Shakespeare & Company to Host Holiday Reading of MISS BENNET: CHRISTMAS AT PEMBERLEY

Shakespeare & Company presents Miss Bennet: Christmas at Pemberley, written by Lauren Gunderson and Margot Melcon, and directed by longtime Company member and Producing Associate Ariel Bock. This funny, warm-hearted holiday story, will have a special limited run from December 15 - 17 in the Elayne P. Bernstein Theatre.

The Company's family-friendly holiday performance will be a costumed, staged reading of the imagined sequel to Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. The ever-dependable Mary Bennet is growing tired of her role as dutiful middle sister in the face of her siblings' romantic escapades. When the family gathers for Christmas at Pemberley, an unexpected guest sparks Mary's hopes for independence, an intellectual match, and possibly even love.

"I am thrilled to be heading up our staged reading of Miss Bennett: Christmas at Pemberley," said Director Ariel Bock. "I am a huge Jane Austen fan! The play combines Gunderson's lively wit with Jane Austen's beloved characters- the Bennett sisters and the Messrs. Darcy and Bingley - in a playful love story that celebrates the holiday spirit of warmth and family. In addition the themes of a classic Austen romance, the play is also a very contemporary story of a woman determined to find self-worth outside the confines of her society."

Tickets for Miss Bennet: Christmas at Pemberley are general admission, $22 for Adults and $12 for Students. They are now available online at shakespeare.org, or by calling Shakespeare & Company's box office at (413) 637-3353. Performances are: Friday, December 15 - 7:30pm; Saturday, December 16 - 2:00pm and 7:30pm and Sunday, December 17 - 2:00pm. The Elayne P. Bernstein Theatre is air-conditioned and wheelchair accessible. Shakespeare & Company is located at 70 Kemble St. in Lenox, Massachusetts.

Ariel Bock is the current Producing Associate and longtime Company actor at Shakespeare & Company. Recent credits include, S&Co: Mom (Ugly Lies the Bone); Mistress Quickly (Henry IV pts 1&2); Goneril (King Lear); Beatrice (Much Ado About Nothing); Elizabeth (Richard III); Audrey (As You Like It); Hippolyta (Midsummer Night's Dream); The Nurse (Romeo and Juliet); Mistress Quickly (Merry Wives of Windsor); Paulina (The Winters Tale,) Ruth (Private Eyes), the Woman (Laughing Wild); Arlene (Off the Map). At Mixed Company: Ramona (Zara Spook and Other Lures) and Eileen (The Cripple of Inishmaan). With the Ensemble for the Romantic Century in NYC: Nadezhda VonMeck (None But the Lonely Heart), as well as Fanny Mendelsohn, Emily Dickinson, Sonia Tolstoy and Anna Akhmatova. A Designated Linklater Voice Teacher, she has been on the faculty of Dartmouth College and MIT.

Lauren M. Gunderson is the most produced living playwright in America of 2016, the winner of the Lanford Wilson Award and the Steinberg/ATCA New Play Award, a finalist for the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize and John Gassner Award for Playwriting, and a recipient of the Mellon Foundation's 3-Year Residency with Marin Theatre Company. She studied Southern Literature and Drama at Emory University, and Dramatic Writing at NYU's Tisch School where she was a Reynolds Fellow in Social Entrepreneurship. Her work has been commissioned, produced and developed at companies across the US including South Cost Rep (Emilie, Silent Sky), The Kennedy Center (The Amazing Adventures of Dr. Wonderful And Her Dog!), The O'Neill, The Denver Center, San Francisco Playhouse, Marin Theatre, Synchronicity, Olney Theatre, Berkeley Rep, Shotgun Players, TheatreWorks, Crowded Fire and more. She co-authored Miss Bennet: Christmas at Pemberley with Margot Melcon. Her work is published at Playscripts (I and You, Exit Pursued By A Bear, The Taming, and Toil And Trouble), Dramatists (Silent Sky, Bauer, Miss Bennet) and Samuel French (Emilie). Her picture book Dr Wonderful: Blast Off to the Moon will be released from Two Lions / Amazon in May 2017. LaurenGunderson.com and @LalaTellsAStory

Margot Melcon is a theater artist, administrator and writer. She was the Director of New Play Development at Marin Theatre Company for seven years, where she dramaturged over 30 productions-including six world premieres-and administered the company's two annual new play prizes and commissioning program. She has developed plays with TheatreWorks, Bay Area Playwrights Festival, Crowded Fire Theater, Shotgun Players, Berkeley Rep's Ground Floor, the Kennedy Center, the New Harmony Project, and the Playwrights' Center in Minneapolis. She is currently the Program Executive for Promoting Culture at the Zellerbach Family Foundation. Margot is a graduate of California State University, Chico.

Located in the Berkshires of Western Massachusetts, Shakespeare & Company is one of the largest Shakespeare Festivals in the country. Founded in 1978, the organization attracts over 30,000 patrons annually. The Company is also home to Shakespeare & Company's internationally renowned Center for Actor Training and nationally renowned and award-winning Education Program. More information is available at www.shakespeare.org.