Baldwin Wallace theatre students invite audiences into their home with Chekov’s “Three Sisters,” which opens on April 24 at the Black Box Theatre in the Kleist Center for Art & Drama.
First premiering in 1901 with the Moscow Art Theatre, “Three Sisters,” written by acclaimed playwright Anton Chekov, follows the Prozorov sisters—Olga, Masha, and Irina—over the course of five years as they dream of escaping their town and returning to Moscow.
Director David Alford, a visiting assistant professor of acting in theater, described Chekov as a “challenging” playwright with multiple expectations attached to his name. The playwright is known for his realistic and modern plays, which require a natural acting style.
“It’s challenging because it’s Russian … and there’s a lot of translations that are kind of all over the place,” Alford said. “So, trying to find a good translation that captures … our best ideas of Chekov’s intent and being able to deliver those, in what I would consider a sort of realistic fashion, is kind of a challenge.”
Alford and the cast spent their first week of the rehearsal process strictly doing table reads to truly understand, according to Alford, the “subtext and human behavior” at the heart of this production.
Senior B.F.A. Acting student Chloe Cyr, who plays the oldest sister Olga, said she has enjoyed this process so far because they would start with the big picture, then go into the details. Now that they have begun blocking the show, the students are able to focus on specific scenes, all the relationships, and the things that influence those relationships.
“It’s really exciting because I’ve never done Chekhov, and I’ve also never worked with David before,” Cyr said. “It’s really cool to see all the different ways that every director that I’ve worked with has worked, and then also all the different styles of theater that I’ve done throughout my four years here.”
Alford said that all the students have been very engaged in this process and are open to trying new ways of approaching a scene. These “shared discoveries” contribute to everyone’s excitement and allow the students to have a hand in building up the production.
“They’re really into sort of the detective work, trying to figure out what’s going on with these characters underneath,” Alford said. “When I work with these very interested, talented and bright young people … it helps kindle the fire that’s always been there for me and gets me excited about the work.”
There are multiple relationships occurring among the many characters in the show, including romantic entanglements for each of the three sisters. Senior B.F.A. Acting student Kyle Arzaga plays Tuzenbach, a happy-go-lucky army lieutenant who is the youngest sister, Irina’s, love interest.
“It’s been fun seeing how a natural-style play was written back then because for us now, it may seem a little strange,” Arzaga said. “But back then, this style of writing was so revolutionary.”
This production of “Three Sisters” has transformed the Black Box Theatre into a late 19th century Russian home, where audiences are thrust into the scene as if they were visitors inside the home. Cyr said that audiences may feel as if they are “up against the walls of the house, or even in the living room itself, or outside.”
Alford said: “I hope that it feels intimate. I hope it feels sort of grounded, and [the audience is] sort of looking in on life … as these characters experienced it 125 years ago when it was written. But in addition to that, I hope they get the echoes and the sort of reverberations that there are some human truths about the human journey that are just as true now as they were then.”
“Three Sisters” will be both Cyr and Arzaga’s final shows at BW, and they are both grateful for this experience. While Cyr is in her final lead role at BW, Arzaga said he is enjoying playing a minor character and just being present in the space with the other actors.
“I’m happy that it’s such a large cast because it’s just been nice to spend time with all these people of all different years,” Arzaga said. “We have freshmen and juniors and sophomores and seniors, so that’s just been very nice to be with all these people in the department for my last show.”
As audiences come to see this production, Cyr hopes that they see that life will continue to move on, no matter what happens, and everything will work out in the end.
“Three Sisters” is BW Theatre & Dance’s final production of the academic year and will run April 24-27 in the Black Box Theatre in the Kleist Center for Art & Drama.
