SEASON 38 | june 2026
Anne Elliot’s Queer Little Heart - FREE Staged Reading
Saturday, June 6, 1:30PM
The VORTEX, in association with The Del Shores Foundation, is proud to present a staged reading of Anne Elliot’s Queer Little Heart by Taylor Flanagan on Saturday, June 6th at 1:30pm at The VORTEX.
In this tender and funny love letter to Jane Austen’s works, Anne Elliot (quintessential middle child of the snooty Elliot family) must choose between moving back in with her uncaring family or watching the courtship between her first love and the closest thing she has to a best friend.
Queer joy & agony & hope & regret & reclamation & naval officers & love letters & lost family & found family all set in an alternate Regency era. Austen-inspired, Austin-developed.
Cast: Minerva Villa (Anne), Alexa Capareda (Captain Wentworth), Vivian Noble (Mary), Mykkaela García (Louisa), Megan Ortiz (Elizabeth & Captain Benwick), Michael Galván (Charles & Mr Elliot), Florinda Bryant (Lady Russel & Mrs Musgrove), Noel Gaulin (Sir Walter & Mr Musgrove), with Justin Garrett Smith (Stage directions).
Notes from the Playwright : I set out to create a version of Jane Austen’s work that helps me more fully see myself and my community in the bubbly fun of Austen’s vivacious language and hijinx. I was a little tired of stage plays that use Jane Austen's name without honoring any of her artistry. So I set out to make not so much an adaptation of, but rather a collaboration with her writings. This play has her last novel Persuasion as its north star, while looping in plot points, political satire, and quotes from her other works and letters; exploring moments from the protagonist's life that are only fleetingly mentioned in the novel; and gender-bending and expanding some of these iconic characters. The result is something both extremely Austen-centric and somehow brand new.
Taylor Flanagan (she/they) is an award-winning, multidisciplinary theatre-maker based in Austin. Over the decades, she has performed in over eighty plays, received various B. Iden Payne awards and nominations, edited classic works for young performers, and portrayed The Traveling Lady in a documentary about Horton Foote. Their writing has received commendation from the Del Shores Foundation (finalist), Austin Film Festival (second round), TUBU Fest (official selection), Barr Hill Players (finalist), and FronteraFest (best of fest). She is a company member of The VORTEX and Shrewd Productions. Taylor will be assistant directing the National New Play Network rolling world premiere of Another Kind of Silence at The VORTEX, which opens in May.
About The Del Shores Foundation: The Del Shores Foundation’s mission is to find and facilitate the development of new southern queer artistic voices through bringing together artists and working professionals, amplifying new work and connecting artists to platforms for the creation of the work.