Fifth-grader with inside information about the new Jane Eyre

First of all, congratulations to Perth Theatre for scooping the award for best technical presentation for Polly Teale's Jane Eyre at the Critics Awards for Theatre in Scotland (Cats), reported among others by The Press and Journal:

"FOR sheer controlled discipline on a conventional stage, managing a complex two-tier set, aerial work, dance work, wandering musicians and the most convincing collapsing set I can remember, when Rochester's Gothic pile at Thornfield Hall burns down, Perth Theatre's back stage team did a brilliant job."

Another Jane Eyre adaptation, the forthcoming one directed by Cary Fukunaga is mentioned by Metropolis - a The Wall Street Journal blog - on a post about

PencilPALs, a program of the Screen Actors’ Guild in partnership with the Writers’ Guild of America East Foundation, which matches Janine Esposito’s fifth graders in the Gifted & Talented program at P.S. 16 with well-known writers like Nora Ephron, Elisa Zuritsky, and “Brokeback Mountain” screenwriter James Schamus. PencilPALs started in a Florida school in 2002, aiming to inspire students to love reading and letter-writing in an increasingly digital world. (Joy Resmovits)

What's particularly interesting is this:

Some students got an inside look at professional writing. Schamus says his pen pal had the chance to see his Feature Focus group’s writing process. “I sent her pages of a screenplay we’re making here based on ‘Jane Eyre’,” he says. “That book caught my attention in fifth grade.” (Joy Resmovits)

Ah, to be that penpal!

The most recent Brontë adaptation: Wuthering Heights 2009 has been nominated as Best Drama or Entertainment in the Yorkshire Royal Television Society Programme Awards. Regrettably the award was given to another ITV production: Married Single Other.

According to the SAS (“Successful, Attractive, but Single”) way of life, though, Jane Eyre's decision to marry Rochester is outmoded, says the Telegraph.

There would be no triumphant: “Reader, I married him” for today’s Jane Eyre, who would surely deem that Rochester had “issues”, sleep with him, but not hostage her fortune to him. (Hannah Betts)

And here were we all claiming Jane Eyre to be such a modern character, oblivious to the whole SAS philosophy! Oh well, we really don't think Jane Eyre would have agreed with that way of life. Besides, she would have been denied entry to the club for being just 'plain', anyway.

Emily Brontë and her novel are mentioned in several places today too. Express India comments on how Haworth attracts visitors because of Wuthering Heights, while Foodepedia says of Northumbria,

Although geographically at odds with Emily Brontë’s original setting, the ancient kingdom of Northumbria feels like real Wuthering Heights country with its dramatic skies, rolling grasslands and sweeping, deserted sands. (Caroline Sargent)

For Folk's Sake describes the look of a music duo (Bitter Ruin) as follows:

From a quick look at Bitter Ruin’s myspace it is hard to tell whether the boy/girl duo are trying to sell records or audition for the leads in a local production of Wuthering Heights. Ultimately, one concludes, either would be acceptable. From the gothic press shots that pepper the page to the lavishly theatrical nature of songs like Trust, there is something refreshingly histrionic about this band. (Ian Parker)

And Scotland on Sunday, on the subject of sisters imagines what the Brontë sisters would have been like on a day-to-day basis:

It was ever thus with sisters. Charlotte Brontë surely admired Wuthering Heights, but great genius aside, I bet she found Emily's habit of copying the way she tied her bonnet, like, so annoying. (Chitra Ramaswamy)

It's even worse than the writer supposes, as Charlotte Brontë decided to clear her sister's reputation by criticising her masterpiece publicly.

On the blogosphere, Wuthering Heights is reviewed by Shayla's Book Journal and in Romanian by both Girls Just Wanna Have Fun and Mikaella15's Blog.

The Brontë Parsonage Blog posts about the last event of the AGM weekend (Richard Wilcock's talk Patrick Brontë - Scientist and Andrew Mitchell reading of his poetry) and the Brussels Brontë Blog takes a look at the whole AGM weekend from a 'novice's' (Patty Simou's) point of view.

Les Brontë à Paris translates into French Branwell's poem Mary's Prayer.

Categories: Brontë Society, Haworth, Jane Eyre, Movies-DVD-TV, Poetry, Theatre, Weirdo, Wuthering Heights