KINGSTON, RI—November 15, 2011 – Next month, the University of Rhode Island Department of Theatre will present The Sea Gull by Anton Chekov, translated by Robert W. Corrigan.
The show will be staged Dec. 1 to 3 and 8 to 10 at 7:30 p.m. and Dec. 4 and 11 at 3 p.m. in the Robert E. Will Theatre in the URI Fine Arts Center, 105 Upper College Road, Kingston. General admission is $16, $12 for seniors, URI faculty/staff, and $10 for students. Tickets can be purchased by calling 401.874.5843 beginning Nov. 14 or online at www.uri.edu/theatre.
One summer in the late 19th century a family and their companions convene at an estate in the Russian countryside. A new play is performed and lives are changed forever as we witness the evolving dynamics of love—young, mature, married, illicit and unrequited. Anton Chekov’s unique characters, including actors, writers, a teacher, a doctor, and wannabes take us on a journey filled with a poignancy of aspiration, success and failure in Chekov’s tragicomic masterpiece.
Initially, the play was less than successful on its first public excursion, but two years later in 1898 it flourished in the hands of actor/director Constantine Stanislavsky at the Moscow Art Theatre.
Stanislavsky understood Chekhov’s new form of writing, the need to enliven the stage with character behavior, inner life, and subtext. Stanislavsky’s system of acting affected American theater’s primary acting teachers; Stella Adler, Lee Strasberg, Sanford Meisner, Bobby Lewis and Uta Hagen and their many students.
At the crux of The Sea Gull is an unfulfilled mother-son love, a conflict between traditional and new forms of theater, the obsessiveness, even narcisism of the artist at any price, and the flight of ambition to capture fame often leaving love in its wake.
The Sea Gull mirrors human beings as they truly are—loveable and laughable.
The show is directed by Bryna Wortman, associate professor, (Spinning Into Butter, A View From the Bridge); costume design by guest artist Marilyn Salvatore; sets by URI alumna Cheryl deWardener; lighting design by URI alumus Matthew Terry and sound design by guest artist Mike Hyde.
Actors, their character, and their hometowns follow:
Actor, Character, Hometown
Joshua Andrews, Dorn, West Greenwich
Sam Appleman,Yakov, Springfield, Mass.
Julia Bailey, Arkadina, Boston, Mass.
Erick Betancourt, Shamraev, Providence
Lindsy Bissonnette, U/S Maid, Wakefield
Miles Boucher, Trigorin, Coventry
Andrew Burnap, Treplev, Wakefield
Joshua Christensen, Sorin, Warwick
Nora Eschenheimer, Nina, Newport
Shannon Hartman, Masha, Coventry
Kira Hawkridge, Polin, Pawtucket
Benjamin Hill, U/S Shamraev, Hartford, Conn.
Greg Infussi, U/S Trigorin, Providence
Sarah Leach, Maid, U/S Nina, Smithfield
T.S. McCormick, U/S Cook, Boston
Allie Meek, U/S Masha, Providence
Stephen Peterson, U/S Yakov
Mia Rocchio, U/S Arkadina, Lebanon, N.H.
Philip Ryng, Cook, U/S Sorin, Jamestown
Gianna Soprano, U/S Polina, Scituate
Marc Tiberiis II, U/S Medvedenko, Pawtucket
Birk Wozniak, Medvedenko, North Kingstown
Pictured above
URI students Andrew Burnap of Wakefield and Nora Eschenheimer of Newport
URI student Julia Bailey of Boston and Miles Boucher of Coventry.
URI photos by Randy Osga.