FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

 

Chekhov’s Greatest Masterpiece Opens at The Western Stage

 

The Western Stage’s 2005 Studio season draws to a close with the November 11 opening of Anton Chekhov’s greatest masterpiece, “The Cherry Orchard”, a timeless and poignant comedy about an aging aristocratic family desperately holding onto a past that has long since gone. “The Cherry Orchard” plays in the Studio Theater, Hartnell College Performing Arts Center through December 11. Performances are Friday and Saturday at 8 pm, and Sunday at 2 pm. Tickets are $17 General Admission, $14 Students/Seniors/Military and can be purchased by visiting westernstage.com or calling the box office at 755-6816. (94 Word PSA)

 

Salinas, CA – The Western Stage (TWS) is concluding its 2005 studio season with one of the most beloved masterpieces in the theatrical canon, Anton Chekhov’s “The Cherry Orchard”, which just last year celebrated the 100th anniversary of its premiere at the Moscow Art Theatre. Directed by TWS artistic director Jon Patrick Selover, this production of Chekhov’s tragicomic tale of the colorful Gaev family and their declining fortunes promises to live up to the playwright’s intentions and, unlike more traditional productions, underscore the comedy in the play.

 

Although he is considered one of the most respected and studied playwrights of the 20th century, Chekhov is often misinterpreted. His plays are frequently presented as brooding tragedies when, in fact, he considered them comedies, once claiming that “The Cherry Orchard” was a vaudevillian farce.

 

The roots of this misinterpretation of Chekhov’s plays can be traced all the way back to Constantine Stanislavski, the founder of the Moscow Art Theatre and the

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creator of “method acting”. Despite Chekhov’s insistence that his plays were comedies, Stanislavski disagreed with the playwright and directed them as tragedies. His heavily naturalistic productions often suffocated the humor right out of the plays, which, of course, lead to many a heated exchange between the these two giants of 20th century theatre.  (For more on this, see supplemental article).

 

 This is not to say Stanislavski’s interpretation was not without merit. The Gaev family is in a distinctly tragic situation. They are deeply in debt and are facing the grim prospect of having their family estate sold out from under them. What Stanislavski missed, however, was Chekhov’s astute perception that although the situation his characters are in may be tragic, their irrational and always very human reactions to the situation can indeed be comic.  

 

“The Cherry Orchard” is directed by TWS artistic director Jon Patrick Selover, whose previous directorial efforts with Chekhov include two productions for TWS, “Uncle Vanya” (1993) and “The Cherry Orchard” (1994), and a production of “The Cherry Orchard” for The Denver Center in 1995. 

 

 The Western Stage concludes its 2005 season in December with Kenneth Grahame’s classic “Wind and the Willows”.  

 

Dan Tarker     Literary Associate

 

 

CAST

 

Mike Baker                Trofimov

Brittany Bexton          Anya

Richard Courtney      Firs

Deborah Curtis          Dunyasha

Ron Genauer Gayev

Jeffrey Heyer             Lopakhin

Sherry Kefalas           Charlotta

Jim McClean             Pischik

Carla Pantoja            Varya

Suzanne Sturn           Madame Ranevsky

Ryan Tasker              Yasha

Daniel Tarker Epihodov