Charming, cheery and comical: 'Miss Bennet' does it all

The seasons are shifting, November has drawn to a close, and the holiday season is upon us. Viterbo University’s production of “Miss Bennet: Christmas at Pemberley” had a successful run at the Weber Center for the Performing Arts. On Nov. 15-16 and Nov. 22-23 at 7:30 p.m., audience members were invited to enter the reality of the Pemberley household and have a laugh as students took the stage.

On Nov. 16, Rick Walters, professor of theatre and director of this production, held a talkback after the show. This allowed audience members to ask the cast their pressing questions. One of the main points of discussion related to the rehearsal schedule. To shed some light on the process, Walters explained that the cast rehearsed for a total of eight weeks, four nights per week, from 6:00 p.m. to 9:30 p.m.

In addition to the structured rehearsal time, cast members were required to research the time period, wrestle with the element of British dialect, and dive into primary influential sources for this show.

Jane Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice” served as one of the sources the cast examined to gain perspective on each of their characters. Lauren Gunderson and Margot Melcon, the show’s playwrights, adopted the characters of Austen’s piece and placed them two years in the future during the holiday season.

Another topic discussed was the development of the British dialect. The cast spoke, cheerfully about the number of ways they worked to create the essence of the accent. Rachel Armstrong, a sophomore music theatre major, spoke about how she “watched a lot of British TV, like ‘The Crown’ and ‘Downtown Abbey’.” Cristian Nieves, a junior music theatre major, spoke about the incorporation of the voice and speech courses of Viterbo’s theatre curriculum, and how they allowed for the technical exploration of various dialects through the utilization of the International Phonetic Alphabet.

To conclude the discussion, Walters made a point to recognize not only the cast, but also the crew members who worked behind the scenes to put this production up in front of an audience. “It takes a village to put on a play,” humored Walters. He conveyed that it is the efforts of everyone in attendance which contributes to the process and makes productions, like “Miss Bennet: Christmas at Pemberley,” possible.