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Longstreet Theatre
Green and Sumter Streets
Main Office, Room 402
Columbia, SC 29208

phone: 803.777.4288   
fax: 803.777.6669
email: theatre@sc.edu or dance@sc.edu

Theatre South Carolina Faculty Mount
Successful Productions In New York

A Chekov classic is being given new life in New York thanks to several University professors, who have recently mounted successful productions of "sequels" to Chekov's "The Cherry Orchard" in the theatre mecca.

In December, professors Robyn Hunt and Steven Pearson took their original work Gravity to The Connelly Theatre, an historic theatre on NY's Lower East Side. Produced with the full support of USC through their Pacific Performance Project/East organization, Gravity takes Madame Ranevskaya five years past the end of The Cherry Orchard. Penniless after the sale of her Russian estate, she has returned to her freezing Paris flat, and becomes a prisoner there as the river Seine floods the streets of the city. As the water rises, time stops; and Ranevskaya struggles to hold to the ideals of her past in a new world that has embraced Einstein's revolutionary ideas of time, space and gravity.

Pearson conceived and directed, and Hunt wrote the text for the piece, which had workshops in Seattle and Columbia before heading to NY. The play is part of a planned trilogy of works which use classical literature as a stepping-off point for explorations of broader concepts through the duo's Suzuki-influenced, physical approach to theatre. The first, Balance, used Chekov's The Three Sisters as a launching-pad; the third will be called Flight.

Department faculty and students worked with Hunt and Pearson on the project, including Lisa Martin-Stuart (costumes), Neal Easterling (Assistant Director) and graduate acting students Eric Bultman and Felicia Bertch.

 

While Gravity was being performed in NYC, professor Nic Ularu was finishing preparation on his own original take on Chekov's classic. Ularu's The Cherry Orchard Sequel opened in February at the esteemed LaMaMa Experimental Theatre Club and quickly became a critical smash. The play brings characters (alive and dead) from the Chekhov original eighteen years forward, as they struggle with life admist the grand ideologies of the first Russian Revolution. Ularu's play becomes a rumination on this turning point in Russian history, with Chekov's characters and setting providing emotional resonance to the growing oppression.

Ularu wrote and directed Sequel and collaborated fully with faculty and present/former students from USC, including:

Carl Hamilton and Craig Vetter (Scenic Design); Kimi Maeda (Costume Design); Jim Hunter (Lighting Design); Walter Clissen (Sound Design); KDale White (Production Stage Manager); and actors Robyn Hunt, Richard Jennings, Steven Pearson, John Patrick Driscoll, Paul Kaufmann, Bob Hungerford, Zach Hanks and Patrick Kelly.

The Cherry Orchard Sequel received great reviews in the national press, with especially notable positive reviews from Variety and The New York Times. Variety praised the "good, enigmatic storytelling" of the show, while The New York Times called the piece "a sparkling surprise, helped along by fine performances all around." The New York Times later listed the production as a "Critic's Pick," which in their words "denotes a highly recommended...show."

In addition to providing excellent artistic and educational experiences to the department, these productions are helping to raise the level of awareness to our program nationwide as what Hunt calls "a point of origin for new ideas."

Steven Pearson adds, "These works encourage people to say, "interesting work is coming from there,' and eventually we become known for that."

Scott Steele, executive director of the New York-based University/Resident Theatre Association, agrees.

“Unfortunately, yes, it's very unusual for a production to come out of a university and reach an Off-Broadway presentation,” he says. “It's a tremendously important event because it brings together so many events important to the theatre program—faculty getting a chance to exercise their artistic muscle off campus in a different situation and students and alumni participating as well.

“It's a very impressive accomplishment, on top, of course, of getting good reviews. Within the graduate professional training world, it would earn considerable respect.”