Kate Hamill To Star As Jane Austen In THE AUSTENS

The Holy Theatre, in association with the Jane Austen Society of North America New York Metropolitan Region, will present a one-time-only benefit performance of The Austens on Saturday, January 3, 2026 at Symphony Space in New York City.

The Austens is a funny, fierce new dramedy by Sarah Rose Kearns, inspired by the life of the much-beloved novelist Jane Austen. Helmed by director Andrus Nichols (Our Town at Sharon Playhouse), this staged reading features Evan Horwitz as Thomas Carter, Mahira Kakkar (Life of Pi on Broadway) as Cassandra Austen, Carman Lacivita (original cast of Kate Hamill's Emma at The Guthrie) as James Austen, Colleen Litchfield (Leopoldstadt on Broadway) as Anna Austen, Samantha Steinmetz (Emma at The Guthrie) as Martha Lloyd, and Rita Wolf (Drama-Desk nominee for An American Pilot) as Mrs. Austen - with the playwright and actor Kate Hamill in the role of Jane. Ebony Vines reads stage directions.

Hamill, who has been ranked among the top most-produced playwrights in the United States every year since 2017, has had a long and close association with Jane Austen prior to this. Among her many popular plays are effervescent stage adaptations of several Austen novels - the first of which was Sense & Sensibility, in which Hamill herself originated the role of Marianne. This project reunites her with both Nichols and Steinmetz, who created the roles of Elinor and Mrs. Dashwood, respectively, in Hamill's acclaimed play.

The Austens imagines novelist Jane Austen and her family in the spring and summer of 1810, when Jane was 34 and still unpublished, notwithstanding decades of intense dedication to her craft. The play centers on her relationship with her troubled teen niece Anna Austen, and it culminates in her decision to seek publication for Sense and Sensibility.

This performance occurs shortly after Austen's 250th birthday on December 16th, and coincides with worldwide celebrations of her literary legacy.