News and Events
EASTERN PRESENTS CHEKHOV NOV. 12-16
St. Davids, PA, October 29, 2008: Eastern University Fine and Performing Arts division presents the classic, bittersweet comedy “Three Sisters,” November 12-14 at 8 p.m., November 15 at 1 p.m. and 8 p.m., and November 16 at 3 p.m. in McInnis Auditorium. Eastern University is located at 1300 Eagle Road in St. Davids, PA, and there is ample free parking on campus.
Written by Anton Chekhov and adapted and directed by Liz Carlson ‘06 and Eastern’s Director of Theatre Mark Hallen, this production attempts to unleash the comic richness originally intended by the playwright, which more traditional productions mute, dilute or miss entirely. “I gave them a vaudeville,” Chekhov once complained, “and they turned my characters into crybabies!”
Mark Hallen, co-adapter and director, compares the comedic style to that of the hit TV show The Office. “It’s been like a jeweler's glass with which to see and release Chekhov's comic diamonds in the rough,” says Hallen. “The characters in both “Three Sisters” and The Office want so desperately to be seen as they want to see themselves but they OVERDO every attempt. They act on contradictory impulses to be generous and tough, happy and honest, totally kind and totally truthful, unique and selfless, to love and be loved back in the same measure. In The Office, Ricky Gervais and Greg Daniels have resurrected the comedy of incongruity, awkwardness and discomfort that Chekhov invented."
Tickets for all performances are $10 for general admission, $8 for seniors and students, and $5 for anyone with an Eastern University ID. Seating is limited. Tickets can be reserved by calling the Eastern University Theatre and Dance Box Office at 610.225.5545 or by e-mailing your name, the date and time of the show you would like to attend, and the number of tickets you need to: easternutheatre@gmail.com
For more information, visit www.myspace.com/easternuniversitytheatre
SPECIAL NOTE:
Eastern University Theatre dedicates this original adaptation of Chekhov’s “Three Sisters” to Dr. Betsy Morgan, an Eastern original if there ever was one. In her over 30 years of teaching and leading at Eastern, she has incarnated for all of us what it means to be an authentic, smart, feisty and collaborative companion; to see the world with complexity, humor and compassion; to meet life as an adventure rather than a trial, recognizing Immanence and Transcendence at the center of things when the rest of us get lost in the superficial and peripheral.
