In Twin City Theatre Company’s Stars of Tomorrow production, a rambunctious cast and crew of young theatre-makers barrels full-speed through an exuberantly irreverent reimagining of Emily Brontë’s time at the Roe Head Girls’ School, with a dash of Scooby Doo sprinkled on top for good measure. The play envisions the Brontë sisters’ deceased mother as a skilled necromancer. While Charlotte and Anne are reticent to continue their mother’s legacy, Emily eagerly follows in her mother’s footsteps when a phantom begins terrorizing Roe Head, where Emily and Anne are students and Charlotte is a teacher. Together, they must solve the mystery of the phantom, navigate the onerous expectations placed on young women in the 1800s (or any era, for that matter), and save the school from shutting down once and for all.Emily Ritter makes her directorial debut after performing in the last four Twin City student productions, and most recently Songs for a New World. Ritter marshals a sizeable cast, which ranges in age from elementary school children to recent college graduates. As Emily and Charlotte Brontë, Taylor Curtis and Winnie Blanchfield drive much of the action. Charlotte’s role as a teacher brings her priorities into conflict, forcing her to choose between her job responsibilities and her desire to support the obstinate and irrepressible Emily. That conflict serves as the play’s emotional backbone, as the characters explore the timeless themes of intergenerational misunderstanding. Curtis’s performance as Emily is appropriately single-minded and acerbic. Blanchfield captures the plight of a character stuck between two worlds; Charlotte is no longer one of the girls, but she is also not resigned to settling for an adulthood consumed by a loveless marriage, career advancement, or both. (Douglas Malcolm)
Megan McGinnis: I’m Megan McGinnis, and I’m co-directing this production of Jane Eyre.I actually started my journey with Jane Eyre in 1998. I auditioned to be in the show and wasn’t cast, but I completely fell in love with the musical after seeing it on Broadway many times.Then, in 2009, I began working with John Caird and Paul Gordon on Daddy Long Legs. That production really cemented our creative relationship, and when I directed a new American production of Jane Eyre a couple of years ago, they came into rehearsals and continued developing the piece. I suddenly realised I wasn’t directing a finished musical anymore—I was directing something that was still evolving.When this UK premiere came along, John and Paul invited me to join them as co-director, and I couldn’t be happier that I said yes.Jane Eyre is one of the great literary masterpieces. What was it about Charlotte Brontë’s story that first spoke to you?Megan McGinnis: I first read the novel while I was at college, and it came at exactly the right time in my life.Reading about a woman who was honest about her flaws but still believed she deserved happiness, love and equality was incredibly powerful. Jane never lets society define her worth, even though obstacles are constantly put in her way.Sadly, it’s also a reminder that many of the issues women faced in the 1840s are still relevant today, which is one of the reasons the story continues to resonate with audiences.One of the production’s most interesting creative decisions is that the ensemble all become Jane’s voice at different points throughout the story. How does that work in practice?Megan McGinnis: That’s really the beauty of this adaptation.Everyone on stage becomes part of Jane’s journey, and because the novel is written from her perspective, the ensemble helps carry that narration in a really theatrical way.It also means every member of the company has ownership of the storytelling, and that’s something that has made rehearsals incredibly exciting.
Historic books, which have been chosen for display by Rosemary Wood, Becca Smith, Alice Measom McMahon, and Polly Anna Rosa Steiner, address environmental connections and the use of plants in healing by witches and healers, as well as local representation of witches in the Northwest of England and colonial stereotyping. Books on display include J. G. Frazer’s The Golden Bough, William Harrison Ainsworth’s The Lancashire Witches, and Jean Rhys’ Wide Sargasso Sea. (Bradley Lengden)
But while this story is a newish angle on the slavery story (perhaps taking some cues from Toni Morrison’s novel Beloved, or Jean Rhys’s novel Wide Sargasso Sea), it isn’t always successful at executing what it sets out to achieve. (Aoife Barry)
But from the moment Claudia arrives and approaches the creepy-looking plantation house on the hill, she is plunged into a Gothic horror. Think hauntings, centuries-old curses and possession by evil entities, all rooted in the West African tradition of obeah. There are echoes here of Jean Rhys’s Wide Sargasso Sea, plus every horror film that has tried to spook us with unidentifiable noises, doors that suddenly won’t open and disturbing things hidden beneath the floorboards. (Anita Singh)
Indiana was a smash hit and an enduring one, and it’s fair to suggest, as Sampson does, that this “creole romance” had a direct influence on both Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre. Sand quickly became known in Paris for a literary facility every bit the match for her subversive social persona and lifestyle. (Gregory Day)
«Sea lo que sea de lo que estén hechas nuestras almas, la tuya y la mía son las mismas». Emily Brontë definió a la perfección uno de los amores más tóxicos de la historia de la literatura, que daría pie a las novelas románticas juveniles de nuestros días; aunque parece que hubo un tiempo en que habían desaparecido, simplemente cambiaron de generación. (Diego Rueda) (Translation)
Con el objetivo de fortalecer el hábito de la lectura y generar espacios de convivencia entre la ciudadanía, el Gobierno Municipal de Villa de Pozos, a través de la Biblioteca Municipal "Dr. Francisco de Asís Castro", retomará este martes 4 de agosto las sesiones del Café Literario, un espacio dedicado al análisis de obras literarias y al intercambio de ideas entre las y los participantes.La directora de Bibliotecas, Sofía Narváez, informó que las reuniones se llevan a cabo todos los martes del mes a las 10:00 de la mañana en las instalaciones de la biblioteca. En esta nueva etapa, el libro seleccionado será Cumbres Borrascosas, de la escritora inglesa Emily Brontë, obra que servirá como punto de partida para las actividades de lectura, análisis y diálogo entre los asistentes. (Plano Informativo) (Translation)
Startefacts lists five Wuthering Heights adaptations: Wuthering Heights 1978, Wuthering Heights 2009, Arashi ga oka 1988, Abismos de Pasión 1954 and Hihintayin kita sa langit 1991.
In Emerald Fennell’s 2026 take on Wuthering Heights, costume designer Jacqueline Durran created a theatrical hoop-skirted gown with a sweeping train for Cathy’s ill-fated marriage to Edgar Linton. (Meg Walters)
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