SENSE AND SENSIBILITY Closes Northern Stage's 25th Anniversary Season

Northern Stage will close its celebratory 25th Anniversary Season with  Kate Hamill's vibrant and playful adaptation of Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility, which will be performed June 14-July 9, 2023, in the Courtyard Theater at the Barrette Center for the Arts in White River Junction, VT.

Adapted from Jane Austen's beloved novel, Sense and Sensibility follows the fortunes (and misfortunes) of the Dashwood sisters — sensible Elinor and passionate Marianne — after their father's sudden death leaves them financially destitute and socially vulnerable. Set in gossipy late 18th-century England, with a fresh female voice, the play is full of humor, emotional depth, and bold theatricality. Sense and Sensibility examines our reactions, both reasonable and ridiculous, to societal pressures. When reputation is everything, how do you follow your heart? Sense and Sensibility will be directed by Northern Stage's BOLD resident director Aileen Wen McGroddy.

“The characters in Jane Austen's world are navigating a gauntlet of societal pressures, family expectations, and personal desires,” says McGroddy. “All while trying to maintain the poise and manners that are expected of their class. In this production, we're going to be exposing the nasty, rowdy, and delicious currents that drive the formal society of Sense and Sensibility to understand how it might be possible to live freely in a corseted world.” 

The cast of 11 features Michael Dias (Jeff-nominated And Neither Have I Wings to Fly with First Folio) as Colonel Brandon; Michelle Elise Duffy (Leap of Faith on Broadway) as Mrs. Dashwood; Tom Ford (Northern Stage's Matilda) as John Middleton; Andrew Gombas (Sueño at Trinity Rep) as John Willoughby; Jihan Haddad (Sisters in Northern Stage's New Works Now) as Marianne Dashwood; Devon Hayakawa (A Chorus Line at Drury Lane) as Margaret Dashwood; Narea Kang (Lloyd Suh's The Heart Sellers at Milwaukee Rep) as Elinor Dashwood; Felix Mayes (A Midsummer Night's Dream at the Shakespeare Theater Company of New Jersey) as Edward Ferras; and Izzie Steele (Hulu's Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency) as Fanny Dashwood and Northern Stage Experiential Term (E-Term) students David Katz and Eva Roux as Mrs. Jennings and Lucy Steele respectively. 

Joining McGroddy on the creative team are Carolyn Mraz (Set Designer), Camilla Dely (Costume Designer), Jennifer Fok (Lighting Designer), Kate Marvin (Sound Designer), Nat Kelley DiMario (Production Stage Manager), Tatiana Baccari (Assistant Director), and Shanel Smith (Scenic Design Assistant). 

Performance times are Tuesday at 4 PM, Wednesday through Saturday at 7:30 PM, and Sunday at 5 PM. Opening Night is Saturday, June 17th at 6:30 PM. Ticket prices range from $19 to $55 — $19 for students of all ages, $20 for those under the age of 25, and $34 for all seats at the final preview performance, Friday, June 16th at 7:30 PM. Pay What You Can for the first two preview performances, Wednesday and Thursday, June 14th and 15th at 7:30 PM.  Access for All tickets (for EBT card holders) are $5 and are available for any performance while ticket supplies last. The Courtyard Theater at the Barrette Center for the Arts is located at 74 Gates Street, White River Junction, VT. For tickets and information, call (802) 296-7000 or visit Click Here.

The Northern Stage 2022/23 season is sponsored by Alice Peck Day Memorial Hospital, our season underwriter since 2018. Sense and Sensibility is sponsored in part by Henderson's Tree & Garden Services, Coldwell Banker Lifestyles, and RC Brayshaw & Company; preview performances are sponsored by Three Tomatoes Trattoria. Northern Stage is supported in part by the Vermont Arts Council, the Vermont Humanities Council, and the National Endowment for the Arts. 

Northern Stage (northernstage.org) is a regional non-profit LORT-D professional theater company located in White River Junction, VT. Northern Stage actively engages its audiences with world-class productions and extensive educational and community outreach programs in its new home, the Barrette Center for the Arts. Founded in 1997, the company has offered more than 150 professional productions of new works, classics, and musicals. Now in its 25th Season, Northern Stage serves over 50,000 people. In 2014, the company launched a new play festival that has cultivated seven world premiere productions and three Off-Broadway transfers, including The New York Times Critic's Pick Only Yesterday. Northern Stage's breadth of programming supports the company's mission of “changing lives, one story at a time.”