Sense and Sensibility

Dawn McAndrews Director	Stacey Mancini Koloski Set Designer	Michelle Handley Costume Designer	Jim Alexander Lighting Designer
Rew Tippin Sound Designer	Katie Moshier Stage Manager

Cast

Kevin Aoussou Willoughby/ John Dashwood	Thomas Campbell Edward/ Robert/ Thomas	Meredith Casey Elinor	Paul Haley Colonel Brandon/ Thomas
Ellen Magee Fanny/ Lucy	Tessa Martin Mrs. Jennings/ Cook	Paul Menezes Sir John Middleton/ Doctor/ Servant	Kathleen Nation Mrs. Henry Dashwood/ Mrs. Ferrars
Hannah Perreault Margaret/ Charlotte Palmer	Casey Turner Marianne

From the Director

My first encounter with Sense and Sensibility was the 1995 Emma Thompson film. For whatever reason, perhaps it was the male-dominated faculty in my High School’s English Department, I was never required to read the novel in school. Then last year, TAM produced Austen’s Pride@Prejudice adapted for the stage by Daniel Elihu Kramer and I experienced both the fandom of her works and the playfulness of giving them life on the stage. And I was in for a stab at adapting another of her works myself. And so, here we have Sense and Sensibility.

When I started on the adaptation, I watched the Ang Lee directed film based on Emma Thompson’s adaptation. I thought the actors’ performances were great (especially Allan Rickman’s) but what I found most fascinating was how Thompson chose to show as well as tell Austen’s story—just as Austen does herself. Austen spends a great deal of time describing the smallest drop of rain, a yearning glance, and the inward pain of a society unable to communicate its true feelings. The parade of tea parties, empire waist dresses, and carriage rides fill the book, Thompson’s movie, as well as our play today. For a society of idle rich with nothing to do but walk in the sun surrounded by austere estates or read delightful books of romance poetry, or underscore the drudgery of their daily lives on the pianoforte—they are constantly in motion.

But behind all the grandeur, the underbelly of Austen’s novel (perhaps too close to home for Austen herself) is the negligible amount of power that women in the 18th century have over their own futures, even their own daily lives. Elinor and Marianne, who were born with every opportunity, are entirely at the whim of friends and distant relatives. Never having sure footing, the ability for anyone to just whisk you away before you can object, and of course, the feeling that someone is always watching and waiting to find you wanting.

I hope you will revel in the beauty, the romance, and the love lost and found but don’t miss the lesson in “Knowing your Own Happiness” and speaking from the heart!