Cast Announced for MISS BENNET: CHRISTMAS AT PEMBERLEY at Shakespeare & Company

Casting has been announced for Shakespeare & Company's holiday reading of Miss Bennet: Christmas at Pemberley, written by Lauren Gunderson and Margot Melcon, and directed by Ariel Bock.

Four performances of this imagined sequel to Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, focused largely on middle-sister Mary Bennet, will be presented Friday, Dec. 16 through Sunday, Dec. 18 at the Elayne P. Bernstein Theatre on the Shakespeare & Company campus, including evenings and matinees.

Miss Bennet: Christmas at Pemberley's cast includes:

Logan Slater (Arthur de Bourgh)

Slater is an alumnus of 2020's Month-long Intensive at Shakespeare & Company, seen most recently in his Shakespeare & Company debut as Jet in Golden Leaf Ragtime Blues, for which he earned a Berkshire Theatre Critics Association nomination for Outstanding Supporting Performance. Other recent credits include Jeff (Film: You Have a Visitor), which won Best Horror and Best Cinematography at the Los Angeles Film Awards, and Troy Boy (Home Soon), an official selection at the San Francisco Black Film Festival.

Caroline Fairweather (Mary Bennet)

Fairweather is a Pittsfield, Mass.-based actor whose credits include Parade (New York City Center); Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (Madison Lyric Stage); Boston Marriage (Theater Barn); Black Flag (Barrington Stage Company); ALIEN/NATION (Williamstown Theatre Festival), and Spring Awakening (Ghostlit Rep), among others.

Cate Alston (Elizabeth Darcy)

Alston is a New York, N.Y.-based actor and costumer, whose recent credits include Abby (Cadillac Crew, WAM Theatre; Angelo (Measure for Measure, Worcester Shakespeare Company); Titania (A Midsummer Night's Dream, University at Albany), and Esther Mills (Intimate Apparel, University at Albany), among others.

Marcus Kearns (Fitzwilliam Darcy)

This is Kearns' 11th season with Shakespeare & Company, where he has served as an education artist, actor, production designer (Fall Festival of Shakespeare), and sound designer (The Wickhams: Christmas at Pemberley). He featured in Mr. Fullerton with Great Barrington Public Theater and serves as Associate Production Manager for Barrington Stage Company.

Madeleine Rose Maggio (Jane Bingley)

Maggio is an Education Artist with Shakespeare & Company in addition to being a Company Artist, most recently seen as Don John in the 2022 production of Much Ado About Nothing. Other Shakespeare & Company credits include Cassie in The Wickhams: Christmas at Pemberley; Helena/Cobweb in A Midsummer Night's Dream, and Lady Capulet/Benvolio in the Northeast Regional Tour of Shakespeare. She's also appeared as Lavinia in The Humanist Project's production of Titus Andronicus.

Devante Owens (Charles Bingley)

Devante Owens is an Education Artist and Company Artist with Shakespeare & Company, whose recent credits include Ade, The Easiest Thing (The Tank); Conrad, Much Ado About Nothing; Burgundy, King Lear; Lucentio, The Taming of the Shrew; Dumaine, Love's Labor's Lost; Theseus, A Midsummer Night's Dream; Brian, The Wickhams: Christmas at Pemberley, among others. Owens is also a student Linklater Voice Method.

Sandra Seoane-Seri (Lydia Wickham)

Seoane-Seri is a Boston-based actor, whose recent credits include Truth or Consequences (FreshInk Theatre); BLKS (SpeakEasy Stage); She Eats Apples (Artists Theater of Boston); Pipeline (WAM Theatre/Central Square Theater), and the film Shift - a 2021 Roxbury International Film Festival selection. This will be Seoane-Seri's Shakespeare & Company debut.

Claire F. Martin (Anne De Bourgh)

Martin is an actor, director, playwright, and dramaturg, serving most recently as a director with the Fall Festival of Shakespeare and a teacher with the Riotous Youth summer youth theater program. Her directing credits include Romeo and Juliet, The School for Scandal, The Rover, R+J: The Parkland Project, King Lear, and Twelfth Night.

Stage managed by Kathleen Soltan, Miss Bennett: Christmas at Pemberley features a full set devised by Shakespeare & Company Scenic Designer Patrick Brennan as well as Regency-era costuming by Costume Director Govane Lohbauer.

This year's holiday production is presented in honor of Lohbauer and in memory of her late husband, long-time Shakespeare & Company actor, teacher, and weapons master Bob Lohbauer, who passed away in September 2022.

Performances will be held Friday, Dec. 16 at 7 p.m., Saturday, Dec. 17 at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m., and Sunday 2 p.m. Tickets are $28 for general admission and $18 for students; $5 EBT Card to Culture pricing is also available for up to four tickets per EBT Card. Mike's Place will be open one hour prior to each reading and following each show, serving a full bar, concessions, and gift-shop items. Mask-required performances will be Saturday, Dec. 17 at 2 p.m., and Sunday, Dec. 18, at 7 p.m. For the remaining performances, masking is optional, and COVID-19 vaccination and boosters are encouraged.

About Shakespeare & Company

Shakespeare & Company was founded in 1978 by Tina Packer and a group of founding theater professionals. Located in the Berkshires of Massachusetts, the Company offers performance, education, and actor-training opportunities year-round, and attracts more than 40,000 patrons annually with a core of more than 150 Company Artists.

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