Karen Doornebos, C. Allyn Pierson, Diana Birchall - three members of the popular "Austen Variations" writing blog
A guest blogger! I have a guest blogger on "Light, Bright, and Sparkling" for the very first time! As a companion piece to my previous post, "A View from the Stage," C. Allyn Pierson (more familiarly known as Carey), has agreed to tell the story as she saw it from the other side of the footlights. (Not that there were any actual footlights.) Carey is a member of Austen Variations, the "Austenesque" writing blog I belong to, and we both write stories there regularly. She's also a physician living in Iowa, with many fascinating interests, which you can read about on http://austenvariations.com/ And now, here's Carey's tale of matters Montreal...
View from the third row…
By C. Allyn Pierson
My
miniscule part in “A Dangerous Intimacy” began almost a year ago when I followed
Diana’s Facebook posts and blog posts about the 2012 AGM and I discovered that
she and Syrie would be writing a new play and presenting it for the 2014 AGM in
Montreal. During her comments she lamented that her only Regency gown had been
deemed DOA by her friends and that she would need to get a new gown, sighing
that she would have to have someone make one, as she does not sew. I volunteered to sew her a new gown…but it
took about 2 weeks to convince her that I really meant it! It would be a
dangerous thing (not intimate, but clearly dangerous…) to volunteer such a thing
if I didn’t mean it!
After some
wasting of time, twiddling of thumbs and a couple of months, we finally came
down to the cotton thread (sort of like the brass tacks a là sewing…) and I obtained royal blue
satin and selected and altered my pattern. I used the wrong side of the satin,
as Diana wanted a gown that could be used for daytime as well as for any Regency
balls she might come upon, so she did not want it to be too glossy. I chose to make it a drawstring dress so that
she could not only adjust it to fit perfectly, but she could actually get in and
out of it on her own (those who have been to Jane Austen events have probably
dealt with the “OMG! How do I get out of my dress here, alone in my hotel room?
Is this included in room service?”).
After the
gown was finished and as the AGM approached, I offered her a cap, fichu, etc.
and then discovered that she would be costumed in green baize! When I finished
laughing, I went on to work on my fleur-de-lis embroidered gown, hoping to
finish it before I left for beautiful Montreal (I finally finished it 45 minutes
before the Saturday evening banquet...whew!)
Another view of my couture gown from the House of Pierson
Carey wears her own elegant gown to work!
On Friday
evening, the night of Diana and Syrie’s tour-de-force, I ran into Karen
Doornebos, another Austen Variations friend, and found out that she was in the
play too, but needed help getting into her gown (see above, paragraph 2…). She gave me the time she would be dressing,
and I packed up needles, thread, hair doodads, flowers, hairpins, and jewelry
and stepped into the elevator, generating much comment about the red and white
striped bandbox I had all my accessories in…there was also considerable
disappointment when I admitted that there was no bonnet in the
bandbox.
I won’t go
into details about the dressing experience…we dressers need to be discrete about
our activities…let us just say that it involved one zipper, two safety pins (not
Regency approved), bobby pins, a pearl hairclip and a pearl necklace (fake, but
hopefully not colored with fish scales).
You may imagine the details yourself.
I took my
bandbox and retired to the auditorium, ready in case of theatrical emergencies,
but everything was prepared so I found a seat on the third row aisle where I
could see the entire show without getting a kink in my neck looking up at the
stage. I prepared to be entertained.
While
awaiting the curtain, I was a little confused by the piano tuner tuning the
grand piano in the room…but later realized that it was for a concert later in
the evening. The audience straggled in and a glance around just before curtain
time revealed that there was standing room only. There was a buzz of conversation and a rustle
of programs as spectators speculated about the props that were visible on the
stage, and which actors were playing which parts. They did not have long to
wait…
Reading
Diana’s version of the writing and staging, I am even more impressed that
she and Syrie were able to bring together people from three countries and, with
two short rehearsals, pull off a comedy that called forth cheers and applause,
boos and hisses. There is no question
that Mrs. Norris stole the show (as we know she always tries to do) and Diana did an
outstanding job being mean, nasty, dismissive, and patronizing. I have never
seen an Austen-based entertainment that actually engendered hissing at the
villain in the piece!
I have to
say that Julia and Maria Bertram did far too good a job at cat fighting…I
hope this was just for the stage ladies…ahem. The best part about the vignette
was that the actors obviously enjoyed their parts! I do still wonder what Mrs.
Norris did with that roll of green baize with which she absconded when Sir
Thomas returned from Antigua earlier than expected…
The
theater-goers trickled out after the play…far too busy laughing and talking
about the play to hurry on to the next entertainment. They were still talking
about it the next night at the banquet and ball, and I’m sure will continue to
do so until the next AGM.
The ball on
the following night was an excellent example of how difficult it is to put
together a multinational production, when the Austen Variations gang tried to
get together for a picture…we finally managed to get three of us in one place
(unfortunately, we could not find Syrie when we had the inspiration for the
photo, but you may look on Diana’s Facebook page and this blog for pictures of
the cast)…Diana Birchall in her new royal blue gown and beautiful embroidered
shawl, Karen Doornebos in my pearls and pearl hairclip (and her new ball gown), and me in my
fleur-de-lis gown. I think we made a
respectable showing! Somehow, even though Diana and Karen wore heels and I wore
ballet slippers, I managed to tower over their delicate selves…but then being
tall was one of the signs of Maria’s and Julia’s superiority…I will say no more
than that.
Well,
except to look forward to a reprise of Diana's earlier play, "You are Passionate, Jane," with herself and Syrie playing respectively Charlotte Bronte and Jane Austen, which may happen at the 2017 JASNA AGM in Huntington Bedach, California, with a "Jane Austen in Paradise" theme. Oh, dear, how can I make a Regency gown look
more…Brontë?
[From Diana] No worries, Carey, I found a pair of gorgeous blue feathered angel wings at the Salvation Army, which will look sublime with the blue gown! A snood, and I'm a dead Bronte...
[From Diana] No worries, Carey, I found a pair of gorgeous blue feathered angel wings at the Salvation Army, which will look sublime with the blue gown! A snood, and I'm a dead Bronte...
C. Allyn Pierson
Author of Mr. Darcy's Little Sister
Website: www.callynpierson.com
Blogs: callynpierson.wordpress.com
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