In Emily's Words

Broadway Podcast Network features the podcast The Musicals of Tomorrow which recently discussed Jessy Tomsko’s In Emily’s Words.

IN EMILY’S WORDS (by Jessy Tomsko) – In Emily’s Words, a new musical about the power of the human imagination, tells the story of English novelist Emily Brontë as she is writing her magnum opus: Wuthering Heights. Emily’s imagination knew no bounds, and in spite of having seen very little of the world, she was able to craft a sweeping melodrama that has left a legacy nearly 200 years after her death. Emily Brontë fought through adversity and illness, achieving agency in a time when women were denied it. Yet while she paved the way for female writers, Emily never lived to see the success of her own labors. Hers is a story of resilience, strength, and the greatness that can be achieved when the immense power of imagination is unleashed. Jessy was also joined by her director Avital Asuleen.

The episode is available here.

The Curb marks the birthday of actress Ida Lupino by highlighting five of her films. About Outrage (1950):

What particularly amuses me is the clergyman and his relationship with Ann. At one point, I realised I was watching Jane Eyre and St John Rivers. Except this is a much kinder sweeter St John, the St John he should have been instead of the incorruptible fucktard he is in the book. I thought, “Haha, I bet Ida loved Jane Eyre.” And then I remembered a few years earlier she was in a (hideously inaccurate) Brontë sisters biopic called Devotion (1946), playing Emily to Olivia de Havilland’s Charlotte. And much later, she said a few very Janian lines in a 1956 film called Strange Intruder based on a book by Australian author Helen Marjorie Fowler. Undoubtedly a fan. (Nisha-Anne)

Evening Standard lists several 'faces to watch in 2022' from TV and theatre and one of them is

Ash Hunter

Out on the wily, windy moors, there’s a new Heathcliff coming our way. Ash Hunter is set to play the bad boy of Brontë land in Emma Rice’s exciting new adaptation of Wuthering Heights at the National Theatre in February. The show, which stars Lucy McCormick as Cathy, has already opened at the Bristol Old Vic to a wave of wonderful reviews - awarding it five stars, The Times called it “emotionally epic entertainment”, with Hunter’s performance described as “like a resolutely unforgiving bruise”. He’s been building a name for himself for some time - he’s had TV roles in Bridgerton and Harlots, and has played Alexander Hamilton in the West End - and 2022 looks set to launch his star even further. (Katie Rosseinsky and Jessie Thompson)

The Boston Globe features singer/songwriter Cécile McLorin Salvant.

The album begins and ends with two ghost-related covers — Kate Bush’s “Wuthering Heights” (Salvant was “struck to my core” by the Emily Brönte [sic] novel, which she read while making the album) and the traditional “Unquiet Grave,” respectively — tracks sung partly or entirely unaccompanied in the Irish sean-nós style. (Bill Beuttler)

The Independent recommends 14 best feminist books and one of them is the wonderful

‘A Room of One’s Own’ by Virginia Woolf, published by Penguin

Best: Feminist classic

Rating: 9/10

Hugely significant at the time of its release, Virginia Woolf’s 1929 extended essay addresses everything from the necessity of women’s financial freedom to the situations of female authors such as Jane Austen and the Brontë sisters. Examining the educational, social and financial disadvantages that women have faced throughout history, the central gist of Woolf’s feminist critique is that: “A woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction.” (Daisy Lester)

Her Campus recommends 'Five Horror Books for a Broken Heart' and one of them is

4. Home Before Dark – Riley Sager

Maggie Holt grew up with the knowledge that her father had secrets, and the biggest secret was the mystery of Baneberry Hall. When Maggie steps foot in Baneberry to renovate and sell it, mysterious and haunted things start happening. This book is a modern-day gothic novel that is reminiscent of Wuthering Heights or Jane Eyre, but packed with the twists and turns that Riley Sager is known for writing. (C Rose Widmann)

Daily Nexus has a letter to 'All Ex-Book Readers' inviting them to take up reading again.

Increased technology usage over the past two decades certainly has a primal part to play, as having a black hole of information in our easily accessible phones makes it difficult to gain knowledge elsewhere, “elsewhere” including books. With such a high saturation of digital content at my fingertips, I often feel that resorting to my phone for entertainment is the easy cop-out to reading. Furthermore, since grade school, the degree of literature we consume has certainly increased dramatically. The bridge from “The Magic Treehouse” to “Jane Eyre” is a shorter one than we give it credit for, and in all honesty, reading classic, academic literature takes a substantial amount of effort. (Lola Watts)

The Atlantic discusses regrets and disagrees with a bit of a poem by Charlotte Brontë.

 In 1846, for example, Charlotte Brontë composed a poem entitled “Regret,” in which she wrote, “Life and marriage I have known, / Things once deemed so bright; / Now, how utterly is flown / Every ray of light!”

Brontë’s poem is lyrically beautiful, but the philosophy behind it is ultimately simplistic, and wrong. Regrets may hurt, but they don’t need to banish the sunlight from our life. Obsessing over them is destructive. But shunning them, or trying to live without them, is a lost opportunity to grow. Life is a journey full of pleasures and pains. To live it well and fully means learning from every bit of it, including the mistakes, and moving forward. (Arthur C. Brooks)

And we end up by reposting this from the Brontë Parsonage Twitter account:

Could you be our next Writer in Residence?

We're really excited to announce that this year we are putting out an open call for a Writer in Residence, working with us from April 2022 - March 2023.

Find out more: https://t.co/wVCApujyfN

— Brontë Parsonage (@BronteParsonage) February 3, 2022