Jean-Claude van Itallie to Hold Post Show Talkback, 4/7

Extant Arts Company will host a talkback with Jean-Claude van Itallie after the performance of Uncle Vanya April 7, 2010 at the Gene Frankel Theatre (24 Bond Street, between Bowery and Lafayette).

Extant Arts Company's production of Uncle Vanya was translated by van Itallie and directed by Nancy Gabor, an Open Theater collaborator. In Uncle Vanya, Chekhov captures the timeless desire for love, sex and a better life and the universal sense of restlessness.

Uncle Vanya is part of the Extant Chekhov Open, a celebration of the Anton Chekhov's 150th birthday and the 40th Anniversary of Joseph Chaikin's influential Open Theater.

Performances of Uncle Vanya run through April 11, 2010, Wednesday through Saturday at 8:00 pm and Sunday at 3:00 pm. Tickets are $18 at www.SmartTix.com or (212) 868-4444.

Jean-Claude van Itallie, born in Brussels in 1936, emigrated to America with his family in 1940, grew up on suburban Long Island, graduated Harvard in 1958, and in the sixties was a seminal force in the explosive New York Off-Broadway theater. His acclaimed anti-Viet Nam war play, AMERICA HURRAH, Three Views of the USA (INTERVIEW, a fugue for eight actors, TV, and MOTEL, a masque for three dolls), was the watershed dramatic event of the sixties.."Brilliant!" Harold Pinter "Motel is possibly the best one-act play I have ever seen." Norman Mailer "...a compelling image of American violence... an extension of our powers of envisaging ourselves." Newsweek. Van Itallie was one of the original playwrights at Ellen Stewart's La Mama Experimental Theater Club. Playwright-of-the Ensemble of Joe Chaikin's Open Theater, van Itallie wrote THE SERPENT, arguably the most successful piece of ensemble theater by any theater group. Van Itallie's classic translations of Chekhov (CHEKHOV, THE MAJOR PLAYS, Applause Books), prized by directors and actors for their clarity and subtle rhythms, are possibly the most performed Chekhov versions on the American stage.. "Best translations of Chekhov into English," Vitaly Voulff, pre-eminent Moscow critic.

Extant Arts Company was founded in New York city in 2007, and has produced Mixed Doubles and La Ronde (Roy Arias Studios), Helen (Producer's Club), A Christmas Carol (touring), Three Sisters (Algonquin Theater), Midsummer Night's Dream, The Tempest, Love's Labour's Lost, and Macbeth (Mineral Springs in Central Park); workshops of Progeny, g, and Paper Dolls (Wild Project). In addition to its productions, Extant Arts Company pursues its mission through the creation and instruction of Drama Enrichment programs in NYC's public and charter schools. Believing that stories are the organizing principle of the human experience, Extant Arts Company endeavors to identify and present those that are enduring, immediate and vital. Extant reinterprets the classics through live performance, and fosters the classics of the future through adaptation, new play development and educational outreach. By connecting greater New York to the rest of the world, Extant strives to create a diverse community dedicated to sustaining stories. www.ExtantArts.org

To post a comment, you must register and login.