The Pitt-Greensburg Theatre Company is gearing up for its fall production, the comedy-drama “Chekhov in Yalta,” written by John Driver and Jeffrey Haddow.
Curtain times are 7:30 p.m. Nov. 14-16 and 2 p.m. Nov. 17 in Ferguson Theater on the University of Pittsburgh at Greensburg campus.
Eleven students will perform in the play, in which “Russian playwright Anton Chekhov is visited by the wacky members of the Moscow Art Theatre, who will do anything they can to get their hands on his newest play — before he succumbs either to love … or to tuberculosis,” according to the theater company.
Chekhov will be portrayed by senior history major Logan Tomko of Plum.
The play finds Chekhov coping with his own mortality because of his tuberculosis, which was a death sentence during the time period in which the play is set, according to director Stephen Schrum, Pitt-Greensburg associate professor of theater.
“Anyone familiar with the plays of Chekhov will see bits and pieces of them included in this play,” Schrum says. “Anyone not familiar with Chekhov will see the interactions of a group of people, some in love, some caring, some uncaring, some in competition with one another, some trying to help one another. In other words: everyday life. The play is a glimpse of a particular era, the turn of the last century, when dark clouds of revolution gather on the horizon, dimming the artistic lights of the Moscow Art Theater.”
The theater company is pairing “Chekhov in Yalta” with its spring 2020 production of Jeffrey Hatcher’s adaptation of “The Government Inspector,” by Russian playwright Nikolai Gogol.
“This year’s theatre performances take a cue from current events and are centered on the theme of ‘The Russians are coming! The Russians are coming!’ ” Schrum says. “In the two plays being produced this year by the theatre company, we see that the American and Russian people are much alike in attitudes about art and also about government corruption and confidence games.”
Admission to the play is $10, or $5 for students, seniors and those with a Pitt ID.
For information, contact Schrum at 724-836-7483 or sas114@pitt.edu.
