Pioneer Theatre Company Presents Jane Austen's EMMA 2/17-3/3

Pioneer Theatre Company will present the stage adaptation of the Jane Austen novel Emma, February 17 through March 3, 2012.

About the show: "Young, headstrong Emma Woodhouse believes she has a special talent for matchmaking, but where the affections of others and her own heart are concerned she is exasperatingly but charmingly clueless. Jane Austen’s beloved romantic comedy of small village English life in the 18th century comes vividly to life in this enchanting stage adaptation."

Austen’s novel has been adapted for the stage by JON JORY. Jory is a theatrical director, playwright and New York Theatre Hall of Fame inductee. He served as artistic director of the Long Wharf Theatre from 1965 to 1966. In 1969, he took over the helm of The Actors Theatre of Louisville, and while there created the annual Humana Festival of New American Plays – the festival that has since produced a number of award-winning plays including Crimes of the Heart, Cementville and Dinner with Friends. His Jane Austen adaptations have been produced in twelve countries and his newest, Persuasion, will be published in July.

Austen’s heroine Emma Woodhouse is played by NISI STURGIS. Sturgis’ Broadway credits include The 39 Steps, the New York premiere of The Pretty Trap, Intimate Apparel at the Roundabout Theatre/Mark Taper Forum, and Dsyphoria and The Less We Talk with Hoi Polloi. She has appeared at regional theatres across the country, and can be seen as June Thompson in the award-winning HBO series Boardwalk Empire. She returns to PTC after appearing as Ophelia in last season’s production of Hamlet.

MICHAEL SHARON plays Mr. George Knightley, Emma’s longtime friend and one of the most eligible bachelors in Highbury. Sharon has appeared in regional theatres across the country, including three seasons at the Utah Shakespeare Festival in productions including Twelfth Night, Coriolanus, Johnny Guitar, Merchant of Venice, Camelot and A Midsummer Night’s Dream. His film/TV credits include Identical (LAAFF Winner), Doin’ the L.A. Thing (HBO Choice Award) and In Between Men (Indie Soap nomination). This is his PTC debut.

KATIE FABEL plays Harriet Smith, a single young woman for whom Emma wants desperately to find a match. Her UK credits include The Sound of Music on London’s West End, the National Tour of Arsenic and Old Lace, and Royal National Theatre’s The Wind in the Willows. Off-Broadway, Fabel appered in The Shaughraun and Ernest in Love at Irish Repertory Theatre, and in Belle of Belfast at Cherry Lane. Her many regional credits include theatres such as Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey, St. Louis Repertory Theatre, and San Diego’s Old Globe. This is her PTC debut.

KYMBERLY MELLEN plays Mrs. Weston, Emma’s former governess and confidant. Mr. Weston is played by PAUL KIERNAN. Mellen’s credits include productions at Writers’ Theatre, Marriott Lincolnshire Theatre, Chicago Shakespeare Theatre and Steppenwolf Theatre. She has also been seen at the Utah Shakespeare Festival in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Richard III, Much Ado About Nothing and Macbeth. Her film credits include The Unborn, Boy with Blue and Joseph: Prophet of the Restoration. She received her BFA from BYU and her MFA from The Theatre School at DePaul University. Kiernan has appeared at PTC in many productions including as Caliban in The Tempest, The Diary of Anne Frank, Hamlet and Twelve Angry Men, to name a few. He has also appeared at Salt Lake Acting Company and with Salt Lake Shakespeare, Pennsylvania Shakespeare, The Hangar Theatre in Ithaca, and many others. His TV and film credits include Disney’s Luck of the Irish, The Maldonado Miracle, Ice Spiders and the HBO series From the Earth to the Moon.

Mr. and Mrs. Elton, the snobbishly but comically class-conscious couple, are played by RICHARD GALLGHER and JENNY MERCEIN. On Broadway, Gallagher appeared in The Importance of Being Earnest with the Roundabout Theatre Company. His other New York credits include 59E59 Theaters, Women’s Theatre Project, Lark Theatre Company and the New York Fringe Festival. This is his PTC debut. Mercein has appeared at The Alabama Shakespeare Festival, Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, Shakespeare Festival of St. Louis, Fulton Opera House, Connecticut Free Shakespeare, Florida Studio Theater, Synapse Productions, Keen Company and New Georges. She returns to PTC after playing Desdemona in Othello.

Frank Churchill, a newly arrived and very eligible bachelor, is played by JORDAN COUGHTRY. New York credits include Murder in the Cathedral as Fourth Tempter, The Narrator in Winter Journey directed by Alec Duffy, and Be Story Free directed by Kirk Wood Bromley at Inverse Theater. His many regional credits include productions at Shakespeare Theatre Company D.C., Williamstown Theatre Festival, and Alabama Shakespeare Festival, among many others. This is his PTC debut.

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