Monday 10th August 2020

Venue: Online

Monday 10 August, 2020, 7pm BST, followed by a live Zoom Q&A at 7.45pm BST

“A love of the theatre is so general, an itch for acting so strong among young people.”

Jane Austen, Mansfield Park

Join actor-writers Sarah Rose Kearns & Nandita Shenoy as they discuss the challenges and joys of adapting Jane Austen’s Persuasion and Northanger Abbey for the stage. This will be followed by a live Zoom Q&A.

Sarah Rose Kearns is a writer, performer, and lifelong Jane Austen enthusiast. She studied acting with Dan Daily, Ragnar Freidank, Austin Pendleton and many others; and she holds a BA in Creative Writing from Columbia University. Her short play Manydown, which imagines a conversation between Jane and Cassandra Austen on the evening of Harris Bigg-Wither’s proposal, has been presented at conferences and Austen-related events around the United States, whilst her stage adaptation of Persuasion will debut off Broadway in New York in the Autumn of 2021, directed by Eric Tucker for his company Bedlam. Rose was selected as the JASNA International Visitor for 2020, although her visit to Chawton has been postponed due to the pandemic. Visit her website by clicking here.

 

Nandita Shenoy is a New York-based writer-actor. Her first full-length play, Lyme Park: An Austonian Romance of an Indian Nature, was produced by the Hegira in Washington, DC in 2011. Inspired by Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey, Lyme Park follows the adventures of Kavita and her friend Violet on a tour of the English countryside as Kavita tries to find her own Mr. Darcy. Nandita won the 2014 Father Hamblin Award in Playwriting and a 2018 Mellon Creative Research Fellowship at the University of Washington School of Drama in partnership with Ma-Yi Theater Company. Most recently, her Rage Play was recently named to the Kilroys List 2020. Nandita holds a BA in English literature from Yale University. Visit her website by clicking here.

 

Tickets £5

To book your ticket, click here.

This is an online talk. Ticket holders will be emailed a link to access the talk and Q&A on Monday morning.