Arts Alive San Antonio

By JASMINA WELLINGHOFF, Editor —

Hunter Wulff was happily surprised last year when he was chosen for the role of Arthur de Bourgh in the Classic Theater’s premiere of Miss Bennet – Christmas at Pemberley.

“Arthur is totally out of my wheelhouse, so different than me,” said the actor who is reprising the role in the 2019 production which opens Friday. “But it was a joy to discover him last year. Coming back this year, I have bonded with him further. It’s like seeing an old friend again.”

Written by Lauren Gunderson and Margot Melcom, the delightful yuletide play, picks up the story of Jane Austin’s Bennet sisters two years after the events that concluded Pride and Prejudice. In the new play, the Bennet family gathers for Christmas at the home of Fitzwilliam Darcy and his wife Elizabeth, to celebrate the holiday. But in addition to the familiar Austin characters, the guest list also includes a new one, the aforementioned Arthur, a shy and wakward relative of Mr. Darcy, who has recently become heir to a significant fortune.

And thus, the playwrights set the stage for a new love story to blossom between the newcomer and the nerdy, bookish Mary Bennet, the middle sister you barely remember from the novel. The combination of familiar characters and a fresh story with contemporary overtones has been charming both theater directors and their audiences since the first productions appeared on American stages a couple of years ago

The Classic’s artistic/executive director, Kelly Roush is one of them. While looking for something different to offer audiences at Christmas time, she called a few of her counterparts around the country a while back, to see what they were doing. Several recommended Miss Bennet.

“I read ten pages of the play and I knew the writers had found Jane’s voice,” said Roush who is also the director of the current production. “I was so excited – a timely work based on a classic story!”

Theatergoers loved it. The Classic sold out the entire run and had to add performances which also sold out. They are fully prepared to extend the 2019 run as well, if necessary.

“These people (characters) are so articulate and witty and smart, it’s fun to see the actors bring them to life, sparking ideas off each other,” noted the director. “The pace is fun, too. It’s also delightful to me to work on the characters of Arthur and Mary, developing them and finding how they fit into the Bennet world.”

At holiday time, the hope is that everything will be great and joyful but families often have preconceived notions about each other that can spoil the fun for some.  Mary, (portrayed by Alyx Gonzales) feels “invisible” to her siblings when she first arrives, noted Roush. “She is eager to be seen for who she is and through the course of the play, she’s able to articulate that and gets her family to see her, really see her for who she is.”

For Wulff, the second-time-around is a great opportunity to discover more about his character and the work as a whole.

“There’s so much to dig into in this play,” he said. “As we are rehearsing it again, we are finding more details and nuances in the script than we found last year… The joy of being an actor is that portraying a character forces you to empathize with that character, no matter how different he may be from you. I found out that Arthur and I are not all that different after all. As an actor, you stand in front of people and it can be scary. You are in a vulnerable position. That helped me relate to Arthur’s fear of being vulnerable… But he, like Mary, ultimately finds the strength to use his own voice.”

As to why everyone seems to be in love with Miss Bennet, Wulff has a prompt answer.

“It’s a feel-good play! It’s funny and sweet, and it’s about love and family,” he said.

Miss Bennet: Christmas at Pemberley, Classic Theatre of San Antonio, 1924 Fredericksburg Rd., 78201; Nov.22 – Dec.22; 8 p.m. Fridays-Saturdays, 3 p.m. Sundays; for tickets call 210-589-8450 or go to www.classictheatre.org