Announcing Our Next JASNA-NYM Regional Event
We invite you to join your fellow Janeites at Marymount Manhattan College for our upcoming meeting: Jane Austen at the Theatre.
Saturday, June 6, 2026 from 2:00 PM to 4:30 PM
In Person Gathering at Marymount Manhattan College
221 East 71st Street between Second and Third Avenues
New York City
This event is a regional meeting of the Jane Austen Society of North America (JASNA) New York Metropolitan Region. Like most of our gatherings, this one is open to JASNA members and non-members alike. If you are not yet a JASNA member, however, we encourage you to join! Learn more on our “about” page here.
The meeting will take place in the Regina Peruggi Room at Marymount Manhattan College, an ADA-accessible venue. Doors open at 1:30 PM; the program begins at 2:00 PM. Please feel free to stick around afterwards for conversation, coffee, tea, and light refreshments (fruit and sweets)!
We’ll begin the meeting with a talk by Dr. Claudia Martin of Binghamton University called “‘A Young Lady of Spirit Happened to Be at the Playhouse’: How Austen’s Heroines Evolved from the Theatrics of the Eighteenth-Century Coquette.”
“Jane Austen,” writes Dr. Martin, “was an avid reader and viewer of plays who likely participated in home theatricals from as early as 1782 when she was seven years old, around the same time she began filling her notebooks with plays, histories, and stories, satirizing and examining women’s social roles and place.” This talk draws connections between the “flirtatious performers” on the stage and “the articulate and independent heroines of [Austen’s] mature novels who, against all odds, manage to direct the course of their own outcomes.”
Our second presentation takes the form of a panel discussion moderated by JASNA-NYM regional co-coordinator Sarah Rose Kearns — and featuring special guests Grace Abele, Jessie Field, and James Martinez Salem, all of whom have written theatrical pieces inspired by Austen’s iconic character Charlotte Lucas.
Grace Abele is the author of Charlotte Collins, a new play that imagines the further adventures of Charlotte and her husband after the close of Pride and Prejudice. Jessie Field and James Martinez Salem are the creative team behind Charlotte Lucas is 27 and Not Dead, a new pop-rock musical comedy, in which “unromantic” Charlotte discovers romance with her best friend’s sister. During this discussion, brief excerpts from both pieces will be performed.
The structured portion of our meeting will wrap up around 4:00, and we expect to be clearing out of Marymount by around 4:45 PM.
If you’re in the mood for more literary-theatrical delights, we invite you to grab some dinner in the neighborhood, then meet us again at 59E59, the off-Broadway theatre, for a 7:00 PM performance of Guildford Shakespeare’s David Copperfield, complete with discounted tickets and a post-show Q&A.
Guildford Shakespeare is the British theatre company that brought us last year’s three-actor Pride and Prejudice (which just received a Drama Desk nomination!). We’ve been invited to attend this particular performance by our new friends at The Friends of Dickens.
Please note that tickets to David Copperfield must be purchased through the 59E59 box office.
As always, please feel free to email us at jasnany@yahoo.com with any questions.
july 2026
Saturday July 18, 2026
SAVE THE DATE FOR OUR JULY MEETING
Please keep an eye out for registration and other details regarding our July regional meeting. This event will take place in person in New York City, with more info to come.
Jane About Town
may 2026
Thursday, May 14, 2026 | 7:00 PM EDT
GRAMERCY JANE AUSTEN BOOK CLUB: “THE OTHER BENNET SISTER”
JASNA’s own Elise Pallay organizes this monthly book club through Meetup.com. Each month’s selection is either an Austen novel or contemporary spin-off. Members meet to chat over a meal at Gramercy Kitchen, a classic New York diner on Third Avenue and 17th Street. Newbies welcome! Just make sure to RSVP early, as the spots tend to fill. Click here for more.
(Non-JASNA event, open to everyone.)
Thursday, May 21, 2026 | 7:00 PM EST
JASNA-NYM ONLINE MONTHLY DISCUSSION GROUP
On the third Thursday of every month, members gather via Zoom for a discussion of some aspect of Jane Austen’s work or her life and times Topics and questions to ponder are sent out in advance. Please email us here if you’d like to be added to our Discussion Group mailing list!
(JASNA-NYM event, open to all JASNA members.)
june 2026
Thursday, June 18, 2026 | 7:00 PM EDT
GRAMERCY JANE AUSTEN BOOK CLUB: “CRANFORD”
JASNA’s own Elise Pallay organizes this monthly book club through Meetup.com. Each month’s selection is either an Austen novel or contemporary spin-off. Members meet to chat over a meal at Gramercy Kitchen, a classic New York diner on Third Avenue and 17th Street. Newbies welcome! Just make sure to RSVP early, as the spots tend to fill. Click here for more.
(Non-JASNA event, open to everyone.)
Thursday, June 19, 2026 | 7:00 PM EST
JASNA-NYM ONLINE MONTHLY DISCUSSION GROUP
On the third Thursday of every month, members gather via Zoom for a discussion of some aspect of Jane Austen’s work or her life and times Topics and questions to ponder are sent out in advance. Please email us here if you’d like to be added to our Discussion Group mailing list!
(JASNA-NYM event, open to all JASNA members.)
Do you have an Austen event coming up? Drop us a line and let us know! In these listings, we tend to prioritize in-person gatherings in and near New York City, as well as online events that involve our local JASNA members. (Click here to become a member of JASNA New York Metro.)
Except in the case of official JASNA meetings, no listing on this page should be construed as an endorsement or sponsorship by JASNA.
“It is such a happiness when good people get together — and they always do.”
EMMA
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