Spring Tea 2023
Guest Presenters: Nancy Gallagher and Janet Johnson
Topic: The Battle of Prague (an interactive audience performance concert)
By Vonnie Alto, Secretary
On May 21st, our region finally held our first in-person meeting since the pandemic. Longtime member, Marna Tisdel coordinated our Spring Tea. Once again, we gathered at the beautiful Fairway Village Club House in Washington State hosted by residents and longtime members Nan Williams and her husband David. Regional Coordinator, Linda Olson decorated our tables with floral straw hats which we donated to the Hillsboro Art Regional Theater (HART).
We lunched on cucumber and egg sandwiches, salads, fresh fruit, and a variety of culinary sweets, with tea and lemonade.
Our annual fundraiser provided an emporium of Jane Austen books and merchandise with proceeds towards our general fund. Regional philanthropists who donated to our emporium include current members (Linda Olson, Margaret Christmann, Johann Graham, Frank McClanahan & Mary Margaret Benson).and late Janeites: Mary Camman and Deborah (Debbie) Eley.
Amid our festivities, Tribute Grant creator and former Regional Coordinator, Kim Higgins and Secretary, Vonnie Alto announced our 2023 Tribute Grant recipient, Cynthia Eckersley. Each year we award a grant of 1,500 to a member who has never attended the AGM before for registration, classes, hotel room, and airline flight. Cynthia is a new member and a retired social worker whose winning entry reminded us of our love for Jane Austen and all things British. Her favorite novel is Pride and Prejudice. Cynthia hopes to learn more about Jane Austen while sharing in celebrating her at the AGM.
We also announced our Tribute Grand honorees: Bill Boyd and Marna Tisdel (in absentia) for their devotion to Jane Austen and nearly 20 years of service to our region. Congratulations!
A JASNA grant made it possible for Nancy Gallagher (California Southwest Region) and Janet Johnson (Wisconsin Region) to lead us in recreating an interactive audience performance of The Battle of Prague, regularly performed for entertainment by Jane Austen and her family. It's based on the 1757 Battle of Prague in which the Kingdom of Prussia battled the Habsburg Monarchy.
Nancy discussed the history of the actual battle, the connection to the Austen family, and provided biographical information about the composer, Frantisek Kotzwara (1730 - 1791) and the sonata piece (first published in 1788) which was popular in both Great Britain and America during the late 18th and early 19th centuries.
Janet accompanied the narration and mock battle by playing the famous piece on the piano (which is part of Jane Austen’s personal music collection) while Nancy called out performance directives for a fun action-filled audience participatory concert.
Our members battled each other with 10 types of simulated equipment: We waved red flags and purple ones to signal the arrival of the Prussian and Austrian troops, dueled each other with toy swords in the two corresponding colors, popped balloons for cannons, blew toy bugles ad trumpets, shot flying rubber pellets with Nerf guns, rode blown-up horses into battle, clapped coconut shells for horse’s hooves, wore pieces of sheets stained with dye for the wounded or waived them to signal help, waved flags again for the arrival of more troops, and then rang bells to conclude the end as we all sang “God Save the King.” A jovial time was had by all as we recreated the famous battle.
Nelson Bridwell filmed it for Youtube and Vonnie Alto photographed it taking over 145 photos of our event.
Thank you Nancy Gallagher and Janet Johnson for leading us in this fun and stirring interactive audience performance concert of The Battle of Prague!
Note: There's 146 photos uploaded from the Spring Tea so please scroll through them slowly to see them all.
Guest Presenters: Nancy Gallagher and Janet Johnson
Topic: The Battle of Prague (an interactive audience performance concert)
By Vonnie Alto, Secretary
On May 21st, our region finally held our first in-person meeting since the pandemic. Longtime member, Marna Tisdel coordinated our Spring Tea. Once again, we gathered at the beautiful Fairway Village Club House in Washington State hosted by residents and longtime members Nan Williams and her husband David. Regional Coordinator, Linda Olson decorated our tables with floral straw hats which we donated to the Hillsboro Art Regional Theater (HART).
We lunched on cucumber and egg sandwiches, salads, fresh fruit, and a variety of culinary sweets, with tea and lemonade.
Our annual fundraiser provided an emporium of Jane Austen books and merchandise with proceeds towards our general fund. Regional philanthropists who donated to our emporium include current members (Linda Olson, Margaret Christmann, Johann Graham, Frank McClanahan & Mary Margaret Benson).and late Janeites: Mary Camman and Deborah (Debbie) Eley.
Amid our festivities, Tribute Grant creator and former Regional Coordinator, Kim Higgins and Secretary, Vonnie Alto announced our 2023 Tribute Grant recipient, Cynthia Eckersley. Each year we award a grant of 1,500 to a member who has never attended the AGM before for registration, classes, hotel room, and airline flight. Cynthia is a new member and a retired social worker whose winning entry reminded us of our love for Jane Austen and all things British. Her favorite novel is Pride and Prejudice. Cynthia hopes to learn more about Jane Austen while sharing in celebrating her at the AGM.
We also announced our Tribute Grand honorees: Bill Boyd and Marna Tisdel (in absentia) for their devotion to Jane Austen and nearly 20 years of service to our region. Congratulations!
A JASNA grant made it possible for Nancy Gallagher (California Southwest Region) and Janet Johnson (Wisconsin Region) to lead us in recreating an interactive audience performance of The Battle of Prague, regularly performed for entertainment by Jane Austen and her family. It's based on the 1757 Battle of Prague in which the Kingdom of Prussia battled the Habsburg Monarchy.
Nancy discussed the history of the actual battle, the connection to the Austen family, and provided biographical information about the composer, Frantisek Kotzwara (1730 - 1791) and the sonata piece (first published in 1788) which was popular in both Great Britain and America during the late 18th and early 19th centuries.
Janet accompanied the narration and mock battle by playing the famous piece on the piano (which is part of Jane Austen’s personal music collection) while Nancy called out performance directives for a fun action-filled audience participatory concert.
Our members battled each other with 10 types of simulated equipment: We waved red flags and purple ones to signal the arrival of the Prussian and Austrian troops, dueled each other with toy swords in the two corresponding colors, popped balloons for cannons, blew toy bugles ad trumpets, shot flying rubber pellets with Nerf guns, rode blown-up horses into battle, clapped coconut shells for horse’s hooves, wore pieces of sheets stained with dye for the wounded or waived them to signal help, waved flags again for the arrival of more troops, and then rang bells to conclude the end as we all sang “God Save the King.” A jovial time was had by all as we recreated the famous battle.
Nelson Bridwell filmed it for Youtube and Vonnie Alto photographed it taking over 145 photos of our event.
Thank you Nancy Gallagher and Janet Johnson for leading us in this fun and stirring interactive audience performance concert of The Battle of Prague!
Note: There's 146 photos uploaded from the Spring Tea so please scroll through them slowly to see them all.