This year’s fall play, “Pride and Prejudice,” performed by the Branson theater program, debuted on Nov. 13 and continued with performances on Nov. 14, and 15 to rapturous acclaim. 

The play, modeled after Jane Austen’s 1813 novel, “Pride and Prejudice,” was a dazzling display of elegance and humor complete with stunning era-appropriate costumes.    

The cast and tech crew of Pride and Prejudice started early and practiced rigorously to put on a polished production. They even had to learn to speak with British accents.

“The rehearsal process was a lot of work but also super fun. We had practices every Tuesday, Thursday, and Sunday since September, and while trying to memorize our lines and blocking, we also had to learn British accents,” said Lily Green ‘27, who played Louisa Hurst from the Bingley family. 

Tech week, the week leading up to the performance, was where a lot of the magic happened.

“During tech week, it’s thrown together, like all the scenes were separate and then the point of tech week is to put them all together. It’s like five hours and a lot of it is like stopping in the middle of the performance and Maura will tell us something that she wants different and then you have to redo it. But a lot of it is getting the show’s time cut down and getting the scene changes faster until it’s really fluid,” said Sara Trimble ‘28, who worked as a backup stage manager and member of the stage crew.

A highlight of the play were the exquisite, detailed costumes created by London Mullarkey ‘27.

“My favorite part of the whole experience was probably the costumes. London did an amazing job finding and making everyone’s costumes for this show, even sewing people’s rips backstage when their costumes tore,” said Green.

Branson community members in the audience agreed.

“The costumes were quite stunning and you can just tell how much work was put into it,” said Khema Klinetobe ‘26.

Branson students who watched the play found it to be engaging in multiple ways.

“The play was very well executed and had an interesting plot which wasn’t confusing to follow,” said Teddy Jefferson ‘28.

Additionally, the intersection of multiple arts contributed to the intrigue and captivating quality of the show.

“This was one of my favorite plays yet. I was very engaged the entire time. It was a great intersection of multiple arts like a clean dance scene, really good portraits, and of course acting” said Klinetobe.

The play is a community bonding and fun experience, especially for the underclassmen.

“I really think [the play] helped build community,” said Corrina Bouligny ‘29. “I think it was a really good experience because I got to meet a lot of new people and it was fun, too.”