Miss Bennet: Christmas at Pemberley

by Lauren Gunderson & Margo Melcon

Directed by Wanda Oler & Robyn Jeffrey

Romantic Comedy

2024 Show Dates: Nov 29, 30 Dec 1, 5, 6, 7, 8, 12, 13, 14, 15

Doors open 30 minutes prior to showtime. All shows take place in the Studio Theatre (black box theatre) upstairs at CAT.

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Show your Showpass ticket for a discount on CAT 2024-2025 show dates with “Dinner & a Show” offer at select downtown restaurants.

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About Miss Bennet: Christmas at Pemberley

A sequel to Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice set two years after the novel ends, MISS BENNET continues the story, only this time with bookish middle-sister Mary as its unlikely heroine. Mary is growing tired of her role as dutiful middle sister in the face of her siblings’ romantic escapades. When the family gathers for Christmas at Pemberley, an unexpected guest sparks Mary’s hopes for independence, an intellectual match, and possibly even love.

Part of the Pemberley trilogy with The Wickhams: Christmas at Pemberley and Georgiana and Kitty: Christmas at Pemberley.

MISS BENNET: CHRISTMAS AT PEMBERLEY was originally produced by Northlight Theatre, Chicago, Illinois
(BJ Jones, Artistic Director; Timothy Evans, Executive Director).

About the PlaywrightS

Lauren Gunderson is one of the most produced playwrights in America since 2015 topping the list thrice including 2022-2023. She is a two-time winner of the Harold and Mimi Steinberg/ATCA New Play Award for I AND YOU and THE BOOK OF WILL, the winner of the Lanford Wilson Award and the Otis Guernsey New Voices Award, a finalist for the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, the Arthur L. Weissberger Award, and John Gassner Award for Playwriting. Her musical adaptation of THE TIME TRAVELLER’S WIFE premieres on the West End this fall. REVOLUTIONARY WOMEN, her new anthology of five plays, was published by Bloomsbury in 2023. She studied Southern Literature and Drama at Emory University, and Dramatic Writing at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts where she was a Reynolds Fellow in Social Entrepreneurship. Her play THE CATASTROPHIST, about her husband virologist Nathan Wolfe, premiered digitally in January 2021 and is now in The COVID Art Capsule in the Library of Congress. She co-authored the MISS BENNET trilogy with Margot Melcon. THE HALF-LIFE OF MARIE CURIE premiered Off-Broadway and at Audible.com. Her work is published at Playscripts (I AND YOU; EXIT PURSUED BY A BEAR; THE TAMING; and TOIL AND TROUBLE), Dramatists Play Service (THE REVOLUTIONISTS; THE BOOK OF WILL; SILENT SKY; BAUER; NATURAL SHOCKS; THE WICKHAMS; MISS BENNET; and GEORGIANA AND KITTY), and Samuel French (EMILIE). Her picture book, DR WONDERFUL: BLAST OFF TO THE MOON is available from Two Lions/Amazon. She is the bookwriter for musicals with Dave Stewart and Joss Stone (THE TIME TRAVELER’S WIFE), Ari Afsar (JEANNETTE and I AND YOU), Joriah Kwamé (SINISTER), Kira Stone (BUILT FOR THIS) and Kait Kerrigan and Bree Lowdermilk (JUSTICE and EARTHRISE). She is a board member of The Playwrights Foundation, and a member of the Aspen Institute Science and Society cohort.

www.laurengunderson.com

Margot Melcon is an artist, arts administrator and writer and co-wrote the Christmas at Pemberley trilogy (Miss Bennet, The Wickhams, and Georgiana and Kitty) with Lauren Gunderson. She was the Director of New Play Development at Marin Theatre Company for seven years, where she dramaturged over 30 productions—including six world premieres—and administered the company’s two annual new play prizes and commissioning program. She has developed plays with TheatreWorks, Bay Area Playwrights Festival, Crowded Fire Theater, Shotgun Players, Berkeley Rep’s Ground Floor, the Kennedy Center, the New Harmony Project, and The Playwrights' Center in Minneapolis. She currently manages arts and culture grantmaking at the Zellerbach Family Foundation. Margot is a graduate of California State University, Chico, and lives in San Francisco with her family.

  • MARY: Halina Anderson

    ARTHUR: Dustin Funk

    MR. DARCY: Sarain Soonias

    LIZZIE: Robyn Jeffrey

    JANE: Randy Corney

    MR. BINGLEY: Bryan Mildenberger

    ANNE: Elizabeth Virgo

    LYDIA: Claire Cech

    JANE UNDERSTUDY AND MAID: Emily Caine

  • PLAYWRIGHTS: Lauren Gunderson & Margo Melcon

    CO-DIRECTORS: Wanda Oler & Robyn Jeffrey

    STAGE MANAGER: Susan Dearing

    COSTUME DESIGNER: Gwen McCagg

    SET DESIGNER: Hannah Sanson

    SOUND DESIGNER: Jordan Harris

    LIGHTING DESIGNER: Dave Chapman

  • Set Decorations & Props: Hannah Sanson, Wanda Oler, Robyn Jeffrey, Susan Dearing

    Set Construction: Tom Lacquement, Bruce Barss, Hannah Sanson, Barry Lockwood, Jeremy Robinson

    Costumes: Gwen McCagg

    Painters: Cathrin Parkin, Hannah Sanson, Sam Caron

    Mural Painter: Madolin Le

    Sound Operator: Jordan Harris

    Lighting Operators: David Chapman

    CAT Executive Director: Cassidy Crawford

    CAT Operations & Technical Manager: Darrel Dixon

    CAT Stage Technician: Chris Walker

    CAT Artistic Producer: Jeremy Robinson

    CAT Front of House Manager: Cathrin Parkin

    CAT Marketing & Photography: Karli Kendall

 

Special Thanks

Thank you to RDP and friends of CAT for loaning costumes for our production. Thank you to Mette Van Klaveren. Thank you to all the actors who auditioned for the CAT season. Thank you to our Silent Auction donors, including 360 Fitness Red Deer and Curiosity Art & Framing. We wish to thank any volunteers, including our Front of House team, who may have been missed by our printing deadline. We deeply appreciate the time and effort you have committed to CAT!