Jane Unravels The Secrets and Finds Her Personal Epiphany

A new student production of Jane Eyre opens today, May 10, in Hillsborough, NJ. Central Jersey gives more information:

Theater students at Hillsborough High School — and younger “future high schoolers” in the district — will present a stage adaptation of Charlotte Brontë’s Gothic love story, “Jane Eyre,” on May 10-11.
In recent years, the spring production on the theater calendar has featured a smaller cast, a respite from the exhausting late-winter musical blockbuster.
But “Jane Eyre” has a cast of 30, said director B.J. Solomon, including 15 girls from the district’s middle and intermediate schools.
Lauren Wohlmacher stars as Jane, and Joey Grimes is her love interest, Edward Rochester. (...)
He said Jane Eyre was a beautiful story of overcoming adversity and “the first woman’s rights novel ever,” with two soulmates hearing each other’s calls across the moors.
”Most kids don’t know the novel, and I think they have feeling of something high-brow and boring,” he said. “Getting them to fall in love with the story as we’re rehearsing is a lot of fun.”
The whole set has to burn at the end, he said, and creepy laughter has to project from an unknown ghost in the attic.
The synopsis on the theater group’s website says, “In the burned-out ruins of Thornfield Hall, the adult Jane Eyre recalls the disturbing events of her childhood and young adulthood.” They include her miserable upbringing as an orphan thrust upon unsympathetic relatives, her days at a spartan boarding school and, eventually, her acceptance as governess at Thornfield Hall where she encounters its enigmatic master, Edward Rochester.
”Jane eventually unravels the secrets of this mysterious place and finds her own personal epiphany through honesty, courage and sacrifice,” says the promo. “A moving story for all times and a stunning portrayal of one of the world’s greatest heroines.”
Mr. Solomon said he hopes to attract drama buffs drawn to the social caste conflict of “Downton Abbey” or “Upstairs, Downstairs.” In the story, Jane goes to work as a governess in a home of privilege and falls in love with the head of the house.

And a talk about the Brontës in Farnhill, North Yorkshire:

Farnhill and Kildwick History Group

Isobel Stirk, who gave us a very interesting talk last year, will give a public talk on "Haworth at the time of the Brontës" at the Institute, Main Street, Farnhill, on Friday 10th May at 7:30pm.
This talk will cover the sorts of social changes that happened in many Yorkshire villages, including Farnhill and Kildwick, in the first half of the nineteenth century.