Classic Stage Company's upcoming new production of Anton Chekhov's UNCLE VANYA, starring Tony Award winner Denis O'Hare as Vanya, Maggie Gyllenhaal as Yelena and Peter Sarsgaard as Astrov, has set its official opening night for Thursday, February 12 at 7 pm, it was announced today by CSC Artistic Director Brian Kulick and Executive Director Jessica R. Jenen. Directed by Austin Pendleton, UNCLE VANYA will begin previews on Saturday, January 17 at Classic Stage Company at 136 East 13th Street. UNCLE VANYA will play a limited engagement through March 1, 2009.
The cast will also feature Mamie Gummer (Sonya), Louis Zorich (Waffles), George Morfogen (Srebryakov), Delphi Harrington (Maria) and Cyrilla Baer (Marina). UNCLE VANYA will feature scenic design by Tony Award winner Santo Loquasto, who received wide acclaim last season at CSC for his design of The Seagull and who has designed numerous Chekhovian productions in his esteemed career including the famed Lincoln Center production of The Cherry Orchard in 1977. Costume design is by Suzy Benzinger, who also designed last season's The Seagull, and lighting design is by Jason Lyons.
O'Hare, who last performed at CSC in Yasmina Reza's A Spanish Play, stars as Vanya, the quintessential superfluous man, who wakes up one morning to discover he has wasted his life in the service of others, in Chekhov's tragicomic masterpiece of dashed dreams, thwarted love and eternal longing. The play was first performed at the legendary Moscow Art Theater in 1899, directed by Constantine Stanislavsky.
Maggie Gyllenhaal (Yelena Adreevna) has garnered rave reviews for her performances in such films as Sherrybaby (Golden Globe nomination), Secretary (Golden Globe nomination), The Dark Knight, Donnie Darko, Happy Endings and World Trade Center, among others. Her stage work includes Tony Kushner's Homebody/Kabul.
Peter Sarsgaard (Astrov) is currently co-starring in the Broadway production of The Seagull, as Trigorin, opposite Kristin Scott Thomas. Other stage work includes the Signature Theatre production of Lanford Wilson's Burn This, as well as Kingdom of Earth, opposite Cynthia Nixon. He has received acclaim for his work in such films as Shattered Glass, Boys Don't Cry, Kinsey, Garden State, Jarhead, The Dying Gaul and Rendition, among others.
Austin Pendleton has directed UNCLE VANYA twice before, at the Williamstown Theatre Festival in 1972 and at the Hartman Theatre in Stamford in 1980; both times featuring sets by Santo Loquasto, however, CSC's new production will feature a new direction and design. Mr. Pendleton has also played Vanya several times: at the Whole Theatre Co. (directed by Olympia Dukakis); at the Williamstown Theatre Festival (directed by Jeff Blechner); at CSC (directed by Maria Irene Fornes); at Steppenwolf (directed by Sheldon Pantinkin); and twice in an event called the Chekhov Cycle, a series of staged readings of the four major Chekhov plays, organized by Olympia Dukakis and presented first at Williamstown and later at the Two River Theatre in New Jersey. He has also performed in numerous other productions of Chekhov's plays.
BIOGRAPHIES
Denis O'Hare (Vanya) Broadway: Sweet Charity (Drama Desk Award, Outer Critics Circle Award nomination), Assassins (Tony Award nomination), Take Me Out (Tony, Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle, Clarence Derwent Awards), Inherit the Wind, Major Barbara, Cabaret, Racing Demon. Off-Broadway: A Spanish Play, Pig Farm, Take Me Out (Obie, Lucille Lortel Awards), Vienna: Lusthaus (revisited), Helen, Ten Unknowns, The Devils, Woyzeck; Lonely Planet, Hauptmann. Regional: Hartford Stage, CenterStage, NYS&F, McCarter, Long Wharf, Seattle Repertory, Goodman. London: Never the Sinner; Take Me Out. Film: Milk, Changeling, Baby Mama, Half Nelson, Stephanie Daley, Angel Rodriguez, Derailed, Garden State, The Anniversary Party, Hamlet, Rocket Science, The Babysitters, Train Wreck: My Life as an Idiot, Michael Clayton, Awake, Charlie Wilson's War, A Mighty Heart, Brief Interviews With Hideous Men. Television: "Brothers & Sisters," "Law & Order," "Once Upon a Mattress."
