Cherry Orchard
The Cherry orchard
(2022)
“This play is filled with so many moments of love and laughter, it is remarkable.”
The Cherry Orchard is the third installment of our Chekhov Project, a collaboration with translator Štĕpán Šimek and guest director Alice Reagan. This production re-envisions Chekhov’s play on a landscape of ice. In this stripped bare version of the play, we watch how human beings confront catastrophic change; spend money, eat candy, throw parties, tell stories of the past, tell stories of the future, fall in love, fall out of love, do magic, sing, flee, stay and die.
“positively stuffed with meaning, movement, and energy”
Production History:
June 24-July 16, 2022
Wed-Sun, 7:30pm
Venue: Reed College Performing Arts Building
"I’ve never seen a production perform as wild a balancing act as this one"
Production credits:
The Cherry Orchard by Anton Chekhov
Created by PETE
Translated by Štĕpán Šimek
Adapted & Directed by Alice Reagan
Asst. Director Miller Liberatore
Cast: Jacob Coleman, Murri Lazaroff-Babin, Rebecca Lingafelter, Sofia Marks, Cristi Miles, Amber Whitehall
Set: Peter Ksander
Lights: Miranda K Hardy
Costume: Jenny Ampersand
Sound: Mark Valadez
"PETE pushes situations to the boundaries of absurdity (and often beyond) to reveal deeper truths about human nature"
Stage Management: Kristina Mast
Assistant Stage manager: Ava Schmidt
Assistant Sound Designer: Cora Beeman
Props Associate: Elizabeth Swetland
Additional Choreography and Creation: Charles Grant
Production Management & Technical Direction: Molly Gardner
Box Office Manager: Leiana Petlewski
Front of House Manager: India Roper-Moyes
Photography: Owen Carey
Understudy: Olivia Mathews
Jenny Ampersand’s costume design is particularly adept at merging the iconography of the source material with the production’s ecocritical spin. Ranyevskaya’s engulfing white coat marries the sumptuousness of a Zhivago fur with the insulation of a quilted duvet, while Varya’s pragmatic attire flirts between Russian peasant and off-the-grid survivalist. The green and red of Russian military uniforms are transformed into racing-striped tracksuit pants for Lopakhin, and the comical figure of Gayev struts around the stage in white face powder (complete with faux beauty mark) and lace cravat and cuffs attached to a grey union suit (complete with buttoned back flap).
Made possible with support from Ronni LaCroute, Pancho Savery, Harold Goldstein & Carol Streeter, Ellen Walkley & Brian Myers, Charlotte Rubin, Reed College, the Regional Arts and Cultural Council, The Mental Insight Foundation, Oregon Arts Commission, The Oregon Cultural Trust, The Multnomah County Cultural Coalition, The Collins Foundation, the Fred W. Fields Fund of the Oregon Community Foundation, and The Kinsman Foundation.
Performance Venue:
Reed Center for the Performing Arts
Diver Studio Theatre
3017 SE Woodstock Blvd, Portland, OR 97202
**UNDERSTUDY NOTICE**
From Thursday June 23rd through Sunday June 26th the role of Anya was played by Olivia Mathews. Olivia Mathews is a local theatre dreamer in Portland. She was first brought to PETE via the opportunity to assistant direct their 2020 production, Beckett Women. Olivia is also a recent grad of the 2021-2022 ICP cohort and was featured in ENDURANCE [the boat] (the show) and Between the Two of Us in the Fleshed Out Festival. They are so excited to be making a guest appearance in The Cherry Orchard and look forward to future work with PETE!
Special thanks: We are eternally grateful to the following collaborators, who left indelible marks on this production: Charles Grant, Kate Duffly, and Maggie Heath.
Thanks also to Charlie Capps and Allison Blaine for their help on this project.