The Austens

Ring in the new year with Jane Austen and her friends!

The Holy Theatre and The Jane Austen Society of North America (JASNA) New York Metropolitan Region cordially invite you to The Austens, a funny, fierce new dramedy by Sarah Rose Kearns, directed by Andrus Nichols. This one-time-only benefit performance features Evan Horwitz, Mahira Kakkar, Carman Lacivita, Colleen Litchfield, Samantha Steinmetz, and Rita Wolf — with the playwright and actor Kate Hamill in the role of Jane Austen.

Join us for a gala celebration with prosecco and live music in Bar Thalia from 2:15 p.m.

The Austens runs from 4:00 to 6:00 p.m. in the Leonard Nimoy Thalia.

It’s the spring of 1810 and Jane Austen has sworn off novel-writing. Crushed by the nonpublication of her novel “Susan,” she approaches middle age determined to keep the lid on her ambitions: to take what satisfaction she can in her everyday life as a shabby-genteel spinster, appropriately grateful for the relatively-comfortable home that she now shares with her mother, her beloved sister, and their best friend Martha Lloyd. This uneasy peace is shattered, however, by the entrance of Anna — Jane’s troubled teenaged niece — whose recklessness and daring, pain and palpable need of healing stories, gradually revive Jane’s own divine discontent and rekindle her passion for her work. For dedicated Janeites and newcomers alike, The Austens is an ode to female friendship, a love-letter to frustrated artists everywhere, and a lesson in how not to let the bastards get you down.

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Andrus Nichols is an award winning actress, arts leader, and community builder. She has been recognized by numerous organizations in multiple cities across the country for her work on stage, including: Helen Hayes, Drama League, Lucille Lortel, The OBIES, The IRNES, Eliot Norton, Off-Broadway Alliance, Broadway World, and The Jeff Awards. She was the Co-Founder of the OBIE Award-winning Off Broadway company, Bedlam, where she originated many roles including Elinor Dashwood in Kate Hamill’s Sense & Sensibility, and the title role in the company’s four-actor production of George Bernard Shaw’s Saint Joan, which she performed over 500 times in theaters up and down the East coast. She worked with Ivo Van Hove on the National Tour of the Young Vic production of A View From The Bridge which played at the Ahmanson Theatre in LA, The Kennedy Center in DC, and the Goodman Theatre in Chicago. Having recently ventured to the other side of the table, her directing credits include: Our Town (CT Critics’ Circle, And Berkshire Theater Awards nominations), The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe, A Christmas Carol, and Peter Pan, as well as staged readings of The Crucible, and The Scarlet Letter (with Gretchen Mol and Tim Blake Nelson), and developmental workshops with multiple playwrights.

Sarah Rose Kearns is a writer, performer, and lifelong Jane Austen enthusiast. Her stage adaptation of Persuasion debuted off-Broadway in 2021; it was revived in the autumn of 2025 at Chesapeake Shakespeare Company in Baltimore, and will make its UK debut in April 2026. Rose's one-act play Manydown, which imagines one important night in the lives of the Austen sisters, has been performed in three countries and six US states — and was recently adapted as a short film by Prerna Ramachandra. In addition to her creative work, Rose is passionate about the work of building strong communities through art. Since its inception in 2020, she has served as a member of the Jane Austen Society of North America (JASNA) committee for Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion; and, since 2023, as co-Regional Coordinator for the JASNA New York Metropolitan Region. She is the founding artistic director of The Holy Theatre, a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit arts organization in New York City, with a mission to make plays and other gatherings that leave people feeling nourished, connected, and more able to be brave.