Invictus Theatre Company announced today that it will stage the Chekhov classic THREE SISTERS in its new home, the Windy City Playhouse, from June 4 through July 14. Artistic Director Charles Askenaizer will helm the production, using the translation by Paul Schmidt. The full cast and production team were also announced today. The production will preview June 4 through 9, with a press opening on Monday, June 10 at 7:00 p.m.
The company’s previously announced production of Tracy Letts’s AUGUST: OSAGE COUNTY, originally scheduled to run May 28 to July 14, has been cancelled. Invictus Theatre Executive Director Todd Henry Faulstich explained the circumstances behind the cancellation:
“For reasons outside of Invictus’s control, it is with great disappointment that we will no longer be able to perform the show AUGUST: OSAGE COUNTY. While we properly obtained a license to perform the play, it was subsequently brought to our attention and the attention of the licensor that territorial restrictions existed that precluded our ability to perform the play.”
Invictus quickly pivoted to THREE SISTERS as a replacement. Artistic Director Charles Askenaizer, who will direct the Chekhov play, says it's a piece he has been wanting to direct for some time. “It fits with our commitment to performing the classics along with significant contemporary plays. Like the play it's replacing, it’s a family-themed play with a large ensemble cast. That allowed us to offer roles in THREE SISTERS to the majority of the artists who had been cast in AUGUST: OSAGE COUNTY, and nearly all accepted roles in the new production.”
THREE SISTERS, which has been called “the most perfect expression of Chekhov’s artistic genius," follows the fortunes of the four children — three sisters and one brother — of a recently deceased Colonel in the Russian army. The sisters are sweet Irína, the youngest and most impressionable; tempestuous Másha who is trapped in a loveless marriage; practical Ólga, who has resigned herself to spinsterhood; and their brother Andrey, whose ill-advised romance and compulsive gambling wreaks havoc on the family finances. Invictus will use the translation of THREE SISTERS by Paul Schmidt, whose translations of Chekhov’s plays are the only ones in English by a Russian-language scholar who is also a veteran Chekhovian actor. Critics have hailed these translations as making Chekhov fully accessible to American audiences. They are also accurate — Schmidt has been described as "the gold standard in Russian-English translation" by Michael Holquist of Yale University’s Russian department.
Invictus’s cast will include Michael B. Woods (Andrey Prózorov), Maria Stephens (Ólga Prózorov), Katherine Schwartz (Másha Prózorov), Ellie Duffey (Irína Prózorov), Cat Hermes (Natásha), Francis Brady (Kulýgin), Bryan Breau (Vershínin), Charlie Diaz (Túzenbach). John Wehrman (Solyóny), Joseph Beal (Chebutýkin), Colton Smith (Fedótik), Brandon Boler (Róhde), Frank Nall (Ferapónt), Renae Stone (Anfísa), Ophelia Harkness (Ensemble, understudy for Másha), and Kevin Cruz (Ensemble, understudy for Róhde, Fedótik, and Andrey). Additional understudies are Mary Carroll Dougherty (Anfísa u/s), Whitney Minarik (Ólga u/s, and Natásha u/s), and Lea Biwer (Irína u/s), plus two additional understudies to be named.
Top row (L-R): Joseph Beal (Chebutýkin), Brandon Boler (Róhde), Francis Brady (Kulýgin), Bryan Breau (Vershínin)
Second row (L-R): Kevin Cruz (Ensemble), Charlie Diaz (Túzenbach), Ellie Duffey (Irína Prózorov), Ophelia Harkness (Ensemble)
Third row (L-R): Cat Hermes (Natásha), Frank Nall (Ferapónt), Katherine Schwartz (Másha Prózorov), Colton Smith (Fedótik)
Bottom row (L-R): Maria Stephens (Ólga Prózorov), Renae Stone (Anfísa), John Wehrman (Solyóny), Michael B. Woods (Andrey Prózorov)
The production team, which like the cast, consists mainly of the same artists who had signed on to create AUGUST: OSAGE COUNTY, includes Jeff Award winner Kevin Rolfs (Technical Director/Scenic Designer), Jeff Award nominee Jessie Gowens (Costume Designer/Wardrobe Supervisor), Trey Brazeal (Lighting Designer), Jeff Award winner Petter Wahlbäck (Sound Designer), Jay Donley (Fight/Intimacy Designer), Rachel Livingston (Props Designer), Steve Nordmark (Dramaturg), Becca Holloway (Casting Director), Karina Osborne (Master Electrician), Todd Henry Faulstich (Production Manager), Alisa Resnick (Stage Manager), and Kaia-Joy Johnson (Assistant Stage Manager). Steve Nordmark is Box Office Manager and Ana Schedler is Graphic Designer.
Invictus Theatre Company has been one of the most notable success stories among Chicago’s storefront theatres in spite of the challenges facing the theater community in recent years. The company also survived a devasting fire in the building that housed its previous performance venue, then moved to the Windy City Playhouse on Irving Park Road in January and opened its critically acclaimed production of TOPDOG/UNDERDOG there in February.
Tickets for THREE SISTERS are $35 for Friday through Sunday performances, $25 for Monday performances and $25 for previews June 4 through 9. Tickets and further information are available at www.invictustheatreco.com
LISTING INFORMATION
THREE SISTERS
by Anton Chekhov
translation by Paul Schmidt
directed by Charles Askenaizer
June 4 – July 14, 2024
Previews: Tuesday 6/4/24, Friday 6/7/24, Saturday 6/8/24 at 7 p.m. Saturday 6/8/24 and Sunday 6/9/24 at 2 p.m.
Press Opening Monday 6/10/24 at 7 p.m.
Regular performances Fridays, Saturdays, and Mondays at 7 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays at
2 p.m.
Additional performance Wednesday 7/3/24 at 7 p.m.
NO PERFORMANCE Friday 7/5/24
Performances at Windy City Playhouse, 3014 W. Irving Park Road, Chicago
Ticket prices: Previews $25. Monday $25. Friday through Sunday $35. Season subscriptions available.
www.invictustheatreco.com
Anton Chekhov’s classic play, packed with action and emotion, chronicles three and a half years in the falling fortunes of the four children of a recently deceased Colonel in the Russian army. They have been living in a small town in Russia for the past 11 years and yearn to return to the excitement of Moscow. Their dreary provincial life is enlivened only by the arrival of the Imperial Army. The sisters’ dreams of a new life are crushed when their brother marries a woman they consider ill-bred and mortgages the house.
BIOS
Charles Askenaizer (Artistic Director, Director) is the Founding Artistic Director of Invictus Theatre. He won the 2023 Jeff Award (Non-Equity Wing) for his direction of the company’s WHO'S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF?, which also won Jeff Awards for Production of a Play, Scenic Design (Kevin Rolfs), and Performer in a Supporting Role – Play (Rachel Livingston). Other recent directing credits include THE CRUCIBLE (Jeff Award Nomination - Director, Jeff Award Nomination - Production), JULIUS CAESAR, and HAMLET (Invictus Theatre), readings with Chicago Dramatists, 'NIGHT, MOTHER (Associate Director- Invictus Theatre), THE MERCHANT OF VENICE (Invictus Theatre), OTHELLO: THE MOOR OF VENICE (Invictus Theatre), TITUS ANDRONICUS (Bare Knuckles Theater), JULIUS CAESAR (Associate Director- Brown Paper Box), TWO GENTLEMEN OF VERONA (Reutan Collective), and THE DIFFERENCE (Reading-Piccolo Theatre). Charles has worked with Citadel Theatre, Teatro Vista, the Artistic Home, City Lit, Raven, Brown Paper Box, Chicago Dramatists, the Side Project and many more. Charles graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with a degree in Theatre and Communications. In 2024, Charles was named one of New City Magazine’s “Players 50 2024: The Rising Stars and Storefront Stalwarts.”
Anton Chekhov (Playwright) was a Russian writer, playwright and physician. His career as a playwright produced four classics, and his best short stories are held in high esteem by writers and critics. Along with Henrik Ibsen and August Strindberg, Chekhov is often referred to as one of the three seminal figures in the birth of early modernism in the theatre. Chekhov renounced the theatre after the reception of SEAGULL in 1896, but the play was revived to acclaim in 1898 by Konstantin Stanislavski's Moscow Art Theatre, which subsequently also produced Chekhov's UNCLE VANYA and premiered his last two plays, THREE SISTERS and CHERRY ORCHARD.
Paul Schmidt (Translator) was an American translator, poet, playwright, actor, and essayist. He is known as the premier translator of Chekhov’s plays, as his translations are the only ones in English by a Russian-language scholar who is also a veteran Chekhovian actor. In addition to his translations of Chekhov, he translated Euripides, Velimir Khlebnikov, Brecht, Genet, Gogol, Marivaux, Mayakovsky, and Rimbaud. He wrote three plays, one of which, BLACK SEA FOLLIES, won the Helen Hayes Award, and the Joseph Kesselring Prize for best play. Schmidt's work was profiled in THE NEW YORK REVIEW OF BOOKS.
ABOUT INVICTUS THEATRE COMPANY
At Invictus Theatre Company, our mission is to create theatre that promotes a better understanding of language: its poetry, its rhythm, its resonance; through diverse works by diverse artists. We respect the power of heightened language spoken, written, sung; to express the breadth of the human condition. We work to harness the power of language: to promote diversity, to engender respect, to foster collaboration; and to empower our communities to share their voices.
Invictus Theatre Company incorporated in January 2017 and received its 501(c)(3) nonprofit status in February 2017. A diverse group of Chicago actors and directors founded Invictus with the vision to empower their communities through theatrical productions of heightened language. We are committed to the idea that our productions should reflect the communities we represent, and, to that end, we are committed to non-discriminatory hiring practices. In working with local artists, designers, and production teams, Invictus Theatre Company does not discriminate on the basis of race, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, ability, nationality, citizenship, religion, or any other status protected by law.
Invictus Theatre Company's 2024 season is generously sponsored by Michael and Mona Heath of The Heath Fund, with additional support from The Paul M. Angell Family Foundation, Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events (DCASE), Untouchable Times Tours, Inc., and the Illinois Arts Council.