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Theater Mania: 212-352-3101 / 866-811-4111
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Foreground left to right: Karen Eterovich, Judith Jarosz, Christopher Michael Todd
Background left to right: Chelsea Jo Pattison, Denise Alessandria Hurd, Talaura Harms
LAB Photography
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Staff |
| David Fuller | Set Design |
| Deborah Wright Houston | Costume Design |
| Hajera Dehqanzada | Lighting Design |
| Shauna Horn | Production Stage Manager |
| Aaron Diehl | Assistant Director |
| Malizsha Then | Assistant Stage Manager |
| Annalisa Loeffler | Dialect Coach |
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Cast (in speaking order) |
| Mrs. Elizabeth Heathcote | Denise Alessandria Hurd * |
| Miss Jane Austen | Karen Eterovich * |
| Miss Cassandra Austen | Judith Jarosz * |
| Miss Catherine Bigg | Christiana L. Kuczma |
| Miss Alethea Bigg | Vanessa Morosco * |
| Mr. Harris Bigg-Wither | Eyal Sherf * |
| Miss Fanny Austen | Chelsea Jo Pattison * |
| Reverend George Austen | David Arthur Bachrach * |
| Miss Martha Lloyd | Esther David* / Annalisa Loeffler + |
| Captain Francis Austen | Christopher Michael Todd * |
| Madam Anne Lefroy | Talaura Harms * |
| * Appearing courtesy of Actors' Equity Association |
| + On Dec. 9 & 13 the role of Miss Martha Lloyd will be performed by Annalisa Loeffler |
Time & Location: December 1803, Manydown Park, Hampshire, England
Running time 90 minutes, no intermission
Playwright/Director's Notes:
The Austen family had a tradition of presenting plays at the holidays in which, family and friends joined in the fun. Jane in her younger years was highly influenced by her mother who often communicated by means of little comic rhymes and her elder brothers James and Henry who were at Oxford and wrote prologues and epilogues for their plays in addition to essays and other writings which they published in a magazine. Jane as a young teenager wanted to join in the fun and began writing comic burlesques and parodies, which were meant to be read aloud to family and friends.
This play is an imagined Christmas celebration at Manydown Park the nearby estate of the Bigg-Wither family (The men of the Bigg family took the name Wither in order to inherit this property). It is set in 1803 a year after Harris Bigg-Wither's marriage proposal to Jane. Harris was heir to the estate and several years younger than Jane. She initially accepted his offer but the next morning she changed her mind and she and Cassandra left Manydown to return again to Bath. Jane and Cassandra remained close with Elizabeth, Catherine and Alethea all of their lives so it is easy to believe they carried no resentment that Jane did not choose to wed their younger brother. On November 2, 1804 Harris was married to Anne Howe Frith, ten months after our imagined holiday festivities.
Jane Austen 1775-1817 -- A delightfully complex personality, Jane Austen was born on December 16, 1775 into a large and loving family. Her father, the Reverend George Austen was Rector of the church at Steventon, in Hampshire until his retirement in 1801 at which point he moved with his wife and two daughters to Bath, a highly visited, elegant spa resort and a stark contrast to her country upbringing.
The typically enduring image of Jane Austen that has come down to us over the centuries is that of the demure spinster, quietly sipping tea in her parlor. Jane, however, was human with flaws and weakness. She said it best herself "Pictures of perfection make me sick and wicked". Queen Victoria did not, in fact, come to the throne until 1837, twenty years after Jane's death. Jane herself was born in the 18th century. The Georgian era was a far more free and robust period of history. Jane's youthful letters (her sister Cassandra burned most of Jane’s letters near the end of her own life in 1845) are filled with life and exuberance, with tales of travel, balls, friendships, shopping, literature, theatre, music and flirtations with young men. Her juvenilia comically explore themes of greed, drunkenness, thievery and murder. She loved to laugh and took great joy from daily family life. She participated in the family theatricals instigated by her older oxford educated brothers and she was always the first to join in games with her nephews and nieces. Jane's later letters bring to light a humorous, vibrant and highly intelligent woman who regularly visited her London publishers and relations. Her mature writings, reveal a shrewd gift for observation and witty, biting social satire.
This is not to say there wasn't a shift in Jane Austen's demeanor as she matured. A major disappointment came when her father removed the family to Bath. But the greater blow arrived with his death in 1805, in addition to the loss of a loving parent, Jane was reduced to the position of penniless "old maid" entirely dependant on the generosity of her relatives. Jane idealized her older sister, Cassandra as a model of propriety and lived much of her life in Cassandra's shadow. Jane struggled continuously against her own passions to match her ideal of Cassandra. As she grew older, Jane became engrossed by the idea of correcting inappropriate conduct. It is a recurring theme in all of her mature writing. Jane's awareness of her own situation, of her lack of consequence in the eyes of society would naturally have fueled her frustrations. It is said she exhibited reserve in the company of strangers. (What others perceived as detachment and aloofness, was very likely Jane subtly observing characters and events around her.) Ironically, each successive generation of the Austen family noted a certain lack of "refinement" in the previous. Jane and Cassandra concerned themselves over their mother darning stockings in front of visitors and their niece Fanny Austen Knight (Lady Knatchbull) later recollected the "coarse manners" of her aunts. This shift reflects the progression of what was socially acceptable from the Georgian to the Regency and ultimately Victorian eras in England. Jane chose to remain single rather than marry without love. Her most fervent desire was for success as a novelist, she yearned to earn her living by her pen. Sense & Sensibility (1811), Pride & Prejudice (1813), Mansfield Park (1814), and Emma (1816) were published during her lifetime. A much deserved validation of her genius and self worth. Northanger Abbey and Persuasion appeared posthumously in 1818.
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Mainstage
