"Always Acting A Part" Austen Actors' Panel

“Always Acting A Part”

A shameless promotion of an extra special event we're having to kick off the celebrations of our year of Sense and Sensibility. Last year we held a student conference at the British Library and both Blake and Hattie spoke in a informal and fascinating Q&A with the audience. For me it was the highlight of the conference! We're so excited that they've agreed to come to Chawton and know that it will be a lovely and very special evening. More information below...



Austen Actors Pannel Saturday 9th April 7:00pm
Join us for a special evening to celebrate the 200 year anniversary of Sense and Sensibility. A unique chance to meet the actors Blake Ritson (Edmund Bertram in ITV’s Mansfield Park, Mr Elton in the 2010 series of Emma) and Hattie Morahan (Elinor in Sense & Sensibility).

Blake and Hattie will talk about their experiences of acting in Jane Austen television adaptations and will take questions from the audience.
Panel discussion will take place in Chawton Village Hall and commences at 8.00pm. Pre-performance gathering in the Learning Centre at the Museum from 7.00pm

Tickets: £17.50, Concessions £15.00 (to include pre-performance glass of wine). Under 16s £10.00
Places are limited so please book 01420 83262

Lumb Bank

A few weeks ago Madelaine (our marketing manager) and I (education officer) spent a week at Lumb Bank in Hebden Bridge on an Arvon Foundation creative writing week.

The aim of the week was to develop our creative writing techniques and learn new writing exercises which we could use as part of our education programme. We were lucky enough to be funded by the Museums Libraries and Archives organisation as part of our collaboration with the British Library. Other literary houses and collections were represented including the Bronte Parsonage, Dickens House, Wordsworth’s Dove Cottage, John Rylands Library and the British Library.

Ted Hughes owned the house for a while and his poem Wind was written about the house and perfectly depicts its remote and beautiful location. Here is an extract...

Wind

This house has been far out at sea all night,
The woods crashing through darkness, the booming hills,
Winds stampeding the fields under the window
Floundering black astride and blinding wet

Ted Hughes



It was a fantastic week with no T.V. radio, internet connection or mobile phone reception which made a wonderful change from my usual noise filled lifestyle. In the mornings we wrote on a huge wooden table which could sit 18 people. We had two 1hr 30mins workshops led by our course tutors (Anne Sansom and Steve Voake). The afternoons were free for people to do as they wished and in the evenings we shared a meal around the giant table again.

Mid week we had a poetry reading from Patience Agbabi who had recently complete a residency at Chatham Dockyard. She spoke about her work and read a coronet of 7 sonnets which she’d written in response to her residency. They were beautifully written and she is an extremely skilled writer.
The week was brilliant and I thoroughly recommend going on a course if you need a boost in your writing or just some time to yourself. It’s such a beautiful part of the world, I can understand why Ted wanted to live there.

Hopefully there will be a second instalment to this as Madelaine will upload her account of our week and some of our writing.