Kate Hamill’s stage adaptation of Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen’s witty and romantic novel, was featured as Sequoyah’s fall theater production. Pride and Prejudice follows the Bennet sisters—part of an upper middle-class family living in England’s fictitious Meryton—while they move through the social landscape of 19th-century England. The play explores the pride of Mr. Darcy, played by Atlas James ’25, an extremely wealthy upper-class man, and the prejudice of Elizabeth Bennet, played by Farrah Mackenzie ’24, his love interest. Complemented by archaic humor and physical comedy, the performance dealt with multifaceted topics like class, gender, and status, which are central to the play. Sequoyah actors worked tirelessly at Lineage Performing Arts Center to achieve a spectacle that was both meaningful and amusing.
Actors were tasked with mastering English accents, an important characteristic of the play as it is based in England. Many had creative processes to memorize lines while incorporating accent work. Chloe Zavistovski ’24, a talented performer who has appeared in a number of Sequoyah’s plays, was cast as Jane Bennet, the eldest Bennet sister. Zavistovski chose to memorize lines using an English accent; she remembers they would receive “readings for humanities classes [and] would always read it out loud in [an] accent.” Eli Regardie ’25 brilliantly took on the role of Mr. Collins, a cousin of the Bennet family. Regardie remarked that Collins is truly “posh British,” and when working with lines and accents Regardie “tried to be as creepy as possible…it was definitely very dramatic.” Actors also worked physicality into each of their roles that they thought best fit their characters.
Plays are performed not just through speech, but also through gesture and movement. Regardie worked with their fellow performer Farrah Mackenzie alongside director and theater teacher Arden Thomas to add physical comedy to specific scenes where Collins and Bennent interact. Regardie remembers they “ran through a bunch of ideas,” and “in the end, it was really ‘how can this be as ridiculous as possible?’” Meanwhile, Zavistovski’s character is not funny in the same way that Collins’s character is; Jane is rather shy. Zavistovski felt like “it’s very easy to make her plain and not make her special,” so Zavistovski had to experiment with a variety of movements to stay in touch with Jane’s shyness, but also her intellect and kindness.
Inspired by a trailer for a different Pride and Prejudice production, Sequoyah’s theater department decided to use a few different songs for their production. The actors truly made the play their own with their choice of music–a modern twist for a dated play. “Careless Whisper” by English pop duo Wham! was a crowd favorite song that featured in Sequoyah’s production; this song played during Mr. Bingley’s and Jane’s first awkward lovestruck glance at one another. “That was actually a moment that [the cast] all came up with together when we were first doing our table read of the script,” says Zavistovski. “ So that just stuck for the rest of the show.” The music choices led to some audience giggles and a more entertaining play. Overall, the play was a fun-filled feature both the actors and the audience enjoyed. According to Regardie, joining the theater program at Sequoyah is “so much fun” and “you get to make the best friends.” Zavistovski agrees, and adds: “I would just urge anybody who is curious about theater, or who thinks that they could do theater, or who even just wants to make a lifelong group of friends [to] try it out!” So, if you are curious about partaking in some theater or want to see another Sequoyah show make sure to look out for Sequoyah’s next show, Chicago!
Photos by David Haskell (check out more of Haskell’s work @pixostrangers), and Sookie Orth ’24
