Pier One Theatre opens Sense and Sensibility this weekend at the theater on the Homer Spit with Kate Hamill’s new adaptation of Jane Austen’s novel.
Director Katia Holmes shared details about what it’s been like to begin her directing debut with this first play:
“It's been really exciting, and I've learned a lot. And it's so interesting to me how much more fun it is to get to put all these pieces together and delegate, you know, like the set and the sound, to awesome artists who are far more expertise-ridden than I, and be able to bring people in and have it come together is pretty magical,” Holmes said.
“Sense and Sensibility” is based on the debut novel by author Jane Austen. The novel follows the three Dashwood sisters and their widowed mother when they are forced to leave the family estate by their half-brother and his wife and must find other accommodations. Holmes provides a few more details:
“ …then there's all this sweeping off of their feet scenarios with some scoundrels and some not quite so scoundrels, and it's very madcap and lively, and there's heartbreak and grief and joy and silliness and it moves very quickly and it's wildly entertaining. I feel like I often have laughed so hard I am in tears a lot of the show, and also there's such lovely, genuine moments and tender sisterhood moments between Eleanor and Marianne that also move me to tears. So it covers the whole gamut,” she said.
Another note that Holmes makes is that although Sense and Sensibility is a play, there is live underscoring piano music performed by Owen Duffy.
“I just love live music and we don’t often get to do that with plays…so I am just so thrilled any chance I get to have live underscoring and so Owen Duffy is doing live piano for us,” Holmes said.
Two new Pier One performers Kelly Bracken and Matt Iverson provided comments on their experience with the production as well. Bracken plays the roles of Fanny, Lucy, Gossip and Lady Middleton and says she enjoys playing the various roles.
“It's my first play with Pier One, and I'm really enjoying myself….I realized that there was just this really great not only artistic environment in Homer, but just this established community theater, and I thought, you know what, maybe I, maybe I will stick my toe back in the water, and so I volunteered to usher and and kind of start working with the theater, and then had an opportunity to audition, and I I went for it, and so I'm really glad that I did,” Bracken said.
This is also Matt Iverson’s first Pier One show and says it’s been fun to be involved with the cast and crew here. He described his role in this play:
“I think in classic community theater fashion, I have one or two main roles, and I have about four or five other small parts that come up throughout the play, so that's that's just how it goes, you know, with a small group. But I think it makes it even more fun…But it's like it's so clearly a passion of every single person involved that it makes it delightful to be a part of it, and it's really inspiring to me, sort of to to come back and do more plays, or even to write a play that could be performed here. You know, nobody's making any money off of it; they're just doing it because they love it, and that's a nice thing to be around,” Iverson said.
Exact time and ticket details and a performance description for Sense and Sensibility is available on the Pier One Theatre website: pieronetheatre.org. The first show is August 7th at 7:30 PM and shows will run through August 22nd.
Reporting from Homer, this is Emilie Springer.
