THREE CIS-TERS By Emily Ann Banks to Premiere at LimeFest At The Tank

Emily Ann Banks will return to Anton Chekhov's canon with her new adaptation Three Cis-ters, presented on August 21 as a part of LimeFest at The Tank, curated by artistic director Meghan Finn.

This play follows the Prozorov family-eldest daughter Olga, a spinster and matriarch of the family; middle daughter Masha, stuck in an unsatisfying marriage to an older schoolteacher; youngest daughter Irina, who dreams of leaving the countryside to go find her true love in Moscow; and only son Andrey, on the precipice of an illustrious academic career in the big city, whose poor judgement and indecisiveness have him wind up trapped in his humdrum hometown for the rest of his days. Unhappy unions lead to clandestine affairs, clandestine affairs crash and burn, and, as always, a gun goes off, and tragedy strikes. But, as Chekhov intended, it's a comedy, and Banks finds the humor and lightness at every twist and turn along the way.

In Three Cis-ters, Banks has a cast that represents a broad spectrum of gender identities, enhancing and playing with themes of sisterly bonds and male vulnerability. We see cis women playing men, cis men playing women, and nonbinary people playing various genders, thus painting a rich, dynamic picture of what it means to be a human being without the rigid enforcement of gender in a cis-hetero patriarchal world.

The cast, directed by Banks, features Chris Godshall, Annie Kefalas, Genevieve Wisdom, Ray Wilbur, Niraj Nair, Ryan Sheehan, Alex Taylor, Jesse Dylan Baxter, Bradley Cashman, Connor McLean, and Paulina Breeze. Creative credits include movement choreography by Penelope Deen, intimacy direction by Shea Madison, and lighting design by Addy Jenkins. This production is stage managed by Isabel Fagre, with marketing management by Rose Gonzales.