Sarah Rose Kearns is a playwright, performer, and lifelong Austen enthusiast. Her stage adaptation of Persuasion debuted off-Broadway in 2021 and, last year, received its second production at Chesapeake Shakespeare Company in Baltimore. Her one-act play Manydown, which imagines one important night in the lives of Jane Austen and her sister Cassandra, has been performed more than a dozen times in six US states, as well as in the UK and New Zealand — and was recently adapted as a short film by Prerna Ramachandra. Rose’s third and latest play The Austens, a full-length dramatic comedy about the beloved novelist and her family, has had staged readings in New York City, Baltimore, Philadelphia, and at Jane Austen’s brother’s house in Chawton, the English village where the play is set. In addition to her creative work, Rose is passionate about the work of building strong communities through art. Since its inception in 2020, she has served as a member of the Jane Austen Society of North America (JASNA) committee for Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion; and, since 2023, as co-Regional Coordinator for the JASNA New York Metropolitan Region. She is also the founding artistic director of The Holy Theatre, a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit arts organization in New York City, with a mission to make plays and other gatherings that leave people feeling nourished, connected, and more able to be brave.