Huntington Kicks Off Special Events for THE SEAGULL Tomorrow

In conjunction with its upcoming production of Anton Chekhov's passionate classic The Seagull, Huntington Theatre Company will host a number of special post-show conversations. Admission to onsite post-show events is free with a ticket to The Seagull, available at huntingtontheatre.org/seagull, by phone at 617 266 0800, or in person at the BU Theatre (264 Huntington Avenue) and Calderwood Pavilion at the BCA (527 Tremont Street) box offices. Tickets start at $25. Performances begin tonight, March 7, 2014 at the Avenue of the Arts / BU Theatre.

35 BELOW WRAP PARTY

Saturday, March 8, 2014, following the 8pm performance

A post-show party for the region's culturally curious ages aged 35 and below featuring backstage access, free refreshments, and live entertainment by The Backyard Committee. Mingle with members of the cast, creative team, and Huntington staff. Hang out with friends and meet new people.

35 Below tickets are available at all performances to patrons 35 and under for just $25. 35 Below's media partner is The Improper Bostonian.

COMMUNITY MEMBERSHIP RECEPTION -
CO-HOSTED BY THE LABOURÉ CENTER EARLY CHILDHOOD SERVICES

Thursday, March 13 before the 7:30pm performance

A pre-show reception with refreshments for members of the Community Membership program. Community Membership is an initiative designed to reduce the cost barrier of attending live theatre for those with limited income and to diversify the Huntington's audience so it looks more like the city of Boston. Members can purchase best-available tickets to any performance without restriction for just $15. Membership is free and available through partnerships with agencies and organizations that serve limited-income populations. Santander is the Lead Supporter of the Huntington's Community Membership program.

Please note: There is no elevator access to this reception.

PAUL SCHMIDT AND THE ART OF TRANSLATION

Sunday, March 16 after the 2pm performance

This year marks the 15th anniversary of the death of Paul Schmidt, translator of The Seagull, and one of the most influential critics, translators, and playwrights of his time. In a conversation moderated by Huntington dramaturg Charles Haugland, Joint literary executors of his estate, Mark Bennett (original music for The Seagull) and Margaret Sand (Schmidt's sister) and Catherine A. Ciepiela, chair of the Russian department at Amherst College, will speak about Schmidt's contribution to the field and his body of work, excerpts of which will be performed by members of The Seagull cast.

Paul Schmidt (1934-1999) was one of the most influential critics, translators, and playwrights of his time. His translations, including plays by Chekhov, Gogol, Genet, Brecht, and Marivaux, have been staged such directors as Robert Wilson, JoAnne Akalaitis, and Peter Sellars and have won awards in France, Italy, and the United States. His plays have been performed at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, Thalia Theatre in Hamburg, and Institute for Contemporary Art in London. Dr. Schmidt held a Ph.D. in Slavic Literature from Harvard University and was a Professor of Russian Literature at the University of Texas and at Wellesley College. He also taught at Harvard, Cornell University, and Yale University, and lectured widely in the US and abroad. His critical essays appeared in The Nation, The New York Review of Books, and Delos. A recipient of a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, Dr. Schmidt was the author of Meyerhold at Work and editor of The Complete Works of Arthur Rimbaud and The Collected Works of Velimir Khlebnikov. His collected translations of Chekhov's plays were published in 1997 by Harper Collins.

ACTORS FORUM WITH BOSTON GLOBE ARTS EDITOR REBECCA OSTRIKER

Thursday, March 20 after the 7:30pm performance

The Boston Globe Arts Editor Rebecca Ostriker will moderate a conversation with actress Kate Burton (Irina Arkadina) and other cast members of The Seagull at this interactive post-show conversation. A Boston Globe Insiders event - tickets to the 3/20 performance of The Seagull are $45 for Boston Globe subscribers who use the discount code.

Rebecca Ostriker has been the Arts Editor of The Boston Globe since 2010. During this span, she has won a New York Times Company Punch Award, and two Globe arts critics have won Pulitzer Prizes. Previously, she was an Assistant Arts Editor and served in the Globe's Sports department, and before that was Managing Editor and acting Editor in Chief of New Age Journal (now Whole Living magazine). Once upon a time, she played bass and sang in The Burrs, a rock band. She graduated from Harvard University with a bachelor's degree in English and American literature.

Kate Burton appears as Irina Arkadina in The Seagull and has Huntington credits that include The Corn is Green (also at Williamstown Theatre Festival), The Cherry Orchard, and Hedda Gabler (also at Bay Street Theatre, Williamstown Theatre Festival, and on Broadway), all directed by Nicholas Martin, and Aristocrats. Her additional Broadway credits include The Constant Wife, The Elephant Man, Spring Awakening, Some Americans Abroad, The Beauty Queen of Leenane, Wild Honey, Company, Alice in Wonderland, and Present Laughter. She has performed at Williamstown Theatre Festival for 18 seasons, most recently in Hapgood. Other theatre credits include The House of Blue Leaves (dir. Nicholas Martin) and Arcadia (Center Theatre Group), and Three Sisters (London's West End). Film credits include Liberal Arts, 2 Days in New York, 127 Hours, Unfaithful, Swimfan, The Ice Storm, and Big Trouble in Little China. Her television work includes "Scandal," "Rake," "Veep," "Grimm," "Grey's Anatomy," "Rescue Me," "The Good Wife," and all versions of "Law & Order." She is the recipient of an Elliot Norton Award, an Emmy Award, two Emmy Award nominations, three Tony Award nominations, and an Honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts from Brown University. She is a member of The Corporation of Brown University, her alma mater, and is a graduate of the Yale School of Drama.

HUMANITIES FORUM WITH LAURENCE SENELICK

Sunday, March 23 after the 2pm performance

Huntington dramaturg Charles Haugland will discuss the literary themes and cultural context of The Seagull with Laurence Senelick. Humanities Forums are presented in conjunction with all Huntington productions.

Laurence Senelick is the Director of Graduate Studies, Fletcher Professor of Drama and Oratory at Tufts University. He holds a Ph.D. from Harvard. His expertise is in Russian theatre and drama, history of popular entertainment, gender and performance, history of directing, and classical theory. Professor Senelick is the author or editor of more than twenty-five books, the most recent being Stanislavsky: A Life in Letters (Routledge), The American Stage: Writing on the American Theatre from Washington Irving to Tony Kushner (Library of America), and A Historical Dictionary of Russian Theatre. Others books include The Chekhov Theatre: A Century of the Plays in Performance and The Changing Room: Sex, Drag, and Theatre, as well as over a hundred articles in learned journals. He is also a widely produced translator of plays from such authors as Chekhov and Feydeau. His documentary history of Soviet theatre will be published by Yale University Press in May. He is a former Fellow of the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation and the Institute for Advanced Studies in Berlin. Professor Senelick was named Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2011.

A CONVERSATION WITH KATE BURTON AND WGBH'S JARED BOWEN

Tuesday, April 1 after the 7:30pm performance

WGBH's Executive Editor for Arts Jared Bowen will speak with Huntington favorite Kate Burton (The Corn is Green, TV's "Scandal," "Grey's Anatomy") about The Seagull, "Scandal" and her famous father.

Jared Bowen is WGBH's Emmy Award-winning executive editor and host for arts. His weekly television series "Open Studio with Jared Bowen" takes viewers inside the creative process, offering a blend of profiles, performances, and contemporary exhibitions by artists in Greater Boston, New England, and across the country. Jared is a regular contributor to WGBH's TV series "Greater Boston with Emily Rooney" and is heard on 89.7 WGBH's mid-day program, "Boston Public Radio" and during the station's broadcasts of "Morning Edition," covering everything from breaking news to the local arts and culture scene. He has produced five news documentaries for WGBH as well as the first three seasons of the public media company's Eye on Education initiative. A 2013 recipient of the distinguished Commonwealth Award honoring exceptional accomplishment in the arts, humanities, and sciences, Mr. Bowen is a member of the Boston Theatre Critics Association, recognizing achievement in Boston theatre, and the Boston Online Film Critics Association. He serves on the Board of Governors for the Boston/New England Chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences and is a guest contributor to Boston Common magazine. A graduate of Emerson College, where he won several Associated Press Awards, he began his career at Dateline NBC.

Kate Burton see above.

STUDENT MATINEE PERFORMANCE - SOLD OUT

Thursday, April 3 at 10am

For students in grades 7 - 12. Tickets: $15. Includes pre-show in-school visit, curriculum guide, post-show Actors Forum, and Dramatic Returns card for each student. **Currently sold out - call 617 273 1558 for information about attending an afternoon or evening performance.

AMERICAN SIGN LANGUAGE-INTERPRETED PERFORMANCES

Thursday, April 3 at 10am (SOLD OUT) and Friday, April 4 at 8pm

The Huntington Theatre Company offers ASL interpretation for the Deaf and hard-of-hearing at designated performances. Under the supervision of season consultant Wendy Watson and ASL consultant John Pirone, the two performances will be interpreted by Jennifer Gibbons and Aaron Malgeri.

Seating for each ASL-interpreted performance is located in the orchestra, house left. Tickets are $15 for each Deaf patron and a guest. To reserve tickets, please contact Access Coordinator Meg O'Brien at mobrien@huntingtontheatre.bu.edu.

POST-SHOW AUDIENCE CONVERSATIONS LED BY MEMBERS OF THE HUNTINGTON STAFF

After most Tuesday - Friday, Saturday matinee, and Sunday matinee performances

ABOUT THE SEAGULL BY ANTON CHEKHOV

Directed by Maria Aitken

March 7 - April 6, 2014

Select Evenings: Tues. - Thurs. at 7:30pm; Fri. - Sat. at 8pm; select Sun. at 7pm

Matinees: Select Wed., Sat., and Sun. at 2pm

Days and times vary; see complete schedule below.

Avenue of the Arts / BU Theatre

Kate Burton (TV's "Scandal") returns to the Huntington for Chekhov's emotionally rich classic, directed by Huntington favorite Maria Aitken (The Cocktail Hour, Betrayal, and Private Lives). Celebrated actress Irina Arkadina's visit to her aspiring playwright son with her successful novelist lover in tow kindles unrequited passions and petty jealousies in Anton Chekhov's masterpiece about love, missed connections, and what it means to be an artist. Burton's son Morgan Ritchie, who appeared with her in The Corn is Green, plays Arkadina's son Konstantin.

Single tickets starting at $25, subscriptions, and FlexPasses are on sale:

• online at huntingtontheatre.org;
• by phone at 617 266 0800; or
• in person at the BU Theatre Box Office, 264 Huntington Ave. and the Calderwood Pavilion at the BCA Box Office, 527 Tremont St. in Boston's South End.

Select discounts apply:

• $5 off: seniors
• $10 off: subscribers and BU community (faculty/staff/alumni)
• $25 "35 Below" tickets for patrons 35 years old and younger (valid ID required)
• $15 student and military tickets (valid ID required)

ABOUT THE HUNTINGTON THEATRE COMPANY: Recipient of the 2013 Regional Theatre Tony Award and named Best of Boston 2013 by Boston magazine, the Huntington Theatre Company has developed into Boston's leading professional theatre and one of the region's premiere cultural assets since its founding in 1982. Bringing together superb local and national talent, the Huntington produces a mix of groundbreaking new works and classics made current to create award-winning productions, runs nationally renowned programs in education and new play development, and serves the local theatre community through its operation of the Calderwood Pavilion at the BCA. Under the direction of Artistic Director Peter DuBois and Managing Director Michael Maso and in residence at Boston University, the Huntington cultivates, celebrates, and champions theatre as an art form. For more information, visit huntingtontheatre.org.