Read more about Holly’s additional projects, such as staged readings, her work with Improvised Jane Austen, and more below
Holly conceived and curates this ongoing reading series for Ghostlight Ensemble.
Visit For Your (Re)Consideration to lean more about the the casts and crews of the readings below.
2021: The virtual series featured six plays, five directors and 40+ actors. Holly took the lead in editing most of the videos, as well as directing the final selection
2022: The Woman of Colour
Ghostlight Ensemble Members Song Marshall & Holly Robison co-adapted the regency-era novel The Woman of Colour, published anonymously in 1808, that follows a biracial heiress on her travels from Jamaica to England. Summer 2022 was the first public reading of the adapted script, with Marshall playing the title role and Robison directing.
2024: Plays for Women! A collection of overlooked suffrage plays
Robison directed this collection short plays examining the need for women’s suffrage. Performed at the Driehaus Museum.
2023: The Shadow of a Doubt
Robison directed this staged reading of the recently rediscovered lost play by Edith Wharton that explores issues such as class, women’s roles, marriage and euthanasia. Performed at the Driehaus Museum.
All photo and graphic credits: Maria Burnham
Miss Elizabeth Bennet
A staged reading for the
Jane Austen Society of North America
For Ghostlight Ensemble, Holly directed a staged reading of A.A. Milne’s rarely performed stage adaptation of Pride and Prejudice for the Jane Austen Society of
North America Annual General Meeting.
Collaborations of Merritt (Summer 2021)
A designer and director collaboration festival which celebrates the work of creative teams in the performing arts. All work in these dream collaborations are to feature plays, musicals & operas by BIPOC, Women & LBGTQIA Writers and Composers. The teams will work through the process of design and directing a dream theater project of their choosing. Projects culminated in a video “first rehearsal” presentation that includes research, renderings, models, and directorial concepts, that will be shared on the festival website.
Holly was selected to participate in the festival and paired with a design team to work on a “dream project” – in this instance, developing the production concept for The Enchantment by Victoria Benedictsson, adapted by Clare Bayley. Together with the following designers, she worked to create a directorial and design vision for the “dream production.”
Director: Holly Robison; Set Designer: Richard Hoover; Costume Designer: Frances Maggio; Lighting Designer: Eric Van Tassell
Vision: an intimate, in-the-round staging that will immerse the audience in the world of the play, with an always turning stage to slowly and inevitably propel the story through the seasons to its tragic conclusion. Like our protagonist, our audience will be under the enchantment, too.
Holly has been a cast member since 2013 and producer since 2018 with Improvised Jane Austen (IJA), a Chicago-based comedy troupe specializing in long-form narrative improvisation. Established in 2008, Improvised Jane Austen is a comedic ensemble that creates unscripted performances using Jane Austen’s regency era tropes, themes, and language. Playing in Austen’s world, our stories delight 21st century audiences with our modern sense and sensibility.
Improvised jane Austen performs weekly at iO Theater, the renowned Chicago comedy insitution, as well as additional festivals and performances.
Visit www.improvisedjaneausten.com for more info.