Getting to know Belinda Cornish,
Starring as Elizabeth Dashwood in
Sense and Sensibility
Belinda Cornish
“They lose everything at the beginning of
the story, and these four women have to
venture out into the world and figure out
how to survive, both literally and
emotionally.” -Belinda Cornish
Citadel Theatre: How did your time in the Citadel/Banff Centre Professional Theatre Program
help prepare you for this production?
Belinda Cornish: The Banff program helps you prepare in a ton of ways. Besides from the various
sort of specifics of acting techniques that are involved in your learning, a big part of it is that
the 12 of us who were in the program walked into the rehearsal hall a completely unified group.
We knew each other really well; we lived in each other’s pockets for a month. We’ve been dancing, singing and acting together for a month, really intensively, and learning all about each other
in the process. So we came in with a really terrific shorthand, which is really great when you’re
starting a rehearsal process because often, particularly with a big show like this, there’s a whole
group of people who don’t know each other at all thrown together, which is fine – you get to
know each other – but this was a real shortcut to being an ensemble, which was terrific.
CT: What’s it like rehearsing with the cast?
BC: It’s great. It’s interesting to spend a month with people knowing that we were all going to
be doing a play together but not touching the play, with the exception of a reading and a workshop with Tom. It was nice to touch on the play and then let it go for a couple of weeks. To explore a lot of stuff and learn a lot of stuff alongside this group of people and then to actually
come into the process and start working on this beautiful play, it’s been really great.
CT: Have you worked with the director, Bob Baker, on a show before?
BC: I have before, a couple of times, on A Christmas
Carol, which was very different. Because, of course, A
Christmas Carol has been running for 17 years now and
I stepped into the role of Mrs. Cratchit. So there’s sort
of a balance of making it your own while also fitting
into the beautiful existing show that is there. It’s a bit
of a different process with this, with Bob building this
enormous show from scratch with us all. It’s an
enormous adventure. His specifics are really remarkable.
“It’s beautiful and sweeping
and epic. It moves through
time and from place to place
in this seamless way that
carries you clearly with the
characters.”
-Belinda Cornish
CT: How would you describe the show to someone who’s not familiar with it?
BC: Assuming, perhaps, that you weren’t even familiar with Jane Austen, something remarkable
about Jane Austen is at the time which she was writing, she’s writing such incredibly powerful,
driven female characters who are witty, self-possessed within their time. It’s extraordinary and
such a joy to get to meet and embody these women – they’re amazing. The story of Sense and
Sensibility – it’s a really lovely romance but it’s also so much more than that. Sense and Sensibility begins with the Dashwood family – Mr. and Mrs. Dashwood and their three daughters. At
the beginning, the father dies and, of course, they’re all deeply, deeply devastated, not only by
his death but also by the fact that they lose their home. They lose everything at the beginning
of the story, and these four women have to venture out into the world and figure out how to
survive, both literally and emotionally. The central figures are the two eldest daughters – the
eldest daughter, who represents sense, and the middle daughter, who represents sensibility,
high emotion. The middle daughter doesn’t keep her feelings to herself at all, whereas the eldest daughter is much more demure and restrained and tries to figure out the practical solution.
It’s seeing how those two girls grow and change and learn from each other and what happens
during the course of the story.
CT: You’re English yourself! Were you particularly drawn to this role because of that?
BC: You know what? I really do love doing English plays. I moved here 17 years ago and I love it
here but I do miss my home. There is something that stirs my English heart a little bit about doing a play set in England. And, a lot of the play takes place in a place where I spent a lot of my
childhood growing up, so there is something slightly nostalgic to me and it’s easy for me to visualize where they are and what it feels like, which is just lovely.
CT: How do you think diehard fans of the novel will react to the play?
BC: I would venture that they will love it. Tom Wood’s adaptation is, I think, pretty remarkable.
It’s beautiful and sweeping and epic. It moves through time and from place to place in this
seamless way that carries you clearly with the characters. I think the essence of the story, the
essence of the characters, the essence of their great, big hearts pumps through the whole thing.
I do feel that diehard fans are going to love it.
CT: Jane Austen’s work is more popular now than it was when she was alive. Why do you think
that is?
BC: I think Jane Austen remains popular now, possibly more popular now than in her own time,
because her work is timeless; her ideas are timeless. The sense of family, love and encountering obstacles in your pursuit of love or pursuit of what you want – it’s timeless. The relationships that she writes are timeless. The mother-daughter, father-daughter [dynamics], the
young woman falling in love with a man who perhaps, you know, she thinks is in love with
someone else or whatever – those are timeless stories; they happen all the time. People have
experienced them. People can feel it; they can feel the truth of what Jane Austen wrote in her
characters.
CT: How would you describe your character, Elizabeth Dashwood?
BC: Elizabeth Dashwood is the mother of the three girls: Elinor, Marianne, and Margaret. Elizabeth leans a little more to the sensibility side of things. She’s a woman who is full of joy and
she’s ebullient and generous and warm. And, yet, she has an elegance and decorum that would
come with the time, and with her upbringing. She has a fierce love for her daughters. She
would do anything for them. At the beginning, she loses her husband and her home – she loses
everything but her daughters. And, while she feels that very, very deeply, she’s able to lift her
chin and face life with a measure of grace and fortitude.
“… It’s a really lovely romance but it’s also so much more than that.”
-Belinda Cornish
CT: What do you hope patrons will take away from seeing the show?
BC: I think they’ll take away a great sense of hope and joy. I think they’ll be carried away with
a really sweeping story. I think they’ll walk away with a feeling of joy.
CT: Sense and Sensibility is set in the late 18th century. How is that time period reflected in the
costumes and dialogue?
BC: The design is being done by Leslie Frankish, who is beyond an expert in period costuming,
so the costumes will, of course, will be accurately and beautifully representational of Regency
clothing. Everything that I’ve tried on for myself, so far, makes me dance with glee. It will be a
glorious plethora of Regency costuming, which will be stunning. Tom Wood and his adaptation
has used Jane Austen’s words but then also, the parts of the script that are not from the novel
- the dialogue that he wrote completely fresh - he’s really taken great pains to reflect the
times in the language and I think it comes across very clearly that there is a great elegance in
the language and a very timely elegance in the language that really reflects the Regency period.
Sense and Sensibility runs April 22 to May 14, 2017, at Citadel Theatre. For more information
or to purchase tickets, call 780.425.1820 or visit www.citadeltheatre.com.