Bit Classics,   plays both Darcy and Mr Collins, and Wickham and Mr Bennet as well? And you play all the five Bennet sisters, Mrs Bennet, Lady De Bourgh, Charlotte Lucas? That’s amazing. That must be a real enterprise! 

Between us, Nick and I bring 21 characters to life, but Nick doesn't play all the men and I don't play all the women. There are so many double-acts in the book and we wanted to stretch our acting muscles to the max and have 2 of us bring them all go life between us.  We also want to invite the audience into Austen's wonderful world by encouraging them to imagine and invent with us. Our costumes and set are wonderfully creative and adaptable and we love the challenge of our nightly Austen dance!

Why Jane Austen and not Dickens or the Brontes?

I certainly wouldn't rule out either Dickens or the Brontes in the future, but Pride and Prejudice is one of my favourite novels, it has this iconic status and all the characters are so famous it seemed like a natural starting point for a new company.

DEAD WRITERS THEATER PRESENTS MICHAEL BLOOM'S ADAPTATION OF EMMA IN CHICAGO

Most readers prefer Pride and Prejudice or Sense and Sensibility, but critics generally regard Emma as Austen's most carefully crafted or skillfully written novel. 

Austen herself acknowledged that Emma might present a problem for readers, "I am going to take a heroine whom no one but myself will much like." And much about Emma is indeed unlikable; she is snobbish, vain, manipulative, power-hungry, self-deluded, often indifferent to the feelings of others, and on at least one occasion terribly cruel. 

Does the comedy of watching Emma the Egoist get her comeuppance through a series of errors and admit she deserved her comeuppance make her likable? Although Emma knows what the right thing to do is, she still behaves badly; does this all too common human trait make her sympathetic because readers can identify with her?

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JANE AUSTEN! ANTONIA CHRISTOPHERS, ACTRESS

What would my life have been like without Jane Austen?

Ever since I was very young, one of my favourite things has been to curl up on the sofa on a Sunday afternoon with my Mum to watch a Jane Austen adaptation on the television. As soon as she thought I was old enough, my Mum bought me a beautiful collection of hand-bound novels and these still remain some of the most loved books sitting on our shelf - they were of course the complete works of Jane Austen.

It seemed only fitting, therefore, when my husband Noel and I decided to adapt a novel for the stage, that this should be an Austen. As this was to be our very first production for our brand new theatre company, we needed an author whose stories we could trust, not just for their dramatic content, but also for their brilliantly drawn characters. The wonderful Jane provided us with both of these and adapting Northanger Abbey was a complete joy.

So what would my life have been like without Jane Austen? Well, we certainly wouldn't have such a successful first production, it is an adaptation we will always be immensely proud of, mostly because we hardly had to change a word. The incomparable Jane had done it all for us!

 Antonia 

JANE AUSTEN ON STAGE – PROMISE AND PROMISCUITY

Breeches, Bonnets and Big Balls – Interview with Penny Ashton

Penny Ashton is New Zealand’s own global comedienne who has been making a splash on the world stage since 2002 and she has sold out shows from Edinburgh to Adelaide to Edmonton. She has four Best NZ  Female Comedienne nominations, three Adelaide Fringe People’s Choice nominations, a Winnipeg Best in Fringe for Hot Pink Bits and won best performance by an International Poet at the London Farrago Awards.

Penny has represented New Zealand in The World Cup of Theatresports in Germany and Australasia in a Performance Poetry Slam Tournament Tour of the UK. In 2010 she performed by invitation at The Glastonbury Festival and reported from the Miss Universe Pageant in Las Vegas. 

Hello and welcome to My Jane Austen Book Club, Penny. Can we start saying how you came to discover Jane Austen and her work, first of all?

I must confess to being forced to read Pride and Prejudice in my first year of High School and finding it pretty dull. I, like many others, had a change of heart upon watching 1995’s Pride and Prejudice but even more so because of Ang Lee’s beautiful adaptation of Sense and Sensibility.  I simply adored that film, particularly the character of Marianne. So I am afriad I am  one of “those” people who love her screen adaptations where to my mind they bring to life her best feature, which is her sparkling dialogue.

ADAPTING NORTHANGER ABBEY - GUEST POST BY NOEL BYRNE (BOX TALE SOUP)

When we first set out to adapt Northanger Abbey we didn't think too much about the potential difficulties, which was probably a good thing! Austen has so many fans around the world, and you have to respect that in your treatment of the material. It was our enjoyment of the original novel that made us want to adapt it in the first place, and I hope our fondness for Austen's writing comes across in the show. I think some people may look at the production photos and assume it's some kind of spoof, which it absolutely isn't. We use puppets help us tell the story, but they're not remotely incongruous. In fact, thanks to the wonderful way puppetry works, you quickly forget that they're puppets at all, and simply see the characters they're playing.

Fortunately there's a lot of dialogue in the book, some of which can be used verbatim, but then you have to decide how you're going to bridge the gaps and tell the rest of the story. We felt very strongly that the authorial voice was an important part of the novel and a big part of Austen's style – even today her wit feels remarkably fresh and we didn't want to lose any of that, so we ended up with a narrator character. He's quite good fun in fact, and allows a playful connection with the audience too.

AUSTEN ON STAGE: "FITZWILLIAM LOVES LIZZY" - MEET MAGGIE HERSKOWITZ, PROTAGONIST AND PLAYWRIGHT OF THE SHOW

Maggie Herskowitz came to love Jane Austen thanks to her best friend and being an actress and a playwright has now decided to make one of her dreams come true: to be Elizabeth Bennet in an adaptation of Pride and Prejudice for the stage. She'll be in a very special version that she herself wrote: Fitzwilliam loves Lizzy. Discover more about the show that is going to debut soon in New York City reading Maggie's guest post. If only I didn't live so far ... 

It all started with an apartment in Boston. I shared it with my best friend, a girl whose sister’s first name is “Jane” and whose middle name is “Austen.” No joke. This is the environment into which I was thrust by association with her family. By the time I lived with her nearly two years, I knew more about the Brontes, Emily Dickinson, and Miss Jane Austen than I would have ever thought possible . . . more than I think I ever wanted to know. But she had definitely piqued my interest and brought an author at the edges of my mind to the forefront of my awareness.

AUSTEN ON STAGE - SENSE & SENSIBILITY THE MUSICAL : INTERVIEW WITH DIRECTOR AND CHOREOGRAPHER, MARCIA MILGROM DODGE.

The Denver Center Theatre Company has assembled a stellar group of Broadway performers to bring Jane Austen's beloved romance to life in SENSE & SENSIBILITY THE MUSICAL, with book and lyrics by Jeffrey Haddow and music by Neal Hampton. It  will receive its world premiere production April 5. Many thanks to its director and choreographer, Marcia Milgrom Dodge, for accepting to answer some questions about her work, Jane Austen and Sense & Sensibility.  

-        Your  Sense & Sensibility The Musical will receive its world premiere production soon,  on April 5th.  Does it take more sense or more sensibility to bring such a beloved novel to life on stage? 

(picture courtesy of Marcia Milgrom Dodge)

-          What a great quest­­ion!  It takes sense to pull together all of the technical aspects of creating a production of this size and it takes lots of sensibility to dig into the relationships of the characters.

-           How different is Sense and Sensibility from anything you’ve worked on so far?

-          It’s the most romantic show I’ve ever worked on. 

-          You’ve assembled a stellar group of Broadway performers for this grand musical.  Can you tell us something about them ?

-          Sure.  Our sisters will be played by two exciting young leading ladies: Stephanie Rothenberg (Elinor) and Mary Michael Patterson (Marianne) who bring such beauty and vitality to these roles.  Our trio of suitors: Nick Verine (Edward), Jeremiah James (Willoughby) and Robert Petkoff (Col. Brandon) are all handsome leading men with enormous charisma and depth of feeling.  Mrs. Jennings and Sir John are played by Ruth Gorttschall and Ed Dixon, two of the livliest Broadway performers who last appeared together on Broadway in Mary Poppins.  And rounding out the company are the versatile Joanna Glushak (Mrs. Dashwood and Mrs. Ferrars), the saucy Stacie Bono (Lucy), the hilarious Liz Pearce & Andrew Kober (Fanny & John Dashwood), Daniella Dalli, Preston Dyar, Kate Fisher, Jessica Hershberg, Steven Strafford, Josh Walden and Jason Watson who play Society People, Servants, Country Gentry and (with a few surprises) everyone in between!

TALKING JANE AUSTEN WITH ... ANTONIA AND NOEL, THE BOX TALE SOUP

Antonia Christophers and Noel Byrne are the Box Tale Soup, a two-actor company on stage these days with a very special adaptation of Northanger Abbey. Welcome them to our online club and discover more about them and their work.

Welcome to My Jane Austen Book Club,  Antonia  and Noel thanks for accepting my invitation to talk Jane Austen with me.

First question is ... Where does your name come from? 

Antonia: It actually took us rather a long time to come up with a name for the company that we are happy with. We wanted the name to encompass the various things that make us unique. One of our aims is to fit all the necessary props, costume and set for out shows into our vintage trunk so we wanted to have something luggage related in the name. And then Noel ended up coming up with a pun on the traditional English Soup ‘Oxtail Soup’ thus ending up with Box Tale Soup. We spell the ‘Tale’ that way to refer to the fact that we create adaptations of classic literature.

Noel: Yeah, it was a joke at first, but then the name grew on us!

TALKING JANE AUSTEN WITH … THE CAST OF AUSTENTATIOUS: AN IMPROVISED NOVEL

Undoubtedly one of the most talked about shows on the improvised comedy circuit, Austentatious:  An Improvised Novel is an hour long comedy play spun in the inimitable style of Jane Austen and based entirely on audience suggestions. Never has Austen been more hilarious!  A seasoned cast including: Cariad Lloyd (Fosters Best Newcomer Nominee 2011), Rachel Parris (Hackney Empire Finallist 2011), Amy Cooke-Hodgson (Olivier winning La Boheme), Joseph Morpurgo (Oxford Imps), Graham Dickson (UCB) &  Andy Murray (Private Eye) present an eloquent, irreverent, 100% improvised take on the works of our beloved author.  Performed in period costume with live accompaniment, Austentatious is an immersive and hilarious treat for fans of Austen and improvised comedy alike.  Austentatious perform regularly at The Wheatsheaf, Rathbone Place (London)  but have  recently performed at the Edinburgh Fringe 2012. 

I contacted Cariad Lloyd who kindly accepted to coordinate an interview with the rest of the  cast via e-mail. This is the result of our exchange. It's time to meet the brilliant Austentatious and enjoy our chit chat about Jane Austen and their own work.  

LOVELY JANEITES - ELI MURTON, ON BECOMING JANE

Eli Murton worked at both the Leicester Haymarket and Pheonix Theatre before training at GSA. After graduating she toured with Quantum Theatre and played Mrs Nightingale in Nightingale the Musical. Eli took a break from acting in 2002 when she had her first baby. She now has 3 boys but crow bars her work around them. She is a regular actor for Lynchpin’s Scriptease events. Eli has also recently finished filming a short film for L7 productions entitled The Volunteers. For Artifice: Mrs Bellmour in The Way to Keep Him & Jane Austen in Reading Histories & Drawing Pullets.




Reading Histories and Drawing Pullets (the play by Kate Napier in which I play Jane Austen) was originally meant to be an adaptation of Sense and Sensibility to celebrate the 200^th anniversary of its publication. However, Kate, never one to opt for the easy route, began to work through Jane’s early writings and a wholly different play emerged and instead Jane takes the audience on through almost a Masterclass on writing the perfect Austen novel.  I was cast as Jane fairly early on and once in receipt of the script, and I’m being totally honest here, I was scared witless! A lot of my lines are taken directly from Jane’s letters and you begin to see that she was a far cry from the demure, bonneted spinster, popular culture would have you believe. She had a biting wit and, in some of her surviving letters to Cassandra and Anna the sarcasm and cattiness is hilarious. Despite this, I went into the early rehearsals, back straight, doing