Calling all Catherine Morlands (and Henry Tilneys; where are those hiding, anyway?): the Weston & Somerset Mercury reports that the Wayfarers Drama Group is holding open auditions for their upcoming production of Northanger Abbey. Call ahead or drop in at the Theatre in the Hut at 7:30 pm on either Monday, 9 July or Wednesday, 11 July. For more information, see the Wayfarers’ web site.

The Wayfarers Drama Group will perform the adaptation by Matthew Francis, which is available for purchase from Samuel French, Amazon, and other retailers. It can also be found at many university drama libraries. It’s a light, fun play and well suited to community theater. (Shameless self-promotion: the Solitary Elegance NA Adaptations page features previous cast lists, a review of the play script, and reviews of past performances.)

Rehearsals begin in early August. The play will be performed 18-20 October at the Theatre in the Hut, Weston-super-Mare, Somerset.

Alert Janeite Robyn sent us a link to the trailer for the film adaptation of The Jane Austen Book Club.

We loved the book very much and have mixed feelings about the trailer; it seems better than we expected, but there certainly are some changes.

And we confess to a bit of a *squeeee* that the “every savage can dance” scene seems to have made it! La!

The leads for the BottleTree Productions staging of Sense and Sensibility at the Grand Theatre in Kingston, Ontario, are actually a little younger than the roles they portray.

At 13 and 16, Hannah Smith and Ana Donefer-Hickie are perfect, says director Charles Robertson, for leading roles in Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility playing July 3-14 at the Wellington Street Theatre.

[. . .]

They both took aim at leading roles for Sense and Sensibility, but, didn’t initially get what they wanted. Ana went for the part of Marianne while Hannah wanted to play the older sister, Elinor.

The reverse occured. “I think I’ve made the right choice,” said the director.

Elinor can be a dull part, being so reigned-in, he says, but not in Ana’s hands. The Sydenham High School student gives the role “a subtle touch, a softer approach.”

Meanwhile, Hannah, the drama queen, is “very powerful. I have to pull her back.”

As always, if any of our Gentle Readers see the play, we would love to publish a review!

Yael Ayalon muses on the relevance of Pride and Prejudice in modern dating.

I don’t understand what is so ghastly about wearing your heart on your sleeve. Whether it’s what you think you know about someone, what others will think if you are with them or just your pure and simple pride that is keeping you from telling someone how you truly feel or giving that person a chance (or a second chance), you are the one losing out in the end.

Sound like someone else we know?

“It may perhaps be pleasant,” replied Charlotte, “to be able to impose on the public in such a case; but it is sometimes a disadvantage to be so very guarded. If a woman conceals her affection with the same skill from the object of it, she may lose the opportunity of fixing him; and it will then be but poor consolation to believe the world equally in the dark. There is so much of gratitude or vanity in almost every attachment, that it is not safe to leave any to itself. We can all begin freely — a slight preference is natural enough; but there are very few of us who have heart enough to be really in love without encouragement. In nine cases out of ten, a woman had better shew more affection than she feels. Bingley likes your sister undoubtedly; but he may never do more than like her, if she does not help him on.”

Thanks to Alert Janeite Lisa for the link!

A very lame one, but a joke nonetheless.

It’s three in the morning, I’m in my study, and I’m going to address, yet again, the smoking issue. Let’s cut all the crap about the cigarette as movie icon - how it dangled from Humphrey Bogart’s lips, stuck out of the side of John Wayne’s mouth, the magic moment when Bette Davis in Now, Voyager … and so on. Also forget the bit about how most of your favourite writers - George Orwell, Italo Svevo, Robert Musil, TS Eliot, Jane Austen - were all heavy smokers, and concentrate on the strictly practical and personal issue: why it is very, very important to you, personally and practically, to give up smoking.

We’ll chalk it up to early-morning punchiness. Jane knows we’ve been there.

Thanks to Alert Janeite Lisa for the link!

Apparently she has a MySpace page.