Kama Ginkas Discusses His Chekhov Adaptations 11/17

Renowned Russian director Kama Ginkas will discuss his theatrical adaptations of prose works by Anton Chekhov with John Freedman and Daniel Gerould, Director of Publications at the Martin E. Segal Theatre Center, November 17th at 6:30.

The evening will feature readings from excerpts of Ginkas's adaptations of Anton Chekhov's stories Rothschild's Fiddle and The Theater of the Watchman Nikita as well as excerpted film screenings from Kama Ginkas productions. 

The Chekhov texts are translated by John Freedman and readings directed by Jackson Gay.
FREE!  First come, first served.
Martin E. Segal Theatre, 365 Fifth Avenue at 34th Street

Presented by the Martin E. Segal Theatre Center, The Graduate Center, CUNY  in collaboration with Yale Repertory Theatre/Yale School of Drama.

Kama Ginkas has made a career of creating powerful theater based on the prose of classic Russian authors, including Fyodor Dostoevsky, Alexander Pushkin and Anton Chekhov. His famous Chekhov trilogy– Lady with a Lapdog, The Black Monk and Rothschild's Fiddle– emerged as one of the most celebrated achievements in Russian theater in the 1990s and 2000s. An early adaptation of Ward No. 6 under the title of The Theater of the Watchman Nikita formed the basis for an influential production in Finland in the late 1980s.

Ginkas was born in 1941 in Kaunas, Lithuania. His acclaimed productions for Moscow's New Generation Theater have been performed at theater festivals all over the world. In the United States he staged Lady with a Lapdog at the American Repertory Theatre and the Guthrie Theatre. He mounted the world premiere of his dramatization of Rothschild's Fiddle at Yale Repertory Theatre. His production of K.I from 'Crime' has been performed at the Bard College Summerscape festival and in a month-long run Off-Broadway, produced by the Foundry Theatre.

John Freedman is an American writer and translator based in Moscow. He has been the theater critic of The Moscow Times since 1992. With Ginkas he co-authored the book Provoking Theater: Kama Ginkas Directs.

Daniel Gerould is Director of Publications and Director of Academic Affairs of the Martin E. Segal Theatre Center, and he is the Lucille Lortel Distinguished Professor of Theatre and Comparative Literature, The Graduate Center, CUNY.

Jackson Gay's credits include Made In Poland (The Play Company); workshops of David Adjmi's Marie Antoinette (The Goodman Theatre and Sundance/The Public Theater); Scarcity and The Intelligent Design of Jenny Chow (Atlantic Theater Company). MFA Yale School of Drama.

The Martin E. Segal Theatre Center (MESTC), The Graduate Center, CUNY, is a non-profit center for theatre, dance, and film affiliated with CUNY's Ph.D. Program in Theatre. Originally founded in 1979 as the Center for Advanced Studies in Theatre Arts (CASTA), it was renamed in March of 1999 in recognition of one of New York City's outstanding leaders of the arts. The Center's priMary Focus is to bridge the gap between the academic and professional performing arts communities by providing an open environment for the development of educational, community-driven, and professional projects in the performing arts. As a result, MESTC is home to theatre scholars, students, playwrights, actors, dancers, directors, dramaturgs, and performing arts managers, as well as both the local and international theatre communities. The Center presents staged readings to further the development of new and classic plays, lecture series, televised seminars featuring professional and academic luminaries, and arts in education programs, and maintains its long-standing visiting-scholars-from-abroad program. In addition, the Center publishes a series of highly regarded academic journals, as well as books, including plays in translation, all written and edited by renowned scholars. http://web.gc.cuny.edu/mestc

Frank Hentschker, Executive Director

Sallie D. Sanders, Allison Lyman, Program Associates
Martin E. Segal Theatre Center
The Graduate School and University Center
The City University of New York
365 Fifth Ave, New York, NY 10016-4309
mestc@gc.cuny.edu