Tom Aulino, Barbara Walsh, Mary Beth Fisher and More Star in KC Rep's VANYA AND SONIA AND MASHA AND SPIKE, Beg. Tonight Tonight

Kansas City Repertory Theatre's production of Christopher Durang's Tony Award-winning Broadway hit comedy Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike, directed by the Rep's Artistic Director Eric Rosen, runs tonight, March 14 - April 6 at Spencer Theatre on the UMKC campus. Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike is a co-production with Center Stage in Baltimore.

The cast for Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike includes Tom Aulino (Vanya), who recently directed the Rep's hit production of The Mystery of Irma Vep and acted in Annie Baker's Circle Mirror Transformation; Barbara Walsh (Sonia), a Tony Award-nominee for Falsettos who has acted in the Broadway productions of Company, Big and Hairspray and is appearing for the first time at the Rep; Mary Beth Fisher (Masha) who starred in Kansas City Rep's production of Tom Stoppard's Indian Ink and who is a veteran of many Chicago, New York and regional theatre productions; Zach Andrews (Spike) who just completed his Rep appearance in Romeo and Juliet; Emily Peterson (Nina), a veteran of several seasons of A Christmas Carol at the Rep and Vanessa Severo (Cassandra) whose KC Rep productions include August: Osage County, Cabaret and A Christmas Carol.

Walsh, Andrews and Peterson will also join the co-production in Baltimore for the Center Stage run April 16 - May 25.

The creative and Production team for Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike is comprised of Donald Eastman (Scenic Design); Melissa Torchia (Costume Design), Victor En Yu Tan (Lighting Design), Joshua Horvath (Sound Design), and Stephanie Clapper (Casting). Mary R. Honour is Production Stage Manager.

"Chekhov famously opined that his brooding, angst-filled plays were comedies, and Durang has shown the world that Chekhov was right," says Rosen. "Pulling characters from famous Chekhov plays and placing them in a contemporary Bucks County, PA crumbling family manse is absurd - and Durang is a master of the form. Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike is a deeply funny, profoundly smart, and ultimately moving comedy, and I can't wait to share our co-production with the great audiences at Kansas City Rep and Center Stage."

Originally commissioned by the McCarter Theatre in Princeton, New Jersey in association with Lincoln Center Theater, the Broadway cast for Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike included David Hyde Pierce and Sigourney Weaver. In addition to its 2013 Tony Award for Best Play, the play also received top honors from New York Drama Critics' Circle, Drama League and Drama Desk.

Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike by Christopher Durang, directed by Eric Rosen, runs March 14-April 6 at Spencer Theatre in the James C. Olson Performing Arts Center on the UMKC campus in Kansas City, MO. Tickets prices are $20 for students and $29-$59 for adults. For ticket and performance information, call the Rep Box Office at 816-235-2700 or visit www.KCRep.org. For group ticket sales, please call 816-235-6122.

About Center Stage: Under the leadership of playwright, actor, and director Kwame Kwei-Armah OBE (Artistic Director) and national arts leader Stephen Richard (Managing Director), Center Stage is an artistically driven institution committed to engaging, entertaining, and enriching audiences of today and tomorrow through joyous and bold performance. The professional, nonprofit theater company is dedicated to the creation and presentation of a dynamic and diverse array of new and classic work, and each year hosts an audience of more than 100,000 in its historic home in Baltimore's Mount Vernon neighborhood. With its signature focus on civic and community engagement, Center Stage, The State Theater of Maryland, enters its second 50 years with a commitment to exploring how art and entertainment communicate in the 21st century, and to igniting conversation in Baltimore and beyond.

About Kansas City Repertory Theatre: Just shy of its 50th anniversary, Kansas City Repertory Theatre is one of the nation's oldest and most respected regional theaters. Lauded by The Wall Street Journal, TIME magazine, Variety and the Toronto Sun, the Rep produces mainstage plays and special events at Spencer Theatre, where it serves as the professional theatre in residence at the University of Missouri-Kansas City (UMKC), and Copaken Stage located in downtown Kansas City. Under the artistic direction of Eric Rosen, the Rep's original work and collaborations have been seen across the country. With 22 production transfers in the last five years the Rep is emerging as an important center for the creation of new work of national significance. Recent transfers to Broadway and Off-Broadway include Venice at the Public Theater (with Center Theatre Group), Clay at Lincoln Center/LCT3, A Christmas Story: The Musical (Broadway, Tony nomination, best musical), Tom Sawyer at the New Victory, and The Great Immensity (upcoming at the Public.) Kansas City Rep's leadership team includes Executive Director Angela Lee Gieras and Director of Production Jerry Genochio.

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