Emma Woodhouse is so preoccupied with trying to find a spouse for her young friend Harriet that she almost loses her own chance for love in Thin Ice Ensemble Theatre’s production of “Emma” by Jane Austen, adapted by Michael Bloom and dramatized by Richard R. George at Devonshire Cultural Center in Skokie.
Performances are 7 p.m. March 22 and 23 and 3 p.m. March 24.
Tabitha Hollowed, age 16, who plays Emma, has performed with Thin Ice for two years.
Tabitha said that her character “is a little arrogant but she means well and she wants the best for her friends.” Over the course of the show, Emma begins realizing that she doesn’t always know what’s best for them, she said.
She is trying very hard to find a spouse for Harriet because, “She thinks that status means a lot and that she can help people,” Tabitha said.
Emma’s matchmaking attempts don’t seem to work. “I don’t think she sees people clearly,” Tabitha said.
The role is interesting, Tabitha said, because she is “getting to play somebody who’s learning how to be in touch with other people.”
The actor praised the play, saying, “There’s so many characters and there’s so many personalities and you have to find the humor in it while also getting the messages.”
“We were set to do this show two years back,” said Eileen Hand, artistic director of Thin Ice Ensemble Theatre, who is directing “Emma.” “We had gotten through all the rehearsals, got to the tech week. Friday was the day they shut everything down for COVID.”
Hand decided now was a great time to stage the show with her youth theater.
“I like for the kids to be exposed to literature and hopefully this inspires them to read Jane Austen and appreciate the books,” she explained.
Hand is working with a cast of 12 actors and a crew of 5, ages 14-18.
Hand described the character Emma as “extremely charming. She is in everybody’s business. There’s a quirkiness about her that is very appealing.”
The director’s goal for the role is to make Emma a likeable character, “even though she thinks she knows it all and she is in that upper echelon. She’s trying her best to do good by people but she’s just too young to completely understand she’s getting into people’s business and she shouldn’t be doing that.”
When Harriet comes into her life, Emma takes her on as a project, Hand said. Her matchmaking efforts fail, the director explained because “she isn’t really able to see that two people don’t go well together necessarily.”
Tabitha Hollowed was Hand’s choice for the lead role because, “She has that charm about her and also a little bit of that quirkiness that I was trying to get across,” Hand said. “She’s really lovely and very compelling to watch.”
That’s important because there’s narration in the show and all of it is done by the character Emma.
The challenges of directing the show include having the actors speak with a British dialect because the show is set in a remote English county. Hand thinks her cast is doing a good job of that.
In addition, the staging is tricky because the show is set in a number of places, which means that furniture is carried on and off. Hand solved this problem by having recorded music playing during scene changes and having the crew costumed as characters.
‘Emma’
When: March 22-24
Where: Thin Ice Ensemble Theatre at Devonshire Cultural Center, 4400 Greenwood St., Skokie
Tickets: $20; $15 students
Information: 847-674-1500; skokieparks.org/devonshire-playhouse
Myrna Petlicki is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.