CMU School of Drama


Wednesday, March 22, 2017

Chekhov like you've never seen - Three Sisters at Studio Theatre

DC Theatre Scene: The women chant their lines over one another above a rising swirl of offstage clamor that reaches a crescendo pitch. Masha (Caroline Hewitt),—the most troubled of the three Prozorov sisters—begins to scramble up a tree like a cat as the scene goes dark.

Your typical Chekov this is not. From advent to finale, Studio Theatre’s stirring production of the seminal Russian dramatist’s Three Sisters carries a virulent and wholly unexpected streak of madness throughout.

1 comment:

Sarah Boyle said...

I love the birch trees coming up through the floor boards and subtly painted into the wood paneled walls. It’s both fantastical and real and such a cool choice. The earth tones, warm browns, reds, and greens in both the costumes and upholstery in the top photo add to the sense of being both in a living room and in nature at once. Between the sharp blue suit and the bright green plant in the background of the second photo, it feels more like an interior space. The texture on the birch trees look really well some in the photos. I read a different article about this production that said that with two shows running at once, and with actors that performed in both, some actors would be preforming in one show, and then go downstairs to perform in the other. I have to imagine that would be stressful for a stage manager, ensuring both shows start exactly at the right moment for those switches to work. I also wonder how they did quick changes, or how much hair and makeup needed for an actor needs to be changed before they enter a new production.