Lincoln Center Theater Will Bring UNCLE VANYA to Broadway with New Translation by Heidi Schreck

This spring, Lincoln Center Theater will produce Anton Chekhov’s classic UNCLE VANYA, featuring a new translation by Heidi Schreck, directed by Lila Neugebauer. The production will begin previews Tuesday, April 2, 2024, and open on Wednesday, April 24, 2024, at the Vivian Beaumont Theater (150 West 65 Street).
 
Sonya and her uncle Vanya have devoted their lives to managing the family farm in isolation, but when her celebrated, ailing father and his charismatic wife move in, their lives are upended. In the heat of the summer, the wrong people fall in love, desires and resentments erupt, and the family is forced to reckon with the ghosts of their unlived lives. Director Lila Neugebauer and playwright Heidi Schreck collaborate on the premiere of this Lincoln Center Theater production of UNCLE VANYA, which pairs Chekhov's enduring masterpiece with one of America's most celebrated contemporary playwrights in a strikingly immediate new translation.
 
UNCLE VANYA will have sets by Mimi Lien, costumes by Kaye Voyce, lighting by Lap Chi Chu, and sound by Mikhail Fiksel and Beth Lake.  Charles M. Turner III will be stage manager.  Casting will be announced at a later date.
 

ANTON PAVLOVICH CHEKHOV

(1860-1904) was born in Taganrog, a port city in southwestern Russia, less than 100 kilometers from the border of present-day Ukraine. Chekhov’s grandfather was a serf who had bought his family’s liberation before the end of serfdom in 1861, young Anton grew up largely in poverty and paid his way through medical school in Moscow by writing short humor vignettes centered on daily Russian life. In 1887, a theatre manager commissioned Chekhov to write a play, the result of which was Ivanov. Chekhov followed that play with four more that would go on to become pillars of modern drama: The Seagull (1895), Uncle Vanya (1897), Three Sisters (1900), and The Cherry Orchard (1903). He died from tuberculosis at the age of 44, leaving behind a body of work that spanned poems, plays, short stories, and novellas.   
 

Heidi Schreck

is a writer and performer living in Brooklyn. Her critically acclaimed play What the Constitution Means to Me played an extended, sold-out run on Broadway in 2019, and was nominated for two Tony Awards. It had subsequent runs at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C., the Mark Taper Forum, The Guthrie, Seattle Repertory Theatre, and at theaters all over the country. A filmed version of the play premiered on Amazon Prime Video, and was nominated for a Critics Choice Award, a PGA Award and DGA Award. What the Constitution Means to Me was named Best of the Year by the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, the Chicago Tribune, Time Magazine, The Hollywood Reporter, The New Yorker and more. Schreck’s other plays Grand Concourse, Creature, and There Are No More Big Secrets have also been produced in NYC and throughout the United States. Screenwriting credits include “I Love Dick,” “Billions,” “Nurse Jackie,” “Dispatches from Elsewhere.” She is the recipient of three Obie Awards, a Drama Desk Award, and a Theatre World Award; as well as the Horton Foote Playwriting Award and the Hull-Warriner Award from the Dramatists Guild. She has also worked as a teacher and journalist in St Petersburg, Russia and has done live simultaneous translations of plays by Chekhov, Gorky, and Ostrovksy. Schreck was awarded Smithsonian Magazine’s 2019 American Ingenuity Award, for her work in the Performing Arts. 
 

Lila Neugebauer

is an award-winning stage and screen director. Her work at Lincoln Center Theater includes Sarah DeLappe's The Wolves, Zoe Kazan's After the Blast, and Abe Koogler's Kill Floor. Broadway: Kenneth Lonergan’s The Waverly Gallery. Recent off-Broadway: Simon Stephens’ Morning Sun (MTC); Tracy Letts’ Mary Page Marlowe (Second Stage), Annie Baker’s The Antipodes, Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’ Everbody, Edward Albee’s At Home at the Zoo: Homelife/The Zoo Story (Signature Theatre). As co-Artistic Director of The Mad Ones: Mrs. Murray’s Menagerie (Ars Nova) and Miles for Mary (Playwrights Horizons), among others. Lila is an alum of the Drama League, Soho Rep Writer/Director Lab, Lincoln Center Theater Directors Lab, an Ensemble Studio Theatre member, New Georges Affiliated Artist, and New York Theatre Workshop Usual Suspect. Obie Award, Drama Desk Sam Norkin Special Award, and Princess Grace Award recipient. TV: “Maid” (Netflix); “The Last Thing He Told Me” (Apple TV+); “The Sex Lives of College Girls,” “Room 104” (HBO Max). Lila’s directorial feature debut Causeway, starring Jennifer Lawrence and Brian Tyree Henry (Oscar nomination) is available on AppleTV+.
 
In addition to UNCLE VANYA, Lincoln Center Theater’s current season includes the New York premiere of The Gardens of Anuncia, a new musical by Michael John LaChiusa, featuring direction and co-choreography by Graciela Daniele, which will begin previews on Thursday, October 19 ahead of a Monday, November 20 opening at the Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater; and Daphne, a new play by Renae Simone Jarrett, directed by Sarah Hughes, which begins performances Saturday, October 7 ahead of a Monday, October 23 opening at the Claire Tow Theater;  as well as additional productions to be announced.

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