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Kate Hamill (Jane Austen) has been one of the most-produced playwrights in America every year since 2017, and is the 2024-25 season's top-produced playwright. Wall Street Journal Playwright of the Year, 2017; Einhorn Award, 2023. Work includes Pride & Prejudice at Primary Stages / HVSP (originated role of Lizzy; nominee, Off-Broadway Alliance Award), Sense & Sensibility at Bedlam (originated Marianne; winner, Off-Broadway Alliance Award; nominee, Drama League Award); Vanity Fair at the Pearl (originated Becky; nominee, Off-Broadway Alliance Award); The Light & The Dark (the life & times of Artemisia Gentileschi) at CTC / Primary Stages (originated Artemisia; nominee, Off-Broadway Alliance Award); The Odyssey at A.R.T. (originated Circe; 2x Elliot Norton nominee); Mansfield Park at Northlight; Little Women at Primary Stages; The Jungle, Dracula at Classic Stage; Ms. Holmes & Ms. Watson at KCRep; The Little Fellow (or: the Queen of Tarts Tells All) at Cygnet; Emma at the Guthrie; BadAss GalBossPower Hour at Primary Stages; The Scarlet Letter at Two River. www.kate-hamill.com
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Evan Horwitz (Thomas Carter) is an actor, writer, and teacher based in Brooklyn. He’s performed at Trinity Rep, Baltimore Center Stage, Alabama Shakespeare Festival, Boston Playwrights’ Theater, On The Verge, and Hudson Stage, and has developed work at NYTW, Clubbed Thumb, The Civilians, New Dramatists, Bushwick Starr, Rattlestick, Ensemble Studio Theatre, and The Hearth. His solo show Anne Frank Live at the Plaza! appeared at Dixon Place and Access Theater. He created and wrote the audio rom-com series Christmasuzannukkah starring Amy Sedaris, and his play Partial Totality was selected for the Brown/Trinity Playwrights Lab. Evan received an MFA from Brown University/Trinity Rep, where he was awarded the David Wickham Prize in Playwriting, and a BA in English from Bowdoin College.
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Mahira Kakkar (Cassandra Austen) is an award winning actor and writer. You can see her in an upcoming production of 3Penny Opera at St. Jeans Theatre. A recent recipient of a NYSCA grant, Mahira has written for publications in India and the US, and has a current commission from The Huntington Theatre. As an actor: Broadway - Life of Pi. Off Broadway - Waterwell, LCT3, Primary Stages, Atlantic, NYSF, Ripe Time, Playwrights Horizons, Rattlestick, TFANA, NAATCO. Regional-STC, Huntington Theatre, Old Globe, Denver Center, OSF, Baltimore Center Stage, Hartford Stage, McCarter and others. Film and TV- Manifest, Suitable Boy, Hank and Asha (Slamdance Best Actress award), Sweet Refuge, Law and Order: CI, New Amsterdam and others. www.mahirakakkar.com
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​Sarah Rose Kearns (Playwright) is a writer, performer, and lifelong Jane Austen enthusiast. Her stage adaptation of Persuasion, which premiered off-Broadway in 2021, had its second production last autumn at Chesapeake Shakespeare Company in Baltimore. Persuasion will make its UK debut in April 2026 with Q2 Players at the National Archives theatre. Rose’s one-act play, Manydown, which imagines one important night in the lives of the Austen sisters, has been performed at libraries, schools, conferences, historic sites, and theatres in six US states, as well as in the UK and New Zealand. Manydown was recently adapted as a film by writer-director Prerna Ramachandra. In addition to her creative work, Rose is passionate about the work of building strong communities through art. Since its inception in 2020, she has served as a member of the Jane Austen Society of North America (JASNA) committee for Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion, and since 2023, as co-Regional Coordinator for the JASNA New York Metropolitan Region. She is the founding Artistic Director of The Holy Theatre, a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit arts organization with a mission to make plays and other gatherings that leave people feeling nourished, connected, and more able to be brave. www.sarahrosekearns.com
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Carman Lacivita (James Austen). Broadway: Bob/Marvin in Marvin's Room directed by Anne Kaufman, Valvert in Cyrano de Bergerac opposite Kevin Kline and Jennifer Garner directed by David Leveaux. Off-Broadway: To My Girls directed by Stephen Brackett (Second Stage), Sense and Sensibility (Bedlam), Henry 6th in Rose Rage; Henry the 6th Pts. 1, 2, 3 (St. Clair Bayfield Award for Outstanding Performance by an Actor in a Shakespeare in NYC, Jeff Award, Drama League Nomination) directed by Edward Hall (The Duke), Red Bull, The Public, The Atlantic, The Pearl, Theater for a New Audience, Drama League, among others. Regional/International: The Winter’s Tale, Pride & Prejudice, Romeo and Juliet at Hartford Stage, Christmas Carol (World Premiere) Geva Theatre, Emma by Kate Hamill (World Premiere) at The Guthrie & Denver Center, Repertory Theater of St Louis, Two River Theater Co., Pride & Prejudice at Syracuse Stage & Dorset Theater Festival, Bermuda Arts Festival, George is Dead (w/Marlo Thomas) written and directed by Elaine May George Street Playhouse & Arizona Theater Company, Romeo & Juliet and Rose Rage (Jeff Award) at Chicago Shakespeare, Long Wharf, Contemporary American Theater Festival, among others. TV/ Film / New Media: Law & Order (NBC), Much Ado About Nothing (Play on Shakespeare Podcasts), Murder at The Patel Motel (Audible), Blue Bloods (CBS), Golden Boy (CBS), Royal Pains (USA), The Chica Show (NBC), Modern Love (pilot), Marino’s (pilot), Cyrano de Bergerac (PBS Great Performances) Romeo & Juliet, Macbeth, and A Midsummer Night’s Dream (New Book Press), Training: MFA Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University, BFA from Texas Christian University. Founding member of Amphibian Stage Productions. Carman is a Professional Acting Coach for Musical Theater College Auditions (MTCA), Fight Choreographer, and Tennis Pro. Insta: @carmanclacivita, www.carmanlacivita.com
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Colleen Litchfield (Anna Austen) made their Broadway debut originating the role of Hanna in Tom Stoppard’s Leopoldstadt (Tony Award for Best Play). Off-Broadway: The Ask (wild project), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Red Bull), 2024 Breaking the Binary Festival. Regional: Richard II, Robin Hood, Taming of the Shrew, The Sea-Maid’s Music (Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival). TV: The Crowded Room (Apple TV+). Training: BFA NYU Tisch, RADA.
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Andrus Nichols (Director) is an award winning actress, arts leader, and community-builder. She has been recognized by numerous organizations in multiple cities across the country for her work on stage, including: Helen Hayes, Drama League, Lucille Lortel, The OBIES, The IRNES, Eliot Norton, Off-Broadway Alliance, Broadway World, and The Jeff Awards. She was the Co-Founder of the OBIE Award-winning Off Broadway company, Bedlam, where she originated many roles including Elinor Dashwood in Kate Hamill’s Sense & Sensibility, and the title role in the company’s four-actor production of George Bernard Shaw’s Saint Joan, which she performed over 500 times in theaters up and down the East Coast. She worked with Ivo Van Hove on the National Tour of the Young Vic production of A View From The Bridge which played at the Ahmanson Theatre in LA, The Kennedy Center in DC, and the Goodman Theatre in Chicago. Having recently ventured to the other side of the table, her directing credits include: Our Town (CT Critics’ Circle, And Berkshire Theater Awards nominations), The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe, A Christmas Carol, and Peter Pan, as well as staged readings of The Crucible and The Scarlet Letter (with Gretchen Mol and Tim Blake Nelson), and developmental workshops with multiple playwrights.
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Samantha Steinmetz (Martha Lloyd). Off-Broadway: Kate Hamill’s Sense & Sensibility, The Seagull, Hamlet, Saint Joan (Bedlam), 27 Wagons Full of Cotton (Abingdon Theatre Company), The Remarkable Rooming House (La MaMa). Regional: Emma (world premiere, Guthrie), Murder on the Orient Express (world premiere, McCarter), Pride & Prejudice (Syracuse Stage). Television: Chicago P.D., Mindhunter, Manifest, The Deuce, When They See Us, FBI: Most Wanted, Blue Bloods, The Equalizer, and Law & Order: SVU.
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Ebony Vines (Narrator) is a multi-hyphenate creative. Her heart is to produce work by creatives whose voices aren’t often platformed, write compelling stories about characters who aren’t often shown in unique and fascinating circumstances and to host and produce podcasts that elevate beloved creative work for niche theatrical fandoms. Ebony is on the board of Leaders by Choice and Colt Coeur. She is making her Broadway debut as a Co-Producer with WANTED: The Legend of the Sisters Clark and is a co-founding member of The Think Tank for Theatrical Innovation.
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Rita Wolf (Mrs. Austen). In 2025 Rita appeared in the Techno fantasia Berlindia by Daniel Holzman at The Tank NYC. She was a Yale ( DGSD ) Beinecke Fellow in 2024 appearing in Caryl Churchill’s Escaped Alone at Yale Rep. Many NYC theatre credits include: World Premiere of Tony Kushner’s Homebody /Kabul and Hammaad Chaudhry’s An Ordinary Muslim at NYTW, Richard Nelson’s The Michaels and NAATCO’s Out of Time at The Public Theatre, David Greig’s The American Pilot at MTC ( Drama Desk nomination for Best Featured Actress). Rita has also collaborated with many emerging writers in recent shows at JACK, The Women’s Project and with LAByrinth, to name a few. She reads regularly at Symphony Space in their broadcast Selected Shorts and other programs, both at W 95th Street and on the road. Film and TV work includes Hanif Kureishi/ Stephen Frears film My Beautiful Laundrette and Spike Lee’s Girl Six. Audio work includes Madhuri Shekar’s Evil Eye for Audible (Winner: Audie for Best Original Work). Rita is the co- founder, with Rukhsana Ahmad of the London-based KALI Theatre Company, who have been originating, producing and touring theatre in the UK for over 30 years. She is a student of the classical Indian dance form, Bharatnatyam.