Page 20 - the NOISE January 2016

CHEKHOVIAN-ESQUE COMEDY The cast of Vanya & Sonia & Masha & Spike CLAIR ANNA ROSE Harper-White Community Playhouse.
during their first read through at the Doris
STORY BY
The opening scene of Vanya & Sonia & Masha & Spike finds Sonia (Rosemary Groves) and Vanya (Bryan Wood) in the morning room of the family farmhouse where the two, now middle aged, have lived their entire lives. Immediately they begin to bicker, as over-familiarity
has settled in long ago. While Vanya began his morning feeling content, Sonia’s day began with her clearly lamenting the life she feels she has wasted, commenting on a nightmare she had — she dreamt was 52 and unmarried, to which her brother reminds her, she is.
Ms. Groves says it’s fun to watch Sonia come to a place in the play where she realized perhaps her life could still have a new beginning, since she has spent her life feeling like she didn’t quite belong. “She probably feels like a second class citizen because she’s adopted and they bring that up quite a bit,” she says. “She’s the Chekhov depressed character. She has a moment later in the script where she gets to shine and outdo her glamorous sister and it really makes her feel good.”
In the first few minutes of the play, much is revealed about the characters. Vanya and Sonia spent their adult lives caring for their parents, while their sister Masha (Virginia Brown) has lived a full life as a successful actress. Sonia and Vanya feel their lives are over, they have missed opportunities, yet as the play unfolds it is evident Sonia still hopes to have a life of her own.
The comedy continues as the cleaning lady Cassandra (Jessica Richmond) arrives for the day. She predicts some things which have already happened, and some still to come — things nobody believes until they begin coming true.
Masha, divorced five times already, arrives with her rather narcissistic boyfriend Spike (Rob Barnes) who is nearly half her age. Overly aware of his own charms, Spike fishes for compliments and vies for attention and even flirts with Vanya.
“Spike is dating Masha, who is quite a bit older than him. It seems to be a very surface level thing — he’s dating her for whatever gain he can get,” Mr. Barnes says of the characters’ romance. “He’s very into himself, very self-absorbed, and not very intelligent either, which lends itself to being pretty comedic.”
“I think on a deeper level Spike represents a good portion of my generation and younger, or what they will become,” Mr. Barnes considers. He reflects on the end speech Vanya gives, pointing out the younger generation can multi-task, but at the same time they aren’t really present or committed to any one thing they are doing.
As the day goes on, Spike seems to flirt with everyone, especially the young woman Nina (Ally Coppell) who turns up when Spike is swimming in his underwear in the Pond. A very All About Eve vibe is present as Nina is a fan of Masha’s, and ends up being invited along to the evening’s festivities, much to Masha’s chagrin.
“Masha is a famous movie star who has made millions from her successful Sexy Killer movies,” Ms. Brown describes her role. “She’s glamorous, spoiled and self-involved, and secretly wishes she could have been a classical actress on the stage. Though it’s not written in the script, I think Masha is lonely and terrified as an aging actress, she will lose her appeal, and her ability to land significant roles and nice looking, younger men.”
Masha announces she is selling the family home, and the news is a bomb for Vanya and Sonia, who have been supported by their sister and lived in the family home all these years.
The play moves forward with comedic momentum while the three siblings all ask themselves what happened to their lives and pent up feelings finally explode.
The Artistic Committee first selected Vanya & Sonia & Masha & Spike for Theatrikos’ 2015 season, but the play was so new they couldn’t obtain the rights to produce it.
“We rolled it over to the 2016 season because all of us thought it was very funny and a good fit for our theater space, talent base and patron demographic,” Director Jan Rominger tells me. “A few of our Artistic Committee members had seen the Broadway to L.A. version and loved
it. As a director, I am always looking for a new challenge and I thought this play would be a perfect fit for me and my silly sense of humor.”
“I saw Vanya & Sonia & Masha & Spike at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles after it left Broadway and headed west,” Ms. Brown says. “I loved the show from the opening lines because
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the characters were so varied, so likeable and so funny. The Playwright, Christopher Durang, is a master of comedy and this play is hilarious! It won the Tony Award for best play in 2013 and has had continued success ever since.”
At the time this article was being written, the play had just been cast. Directing a play with a rehearsal schedule spanning the holidays is a challenge, but the cast is dedicated, and after a snowy couple of days, they meet at the Doris Harper-White Community Playhouse to begin the first stages of preparation for the new play.
The overhead lights are on as the cast gathers around a table to continue reading through the script, picking up at the beginning of Act II. Even so early in the rehearsals, Ms. Rominger and assistant director Jim Dugan are giving direction, and though it is still only the first read- through, I am seeing the characters come to life as I imagine myself in the room with Sonia and Masha, both realizing their lives didn’t turn out the way they thought they would — in very different ways.
Mr. Dugan recently got involved with Theatrikos this summer when he auditioned for a role in The Full Monty. However, his involvement with Community Theater in Flagstaff began back in the days when Magic Curtain Productions was still in full swing, and in fifth grade he was given a small part in The Wizard of Oz. “That experience and everything I did afterward really helped me develop interpersonal social skills, which have really served me well into my adulthood,” He says.
“This production is really interesting, because it takes elements from Chekhov’s plays, as well as other references that might otherwise be a little inaccessible for modern-day audiences, and makes them totally comprehensible (and hilarious) for us living in 2015,” Mr. Dugan says of the script. “It explores major Chekhovian themes, such as aging, jealously, indolence, and so on, through a contemporary comedic lens, which works really effectively.”
I ask why Mr. Dugan wanted to assist in the direction of this production. “I wanted to direct becauseI’mbossyashellandneededanoutletforit,”hejokes. “No,butreallyIjustliketheidea of helping tell the story from the outside, as opposed to being ‘in the trenches’ with the other actors. It gives me a good change of pace from performing. The process is entirely different, as I’m finding out more and more, and you have to keep your scope really broad when you’re the director.”
The assistant director has wanted Ms. Rominger to be his directing mentor for a long time. “We share a theatrical aesthetic which makes it really easy for us to work together, and she gives me excellent guidance and advice while letting me come into my own as a director. It’s an
ideal learning situation,” Mr. Dugan explains.
New to Theatrikos, Mr. Barnes, a graduate of Flagstaff High School, and senior at Northern Arizona University, is dual majoring in Graphic Design and Theater. He’s been in theater since his childhood days, and has been involved in community, educational and professional theater. He is currently looking into grad schools, and has upcoming auditions with Penn State, has signed an audition with Yale, and has also been talking with Brown University.
When he read the script for the play Mr. Barnes fell in love with it and decided to audition, was cast and is also designing the set. In his design he wants to show how the house has changed over time, keeping some of what may have originally been there, while showing renovations that may have occurred over the years. “I wanted to provide an obscure vision of it. We’re looking at the right side of the house onto the sunroom, and we’ll have an open room feel, because most of it takes place there. It will provide a good setting for all this absurd action to take place.”
Vanya & Sonia & Masha & Spike opens at the Doris Harper-White Community playhouse, 11 W. Cherry Ave, January 29 and will play through February 14. Theatrikos.com
| Clair Anna Rose loves the limelight. arts@thenoise.us