Plymouth, N.H.–Students in the Department of Music, Theatre, and Dance at Plymouth State University will perform Anton Chekov’s The Seagull April 28-30 and May 1 in the studio theatre at the Silver Center for the Arts.
A profound tale about the very human tendency to reject love that is freely given and seek it where it is withheld, The Seagull is a powerful ensemble piece.
Chekhov’s dark, symbolist comedy dramatizes the romantic and artistic conflicts between four characters. The comic nature of the play, which ultimately ends in tragedy, is revealed through the absurdity of its characters as they engage in fundamentally human dramas of unrequited love and unmitigated failure.
The play focuses on the romantic entanglements and the qualms of a group of writers, artists and actors who have gathered on a lakeside estate in Russia. The four main characters are the ingénue Nina, the fading actress Irina Arkadina, her son the symbolist playwright Konstantin Treplyov, and the famous middlebrow storywriter Trigorin.
The utter desperation and lovesickness of the characters becomes an epidemic that reverberates within the domestic world of this remote Russian setting.
The Seagull is directed by Professor Paul Mroczka who has served Theatre By the Sea as associate director and playwright-in-residence. He has directed for companies including North Country Center for the Arts, Pontine Movement Theatre, The Theatre of Newburyport and the Palace Theatre.
His plays have been performed at New York’s La MaMa La Galleria, Nat Horne Theatre, and Manhattan Punchline Theatre, among others. His interactive planetarium show, Pathfinders, was featured at the McAuliffe-Shepard Discovery Center in Concord, N.H.
Performances are April 28 and 29 at 8 p.m., April 30 at 2 and 8 p.m. and May 1 at 4 p.m.
Tickets for The Seagull are $13 for adults, $11 for seniors and $9 for youth at the Silver Center Box Office, (603) 535-ARTS (2787) or (800) 779-3869.
General information about events at PSU is available at ThisWeek@PSU, http://thisweek.blogs.plymouth.edu.
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