Updates

On April 23, I appeared in a ReachArts podcast episode celebrating Shakespeare’s birthday. Along with my husband and acting partner, Bryan Butters, I performed excerpts from Antony and Cleopatra, The Two Gentlemen of Verona, and The Tempest.

On Saturday, April 22, at Swampscott Public Library in Mass., I presented a talk about the Bard and performed excerpts from Romeo and Juliet, Richard III, and As You Like It with my husband and fellow actor, Bryan Butters. The Marblehead Current covered the event.

On March 10, 2023, I performed Ahead of Their Time: Inspiring Women of Literature. This dramatic reading, which I created for ReachArts’ International Women’s Day Festival in Swampscott, Mass., brings to life some of classic literature’s favorite leading ladies and several historical women who wrote brilliantly in defense of their gender. Access the two-part audio version at ReachArts (scroll down for the podcast).

In January 2023, fifth-graders at the Nathan Hale Arts Magnet School in New London, Conn., performed a short shadow puppetry play I wrote on commission for Flock Theatre. The students performed “Katherine Johnson, Space-Race Hero,” based on the true story of one of the NASA mathematicians featured in the Academy Award-nominated film Hidden Figures, at an all-school assembly. The performance was produced by Flock Theatre and funded by the City of New London’s Community Development Block Grant program. Image courtesy of Flock Theatre.

On January 8, 2023, I played the role of Director in a virtual reading of It Ain’t Pinter, a short satire by Jack Rushton about the challenges of getting a play produced. The reading, which was attended by the playwright, was hosted by the Depot for New Play Readings.

In honor of Emily Dickinson’s birthday, in December 2022 I performed some of the poet’s best-loved works and discussed them with podcast host and fellow writer-performer Agatha Morrell of ReachArts in Swampscott, Mass. To hear favorites including “I’m Nobody! Who are you?” and ‘Hope’ is the thing with feathers”, scroll down to the episode on the ReachArts homepage.

Attention to detail is one behavior typical of the ISFJ personality. For the September 4, 2022 episode of the Type Talks podcast, my fellow guests and I discussed being ISFJs in the workforce with host Joyce Meng, a certified Myers-Briggs Type Indicator® Master Practitioner. The episode is available in audio and video.

In late July 2022, I became a professional cantor at St. John the Evangelist Church in Swampscott and St. Thomas Aquinas Church in Nahant, Mass., leading the congregation in song under Music Director Will Parks. Photo of Swampscott by Julie Butters

On June 23, 2022, I presented two free performances of Jane & Rochester, which I adapted from Jane Eyre, at the Old Town Hall in Salem, Mass. The twenty-minute, costumed dramatic reading chronicles the central love story of Brontë’s novel. The shows were presented in partnership with the community pop-up CultureHouse Salem and were funded by the City of Salem. “I hope my performance will help people re-experience how joyful live theatre can be,” I told Patch.com.

I performed the role of Clothilde Andermatt, a wealthy Frenchwoman with secrets to protect and a husband to avenge in The Seven of Hearts, which released in June 2022. This is the sixth episode in a series adapted from the early twentieth-century French short stories about the gentleman thief Arsène Lupin. Presented by the Jakespeare Virtual Theatre Company.

My work on Jane Eyre was featured on the cover of the Spring 2022 issue of 01907, a quarterly magazine about the lifestyle and interests of Swampscott, Mass.

The Williams School of New London, Conn., performed my stage adaptation of Little Women November 19–20, 2021. Jane Martineau directed. I played Jo March in the original production, which was commissioned by and for Flock Theatre. Photo courtesy of Flock Theatre

On November 6–7, 2021, I was a panelist and performer in the first annual Red Rock Literary Festival in Swampscott, Mass. As the author of Pocket Prayers for Young Professionals and an adapter of Little Women for the stage, I spoke about writing for children and young adults. As the writer of a stage adaptation of Jane Eyre that was produced as a Zoom film in 2020, I spoke about screenwriting. I also debuted, as a dramatic reading, a short solo performance I adapted from Jane Eyre entitled Jane & Rochester, which chronicles the novel’s central love story. Listen to an excerpt from the show on the ReachArts podcast.

On October 31, 2021, I reunited with fellow Flock Theatre actor Eric Michaelian to perform a virtual reading of Backstage Fairytale, a two-person romantic comedy by Michael John McGoldrick. In this delightful and witty play, as described in the New Play Exchange, “a writer meets up with a former lover, now a successful New York actor, to reveal he’s written a play about her. A romantic comedy about romantic comedies and the psychic needs that fuel the creative instinct.” The reading, which was attended by the playwright, was hosted by the Depot for New Play Readings.

On July 11, 2021, I and Derron Wood, who directed the 2020 Zoom film of my stage adaptation of Jane Eyre, spoke virtually with the Gothic Scholars, a film discussion group comprised of international scholars who are also members of the International Gothic Association. Our presentation, Flock Theatre’s Jane Eyre: Translating the Gothic from Book to Stage to Screen, gave a behind-the-scenes look at the making of the film, particularly its gothic effects. Image from Jane Eyre courtesy of Flock Theatre

In summer 2021, I played the role of Roxane in Flock Theatre‘s outdoor production of Cyrano de Bergerac, which toured to Westerly, RI, New London, Conn., and Hampton, Conn. Read coverage of the show at The Day and The Westerly Sun. See additional production photos from Flock Theatre and The Westerly Sun. Photo courtesy of Flock Theatre

On May 6, 2021, the Sawyer Free Library in Gloucester, Mass., hosted a virtual screening and talkback of my adaptation of Jane Eyre, followed by a talkback with me as adapter/Jane, director Derron Wood, and actor Eric Michaelian (Mr. Rochester). Image courtesy of Flock Theatre

In April 2021, I played the roles of Beatrice, Rosalind, and Cordelia in a virtual collection of Shakespeare scenes, songs, and sonnets presented by Connecticut’s Flock Theatre.

In March 2021, I played Miranda in a scene from The Tempest as part of a collection of virtual Shakespeare performances produced by the New York-based theater company Chill Bucket Productions.

On February 21, 2021, I played the role of Charlotte in a virtual reading of Ben Scranton‘s three-person play Charlotte’s Revival, hosted by the Depot for New Play Readings.

On November 10, 2020, the Swampscott Public Library in Swampscott, Mass., hosted a virtual screening and talkback of my adaptation of Jane Eyre, followed by a talkback with me as adapter/Jane, director Derron Wood, and actor Eric Michaelian (Mr. Rochester).

In November 2020, the Librarians by the Sea Podcast, hosted by the Swampscott Public Library of Swampscott, Mass., presented an episode on my stage adaptation of Jane Eyre. I and fellow guest Derron Wood, the film’s director, explored topics including the adaptation of the book into a stage script and producing it as a Zoom film during COVID.

On November 6, 2020, my stage adaptation of Jane Eyre debuted as a Zoom film produced by Flock Theatre of New London, Conn. The production, in which I play the role of adult Jane, supplements live-action performances with shadow puppetry. As of October 2021, the film has received nearly 4,000 YouTube views, including from gothic scholars and members of Brontë associations around the world. Image from Jane Eyre courtesy of Flock Theatre