The Kitchen to Presents Jay Scheib's PLATONOV, 1/8-24

The Kitchen welcomes back director-designer Jay Scheib for the premiere of an innovative new "live cinema performance," Platonov, or The Disinherited, adapted from Chekhov's unfinished first play, found in a safe-deposit box after his death. The work is produced by ArKtype / Thomas O. Kriegsmann and consists of two integral halves: Platonov, a live theatrical event performed by an ensemble that includes Mikeah Ernest Jennings, Sarita Choudhury and Tony Torn in The Kitchen's black box theater; and The Disinherited, the live feature film of the performance that will be live-edited and broadcast in real time each night to movie theaters including BAM Rose Cinemas, AMC Empire 25 in Times Square and others to be announced.

Following an emotionally bankrupt society of "anti-heroes,"Platonov is threaded with every theme that would later unfold in Chekhov's masterworks-from his signature gunshots and unrequited loves to the most pressing trope of them all: the always-impending loss of the family home. Each part of the work offers its audiences distinct points of view: attendees at The Kitchen will experience not only a theatrical performance, but also the shooting of what amounts to a single-extended-take feature film that stands on its own for viewers at cinemas.

Jay Scheib & Co. will perform Platonov at The Kitchen (512 West 19th Street), Wednesday through Friday, January 8-10, 15-17, and 22-24 at 8:00 p.m. nightly. Tickets to Platonov are $25 and can be purchased online at www.thekitchen.org; by phone at 212.255.5793 x11; or in person at The Kitchen (512 West 19th Street), Tuesday-Saturday, 2:00-6:00 p.m.

The Disinherited will screen at 8:00 p.m. during Wednesday performances (January 8, 15, 22) at AMC Empire 25 in Times Square, presented in collaboration with Times Square Alliance; during Thursday performances (January 9, 16, 23) at BAM Rose Cinemas; and during Friday performances (January 10, 17, 24) at additional local and national venues including Massachusetts Institute of Technology and San Francisco Film Festival. Tickets to The Disinherited are available through each cinema's website:

BAM Rose Cinemas tickets can be purchased online at http://www.bam.org or at the box office at BAM Rose Cinemas, Peter Jay Sharp Building, 30 Lafayette Avenue, Brooklyn. AMC's Empire 25 tickets can be purchased online at https://www.amctheatres.com/movie-theatres/amc-empire-25, or in person at 234 West 42nd St.

Additional live cinema performance partners and box office contacts to be announced shortly.

Scheib describes Platonov as "a play about young men and women who could have just gone to bed and continued along in their semi-prosperous yet semi-boring lives, even happily-but instead stayed up and got more drunk and chose a destruction they knew somehow was coming anyway." Platonov begins with a party at the estate of Anna Voynitsev on a hot summer night. The celebration spills out of the living room onto the veranda and then swings wildly out of control. The action then moves to the countryside home of Sasha and Platonov, where a revolving door of who's-going-to-sleep-with-whom ensues with Platonov making the grave mistake of choosing his college flame Sonya and making a last ditch attempt at a new life. Then: attempted murder, gun fighting, lynching, attempted suicide, double crosses, heart-attacks and a tour of every form of suffering known to the stage drive the play to its hilarious conclusion.

Formally, Platonov, or The Disinherited builds upon stagecast initiatives such as National Theatre Live and the Metropolitan Opera's Live in HD. Rather than shooting from the back of the theater at The Kitchen, Scheib-as he has done in past productions such as World of Wires at The Kitchen and the opera Powder Her Face at BAM-has performers operating cameras from on stage, visible to the audience. The footage is projected onto screens integrated into the set, and, in the case of Platonov, or The Disinherited, is also live-edited and broadcast to cinemas as a stand-alone feature film generated in real time.

In directing Platonov, or The Disinherited, Scheib is joined by Laine Rettmer (Associate Director). The work features stage design by Caleb Wertenbaker, sound design by Anouschka Trocker, video design by?Josh Higgason, live camera by Jay Scheib and Laine Rettmer, and costumes by Alba Clemente; with performances by Sarita Choudhury, Mikeah Jennings, Rosalie Lowe, Jon Morris, Ayesha Ngaujah, Laine Rettmer, Jay Scheib, and Tony Torn.

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