Opening Weekend

Megan Marie Powers as Emma Woodhouse

 

Well!  It has been a whirlwind week at all for One!  Load-in, lighting design, costumer putting finishing touches on everything…right up to opening night, bonnets and reticules, props, blocking adjustments, final notes, checking sound cues. newspaper interview, rehearsals till 11 PM each night, and then, the doors open, the audience enters.  The lights dim.  Such an atmosphere of expectancy.

Harriet (Ashley Simon) and Emma (Megan Powers) in Act II

Record crowds Friday night laughed uproarously, sighed deeply, listened intently, and cheered enthusiastically at the end.  Saturday night’s audience was just as large and appreciative (if not quite as loud…)  Today’s matinee brought a respectable crowd as well, and garnered a standing ovation.

“Perfect casting!”  ”Beautiful to look at.”  ”It flows so well.”  ”The accents are great.”  ”Wonderful acting.”   We are so gratified to have the results of our hard work be so well-received.  Now this group of 19 stalwarts (11 actors, 5 attendants, and 2 technicians–plus the director) gets to take three days off, then four more performances and it will all be over.  But we’re not thinking about that right now.  Right now we’re appreciating going to bed earlier, and thinking about how we can continue to improve an already polished production.

Mr. & Mrs. Elton (Joel Miller and Heather Detzner)

Emma and Mr. Knightley (Jeff Salisbury)

 

 

 

A brief glossary of unfamiliar words/terms in the play

Michaelmas: (pronounced “Micklemuss”) the feast day of St. Michael the Archangel, September 29 on the liturgical calendar of the Church of England. It traditionally marks the beginning of autumn, and in the universities is the name of the autumn term of the school year. Harriet comments that she didn’t know Mr. Elton to speak to “at Michaelmas”.

fortnight:  two weeks (“fourteen nights”).  Frank’s first visit lasts a fortnight.

consternation:  a feeling of anxiety, dread, dismay or confusion.  Miss Bates uses this term quite a bit., In the opening scene, she tells Mr. Knightley that it is a “source of great consternation that Frank Churchill has never visited Highbury.”  She may be exaggerating a bit, but it is a small town and Mr. Weston is held in high regard, so a visit from his only son–especially on the occasion of Mr. Weston’s marriage–was expected and significant. 

cara sposa:  Italian, meaning “dear spouse”.  Mrs. Elton’s affectation is to call Mr. Elton her cara sposa.

watering place:  (British) A seaside or lakeside vacation resort featuring bathing and boating.  Frank and Jane have met at Weymouth, a watering place on the south west coast of England in the county of Dorset.

Who’s who and what’s what in “Emma”

Being just enough information to get you oriented:

I have no doubt there are various Cliff Notes-type sites out there which will give you a full synopsis of this story.  However, you’ll get no spoilers here!  Here is a brief description of the characters and setting which is in place at the start of the play:

Emma Woodhouse is “handsome, rich and clever” and spends her time doing “exactly what she wants”–which includes meddling in others’ lives. Emma’s father, Mr. Woodhouse, is an older man of imagined poor health who has few interests or occupations beyond local gossip and backgammon, and her mother died when Emma was seven. Her older sister, Isabella, is married to Mr. John Knightley and they live in London. Although secondary characters who appear for several chapters in the book, they are barely mentioned in this play. However, Mr. John Knightley is the younger brother of Mr. George Knightley, a wealthy unmarried neighboring landowner who is a close friend of the Woodhouse family, and 15 years Emma’s senior. He visits often, and frequently chastises Emma for various foolish opinions and behaviors.

Emma has recently lost her governess-turned-companion Miss Taylor, who has fortuitously married comfortably-off widower Mr. Weston. The new Mrs. Weston continues to be a real friend to Emma, but obviously cannot spend nearly so much time with her. Lonely Emma cultivates a friendship with Harriet Smith, an illegitimate young woman whose (anonymous) father has provided funds for her to be a parlor boarder in a respectable school in Highbury. Emma, fancying herself a matchmaker because she predicted the Miss Taylor/Mr. Weston wedding, sets out to make a match between Harriet and Mr. Elton, the local vicar.

Meanwhile, everyone in Highbury is looking forward to meeting Mr. Weston’s son from his first marriage, Frank Churchill. Since Mr. Weston’s wife died when Frank was two, his wife’s brother and family offered to raise the boy, Mr. Weston having little money at the time. Frank went to live with his aunt and uncle, and took their surname when he came of age, out of gratitude to them. When the play opens, he has never visited Highbury.

Others we will meet include Miss Bates, a middle-aged spinster of limited means, and her niece, Jane Fairfax, a young and accomplished woman but unfortunately an orphan without prospects. Although Jane is Emma’s equal in birth, looks and talents, her lack of family connections and fortune have forced her to seek a post as governness.

There are several estates named and referred to frequently in the play: Hartfield is the Woodhouse estate; Mr. Knightley owns Donwell Abbey, and Mr. Weston lives at Randalls.

 

The story of “Emma” onstage

Jon Jory’s stage adaptation of Emma is quite faithful to the story, but as with any translation from one medium to another, choices–and changes–have to be made.  There are many challenges in adapting a novel, in which the author can describe setting, character and inner thoughts at great length, to the stage–where the audience learns everything by way of dialogue or physical action.

Because Emma is a simple linear story, without any subplots which don’t relate directly to the main character, the main concerns become:  how to move easily from one location to another (there are five different interiors and multiple exterior scenes in the play–more in the book), and how to let the audience know what Emma is thinking, since her thoughts, feelings and reactions make up a large part of the novel.

Jory has made the obvious and workable decision to insert soliloquys for Emma at regular intervals.  These are almost word for word from the book, and let us know how Emma is reacting to the various situations in which she finds herself.  In our production, Emma will have a special place on the stage, in a special lighting, which lets us know that we are listening to her inner thoughts.  [Incidentally, that is the difference between a soliloquy and a monologue:  a monologue is any extended speech of a character, regardless of whether there are other actors onstage.  A soliloquy is the character's inner thought and is not overheard...therefore, all soliloquys are monologues, but not all monologues are soliloquys.]

Other choices made by the playwright in adapting Emma:  only one familiar character from the book will be absent:  old Mrs. Bates, the mother of Miss Bates.  Although some lovely comic moments in the book result from Mrs. Bates being hard of hearing, she has no bearing on the plot, and so in this version, Miss Bates lives alone (at least as far as we know) until her niece Jane comes to stay.

In the novel, there are two key scenes in which all the major characters are together, and they happen to be on successive days:  the strawberry gathering at Knightley’s estate, Donwell Abbey, and the excursion to Box Hill.  In order to compress time a bit, Jory has combined these two events, and set the scene at Donwell, which is walking distance from Highbury.

Jory’s stage notes are not detailed.  He suggests the use of sliding screens which reveal or hide characters.  Since our stage is rather small, and not our own, it is not practical to create large-scale sliding screen system, but we will use smaller ‘walls’ which move into different patterns to designate different home interiors and exteriors.  The costuming, lighting and furnishings (or their absence) will provide needed clues to location.  The action flows continuously from scene to scene without blackouts, so the movement of walls and furniture will be in full view of the audience.  Our five costumed attendants will be the servants who are manipulating the scenery, carrying things on and offstage, serving tea, announcing visitors, etc.  Our intention is that by doing everything in full view of the audience, that it quickly becomes the “normal” background activity and is not more obtrusive than multiple blackouts, but rather less so.

Research #10: Food and drink in Jane Austen’s time

[Research by Randy Glander, who portrays Mr. Weston.]

In the early 19th century most of the working class lived on a dreary diet of bread, butter, potatoes and bacon. Butcher’s meat was a luxury. However things greatly improved in the late 19th century. Railways and steamships made it possible to import cheap grain from North America so bread became cheaper. Refrigeration made it possible to import cheap meat from Argentina and Australia. Consumption of sugar also increased. By the end of the 19th century most people (not all) had a reasonably varied diet.

However costly, meat was the centerpiece of the English diet for all classes. The middle classes could purchase beef and mutton in addition to bacon. The upper classes also ate “pork, poultry, game, fish and occasional delicacies such as turtle. Fruit had long been considered by many to be indigestible, but the discovery in the eighteenth century that scurvy could be prevented by eating fresh fruit and vegetables led to an increase in their consumption in the nineteenth century.”

“Alcohol was an inherent part of Regency life that cut across all classes and, although excessive drinking was very much a male indulgence, both sexes considered it perfectly acceptable to drink alcohol during both day and night. Water was generally eschewed as a beverage, mainly because of uncertainty about its quality and the dangers associated with drinking dirty or contaminated water. Milk was sometimes drunk in the morning or at bedtime, but was more often used in cooking. Tea, coffee and chocolate were the preferred drinks at breakfast although many men liked to take ale at their morning meal.” *

*Georgette Heyer’s Regency World by Jennifer Kloester, chapter 11, “Eat, Drink and Be Merry.”

Research #9: Regency Music and Composers

[Research by James Clauser, who portrays Mr. Woodhouse.]

Music was an integral part of the lives of the English gentry in the Regency Period. This period provided a transition between the music of Mozart (Classical) and the music of Beethoven (Romantic). Jane Austen herself was a lover of music and made a personal collection of music from the period. Included in this collection, many of which were hand copied by Miss Austen, are folk songs and ballads, comic songs, instrumental pieces, operatic selections as well as Italian and French songs.

Composers that she particularly enjoyed included well-know individuals such as Handel, Haydn, Corelli, Gluck and J.C. Bach. However, she also relished several English composers of the day who have nearly been forgotten: Charles Diblin ( 1745-1814) and Samuel Webbe, the younger (1770?-1843). Diblin was something of a Renaissance man who was a poet, actor, songwriter, and singer. He wrote nearly 1400 songs and 30 theatre pieces including operas. Allegedly he is the creator of the one-man show. Samuel Webbe was a teacher, organist, and composer who studied under his father and Clementi. Webbe composed many cannons, glees, anthems, madrigals, a mass, a Sanctus and a chant for St. Paul’s Cathedral.

Two other composers of the day include Stephen Storace (1762-1796) and Thomas Moore (1779-1852). Storace was the Andrew Lloyd Webber of his day who met popular tastes with ballad operas that featured visual spectacle, bold vocal turns and exotic themes. Unfortunately, most of his work survives only as reductions for voice and piano. Moore was an Irish poet, singer and songwriter who is remembered by several compositions still performed today including “The Last Rose of Summer” and “Believe Me If All These Endearing Charms.”  [Note:  the song that is "sung" by Jane Fairfax in our production is "When Love Is Kind", an English folk tune of the time, with words by Thomas Moore.  Its lyrics are peculiarly suited to Jane Fairfax's situation in the play!]

Jane Austin loved to play the pianoforte, a forerunner of the modern piano, and would practice nearly every day when a piano was available. She wrote her sister Cassandra in 1808 the following: “Yes, yes, we will have a pianoforte, as good a one as can be got for 30 guineas, and I will practice country dances, that we may have some amusement for our nephews and nieces, when we have the pleasure of their company.”

Research #8: Everyday Medicine and Health in the Regency Era

[Research by Lisa Ellis, who portrays Miss Bates]

Medical care in early 19th century England followed strict distinctions of class that mirrored society in general. The practice of medicine was still hit and miss, with too many people dying from the treatment by doctors and apothecaries that was designed to save them. Bleeding through the use of leeches and cutting veins was a common treatment. Healers did not bother to practice hygiene. They seldom washed their hands and rarely ordered bandages to be changed.

Regency Physicians

Regency doctors and physicians were positioned on the highest rungs of the medical social ladder. These men, often the second or third sons of gentlemen, made their living in one of the few professions that a man of their social standing were allowed to pursue. They attended prestigious schools like Oxford or Cambridge and studied Greek or Latin. Their training, which did not include an apprenticeship or practice with actual patients, consisted of observing medical procedures in a lecture hall. As gentlemen, they would not soil their hands with manual labor, like dissect a corpse for instruction. Doctors would dine with the family, but they would not directly accept a fee for their services (in other words, they didn’t present their patient with a bill). They preferred to be paid in a more discreet manner.

Midwives in the Regency Era

Female midwives enjoyed a secure position before the 18th century, obtaining licenses from the bishop and making a respectable living. By the end of the 18th century, men had infiltrated the profession. Male midwives tended to use instruments during birth; female midwives did not. If they delivered a healthy baby, they would receive additional fee from the godparents. Although male midwives were associated with scientific progress, cases of child bed fever rose with the increased use of forceps during delivery. By the early nineteenth century,midwives were relegated to assisting only the births of lower class women, and their social rank had fallen to reflect their customers’.

The woman of the house was in charge of taking care of common complaints, such as a cold, headache, stomach ache, or rash. They handed down recipes for herbal remedies and folk medicine to their daughters, whose education included knowing which herbs and plants to grow in the kitchen garden or collect from nature. Eighteenth and nineteenth century cookbooks offered recipes for lozenges, tinctures, and poultices. Cures included hot wines, syrups, soups, and herbal tea infusions.

Given the prevalence of illnesses of all kinds, the predominant concern was to avoid being ill in the first place. In medical historian Roy Porter’s apt phrase, ‘People took care before they took physic.’ The proverb ‘Prevention is better than cure’ dates back at least to the seventeenth century and there was a growing tradition of preventive medicine to avoid what might be called dis-ease, including attention to diet, exercise and a healthy environment.

Research #7: Clergymen in Jane Austen’s time

[Research by Joel Miller, who portrays Mr. Elton. Additional research by Lauren Nichols.]

To be a clergyman was a safe and respectable profession for an upper-middle or upper-class gentleman, and most specifically for a younger son who was not to inherit property. Most younger sons would receive an allowance from the estate, but this would not necessarily be enough to live on comfortably, especially if one was married and had children. (The bolder gentleman would purchase a commission in the military.) “Becoming a beneficed clergyman was generally an undemanding way of life which enabled many practitioners to continue to enjoy the popular activities of the period–riding, hunting, drinking and gaming–without censure.” (Georgette Heyer’s Regency World, page 47)

 A ‘vicar’ was the priest of a parish which was supported either by a local estate or by the local diocese of the Church of England, or both. Phillip Elton, in Emma, is the Vicar of Highbury. A ‘rector’ was the leader of a self-supporting congregation. (The dissenting churches–protestant but not Anglican–had rectors, who were supported by the tithes of their congregation. A vicar drew a salary which was not tied to the tithes of his parishioners.) (http://anglican.org/vocab/uvwxyz.html)

 Often a parish (or several) would be attached to an estate, and it would be the landowner’s right to appoint the clergyman of his choice, who would have an annual income and usually a house as well. This was known as a “living” which “in the gift” of the landowner. To become a clergyman required no formal education, though some younger sons would attend university with that profession in mind. It also demanded no particular vocation or calling, but was viewed as a job to be done. Jane Austen’s own father was a clergyman by profession.

 —————————————————————————–

 The Church of England was the official church in Britain at the time of the writing of Emma. Though it had broken off from the Catholic Church during the time of Henry VIII, it kept some of the traditions and worship style of the Catholics. Only men could be ordained as vicars, and they were allowed to be married. They lived off of the tithes of the congregation. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vicar)

 According to Raymond A. Cook, a professor at the Princeton Theological Seminary, Emma, among other books by Jane Austen, reveal a criticism of English clergy in the nineteenth century. In his article “As Jane Austen Saw the Clergy,” Cook states that, “At hardly any other period in English history was the clergy held in lower esteem.” In his estimation, little was required of the clergy, who in turn cared little for their work. He describes Mr. Elton in particular as “… pompous, self-conscious, and ludicrous. Mr. Elton appears to be a person who would charm one for an hour, but who would bore one to distraction beyond that limit.” Cook also asserts that the general opinion of the clergy plays into Emma’s response to Elton’s proposal, saying that “Mr. Elton’s wanting to pay his addresses to her had sunk him in her opinion. His profession and his proposal did him no service. She thought nothing of his attachment and was insulted by his hopes.”

http://theologytoday.ptsem.edu/apr1961/v18-1-article4.htm

Research #6: View of Illegitimacy

[Research by Ashley Simon, who portrays Harriet Smith.]

 Illegitimacy was a common occurrence in Western Europe in the 1700 and 1800s. Although it was common for couples who weren’t married to have children, it was uncommon for these couples not to marry eventually. In essence, many illegitimate children were born into family units, although their families lacked the official blessing of the state church. These couples often lived together and considered themselves families at the time of the child’s birth.

Before 1835, illegitimate children were, in theory, a charge upon the parish in which they lived. Strenuous efforts were made to discover the identity of the father of the child in order that the Overseer for the Poor, or other parish official, could extract a payment from him.

Despite the abundance of illegitimacy, children born to unmarried parents still experienced some setbacks early in life. For one thing, laws often discriminated against them. In many areas, illegitimate children couldn’t inherit property. However, if the parents married later, many of the limitations didn’t apply anymore. Illegitimate children also had a higher infant mortality rate.

An illegitimate son or daughter, especially if not ever acknowledged by a respectable parent, had little chance of marrying well.  Harriet Smith’s station as “the natural daughter of no one knows who” made her more or less ineligible in the eyes of local bachelors.  Emma’s refusal to acknowledge this creates much of the complication in the story.

Research #5: Women’s Roles in the early 19th century

[Researched by Stacey Kuster, who portrays Mrs. Weston]

A woman of the Regency period had no other occupation than to find a husband.  Austen’s plots, though fundamentally comic, highlight the dependence of women on marriage to secure social standing and economic security. Girls from well-off families went to school but it was felt important for them to learn ‘accomplishments’ like embroidery and music rather than academic subjects.

It wasn’t until the end of the nineteenth century that married women had any rights over their property – either that which they owned at marriage or any which they acquired after marriage either by inheritance or by their own earnings. All property within marriage legally belonged to the husband. Women generally did not inherit wealth, nor were they openly allowed to find their own means; so marriage was one of the few options they had to secure a comfortable future. A marriage based on love was rarely an option for a Regency woman; income was the first consideration. It is probably why this period yielded some of the best literary romance available today.

Daily life: After breakfast with the children, the first job of the lady of the house would be to talk to the housekeeper. It would be important for them to communicate about the other servants, making sure they were doing their jobs properly and behaving correctly above and below stairs.

They would also discuss the evening meal. If visitors were expected, the lady would choose meals that were lavish and unusual. When these matters were dealt with the wife would then check through the household accounts. Bills for meat, candles and flour would usually be paid weekly. When the early morning activities were finished, the social whirl would begin! High society ladies would either receive calls or visit others. Tea would be drunk and snacks eaten.

Young gentlewomen were expected to have demonstrated skill in accomplishments, refined female occupations such as music, dancing, painting, needlework, and foreign language. Such skills were intended to occupy a young girl’s time with useful, improving activity, but they also served two practical purposes: 1) to impress a prospective husband; and 2) to provide entertainment for guests at domestic parties and dinners. A young lady would require instruction to learn many of these skills, so a family of means might employ a dancing master, a music teacher, and the like to prepare a daughter to enter society.

Accomplishments were one way a girl from a lower class family could hope to marry up in social station. Most women of any class were married by the time they were 18 if they married at all; if they reached the age of 25 without a husband , then they were considered old maids, unable–and unlikely–to find a man.

“There were limited roles for the well-bred single woman over the age of 22 or 23 when she was considered past her prime. If she were wealthy in her own right, she might set up house with a suitable female companion” although this would generally be thought eccentric. If this was not an option, “she would probably become a dependent in the household of a family member…it could be an unenviable position, however, for spinsters were generally considered inferior beings…objects of pity….”

“For those gently born women without family…one of the few paid occupations available to them was that of companion or governess…there was usually little to look forward to beyond a lifetime of drudgery… treated little better than a domestic servant.” Indeed their position was more difficult, because they fell outside the hierarchy of domestics, but below the status of a gentlewoman, and thus found themselves in a no man’s land with no social circle at all.

Thus, in Emma, the great good fortune of Miss Taylor’s marrying when she is over 30 is made much of.  And the equally great ill fortune of Jane Fairfax having to become a governess is a constant undercurrent in her part of the story.

Georgette Heyer’s Regency World by Jennifer Kloester (2005), Chapter 4, “The Gentle Sex”