Jane Austen ball a novel celebration.
Organizer needs positive RSVPs soon as possible
Tara Rout is a lawyer and mother of two boys under the age of five, so of course she has gobs and gobs of spare time (not) to organize a Jane Austen ball in Edmonton this fall.
“A junkie always finds a way,” says Rout, a diehard fan of the English novelist, whose works include Pride and Prejudice, Emma and Sense and Sensibility. Rout has been to the Jane Austen Festival in Bath, England three times, sews her own Regency-period costumes, runs a Jane Austen Fun Club in town and recently penned and self-published a prequel to Pride and Prejudice under the pen name Melanie Kerr (her middle name and her husband’s last name).
On the website for her debut book, Follies Past, the 35-year-old Austenophile wryly describes herself as “a reckless lover of clotted cream, a staunch defender of the semicolon and a fierce opponent of unpleasant music (who) wooed her current and only husband with false promises of skill at word games and eternally good hair.” (That husband is local musician Martin Kerr.)
Yet all this is still not enough to quench Rout’s thirst for all things Austen. So she’s now organizing the Regency Michaelmas Ball at the Fairmont Hotel Macdonald Sept. 28. That’s the eve of Michaelmas, which was an important Christian feast and holiday in Austen’s time. (All six of Austen’s novels were published during the short Regency Period 1811 to 1820, hence Regency.)
Rout was inspired to organize the costume ball after attending other similar events elsewhere and thinking “I could do better,” she says. “It’s going to be classy. I’m really good at planning things and it’s going to be amazing. I want the public to trust me even though they don’t know me.”
Think of this event as a local version of the festival in Bath, with English country dancing (including a dance caller), live music, and refreshments from the era: rout cakes, syllabub, summer pudding, to name a few. And while costumes are mandatory, ball-goers have quite a bit of leeway on their attire. “You do have to come in a period costume but we’re not going to keep people out if their hemline is one inch wrong or their fabric isn’t authentic,” Rout explains. “We just want people not to interfere with the suspension of disbelief.”
People can get a custom costume made through a costumer Rout is collaborating with, or rent a costume, or even make their own. Rout is going to post costume video tutorials on her website. “I can show you how to take a Klondike Days costume and make it into a Regency costume,” she says. “And even if they came in their Klondike costume it would be acceptable.”
There’s also the matter of dancing. Since most of us don’t know the moves for quadrilles, minuets and allemandes, Rout is organizing basic dance lessons the three Sundays prior to the event for $50 total. People may also attend the ball as observers, “and we may even have a separate row for people who want to try to fudge it.”
Tickets to the Regency Michaelmas Ball are $75 apiece, which, as Rout puts it, is “a lot cheaper than a plane ticket to England” to go to the Jane Austen Festival. Thing is, she needs commitment ASAP from a few dozen willing ballgoers to make the event happen. It’s going to cost $4,000 to rent the space at the Hotel Mac and unless Rout can get that money together by July 28 (see the Regency Michaelmas Ball website), the party won’t go ahead.
“If I don’t get the money up front I don’t think I can risk it.”
Rout has applied for an Edmonton Arts Council grant, but she’s imploring everyone who’s eager to attend to buy their tickets before the Kickstarter deadline so she can keep planning.
“I’m not going to make any money off it,” says Rout. “I’m doing it because I want the event to happen.”
Born in Edmonton, Rout grew up in New Zealand and on Vancouver Island and studied English and theatre at UBC before returning here to study law at the U of A. Her love of Jane Austen is a reaction in part to the work she does as a child welfare lawyer working with aboriginal children and their families on reserves in Alberta.
“I deal with reality every day, and when I’m away from that I prefer to deal with nonreality.” Organizing this ball is “escapism on a whole new level.”