CHARLOTTE'S LETTERS by Jennifer O'Grady

2020 Rising Artist Playwriting Award/1st Place Henley Rose Award/NEWvember Festival Dublin/O'Neill Semifinalist, other honors

(Full length) A fresh new take on the Brontës, intertwining Charlotte Brontë's two years as an unpublished young woman at a Belgian school--where she became close to her married tutor/employer, Monsieur Heger--with Victorian biographer Mrs. Gaskell's...
2020 Rising Artist Playwriting Award/1st Place Henley Rose Award/NEWvember Festival Dublin/O'Neill Semifinalist, other honors

(Full length) A fresh new take on the Brontës, intertwining Charlotte Brontë's two years as an unpublished young woman at a Belgian school--where she became close to her married tutor/employer, Monsieur Heger--with Victorian biographer Mrs. Gaskell's struggle to salvage Charlotte's posthumous reputation and feminist novels. When an alarming letter arrives from Brussels, Mrs. Gaskell feels forced to investigate just how much of Charlotte's novels--including the bestselling but scandalous JANE EYRE--was based on her own life. A play about love, friendship and the making--and unmaking--of art and identity.
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CHARLOTTE'S LETTERS

Recommended by

  • Rachel Feeny-Williams:
    14 Jul. 2021
    “ I've never known a great deal about the Brontë sisters but this piece opened my eyes a new, which is always a great thing for theatre. Taking this interesting new perspective and drawing the audience in so that you can't help but want to know more. By the end I found myself wanting to research more about the sisters! A very well done piece. ”
  • Christine Foster:
    22 Apr. 2021
    “ 'All feelings are good. Including sadness'. Or so Charlotte tells the little daughter of her mentor in Brussels, a man she has come to love but can never have. O'Grady's is an elegant, insightful play about the inner life of the author of Jane Eyre and how she came to cope with her loneliness, her lack of life experience and her blighted opportunities with dignity and selflessness. The characters are warmly and delightfully drawn and the whole play is richly, if sadly, satisfying. ”
  • Lee R. Lawing:
    5 Apr. 2021
    “ Letters are so initiate and bring about such different emotions while holding them in hand. This is no different then O'Grady's play Charlotte's Letters. I love O'Grady's taking off some of the mystery to Charlotte Bronte as we sit and watch Elizabeth Gaskell's and her daughter piece together the life of someone so shy, but who like so many of us lived out life fully, and if not as she wanted entirely, because who knows what would happen to Charlotte in today's world, but who lived her life with such an eye on the world around her. ”
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Character Information

6W/1M. Some doubling.

  • Charlotte Brontë
    Mid-20s.,
    British
    Can be played by:
    • Age: 
      20s
    • Race/Ethnicity: 
      Any race/ethnicity
    • Gender: 
      Female
  • Monsieur Heger
    Early 30s.,
    Belgian.
    Professor of literature.
    Can be played by:
    • Age: 
      30s
    • Race/Ethnicity: 
      Any race/ethnicity
    • Gender: 
      Male
  • Mrs. Gaskell
    46,
    British
    A novelist.
    Can be played by:
    • Age: 
      40s
    • Race/Ethnicity: 
      Any race/ethnicity
    • Gender: 
      Female
  • Meta Gaskell (pronounced MEE-ta)
    19,
    British
    Mrs. Gaskell's daughter.
    Can be played by:
    • Age: 
      Teens, 20s
    • Race/Ethnicity: 
      Any race/ethnicity
    • Gender: 
      Female
  • Emily Brontë
    Early-mid 20s.,
    British
    Charlotte's sister
    Can be played by:
    • Age: 
      20s
    • Race/Ethnicity: 
      Any race/ethnicity
    • Gender: 
      Female
  • Madame Heger
    Late 30s,
    Belgian.
    School directress and Heger's wife.
    Can be played by:
    • Age: 
      30s, 40s
    • Race/Ethnicity: 
      Any race/ethnicity
    • Gender: 
      Female
  • Woman
    Late teens/early 20s
    Plays Belgian Maid, Servant, Pupil's Voice, Louise.
    Can be played by:
    • Age: 
      Teens, 20s
    • Race/Ethnicity: 
      Any race/ethnicity
    • Gender: 
      Female

Development History

  • Reading
    ,
    Attic Salt Theatre (NC)
    ,
    2021
  • Reading
    ,
    Yellow Rose Productions (TN)
    ,
    2018
  • Reading
    ,
    AboutFace Ireland/NEWvember Festival Dublin (Ireland)
    ,
    2017
  • Reading
    ,
    Irish Repertory Theatre New Works Series (NYC)
    ,
    2016

Awards

Selection
,
The Best Women's Stage Monologues 2022
,
Smith and Kraus
,
2022
Finalist
,
Lance Hewett Reading Series
,
Isle of Shoals Productions
,
2020
Winner
,
Rising Artist Playwriting Award
,
Attic Salt Theater Company
,
2020
Top 25 Plays, Pandora's Box New Works Festival
,
2019
Second Rounder
,
Austin Film Festival Playwriting Award
,
2018
Finalist
,
Talk Back Theatre
,
2018
Winner
,
Writer2Writer
,
AWP
,
2018
Winner
,
(1st Place), Henley Rose Award
,
Yellow Rose Productions
,
2018
Winner
,
NEWvember New Plays Festival Dublin
,
2017
Selection
,
New Works Series
,
Irish Repertory Theatre (NY)
,
2016
Shortlist, Generations Award
,
Boulder Ensemble Theatre Company
,
2015