DEAD BIRD At Hollywood Fringe Delivers A Contemporary Take on Chekhov

As part of this year’s Hollywood Fringe Festival, a group of emerging artists from the Lee Strasberg Theatre & Film Institute will debut Dead Bird, a contemporary reworking of Anton Chekhov’s The Seagull. The production opens June 12 at Skiptown Playhouse in East Hollywood.

Developed collaboratively by the ensemble and directed as a devised piece, Dead Bird moves Chekhov’s themes of artistic longing, personal disillusionment, and emotional paralysis out of the Russian countryside and into a recognizably modern world. The adaptation forgoes period trappings in favor of raw performances and a stripped-down aesthetic.

“This version doesn’t run from the present—it lives in it,” said actor and producer Ricky Serrano. “It’s about creatives on the edge, romantic implosions, and the hunger to be recognized.”

Performed with a blend of naturalism and poetic texture, the show maintains Chekhov’s focus on characters who speak around the truth as much as they speak it. The ensemble cast draws heavily from their own experiences as young artists navigating ambition, failure, and isolation in a hypermediated era.

Performance Details

Venue: Skiptown Playhouse
Address: 665 N Heliotrope Dr, Los Angeles, CA 90004

Showtimes:

• Wednesday, June 12 at 9:00 PM

• Friday, June 28 at 3:00 PM

• Saturday, June 29 at 8:00 PM

Dead Bird is one of several experimental takes on canonical works featured at this year’s Fringe, reflecting a broader trend among younger theatermakers to mine the classics for contemporary resonance.

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