Alley Theatre Announces Cast and Creative Team for Anton Chekhov's THE SEAGULL

Alley Theatre Artistic Director Gregory Boyd announces the cast and creative team for the Alley Theatre's new production of the large scale classic, The Seagull, in the Alley's intimate Neuhaus Stage. Alley Company member James Black takes on Boris Trigorin, the writer and lover of actress Irina Arkadina, who is played by Alley favorite Jose de Guzman.  Making their Alley debuts are Karl Glusman, playing Irina Arkadina's son Konstantin Treplev, and Erica Lutz, playing Nina, his love interest.

Artistic Director Gregory Boyd explains that placing this show in the Alley's smaller space "drove my desire to direct Checkhov's first masterpiece. The rapport one feels with the characters to their comedy and heartbreak is intensified by their physical closeness.  And closeness to the characters is everything in Chekhov. Here is a play where all the characters are connected – by the theatre, by art, by family – and their inter-workings and inner-workings are not only the subject of the play, but the essence of the playwright's technique."   

Chekhov created one of the enduring masterpieces of the world theatre and a modern classic that grows richer with time.  In his 1895 play, Chekhov describes the romantic entanglements of a group of actors, writers and artists gathered on a Russian estate.  In Anton Chekhov's The Seagull, Arkadina, a famous and successful actress, is spending the summer on her brother Sorin's estate, accompanied by her lover, Trigorin, a well-known novelist. Arkadina's son Konstantin is an aspiring writer and is planning a performance of his first play.  Nina, the daughter of a neighboring landowner, with whom Konstantin is rapturously in love, is set to play the lead role. Nina's youthful radiance mesmerizes Trigorin, further complicating the romantic entanglements of the estate's summer guests. Immortalized by the Moscow Art Theatre The Seagull, the first of Chekhov's masterworks, is the exploration of youth, love, and heartbreak.

"Anton Chekhov is arguably the greatest playwright of the modern period. There are few playwrights more aloof, more distant from the opinions of their characters, who are more deeply involved with what they do than what they say . . . Yet no other playwright is as deeply invested in the future of the human race . . ." - Theatre critic and playwright Robert Brustein, Chekhov in an Hour.

The Seagull features Alley Theatre Acting Company members Jeffrey Bean as Peter Sorin, James Belcher as Shamreyev, James Black as Boris Trigorin, Chris Hutchison as Simon Medvedenko and Todd Waite as Eugene Dorn.

The Seagull also features Josie de Guzman as Irina Arkadine, Karl Glusman as Konstantin, David Gorena as Yakov, Kimberly King as Paulina, Erica Lutz as Nina, Kalob Martinez as Cook, Rachael Sara Tice as Masha, and Ellen Dyer and Rebekah Stevens as Housemaids.

The Seagull will feature scenic design by Kevin Rigdon (Alley's The Monster at the Door, August: Osage County, A Behanding in Spokane) and costume design by Alejo Vietti (Alley's Pygmalion, August: Osage County, Alfred Hitchcock The 39 Steps). Lighting design is by Pat Collins (Alley's Harvey, Rock 'n' Roll, The Man Who Came to Dinner), music composition and sound design by Rob Milburn and Michael Bodeen (Alley's Amadeus, Peter Pan, Cyrano de Bergerac) and hair and wig design is by David H. Lawrence (Alley's Rock 'n' Roll).

The Seagull, by Anton Chekhov and directed by Alley Theatre Artistic Director Gregory Boyd, begins previews Friday, February 3, opens Wednesday, February 8 and runs through Sunday, March 4, 2012 on the Neuhaus Stage.