Pride and Prejudice Poster!

Dear Writing and Publishing Students,

Thank you very much for designing posters for the Red Dot Players’ upcoming production of Kate Hamill's adaptation of Pride and Prejudice, the classic 1813 novel by Jane Austen. I’m excited to see what you come up with!

Here's a description of the play provided by its publisher: In Pride and Prejudice, “[t]he outspoken Elizabeth Bennet faces mounting pressure from her status-conscious mother to secure a suitable marriage. But is marriage suitable for a woman of Elizabeth’s intelligence and independence? Especially when the irritating, aloof, self-involved…tall, vaguely handsome, mildly amusing, and impossibly aristocratic Mr. Darcy keeps popping up at every turn?! Literature’s greatest tale of latent love has never felt so theatrical, or so full of life, than it does in this effervescent adaptation.”

Hamill’s adaptation of Pride and Prejudice is very contemporary. Although it is set in the early 1800s, the play has a sly, modern sensibility. The poster should by fun and feisty and maybe a bit anachronistic—it should look at the Regency era with twenty-first century eyes. Here are a couple of examples of what I am talking about. (I particularly like the poster in which Lizzy is wearing boxing gloves.)

Throughout the play, Hamill establishes a game motif. The characters frequently play parlor games, and, according to Elizabeth Bennet, the protagonist of the play, love itself is a game: “There are rules, strategies, wins, losses—and it is, theoretically, done for pleasure.” One possibility would be to incorporate a chess set into the poster. A black and white—or maybe red and gold—chessboard pattern would be really striking. Perhaps you could depict Elizabeth and Darcy as silhouette chess pieces facing off against each other. The poster should communicate the idea that they are engaging in a battle of wits with each other. The photographs below should give you a sense of what I am describing. (By the way, the actor playing Lizzy is Kate Hamill, the author of the play.)

Another possibility would be to use a really modern looking, fresh illustration of Elizabeth (and possibly Darcy). I love this Disney-style illustration by “burdge” on DeviantArt because it captures the combative nature of the relationship between Elizabeth and Darcy. Perhaps “burdge” would be willing to let us use her artwork. I have found several colour versions of her illustration online, some of which are really effective.

Here is another cool illustration from DeviantArt. The name of the artist is Sonny Liew. His DeviantArt page features several other illustrations of Jane Austen characters, some of which could also work for the poster. Unfortunately, the images are from a Marvel Comics adaptation of Pride and Prejudice. I do not think we will be able to use them--but you never know!

I hope that this helps to give you a sense of the aesthetic we would like you to use for our poster.

Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions.

Thank you for your help!

--Jeremy Beaulne

Red Dot Players
[email protected]

P.S. I should also mention that we would like to be able to use your rendering of the title of the play on our other promotional material. It would be really useful if you could provide us with a graphic that isolates “Pride and Prejudice” like this:

Text for Poster

Please include the following text on your poster:

The Red Dot Players present
Pride and Prejudice
By Kate Hamill
Based on the novel by Jane Austen

****The names of the authors should be about half the size of the title of the play.****

Thursday, March 7th, 7:30 PM
Friday, March 8th, 7:30 PM
Saturday, March 9th, 7:30 PM
Sunday, March 10th, 2:00 PM
Thursday, March 14th, 7:30 PM
Friday, March 15th, 7:30 PM
Saturday, March 16th, 7:30 PM
Sunday, March 17th, 2:00 PM
Okanagan College Theatre, 1000 KLO Road, Kelowna

****We might need to change these dates. We have not been able to book the theatre yet.****

Adults: $18
Student/Seniors: $15
Tickets available from KelownaTickets.com, Mosaic Books, and the Okanagan College Campus Store.

www.reddotplayers.com

Produced by special arrangement with Dramatists Play Services, Inc.

*****The poster should also include the Okanagan College logo and the Red Dot Players logo.*****