Kate Hamill's Pride and Prejudice

Woodstock Arts
February 7 - 23 2025

Photos by Mike Wood

Lizzy - Katie Cannon
Jane/Miss de Bourgh - Katie Berger Wood
Mrs. Bennet/Servant - Megan Cramer
Lydia/Lady Catherine - Molly Penny
Miss Bingley/Mr. Collins/Wickham - Riley Rawson
Darcy - Nicholas Tycho Reed
Mr. Bingley/Mary/Servant - Ian Michael Cox
Mr. Bennet/Charlotte - Andrew Shepard
Director's Note

When I first made myself a Letterboxd account, in an effort to explore its features, I wanted to make a personal list. I’d looked at other users’ Jane Austen Adaptation lists (after all, I’d just listed Ang Lee and Emma Thompson’s Sense and Sensibility in my top 4 favorite films) but I couldn’t find a list that included From Prada to Nada (2011, Sense & Sensibility, starring Alexa Vega as the Marianne equivalency - it’s dreadful. I had a great time) and Pride and Prejudice: A Latter-Day Comedy (2003, Pride & Prejudice - Yes, they are all Mormon. No, that fact is never actually stated out loud) and… okay maybe I’ve seen too many offbeat adaptations*. I made my own list, including several I’d already seen, but others I’m eager to track down. I don’t think Woodstock Arts Artistic Director Zach Stolz knew about this list before he mentioned that if WA were to produce Kate Hamill’s Pride and Prejudice, I’d be who he’d ask to direct - I think it’s just a vibe I give off.

I love Jane Austen’s writing. I love that her approach to exploring class structure is through dry comedy. But maybe more, I love adaptations of her work - the way people all around the world have found themselves in her stories for almost 2.5 centuries. Adaptations can come in all forms - we’ve all seen impersonal, CliffsNotes style retreads before -  but when the adaptation unpacks that relationship between the old author and the new (Austen and Hamill, in our case), we get to see ourselves in the specificities. Hamill originally wrote this version to star herself and her partner, laying bare the game they found themselves forced to play even today (“When are you two going to get married?”). And even still, the next layer of the palimpsest - the WA team interpreting this adaptation and finding ourselves relating to the Darcys and the Collins’ and the Bennets and so on - and still changing our characters like a mood ring from day to day. It’s a comfort to see ourselves in these vividly drawn characters. They’re imperfect people who show us we can find joy in each other. They show us that our affections for each other don’t need to be taken so self seriously. That “perhaps attachment isn’t always so foolish.” 


*Bride & Prejudice is, without a doubt, my favorite - even if Martin Henderson’s Darcy could never match the force of Aishwarya Rai Bachchan’s Lalita. And Naveen Andrews as Balraj! Insert heart-eyes emoji here!

The Prom 

Out Front Theatre Company
October 26 - November 11 2023

Photos by Isaac Breiding

Emma Nolan - Wynne Kelly
Dee Dee Allen - Wendy Melkonian*
Barry Glickman - Robert Hindsman
Alyssa Greene - Tatyana Mack
Trent Oliver - Chris McKnight
Angie Dickinson - Precious West
Mr. Hawkins - Alan Phelps
Mrs. Greene - Vallea E. Woodbury
Sheldon Saperstein - PJ Mitchell
Ensemble - Will Cole, Gina DeLise, Leah Keelan, Lance McDougall, James Patrick, Zuri Petteway, Parker Reeves, and Nevaeh Riddle
Swing - Erin North 
Interview on WABE's City Lights with Lois Reitzes
“Director Caty Bergmark coordinated all the elements of the show well. It’s sharp and rousing.”

“Out Front’s mission as a theater is to highlight LGBTQ+ stories, and its strongest work comes from these uplifting, funny musicals, which don’t dwell for long in darker moments.
The Prom is one of its best.”

From Benjamin Carr, ArtsATL review
Director's Note

Bryan and I were consistent “duo” partners and organized groups together for the reader’s theatre category for our Drama, Debate, and Forensics team. Bryan would sing a parody of the Veggie Tales song that now went, “You are my cheese Bergmark, I wait for you-oo” when waiting for me to join them for lunch period. When it was spirit week and the theme was iconic couples, we showed up as Sweeney Todd and Mrs. Lovett, of course. So when Bryan asked me to their junior and senior proms, it was both a thrill for me as an underclassman and what seemed to me at the time as a natural continuation of our friendship. 

Bryan was also the only person I knew at our high school who was “out.” The first time I remember seeing them was at some event before I’d entered high school, and someone pointed out they were wearing a shirt that very proudly proclaimed their queerness. They were not shy about who they were. I loved them. From day one, I loved how much they seemingly didn’t care about the assumptions made by outsiders. They made me proud to be myself, even if I wasn’t out at the time. 

But I also wish Bryan didn’t have to take their friend to the prom, regardless of how much she loved them. I wish Bryan had an abundance of options - to take someone to the prom romantically or go with a group of out queer friends or attend with me, whatever they so chose. I wish Bryan had been on prom court in all their glory. When they got to college, Bryan was named Miss Gay Alaska and now they’re touring the country in a musical that packs large houses (including Atlanta’s Fox theatre earlier this year) - so yes, it does get better, but what if we could do better by the little Bryan's of the world? 

I recently heard someone say that yes “it” gets better, but mostly because you get better. Better at knowing yourself, better at knowing when to work with someone or to walk away, better at navigating life because you have more experiences. What if we took our experiences and hardships and joys that made us better at navigating life and used them to improve the circumstances of our younger generations? What if we could make “it” better for young people before they had to grow up? Being a teenager already means facing a very real world with an incomplete roadmap regardless of who you want to take to prom - so let’s build a prom for everyone.

Baby

Act3 Productions
November 8 - 24 2019

Photos by Sydney Lee

Lizzie - Abi Sneathen
Danny - Brandon Deen
Pam - Kate Metroka
Nick - Brian Slayton
Arlene - Lisa Reich
Alan - Chris Davis
Ensemble - Elisabeth Clements, Bradley Johnson, Katie Miesner, PJ Mitchell, Kelly Moore
Director's Note

Our downstairs neighbors recently moved out of their apartment to embark on the next chapter of their relationship. Over the past few months, as we walked up our building’s stairs, we started noticing their Amazon packages were coming with greater frequency, they had started to build things on their balcony, and then eventually the outside of the packages showed strollers, the deck had a crib. We didn’t know them well, but our limited interactions illustrated a sweet couple, ready and excited to be parents. In the meantime, I worried their dog (Martha!) would start to feel left out. 

You can’t always predict when your strongest relationship is going to be challenged. Even planning for a child together can’t prevent the multitude of tests you’ll face. As much as I want for our downstairs neighbors to only be facing a pile of cardboard boxes, I’m sure their story is as unique, and as similar, as the next. Closing on a house for the sake of extra space, a multitude of doctor’s appointments, their own existential concerns layered together – and of course, they must be as worried about Martha as I am. 

As of the closing of this production, I will have been with my boyfriend for six years. While we’re not married or planning to have children any time soon (though people love to ask), I’ve grown from understanding Lizzie and Danny to beginning to understand Pam and Nick. One day, I’ll understand Alan and Arlene. Baby is a show that illuminates each step of our lives and the changes that we meet, confront, and surmount with shock, joy, frustration, giddiness, grief, and dad jokes. It’s a comfort to relate to the struggle of these characters, to know these are surmountable challenges, and to never forget love is part of the story. One day my boyfriend will pick dinner without asking me first. Our neighbors will pass their love to their child. Martha will be okay. The story goes on.