Lauren Gunderson News

Merrimack Repertory Theatre (MRT) will present Audrey Cefaly's Maytag Virgin, a sweet, Southern romance about starting over again, from January 8 to February 2 at the Nancy L. Donahue Theatre at Liberty Hall, according to Executive Director Bonnie J. Butkas and Interim Artistic Director Terry Berliner. Eleanor Holdridge directs.

Ford's Theatre Society announced full casting and the design team for Silent Sky by Lauren Gunderson, a captivating play based on the life of trail-blazing astronomer Henrietta Leavitt. The Ford's Theatre production is directed by Seema Sueko and features Laura C. Harris (Arena Stage's The Heiress, Signature Theatre's The Flick) as Henrietta Leavitt, Nora Achrati as Annie Jump Cannon, Emily Kester as Margaret Leavitt, Jonathan David Martin as Peter Shaw and Holly Twyford as Williamina Fleming. Performances are January 24 to February 23, 2020. A media performance is scheduled for January 29, 2020 at 7:00 p.m.

San Francisco Playhouse presents the Bay Area premiere of Tiny Beautiful Things by Academy Award and Golden Globe-nominated writer and actress Nia Vardalos, based on the book by best-selling author Cheryl Strayed (Wild). Bill English will direct the Playhouse production.

Audible Theater has just released a new video that goes behind the scenes of The Half-Life of Marie Curie (their current play at the Minetta Lane Theatre), following the project's unique journey from page to stage to earbuds through the eyes of playwright Lauren Gunderson, Director Gaye Taylor Upchurch, actresses Kate Mulgrew and Francesca Faridany, and Audible artistic producer Kate Navin and senior producer Emilia LaPenta.

Westport Country Playhouse will present a Script in Hand playreading of 'Miss Bennet: Christmas at Pemberley,' the romantic comedy sequel to Jane Austen's 'Pride and Prejudice,' by Lauren Gunderson and Margot Melcon, on Monday, December 16, at 7 p.m. The reading will be directed by Anne Keefe, Playhouse associate artist and curator of the playreading series. Tickets are $20 each.

MRT celebrates the holidays through December 22 with the imaginative and radiant The Wickhams: Christmas at Pemberley, a new companion piece to last season's Miss Bennet: Christmas at Pemberley – both based on the characters from Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice.

Merrimack Repertory Theatre presents the second installment of what will become a trilogy co-written by Lauren Gunderson and Margot Melcon, about the close-knit sisters from Jane Austen's PRIDE AND PREJUDICE. Paralleling the upstairs Christmas-time festivities featured in last year's MISS BENNET: CHRISTMAS AT PEMBERLEY at Pemberley Estate, the lives, loves, and intrigues of the downstairs denizens take center stage in THE WICKHAMS: CHRISTMAS AT PEMBERLEY. Mr. Darcy, lord of the manor, his wife Lizzy, and her sister Lydia are all back to link the two worlds, and they are joined by Lydia's roguish husband, George Wickham, and three of the hard-working house staff.

Four fierce women lose their heads in Lauren Gunderson's irreverent, girl-powered comedy, The Revolutionists, set during the French Revolution's Reign of Terror. Performances of The Revolutionists will be held at 7:00 p.m. on December 13 and 14 and at 2:00 p.m. on December 14 and 15, 2019, in the Black Box Theatre at Firestone CLC. General admission tickets to The Revolutionists are $8.00 in advance and $10.00 at the door. All tickets are available online and at the door on the night of performance.

Capital Stage presents the Sacramento Premiere of THE WICKHAMS: CHRISTMAS AT PEMBERLEY.

Artistic Director Marissa Wolf makes her Portland Center Stage at The Armory directing debut with Miss Bennet: Christmas at Pemberley, a delightful Jane Austen-inspired comedy from playwrights Lauren Gunderson and Margot Melcon. Portland favorite Lauren Modica (Bedlam's Sense and Sensibility and Twist Your Dickens at The Armory) will star as middle sister Mary Bennet, who takes center stage in this charming and clever sequel to Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. When the Bennet sisters gather at the home of Lizzy and Darcy for the holidays, an unexpected guest sparks brilliant, bookish Mary's hopes for independence, an intellectual match, and perhaps even romance. 

An old fashioned hearing aid and a strong willed woman at its helm with dreams as big as the universe she wishes to discover is one of many centralized themes presented in this brilliant staging of Lauren Gunderson's Silent Sky at American Stage Theatre. At the center of the stage two desk faced by numerous books on shelves in a workspace for women at Harvard University, where women are paid a mere .25 cents on the hour to a?oecomputea?? and manually log the patterns of stars in the galaxy given on glass plates by their male counterparts. At this point in Harvard's history women were not allowed to work alongside the men no matter their prior education or status. Men had their place, and women had theirs and men liked to make sure the women knew their place in the hierarchy. It was one women's dream to be credited amongst the likes of men in the Astrology department, and through sheer will power she set out to prove just that.

Miss Bennet: Christmas at Pemberley reunites Jane Austen fans with many of the characters from the author's most celebrated work, Pride and Prejudice. Mary (Ciana Van Dusen) and Jane (Chelsey Prince) join Elizabeth (Katie Torresan) and Mr. Darcy (Kurt Shantz) over the Christmas holiday at the Pemberley estate about two years after the events of the novel. A heavily pregnant Jane arrives at Pemberley with Mr. Bingley (Christian Giansante) and the still-single Mary accompanies them. Lydia (Emily White) arrives separately. About thirty seconds after she arrives, Mary discovers the library and is immediately engrossed in a book of maps. A new character, Arthur de Bourgh (Dave Coleman), has also been invited to spend the holidays at Pemberley. Arthur is Darcy's distant cousin and has recently inherited The Late Catherine de Bourgh's estate. When Arthur arrives, he and Mary feel an instant connection through their mutual interests, but misunderstandings and other circumstances soon arise to complicate matters.

Roughly two months ago American Theatre announced that for the second time in the past three seasons, Lauren Gunderson has topped their list of the most-produced playwrights in the country, her 33 professional productions among the 385 Theatre Communications Group's member theatres easily surpassing second place finisher Lauren Yee's 18, Tennessee Williams' 17 and more than doubling the totals of August Wilson and Neil Simon. She came in at #2 on last year's list after her first #1 finish the year before. (For the record, Shakespeare, who would surely rank #1 every season, is excluded.)

Regency romance is back for the holidays at Main Street Theater (MST) with Lauren Gunderson and Margot Melcon's The Wickhams: Christmas at Pemberley-a companion piece to the duo's Miss Bennet: Christmas at Pemberley which delighted Houston audiences at MST during the last 2 seasons. Both plays are set in the world of Jane Austen's popular novel, Pride and Prejudice. The Wickhams is all about what's happening downstairs in the servants' quarters while the actions of Miss Bennet were taking place upstairs!

As the Darcy's prepare to host a family Christmas, an unexpected guest arrives, setting the stage for two people to fall in love during a three-day house party. This romantic comedy, Miss Bennet: Christmas at Pemberley, runs December 6th through 21st at the Farmington Players Barn in Farmington Hills, Michigan. Tickets are available now at farmingtonplayers.org or at the box office: (248) 552-2955.

In Arizona Theatre Company's current production of Lauren Gunderson's SILENT SKY, director Casey Stangl elevates and transforms the work into a visually magnificent and magical experience. With an eye on the layers of the play that delve beyond the biographic account and celebration of this woman's spirited and inquisitive journey to unravel the secrets of the universe, Stangl invites the audience to wonderment and reflection on the seminal question of the play: What is our place in the vast arena of the universe?

Regency romance is back for the holidays at Main Street Theater (MST) with Lauren Gunderson and Margot Melcon's The Wickhams: Christmas at Pemberleya?"a companion piece to the duo's Miss Bennet: Christmas at Pemberley which delighted Houston audiences at MST during the last 2 seasons. Both plays are set in the world of Jane Austen's popular novel, Pride and Prejudice. The Wickhams is all about what's happening downstairs in the servants' quarters while the actions of Miss Bennet were taking place upstairs!

Miss Bennet: Christmas at Pemberley by Lauren Gunderson and Margot Melcon, produced by Orlando Shakes in partnership with UCF, runs from December 4 - 29, 2019. Tickets (starting at $30) are available now by phone (407) 447-1700 ext. 1, online at orlandoshakes.org, or in person at the John and Rita Lowndes Shakespeare Center (812 East Rollins Street).