Posts Tagged Jane Austen

MN Monthly Interview with China Brickey

“I’m noticing the deeper I go into my career, everything I do as an actor, in this body, is a statement because I’m not someone you see normally in that role. It’s a big responsibility, and I definitely don’t take it lightly.” – China Brickey
China Brickey, the warm and witty actor playing Elizabeth Bennet in Park Square’s current production of Pride and Prejudice, sat down with Minnesota Monthly Magazine’s Lianna Matt McLernon to dish about her love of Jane Austen, her hilarious cast-mates, and what it means to her to play the inimitable Elizabeth Bennet.

Read the full interview

Picture of Elizabeth Bennet, played by China Brickey, holding hands with Mr Darcy, played by Paul Rutledge. Mr Darcy is on one knee as though proposing marriage.

China Brickey as Elizabeth Bennet. Paul Rutledge as Mr. Darcy. Photo by Dan Norman.

NOT ONLY ENTERTAINING BUT TIMELESS AND FEMINIST

A Pride and Prejudice Director’s Note from Lisa Channer

I’m not sure how I avoided her for so long but until Park Square artistic director Flordelino sent me Kate Hamill’s adaptation of Pride and Prejudice, I had never cracked a Jane Austen book. Ever. Not even Pride and Prejudice. I did not know what I was missing all those years! Her portrayals of family dynamics, gender, marriage and class through witty recognizable characters makes her not only entertaining but timeless and feminist.

That this play is funny is undeniable, but it is the desperate stakes of their world that roots all the humor and sets the context in which these characters play out their decisions. With no brothers to inherit the family home the Bennet women face the prospect of poverty, homelessness and desperation if they can’t “win” husbands. But also, for a woman in Regency era England, marriage meant “civil death” in which she ceases to be a separate human being with individual autonomous rights. Tough choice. Poverty or Erasure? And lest we congratulate our modern world too quickly, as recently as 1972 my own mother was unable to apply for a bank account in her own name without a husband’s signature and we still do not have an Equal Rights Amendment. And so Jane Austen remains current.

As I laugh at these brilliant characters in the hands of these talented actors, I am reminded of the great 17th century French playwright Molière. Like Molière, Austen is a genius of comedic social commentary, pointing out preposterous
social rules with a pen as sharp as a knife.

-Lisa Channer, director of Pride and Prejudice

Tickets and Information

 

PARK SQUARE’S FIRST TAKE ON JANE AUSTEN IS A FROLICSOME GAME OF GENDER POLITICS

BUT TRUE LOVE DOES WIN IN THE END

Neal Beckman, Sara Richardson, China Brickey and Kiara Jackson in Pride and Prejudice. Photo by Richard Fleischman.

Park Square Theatre rings in the winter holidays with its first ever production of a Jane Austen novel with the regional premiere of PRIDE AND PREJUDICE (Nov 15 – Dec 22, 2019) adapted from the classic by Kate Hamill (SENSE AND SENSIBILITY, LITTLE WOMEN) and directed by Lisa Channer in her Park Square debut. This clever comedy offers a decidedly progressive take on the trials of Lizzy, Mr. Darcy, and the whole Bennet clan, with a few dance breaks thrown in for good measure.

“I love it because of the emphasis on the actor and the emphasis on theatricality,” says Park Square Theatre Artistic Director, Flordelino Lagundino. “Many of the actors play multiple roles and there is a sense of joy and abandon. Like the original Austen, it also gets to the depths of what it means to really fight for love and family.”

Many consider Austen to be one of the early feminist writers. To fully mine the gender politics of Austen’s most famous story, Hamill has constructed the role doubling in such a way that some characters have to be played by an actor of the opposite gender. Neal Beckman, for example, plays both Mr. Bingley and Bennet sister Mary, while McKenna Kelly-Eiding, who delighted audiences as Sherlock Holmes in KEN LUDWIG’S BASKERVILLE, plays the bumbling Mr. Collins and the dastardly Wickham.

Hamill also plays on the idea of the “perfect match,” by constructing the action like a game and or military strategy. “As I was writing, I started thinking about when you meet someone and you fall in love or something happens that changes your life beyond your control, and I wanted a way to make that more tangible. So, I thought bells are things you can’t ignore—church bells, wedding bells, alarm bells, door bells—they let us know something has changed, and I wanted to incorporate those in the script. So, every time something happens beyond the character’s control, something happens with a bell.”

Channer sets this decidedly frolicsome world as a play within a play. The entire proscenium stage will be open to the back wall with no side curtains, allowing the audience to see the actors preparing “offstage” for their next time in the “ring” which serves as the playing space.

The cast includes Sara Richardson* (Jane, Miss De Bourgh), China Brickey* (Lizzy), Kiara Jackson* (Lydia), Paul Rutledge (Mr. Darcy), McKenna Kelly-Eiding (Mr. Collins, Wickham), Neal Beckman (Mr. Bingley, Mary), Alex Galick* (Charlotte, Mr. Bennet), George Keller* (Mrs. Bennet).

The Production team includes:  Ruth Coughlin Lencowski (Vocal Coach), Annie Katsura Rollins (Scenic Designer), Sonya Berlovitz (Costume Design), Dan Dukich (Sound Designer), Karin Olsen (Lighting Designer), Josephine Everett (Properties Designer), Scott Stafford (Choreographer) Tim Komatsu (Park Square Theatre Dramaturgy Fellow), Rachael Rhoades (Advance Stage Manager), Megan Fae Dougherty (Production Stage Manager) Jaya Robillard (Assistant Stage Manager), Rane Oganowski (Wardrobe) Charlotte Deranek (Sound Board Operator)  *Member, Actors Equity Association

Ticket prices: Previews: $27-$37. Regular Run: $40-$60. Discounts are available for students, seniors, military personnel, those under age 30, and groups. Tickets are on sale at the Park Square Ticket Office, 20 W. Seventh Place, or by phone: 651.291.7005, (Noon to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Friday), or online at parksquaretheatre.org.   #PSTAusten   SEASON TICKETS are on sale now.  Subscription package prices begin at $66.

CALENDAR INFORMATION

Previews: Nov 15 – 21, 2019

Opening Night: Nov 22, 2019

Regular Run: Nov 22 – Dec 22, 2019

Tickets: Previews: $20-$37; Regular Run: $25-$65

PARK SQUARE THEATRE, 20 W. Seventh Place, Saint Paul

Ticket office: 651.291.7005 or parksquaretheatre.org

 

Tickets

The box office is currently closed. Please email tickets@parksquaretheatre.org with any questions.

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