Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park Presents New Version of THREE SISTERS, 10/24

The Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park will continue its Marx Theatre season with a new version of Chekhov's THREE SISTERS by Sarah Ruhl, author of THE CLEAN HOUSE. John Doyle, the Tony Award-winning director of COMPANY will helm the production.

Commissioned by The Playhouse, the production begins previews in The Playhouse's Robert S. Marx Theatre October 24 and continues through November 21.

The three Prozorov sisters reminisce on the life they used to enjoy in Moscow, where their father was a decorated military officer. Life was infinitely more exciting and new than in the small backwater town where they currently live. The three sisters and their brother, Andrei, dream of the life in Moscow they believe they deserve.

Olga, a schoolmistress, grieves the loss of her father. The oldest of the three sisters, she has never married and feels that four years of teaching has left her drained of her youth and strength. She is the matriarch of the family, charged with taking care of the family's servants and her younger siblings. She finds herself wishing for freedom and a life she never had.

Middle sister Masha wishes for adventure. She is married, but doesn't want to be. She once found herself enchanted by her future husband's intelligence. After seven years of marriage, however, her feelings have turned from admiration to acceptance and, at times, merely tolerance. As the lives of Masha and her family become intertwined with the men in the Russian military regiment stationed in their small town, Masha begins an affair with Vershinin, a married Russian military officer.

Irina, the youngest and most idealistic sister, simply wishes for her true love. Blind to the advances of two men in her midst, she is certain that she will find her true love in Moscow, where she imagines her life will become everything she has always wanted it to be. When the Russian military regiment the family has grown so close to is moved, the three sisters are left as they were in the beginning, reminiscing and clinging to the hope of a better life somewhere else.

According to Playwright Sarah Ruhl, "When Cincinnati Playhouse approached me to translate Three Sisters I was both terrified and happy. Terrified, because I don't speak Russian and I love the play; happy, because I don't speak Russian and I love the play ... I was incredibly excited when [Ed Stern] called because I love the play, I've always wanted to work on a translation and no one's ever asked me before."

Ruhl has gained widespread recognition for her contributions to American theatre, including The Clean House (Pulitzer Prize Finalist, 2005; The Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, 2004), produced at The Playhouse in 2006. Ruhl will make her Broadway debut this fall with In the Next Room (or the vibrator play).

Her other plays include Eurydice, Dead's Man Cell Phone (Helen Hayes Award for Best New Play), Orlando, Late: a cowboy song, Melancholy Play and Passion Play, a cycle. They have been performed at numerous prestigious venues including Lincoln Center Theater, Second Stage Theatre, Goodman Theatre, Yale Repertory Theatre and many others. Ruhl's plays have been translated into several languages and have been produced internationally.

The cast for THREE SISTERS includes Sarah Agnew playing Natasha; Hannah Cabell (Broadway's A Man for All Seasons) as Irina; Lynn Cohen (Broadway's Ivanov and Orpheus Descending as well as Sex and the City and Munich) as Anfisa; Ronald Cohen portraying Ferapont; Alma Cuervo (Broadway's Beauty and the Beast, Titanic, Cabaret and The Heidi Chronicles, among others) in the role of Olga; Alexander Gemignani (Broadway's Sunday in the Park with George, Les Miserables and Sweeney Todd) playing Andrei; Terry Greiss as Chebutykin; Keith Reddin (The Play's the Thing on Broadway and Revolutionary Road) portraying Kulygin; Laila Robins (Broadway's Heartbreak House and Frozen as well as Planes, Trains and Automobiles) in the role of Masha; Felix Solis playing Solyony; Corey Stoll (Broadway's Old Acquaintance and Henry IV) as Vershinin; and Frank Wood (Broadway's August: Osage County, Tony and Drama League Awards for Side Man and Hollywood Arms) as Tuzenbach; Tim Abrahamsen as Second Lieutenant; Joe Watts, Jr. as Second Lieutenant and Kelly Pekar as Maid.

This is the first non-musical that British director John Doyle will direct in the United States. According to Doyle, "Ed Stern invited me back to The Playhouse as part of the 50th Anniversary Season - and I was absolutely delighted to accept. Ed has seen a variety of my work and has been keen to get me to direct a play - particularly a Chekhov. Three Sisters has long been one of my very favorite plays, so the combination of circumstances made it a perfect fit."

Doyle has received numerous awards for his direction, including a Tony, Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle and Drama League Award. Doyle directed The Playhouse's 2006 production of COMPANY, which moved to the Ethel Barrymore Theater for a run on Broadway and received the Tony Award for that year's Best Revival of a Musical. He has staged more than 200 productions during his 30-plus-year career in the theatre including Sweeney Todd, The Gondoliers, Amadeus, Mack and Mabel, A Catered Affair and Road Show.

The artistic team includes Set Designer Scott Pask, who received Tony Awards for his designs of Pillowman and The Coast of Utopia and Tony nominations for his designs of Les Liaisons Dangereuses and Pal Joey. He has also received multiple Drama Desk Award nominations. Costume Designer Ann Hould-Ward designed the costumes for The Playhouse's production of Company and has designed costumes for more than 15 other Broadway productions including Beauty and the Beast, for which she won a Tony Award. Lighting Designer Jane Cox was responsible for lighting the Broadway revival of Come Back, Little Sheba and was the resident lighting designer at the O'Neill Playwrights Festival in 2002-2003. Cox and Hould-Ward also worked with John Doyle on the off-Broadway production of Road Show. Sound Designer/Composer Dan Moses Schreier has designed more than a dozen Broadway shows including the current revival of West Side Story and has received a Tony nomination for his work on Gypsy and an Obie Award for sustained excellence. Other members of the production team include Elise Thoron (Dramaturg), Orit Jacoby Carroll (Assistant to Set Designer) and Christopher Vergara (Assistant to Costume Designer). The Stage Manager is Suann Pollock, Second Stage Manager is Jenifer Morrow and Assistant Stage Manager is Jamie Lynne Sullivan.

Prices for THREE SISTERS range from $25-$62. The official opening night is Thursday, October 29 at 8 p.m. Performances take place at 7:30 p.m. Tuesdays and Wednesdays, 8 p.m. Thursdays and Fridays; 4 and 8 p.m. on Saturdays; and 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. on Sundays.

Tickets to THREE SISTERS are on sale now. For more information, call The Playhouse box office at 513/421-3888 or visit www.cincyplay.com. 

The Playhouse is supported, in part, by the generosity of the tens of thousands of individuals and businesses that give to the Fine Arts Fund. The Ohio Arts Council helps fund The Playhouse with state tax dollars. The Playhouse also receives funding from the Shubert Foundation.