UNCLE VANYA Opens Placer Rep's 2023-24 Season

Comedic love triangles, a mid-life crisis and dysfunctional family strife are key ingredients that serve up Placer Repertory Theater’s performance of Anton Chekhov’s tragicomedy, Uncle Vanya: Scenes from a Country Life, presented publicly September 8 and 9 as the Placer Rep 2023-2024 season opener.

The play, Uncle Vanya: Scenes from a Country Life, will have a private preview script-in-hand showing in August, then officially open for ONE WEEK ONLY in Rocklin California on September 8 and 9, after which Placer Rep’s Uncle Vanya is available for bookings throughout the region (boxoffice@placerrep.org). This show, full of humor and pathos, is punctuated by brief interludes of Eastern European folk music played live by musician Craig Dunlap, who is a regular on stages as a musician/singer/songwriter in the Sacramento Region music scene. There will also be drawings for gift baskets full of prizes donated by local businesses. More information regarding the September 8 & 9 showings is found at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/placer-rep-presents-uncle-vanya-tickets-694205315787.

Cast members selected for Uncle Vanya include Ronnie Duska Fowler as Yelena, Cloud Adams as Professor Serebryakov, Judy Merrick as MME. Voynitskaya, guest musician/actor Craig Dunlap as Telegin (Waffles), Arie Knyazev as Dr. Astrov, Kyla Quinn as Sonia and Matthew D. Heyer as Uncle Vanya. All cast members have training and professional experience, for example, Judy Merrick attended USC’s BFA program, RADA, and performed for over 10 years off-Broadway and won Best Actress at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Kyla Quinn, BA from CSULB, has Southern California credits that include working for Lifetime and Asylum Studios film/tv production companies, and Cloud Adams (BA SSU) & Matthew D. Heyer (BFA University of Louisiana at Lafayette) both have professional film acting credits.

Placer Rep’s Uncle Vanya script-in-hand performance was developed in workshop from deep study and practical application of Stanislavski’s theories, methods, tools and techniques in Studium-Practicum, Placer Rep’s professional growth program for its company members. In the tradition of high-quality professional performing arts programs throughout the world, Placer Rep has established the Studium-Practicum educational program for continuous professional growth & development. With curriculum modelled after world renowned MFA programs by drama schools such as Yale and RADA, Placer Rep Company Members attend free of charge as they master theories, methods and techniques in acting, directing, playwrighting for styles and genres from around the world, explored cooperatively in a rich, sophisticated, and meaningful, facilitated process. Studium-Practicum is designed to lead to formal rehearsals and public performances for which company members are paid, which enhances their professionalism and benefits the local economy.

The storyline includes an elderly professor and his glamorous, much younger second wife, Yelena, visit his daughter Sonia's rural estate that supports the couple's urban lifestyle. Sonia (who inherited the estate from her mother, the professor's first wife) and her Uncle Vanya have been working for many years to keep the estate going to supplement the lavish urban life of the professor and his young wife. Yelena's presence is a catalyst that awakens once-dormant hopes in Sonia, who yearns for Dr. Astrov, as well as romantic desires in Uncle Vanya and Dr. Astrov, both of whom fall under Yelena's spell to comic effect. All of this heightens Sonia, Vanya and Dr. Astrov's angst regarding their lives, often to humorous effect. Matters are brought to a crisis when the professor announces his intention to sell the estate, Vanya and Sonia’s home, with a view to investing the proceeds to achieve a higher income for himself and his wife.

“Huge thanks belong to the City of Rocklin and its Parks & Recreation department, who is sponsoring the Uncle Vanya performance venue,” said Placer Rep Founder Teresa Stirling Forsyth. “And where would we be without our friend and partner, Tamie Rogers at Tamraloo Studios, who provides us with Studio E in Lincoln as the home of the Placer Rep Studium-Practicum professional growth program. Thank you to our wonderful supporters!” For more information on the September 8 & 9 performances, please visit: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/placer-rep-presents-uncle-vanya-tickets-694205315787.

While Uncle Vanya opens Placer Rep’s 2023-2024 season, the second show of the season is the evolved production of My Jekyll & Hyde for two actors, which includes local history and context, as well as retelling of the famous Robert Louis Stevenson tale. My Jekyll & Hyde opens in October/November 2023, then is available for bookings and finally, at the end of 2023, the Placer Rep Annual Holiday party is planned for December 10. Any parties interested in booking Uncle Vanya or My Jekyll & Hyde after each production’s opening run, may contact boxoffice@placerrep.org to have these productions perform in their community’s  venue, whether it is a scholastic institution, retirement community or performing arts/civic facility.

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