Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Region
Celebrating Jane Austen, Regency Dance, and Zombies
December 12, 2009
Over 20 individuals gathered on December 12, 2009, for JASNA Pittsburgh’s celebration of Jane Austen’s 234th Birthday. Friends and guests shared afternoon tea, savories, and birthday cake in honor of Jane’s special day.
JASNA Pittsburgh’s own Jim Zunic, who spent over twenty years working with the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh’s Library for the Blind and Physically Handicapped, presented fun facts and the cinematic politics of the making of MGM’s 1940 film Pride and Prejudice. Film excerpts and discussion focused on one of the major controversies of the film: Lady Catherine as matchmaker. While this radical departure from Austen’s original work remains problematic for many Janeites, Mr. Zunic’s back-story revealed that this World War II era film made every effort to cast the British (engaged in a war against the Nazis) in a friendly and sympathetic light.
Regency fans then returned for an evening of festive holiday fun with JASNA and The Country Dance & Song Society of Pittsburgh for a night of English Country Dance. The outstanding live music included piano, cello, violin, viola, oboe, and recorders. Allison Thompson, dance historian, called dances from the Austen movies and Jane Austen’s own time. Dancers were invited to attend in Regency attire, Zombie attire, and Regency Zombie attire. A Regency Zombie was the belle of the ball and felt quite welcome in Pittsburgh, which is also the home town of Dawn of the Living Dead and legendary Zombie film maker George Romero.
—Mell Steven Cosnek
Left to right: Laurence Olivier as Fitzwilliam Darcy,
Ann Rutherford as Lydia Bennet, Greer Garson as Elizabeth Bennet