Anton Chekhov News

Full casting has been announced for the productions of Translations and Afterplay, as part of an upcoming season of work dedicated to the Irish playwright Brian Friel, taking place at Sheffield Theatres this spring.

The Chicago Humanities Festival (CHF) hosts author Gary Shteyngart in conversation with Chicago writer Aleksandar Hemon on Wednesday, Jan. 22, 2014 at 6 p.m. at First United Methodist Church at The Chicago Temple (77 W Washington St).

The Segal Centre for Performing Arts will present the world premiere of Peter Hinton's adaptation of The Seagull, starring Lucy Peacock and Diane D'Aquila. This comic and bittersweet re-imagining of Anton Chekhov's masterpiece plays in the Segal Theatre for a limited engagement from February 2nd to 16th, 2014. The Seagull is presented with the generous support of Delmar.

Tony-nominated and Obie-winning Chekhov director Austin Pendleton helms and appears in Mississippi Mud Productions' SeaGull69, a new version of Anton Chekhov's masterpiece, The SeaGull. This is a world premiere of an adaptation by Austin Pendleton and the acting company drawing on Marian Fell's translation. Set in Los Angeles in the summer of 1969, the play looks at family and friends pursuing the American dream of fame, love, and fortune in Hollywood, the land of dreams. Chekhov's sense of humor along with his tender and honest look at life is explored through the terrain of this family and their circle's life in Hollywood from 1969-1971. Tickets on sale online @ http://seagull69.brownpapertickets.com - $17 general admission, $14 student/senior.

Woodie King Jr's New Federal Theatre continues its 44th season with Dr. Du Bois and Miss Ovington starring Kathleen Chalfant and Timothy Simonson. Gabrielle L. Kurlander directs. Performances begin January 16h, with opening night scheduled for January 30th.

According to the Associated Press, 95 year-old Radu Beligan has just been declarled the world's oldest active actor. When presented with his Guinness Award certificate he told theatre goers: 'I have no merits at all. I am the result of the love you have shown me for so many, many years.'

Center Stage announced today that Christopher Durang's Tony Award-winning comedy, Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike, will join Center Stage's 2013-14 Season. The production, which will run in place of Naomi Wallace's The Liquid Plain, begins previews on April 16, opens on April 23, and runs through May 25.

Highlights include new work from Canadian artists Stan Douglas, Chris Haddock and Jennifer Tarver; remount of Robert Lepage's sold-out Needles and Opium; Spotlight South Africa festival; great theatre, dance, circus and music Toronto, ON - Canadian Stage today announced the 14 productions and collaborations featured in the 2014.2015 season. Artistic & General Director Matthew Jocelyn continues to make Canadian Stage a home for innovative live performance from Canada and around the world with a genre-defying line-up that celebrates the company's mandate to share daring work guided by a strong directorial vision. In addition to featuring acclaimed artists and productions from around the world, the upcoming season will share newly commissioned Canadian work with an international audience. Transfixing theatre, dance, circus, and music with a particular focus on multimedia performance will span Canadian Stage's three venues: the Bluma Appel Theatre, the Berkeley Street Theatre and the High Park Amphitheatre.

The Shakespeare Theatre Company is proud to welcome Man in a Case to Washington, D.C. Interweaving video, music and dance, this production is adapted from two short stories of Anton Chekhov's and features celebrated performer Mikhail Baryshnikov and veteran members of Big Dance TheaterJess Barbagallo, Tymberly Canale, Chris Giarmo and Aaron Mattocks. Adapted and directed by the Obie Award-winning team Annie-B Parson andPaul Lazar/Big Dance Theater, Man in a Case runs from December 5-22, 2013 in the Lansburgh Theatre (450 7th Street, NW). Check out a first look below!

Front Foot Theatre presents THE SEAGULL, written by Anton Chekhov and translated by Michael Frayn, from tonight, Dec 3-22 at White Bear Theatre.

What started as a disposable play has concluded as one of the great American theatre experiences of this young century.

Talk Is Free Theatre has announced principal casting and creative teams for the first three productions of the current season. Some of Canada's most renowned artists are scheduled to appear, with additional casting announcements expected to follow at a later date.

These days, it is said more and more often that there are no new ideas under the sun. These accusations of a lack of originality are especially directed at Hollywood and the television studios. Every weekend sees the opening of a new sequel or reboot or re-imagining. While there are, in reality, some great original ideas coming out of Hollywood and television, there is also no shortage of originality in the world of live theater. Unfortunately, Christopher Durang's Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike, playing at Trinity Rep, feels like little more than a needless attempt to update and reboot Chekov while using as many modern day and mostly unnecessary pop-culture references as possible.

There was a live band of four playing Russian Folk Music to help set the mood: Anastasia Leonova on vocals/guitar, Gordon Reinhart on violin, Michael Baltzell on the balalaika, and Stitch Marker on guitar. It made for a wonderful transition into the world we were about to enter. They had a quality to them that could (almost should) be on CD.

Trinity Rep continues their 50th anniversary season with the New England premiere of Christopher Durang's smash-hit comedy Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike. Directed by The Richard L. Bready Artistic Director Curt Columbus, the show beings in previews November 21st in the intimate Dowling Theater and runs through December 22nd. Taking takes his cue from some of Anton Chekhov's most recognizable characters, Durang wickedly adds more than a dash of pop culture, a huge helping of dark humor and then lets the characters stew in a pressure cooker of their own devising. The result is a whirlwind weekend of classic Durang barbs, over the top tirades and ridiculously hysterical situations hailed. Tickets on sale now through the box office at 201 Washington St., by phone at (401) 351-4242 and online at www.trinityrep.com.

The Harold and Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust honors playwrights Annie Baker and Rajiv Joseph at the Sixth Annual Steinberg Playwright 'Mimi' Awards tonight, Monday, November 18, 2013 at the Lincoln Center Theater in New York. The 'Mimi' Awards are presented biennially to honor the accomplishments of some of the most gifted up-and-coming American Playwrights and to recognize the promise they hold for the future of American theater.

The Boston College Theatre Department continues its 2013-2014 season with an exciting, non-traditional production of Anton Chekhov's Three Sisters. The production will be directed by guest artist, David R. Gammons, the Theatre Department's Rev. J. Donald Monan, S.J. Professor in Theatre Arts for the Fall 2013 semester. [More below.] Performances will take place on the Robsham Theater Arts Center main stage November 21-24.

Apollinaire Theatre Company presents From White Plains by by Michael Perlman, in Collaboration with Craig Wesley Divino, Karl Gregory, Jimmy King and Aaron Rossinil. Just because it gets better, doesn't mean it didn't happen.

The Chicago Humanities Festival (CHF) announces its Winter 2014 programs: featuring critically acclaimed authors Gary Shteyngart, Karen Russell, and Mohsin Hamid. Kicking off the new year, writer Gary Shteyngart will discuss his just-published memoir Little Failure with Chicago literary star Aleksandar Hemon on Wednesday, Jan. 22, 2014. Following in February, The New Yorker '20 Under 40' writer and MacArthur Fellow Karen Russell will talk about her latest book Vampires in the Lemon Grove with Time Out Chicago's Laura Pearson on Thursday, Feb. 13, 2014. Concluding in March, The New York Times bestselling author Mohsin Hamid will speak about his most recent novel How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia, on Tuesday, March 11, 2014. All events will take place at 6 p.m. at First United Methodist Church at The Chicago Temple (77 W Washington St). Tickets will go on sale to CHF Members Wednesday, Dec. 4 at 10 a.m. and to the public Monday, Dec. 9 at 10 a.m. Visit chicagohumanities.org for more information.

Talk Is Free Theatre has announced principal casting and creative teams for the first three productions of the current season. Some of Canada's most renowned artists are scheduled to appear, with additional casting announcements expected to follow at a later date.