Woolfians near Manhattan have an advantage tomorrow. They can attend a book launch celebrating the Paris Press 10th anniversary edition of Virginia Woolf’s On Being Ill that includes Notes from Sick Rooms by her mother, Julia Stephen.
It marks the first book publication of Woolf and her mother.
The event will feature readings by Rita Charon (physician and Director of the Program in Narrative Medicine), Mark Hussey (Pace University and acclaimed Virginia Woolf scholar), Judith Kelman (Director of Visible Ink Writing Program, Memorial Sloan Kettering), and Elizabeth Lorde-Rollins (physician and poet).
Held at Case Lounge, JG Hall, Columbia Law School, the event is free and open to the public.
Wright’s play premiered in Europe and tells the story of Virginia Woolf and her sister Vanessa Bell. The evening will end with a few scenes from a play written by Shakespeare’s Sister’s, Kris Lundberg, about the love affair between famed artist, Dante Gabriel Rossetti and his muse and model, Elizabeth Siddal.
The readings will commence in a Lower East Side sultry venue, the DL, located at 95 Delancey St. (at Ludlow) in the second floor Casino.
For more information, contact Kris Lundberg at info@shakespearessister.org or visit the Shakespeare’s Sister Company website.
Formed in 2008, The Shakespeare’s Sister Company (SSC) is a not-for-profit theater organization supporting women in the arts. It is committed to producing established works and new plays by female authors, as well as by Sir William Shakespeare. Its mission is to address global change through the theater, including workshops with the community and literacy for youth.
The event will be held at Lady Mendle’s, 56 Irving Place, between 17th and 18th streets in New York City.
Patrons will enjoy the following:
6 – 6:30 p.m. -Tea and Mingling
Enjoy an assortment of teas, a buffet of tea sandwiches and scones with clotted cream and jam.
6:30 – 7:10 p.m. – Literary Book Discussions
Each guest will introduce the title/author of the book, one sentence describing what the book is about, an interesting fact about their favorite part of the book and what kind of book they are looking to swap for.
For those who prefer not to speak, we will provide ink and paper for you to write down your details and an SSC member would be happy to read it aloud on your behalf. We’re all friends here.
7:10 – 7:30 p.m. – Literary Book Swap
Guests will have the opportunity to trade their book as many times as they’d like. Additionally, the SSC will provide a program listing all of the books being traded for patrons to reference.
7:30 – 8 p.m. – Tea and Mingling
The event concludes at 8 p.m. However, patrons are welcome to migrate downstairs to the martini bar and heated outdoor garden for cocktails.
Regarding attire, please come dressed in your British Best! Dresses and suits are encouraged. Hats and gloves are not required, but are encouraged.
All-inclusive admission runs $35 per person.
Please RSVP no later than Thursday, Jan. 21. All payments are kindly accepted in advance via PayPal to info@shakespearessister.org.
If you live in the Bay Area, you can go to Mrs. Dalloway’s party. It’s an evening of short stories written by Virginia Woolf and performed by an ensemble of actors at St. Mary’s College of California.
According to the school’s Web site, “Wry observations and elegant prose come to life onstage through some of Woolf’s most amusing characters-ordinary women and men whose anxious thoughts and social predicaments make this party a night to remember.”
The production is directed by guest artist Delia MacDougall, a founding member of Word for Word Performing Arts Company in San Francisco.
Written by Bruce Allen Lynch and titled The Nicest Place In England, the play tells the story of Woolf’s visit to her friend Dora Carrington after Lytton Strachey’s death. According to the NotaBle Acts Web site, it is a “visitation that forces both women into an uncomfortable, harrowing, and at times surprisingly comic confrontation with the past.”
The Nicest Place in England will be on stage July 28, Aug. 1 and Aug. 2 at Memorial Hall at the University of New Brunswick. The play is one of two 2009 one-act playwriting contest winners in the NotaBle Acts competition.
