Press Release: GEORGIANA & KITTY: CHRISTMAS AT PEMBERLEY at Capital Stage

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Capital Stage Presents | Special Holiday Production

GEORGIANA & KITTY:

CHRISTMAS AT PEMBERLEY

by Lauren Gunderson & Margot Melcon

Directed by Janis Stevens

December 4, 2024 – January 5, 2025

Sacramento, California - November 7, 2024: Welcome back to the Pemberley Estate of Lauren Gunderson and Margot Melcon’s holiday hit trilogy - CHRISTMAS AT PEMBERLEY! The final installment, GEORGIANA & KITTY: CHRISTMAS AT PEMBERLEY, returns to the familiar characters of the beloved Jane Austen classic novel PRIDE & PREJUDICE, but with a greater scope of time and space. Georgiana invites her dear acquaintance Henry with whom she shares a budding romance, to Pemberley for the holiday. He brings along his best friend Thomas, who does not go unnoticed to Kitty. But courting is never a smooth affair for Jane Austen's characters, and despite their shared love of music, Georgiana and Henry are thrust apart until their paths cross again years later in London. Directed by Janis Stevens (GEORGIANA & KITTY, FOOL FOR LOVE, AMERICAN BUFFALO, BETRAYAL, THE HOMECOMING, THE REAL THING, HEDDA GABLER, A DOLL'S HOUSE) this new holiday classic features the return of Megan Wicks (GEORGIANA & KITTY, THE ARSONISTS, HEROES OF THE FOURTH TURNING), Fatemeh Mehraban (GEORGIANA & KITTY), Nicole Anne Salle (GEORGIANA & KITTY, THE GREAT LEAP, MISS BENNET), Braeden Harris (GEORGIANA & KITTY), and Andrew Fridae (GEORGIANA & KITTY). This production will also feature Apprentice Alumni Leah Daugherty, and Shelby Saumier, plus the return of Tarig Elsiddig (SWEAT), and the Capital Stage debut of Taylor Fleer as Elizabeth Darcy. Tickets available now at capstage.org.

THE PLAY

GEORGIANA & KITTY:

CHRISTMAS AT PEMBERLEY

By Lauren Gunderson & Margot Melcon

Directed by Janis Stevens

Special Holiday Production

December 4, 2024 – January 5, 2025

Georgiana Darcy is an accomplished pianist but wary of romance. Kitty Bennet is a bright-eyed optimist and a perfect best friend. These two younger sisters are ready for their own adventures in life and love, starting with the arrival of an admirer and secret correspondent. Meddlesome families and outmoded expectations won’t stop these determined friends from forging their own way in a holiday tale filled with music, ambition, sisterhood, and forgiveness in the third and final play in the Christmas at Pemberley trilogy.

“GEORGIANA & KITTY: CHRISTMAS AT PEMBERLEY is a can’t miss holiday show of the season. You will be roaring with laughter and will leave the theatre eager to embrace your own holiday love.” —SAC365

PERFORMANCE LENGTH: 2 Hours & 15 Minutes with 1 Intermission

PRESS KIT

THE PLAYWRIGHTS

Lauren Gunderson & Margot Melcon’s CHRISTMAS AT PEMBERLEY trilogy is among the most produced plays in America over the last few years. Audiences can’t get enough of the heartwarming familiarity of Christmas at the Darcy family estate. Lauren is a two-time winner of the Steinberg/ATCA New Play Award for I AND YOU and THE BOOK OF WILL, the winner of the Lanford Wilson Award and the Otis Guernsey New Voices Award, a finalist for the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize and John Gassner Award for Playwriting, and a recipient of the Mellon Foundation’s Residency with Marin Theatre Company. With Margot Melcon (dramaturg and director of New Play Development at the Marin Theatre Company) they co-authored the CHRISTMAS AT PEMBERLEY plays, as well as THE HALF-LIFE OF MARIE CURIE, which premiered off-Broadway and at Audible.com.

“The genius of Lauren Gunderson and Margot Melcon, in exploring Austen’s world, is to explicitly articulate what the books more elliptically imply: For these 19th-century women, beyond…security lay the more fundamental dream of liberty.” —CITY PAGES (Minneapolis, MN)

DIRECTOR

Janis Stevens is elated to return to direct the outstanding cast of GEORGIANA & KITTY: CHRISTMAS AT PEMBERLEY. Previous directorial credits with Capital Stage include FOOL FOR LOVE, AMERICAN BUFFALO, HEDDA GABLER, A DOLL’S HOUSE, THE HOMECOMING and BETRAYAL. Regional credits: A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM, TWELFTH NIGHT, PRIDE & PREJUDICE, TALLEY’S FOLLY for the Theater at Monmouth, Maine; SEX WITH STRANGERS at American Stage, Florida; THE TEMPEST, Arizona Shakespeare Festival in Mesa. “Locally”: OLEANNA at Sierra Rep, PROOF for Mendocino Theatre Company; THE BELLE OF AMHERST at STC, THE MOORS, Big Idea and, most recently, CHEF for California Stage. Janis will direct THE HEIGHT OF THE STORM with Black Point Theatre this coming Spring. Wishing a peaceful holiday season to all.

FACT SHEET