Bath Review - September 2019

"A packed auditorium laughed, listened and loved the humour, as well as the pathos, in many aspects of Jane Austen’s life. In a Q&A after the show, audience members were able to ask Karen more about her research and her acting skills with many comments about her faultless English accent and her mastery of dialogue and dance.It was a very special show and everyone who was lucky enough to see it felt privileged to have been in the audience at The Mission Theatre on Saturday night." Excerpted from "News The Mission Theatre" dated 9.25.19. I will provide the link in my next post! #JaneAusten #JaneAustenFestival #MissionTheatreBath #Theatre #Acting #SoloShow #Performance #AnActorsLife Photo courtesy of the Jane Austen Festival. #thankful #grateful to my co-directors, Susan Pilar and #AmyStoller, my costume designer #MarieNatali, my dramaturg, Amy Elizabeth Smith and to Jasna N.Y. for all their help with the details in the show!

Returning to Bath, UK for 4th Time!

I'm back.  I've been performing.  I need to play catch up here on my blog.  But first I need to share that I will return to Bath, England in my one woman show "Cheer from Chawton" for the 4th time and I am quite thrilled about it!  I am scheduled to teach an acting Masterclass on Friday, 20 September 2019 and then on Saturday, 21 September 2019 at 8pm it's "Cheer from Chawton, a Jane Austen Family Theatrical" suitable for ages 8 and up at the 2019 Jane Austen Festival.

Abundance...

Have been using my pages mainly to write about my bookings.  I've had a good bit of work the last few months.  First a reading of "Rust" a new 10-minute play I wrote for the Blue Roses Douglas Stevens Infusion Reading Series in May held at the Bruce Mitchell Room at ART/NY.  "Rust" having to do with the way suburban areas have devolved (meant in the archaic sense) in the "Rust Belt" state of Ohio.  In June, I was invited to guest write a blog entry and appear as Jane Austen at a benefit for Going To Tahiti Productions adaptation of Persuasion.  Also in June, I directed a reading of the CBS Radio Version of As You Like It adapted by Brewster Morgan at the Players Club.  In July I was asked to play Miss Maria Mainwaring (prounounced "Mannering") in a reading of an adaptation of Jane Austen's Lady Susan put on by Theater 2020 at St. Charles Borromeo Catholic Church in Brooklyn Heights.  Such varied activity has been stimulating, exciting and fun.  Being a Mom, though, I feel as if I've got ADD and I don't know which direction to look first.  I have plays to improve and submit, a hilarious show about Jane Austen that I love to do and an acting resume of which I've been quite neglectful.  And then there's the directing side of me!  Some would say, an embarassment of riches, while I say, I don't know which direction to turn.  Each has an aspect that I love.  Some might think I am just tossed about from project to project lost without a compass on the professional ocean of theatre work.  This is defining me right now.  But I like to think it is shaping me too.  Our child won't be little forever and I must choose to look at this as the universe's way of preparing me for something larger that will come my way in the not too distant future.  This is the optomist in me.  In a jaded world - and I consider myself jaded too - I still feel positive about what can happen in the theatre - what theatre actually makes possible not just for me but for everyone.