Photo Flash: VANYA AND SONIA AND MASHA AND SPIKE Celebrates Opening at Arena Stage
By: BWW News Desk Apr. 10, 2015
Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater presents the Washington, D.C. premiere of Christopher Durang's Tony Award-winning comedy Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike. Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike runs now through May 3, 2015 in the Fichandler Stage. BroadwayWorld has photos from the opening night festivities below!
Helen Hayes Award-winning director and playwright Aaron Posner, known for his Chekhov-inspired plays Stupid f-ing Bird and Life Sucks (Or the Present Ridiculous), lends his hand to this riotous sendup, which satirizes characters and themes from Anton Chekhov's classics. In this "sunny new play about gloomy people" (New York Times), siblings Vanya and Sonia live out their days in an endless, bleak tableau in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. All seems numbingly mundane until in sweeps hurricane Masha, their fading movie star sister, with her shiny new boy toy and a big announcement.
The unforgettable cast of characters features long-time Posner collaborators Eric Hissom (Theater J's Life Sucks (Or the Present Ridiculous)) as Vanya and Philadelphia native Grace Gonglewski, a frequent performer with Arden Theatre Company, as the glamorous and self-absorbed Masha. Joining Hissom and Gonglewski are D.C. natives Sherri L. Edelen (Arena Stage's My Fair Lady, Signature Theatre's Gypsy) as Sonia and Jefferson Farber (Signature Theatre's Shakespeare's R&J) as Masha's newest boy-toy Spike. Jessica Frances Dukes, most recently seen at Arena Stage as Tonya in King Hedley II, plays housekeeper and soothsayer Cassandra. As the aspiring actress Nina, Arena Stage introduces Rachel Esther Tate (Off-Broadway's Hamlet and Saint Joan) in her area debut.
The creative team for Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike includes set designer Daniel Conway, costume designer Paloma Young, lighting designer Robert Perry, original composition and sound design by James Sugg, wig designer Anne Nesmith, New York casting by Tara Rubin Casting, Lindsay Levine, CSA, stage manager Amber Dickerson and assistant stage manager Michael D. Ward.
Photo Credit: Cameron Whitman Photography
Director Aaron Posner and the company
Director Aaron Posner and cast member Sherri L. Edelen
Artistic Director Molly Smith, director Aaron Posner and his wife, Erin Weaver
Cast members Grace Gonglewski and Jefferson Farber
Cast members Grace Gonglewski and Jefferson Farber
Cast members Sherri L. Edelen and Eric Hissom
Cast members Rachel Esther Tate and Jessica Frances Dukes
Cast member Grace Gonglewski, director Aaron Posner and his wife, Erin Weaver
Timothy Douglas and Director of Artistic Programming Robert Barry Fleming
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