a beloved jane austen classic is the toast of off broadway. sense and sensibility has downtown theater goers raving. >> his rich wife. moved into -- funeral. >> their sister drama. plenty of humor set in 18th century england. with us live this morning is actor playwright may hammel. she adapted the book for this production. thank you for being here. >> of course. i'm so pleased to be here. >> what is it about this classic that you think still >> -- >> mary ann is very extreme. she breaks all the we see the consequences of that today. especially with social media. there's a lot of shaming that goes on and that constricts people. it's a story about love between family members and falling in love and that's uniform and it's so funny. jane austen was so funny. >> they're also dealing with the sudden death of their father. your adaptation is humorous and witty. how did you decide on that? >> i get really frustrated when chick lit. they tend to focus on the romance. of course there is so much romance and love. but she's so dry and funny. i really wa

she was raised as a girl like jane austen. no matter. i do think, actually i went back and reread all the chapters. i was not configuring this is novel that i learned something important. what i learned was not to read as many romantic novels as i had in high school but i realized pay attention to the financial language inthe novel , the way they talk aboutmarriages . i contextualize those as tentative and that help me understand something which is that her father goes bankrupt right after she's married and she's devastated by it and she's devastated to agree degree she's actually crazy and it's about her father does this outrage and she has to confess this year after year, it's not even like she's able to get over it. it's a wound that constantly reopens. but i always thought this was kind of a crazy, that's what was to me. that was like the way they described it. then you go back and read these novels and you realize everybody has a price tag and that actually if you didn't couldn't keep your diary that was grounds for getting out of y

she writes these letters to him and about him, and he reminds me of a character in a jane austen novel, amusing by how annoying they are. there always kind of in your face, putting emotions before you. and i think hamilton was very flattered by this attention. he had an eye for the ladies. he is not the only person you can think of who falls in love with a whole group of sisters simultaneously. mozart, charles dickens did that. kind of a common pattern for someone often maybe from the margins, and they need rich, glamorous, or attractive sisters. you know, they pick out one to marry. but they are all in love with the whole crop of them. that is my best answer. there is no solid proof of anything more than that. but yes, i think there was a kind of eroticized quality to the whole relationship with the schuyler girls. ok, well, thank you so much for your attention. [applause] mr. scholet: to can tell by mr. brookhiser's knowledge and the depth that he has, there are many historians, many biographies, many authors, many journalists, very few have the scholarly depth that mr. brookhiser ha

because that's -- "police academy" is not jane austen, right? >> no, not originally, no. >> seth: okay, not originally. >> she did a novelization of it after the fact. >> so, wait. did he make her watch "police academy" as an adult? >> seth: i think it was adult-ish. >> was it a 20th birthday? >> seth: and it was six in a row. >> we were saying "police academy." >> like she didn't laugh at the first one. he was like, "all right. you have got to see two." [ laughter ] >> seth: now that you're warmed up, now you are on the lock for "police academy." >> i thought he was just a bad babysitter where he just sat her in front of the tv. i'll be in the back." >> "you're not laughing? winslow's killing." >> seth: so, you also -- i want to ask about this. you had both presidential candidates on the show this year. >> yeah. >> seth: donald trump hosted. hillary clinton did a cameo. bernie was there. what did you learn from them? what was the difference between trump and hillary on set this year? >> trump -- [ laughter ] very, very small differences. >> peo

eliot poetry and to jane austen novels, there are a few that we can convey. and my challenge to is can you convey that to your students, you have a captive audience. and yet the success rate of 3 degrees last year only 1% for math majors. it's down to 1% now. something is happening now. it's the beauty. give it a try. i realize most of us are academics. i'm a liberal arts teacher and i teach in the liberal arts collega liberal arts collegeando be lawyers, but we are really being sold on how we have to train people to get them to majors. >> stem and even starbucks, that's high-tech. by the way, it's all china and russia, too the magic of those words, but who thought of putting it out there, we don't have two major. those are poetic words. they are not even going to get to college because algebra. so then maybe when you think of the fifth one to put down their across the globe i would say more power to you. [applause] >> the beauty of math in general all the way through even teaching high school in algebra. we are on the same page in the testing. that is i pers

eliot portrait or jane austen's novels, there's a beauty their, and my challenge in mathematics teachersnd professors is please, you see a beauty in mathematics. can you convey that to your students? you've got a captive audience. they can't leave. you've got a chance to do it. and yet the success rate, i'm sort of this, this is not good, of the vouchers of degrees awarded last year, only 1% were to math majors. it used to be 3%. it's down to 1% now. something is happening, maybe it's because of the way the stuff have to teach in the textbook that you can't take time off to show the sheer beauty of pi. give it a try. just one last thing. do i have one more minute? >> yes. >> i realized that most of us in this room are academics. we are not vocational teachers. i'm a liberal arts teacher. i teach in a liberal arts college. i am not training people to be lawyers. but we are really being sold a bill of goods on how we have to train people for stem, get them to make in the s.t.e.m. fields. somebody put something up because i have to use it. s.t.e.m. s.t.e.m. s.t.e.m., and even starbucks. jus