The Stage is Now: May 2025

And so, the artistic process begins.

On April 28–30, we held First Auditions for dozens of actors at the Multi-use Community Cultural Center. They each had prepared a memorized monologue of their choosing that displayed honest and transparent realism—keys to acting Chekhov. While I knew many of the actors from seeing them on local stages, there were quite a few nice surprises. Our mission drew people who are as excited about creating classical theatre as I am. We now move to Callbacks on May 12–14, when I have assigned roles and scenes for them to perform, matching up actors in each scene. (Actors can be cast in 1, 2, or 3 of the plays.) Over 40 actors will audition for over 45 roles across 3 plays in those 3 days. Quite a matrix of talent!

Plus, we have begun a forward-looking collaboration with Nazareth University’s Acting and Musical Theatre Programs. On April 27th and May 2nd, I auditioned students on campus for our 2026 Season. While their own productions come first, these programs have more talented students than they can cast so the faculty has embraced this opportunity. You’ll see some Naz faces throughout the 2026 Season, and we will hopefully continue to build upon this partnership.

One of the most frequently asked questions I get is “Why did you choose Chekhov for your first season?”

I have to tell you that I did not deliberate at all among the great playwrights I could have chosen. It was a quick decision. Not because I had deep familiarity with his plays: though I have seen many of them, I had only produced one back in Sacramento and I hadn’t directed any. Perhaps that’s why he was a natural choice—I felt the need to be immersed in his work. Primarily, I love his characters. Each one is indelible and alive with specificity and intention despite the chaos around them. I do know that actors love playing Chekhovian personae as they offer limitless layers to explore. His plays aren’t driven by plot as much as by the complexities of human behavior, with all the passion and folly we act out in our daily lives. There are no heroes or villains in Chekhov plays, only flawed humans that make up the multi-generational families we see gathered in country houses. 

I also had a rare summer in 1971 when, as a precocious sixteen-year-old dedicated to a future career in the theatre, I became an underage apprentice at the Falmouth Playhouse on Cape Cod. I lived on the property in a sort of barracks with the other older apprentices. We worked morning, noon, and night, six days a week, across all of the technical positions of a professional company. This was traditional summer stock, a new show every week, and a time when the stars still went out on tour. I mean, we had Sandy Dennis in And Miss Reardon Drinks A Little, Eleanor Parker in Forty Carats, Van Johnson in There’s A Girl In My Soup…you know, standard light summer fare.

However, we also had Faye Dunaway in Shaw’s Candida and the married couple, Rip Torn and Geraldine Page, performing three Chekhov one-acts…! In summer stock! Elmore Rual “Rip” Torn Jr. directed himself and Ms. Page in The Bear, The Proposal, and The Wedding. What I remember most from that week is that Mr. Torn kept rehearsing the plays after opening night. I was running the lighting control board that week, so I could see them rehearse from my vantage point, off stage left. That stuck with me. Here they were, doing summer stock on Cape Cod, and they cared about their craft enough to take their artistry seriously.

So I guess I’ve been a fan of digging into the works of Anton Chekhov for almost fifty-four years.

Last month, I wrote that I’d have more information about our annual fund and season subscriptions in May.

We will be opening up season subscription sales to our “Pantheon” donors for pre-sale on August 1st. On September 1st, we will open up sales to the general public. Why is this timeline important? With our limited performance schedule, there will be only 10 performances with tickets on sale in advance. (We’ll have an 11th as a $10 pay-at-the-door night.) The venue can hold about 75 people, so we will sell only 70 tickets per performance and keep 5 seats for emergencies. Because we don’t want all the seats to be subscribed and have some people miss out, we will put a cap of 50 subscription seats per performance and no more than 350 subscribers in total. It’ll be a select audience! Don’t worry, I’ll remind you of all this during the summer.

Classically Yours,

Here’s a little preview of another play in our inaugural season. The hits just keep on coming!

Dramaturgical Dip: The Cherry Orchard