“A Visit with Jane Austen,” December 6

Saturday, December 6, 11 a.m.

Rock Island Public Library Watts-Midtown Branch, 2715 30th Street, Rock Island IL

Saturday, December 6, 3 p.m.

Davenport Public Library Eastern Iowa Branch, 6000 Eastern Avenue, Davenport IA

With the events held in celebration of the 250th anniversary of her birth, one of history's greatest novelists will be showcased in the performance piece A Visit with Jane Austen, in which Debra Ann Miller will portray the beloved author at the Davenport Public Library's Eastern Avenue Branch and the Rock Island Public Library's Watts-Midtown Branch, both presentations taking place on December 6.

In A Visit with Jane Austen, the writer introduces herself in the autumn of 1815. Her first three novels Sense & Sensibility, Pride & Prejudice, and Mansfield Park are published, and Emma is complete. Jane visits with you at this, the most vibrant and hopeful time of her life. Drawing from her letters, juvenilia, and novels, this 45-minute performance delves into the personal life of one of the most beloved and intriguing novelists of the 19th century. Jane Austen speaks about her childhood in Steventon, her brothers and beloved sister Cassandra, and her writing. Learn about her exotic cousin Eliza, her mentor and friend Madame LeFroy, and the loves and losses that shaped her life and informed her perception of the world. Suitable for both the casual reader of her novels and the most devoted "Janeite," A Visit with Jane Austen will enable the audience to know more about Miss Jane Austen the woman, as well as the author, and the presentation is followed by a Q&A period.

Austen portrayer Debra Ann Miller is a professional actress, vocalist, and voice-over talent with more than 30 years of experience as a performer for live audiences, television, and film. Miller has balanced her career between commercial and educational theater since graduating from Michigan State University’s Department of Theater in 1985. She toured the country with such prestigious children's theater companies as Artreach, now the Children's Theater of Cincinnati, and Child's Play Touring Theatre. Since 1997, Miller has traveled the country with Michael Krebs of With Lincoln Production as one of our nation’s more controversial First Ladies, Mary Todd Lincoln, in Visiting the Lincolns, accompanying him to such places as the University of West Virginia, the Gerald R. Ford and Abraham Lincoln Memorial Library and Museums, and the Capitol Building in Washington, D.C.
In 2010, Miller began creating her own company focused on writing and producing one-woman plays in which she portrays important historical figures such as authors Beatrix Potter, Mary Shelley, Louisa May Alcott, and Elizabeth Barrett Browning, as well as a one-woman performance as Mary Todd Lincoln entitled Mrs. Lincoln’s Salon. Miller still works in Chicago theatres, and most recently starred in A Midwinter Mummers Tale and In the Observarium for Terra Mysterium Theatre, Flanagan's Wake at the Noble Fool Theater, and as Rose Kennedy in Chicago Dramatists' production of Rosemary at the Tony Award-winning Victory Gardens Theatre. In addition, Miller won Best Actress in the 2004 Chicago Indiefest for her performance in her first film, Zen Noir.

A Visit with Jane Austen will be presented twice on Saturday, December 6: at the Rock Island Public Library's Watts-Midtown Branch at 11 a.m., and at the Davenport Public Library's Eastern Avenue Branch at 3 p.m. Both programs are free, and more information is available by calling (309)732-7323 and visiting RockIslandLibrary.org, and calling (563)326-7832 and visiting DavenportLibrary.com.