Emma at Steel City Shakespeare Center

In October of 2016, in their first full season, Steel City Shakespeare Center produced a brand-new adaptation of Jane Austens Pride and Prejudice, staged in the historic Heathside Cottage in Fineview with a cast of six women. It remains one of our most popular and best-attended productions in our short history. This year, in an effort to lift up womens voices and stories in classical theater, we are launching the Jane Austen Cycle with Emma, adapted by Dylan Mahaffey and directed by Jessica Schiermeister. The Jane Austen Cycle is our five-year project where we will adapt and produce the complete cycle of Austen novels. As a Shakespeare company, we feel strongly about balancing our repertoire with voices and stories that Shakespeare often ignored. Only 15% of speaking roles in the Shakespeare canon are females, and even those were written to be played by males. While Shakespeare offers incredible female roles and provides plenty of room for artists to interrogate gender norms, its important to us to bring other voices to our stage. Not only is Jane Austen one of the greatest voices in the English language, but she wrote stories about women, with characters we cherish and themes that still resonate a full two centuries after their publication. Emma tells the story of a young socialite in England who plays at becoming her town's matchmaker. When attempting to match her friend Harriet Smith with various eligible suitors, Emma starts to run into complications. Relationships are troubled by mistaken intentions, and everyone seems to love someone else. Emma realizes that even she is unsure of her own feelings, until it may be too late to act upon them. Though set long ago this tale still connects with problems that we still face to this day. Chief among them is figuring out who we are and what our place is in the world. We at Steel City Shakespeare are thrilled to continue our partnership with the Troy Hill community and to have the opportunity to perform at Provident Charter School, as we incorporate a few props, chairs, tables, and simple Regency costume pieces while we allow the words of Jane Austen to transform a former high school chapel into Jane Austens England in the 18th century.Emma is adapted by Dylan Mahaffey and directed by Jessica Schiermeister. The cast includes Julie Schaefer as Emma Woodhouse, AJ Long as Mr. Knightley, Jessica Schiermeister as Harriet Smith, Andrew Wolf as Mr. Woodhouse, Jake Borish as Mr. Elton, and Kaitlin Cliber as Frank Churchill. Performances are at Provident Charter School in Troy Hill October 4, 5, 11, and 12 at 7:00 pm and October 6 and 13 at 2:00 pm. Admission is free with a suggested donation of $15. For more information, please visit steelcityshakespeare.org.

Authors

• Jane Austen
• Paul Gordon