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Mariya/Astrov/Sonya/Vanya- pages 19 starting with Sonya “Let me get you something nice..”- bottom of 22
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At Santa Paula Theater Center, we value the health and safety of our patrons, staff and performers and will be following CDC, State, County, and other governmental agency COVID-19 pandemic current mandates, recommendations and public health guidelines and requirements. We are taking enhanced health and safety measures for the protection of our patrons, staff and artists. You must follow all posted instructions while visiting Santa Paula Theater Center. The cast of Friendly Valley will be required to provide vaccination and booster confirmation and wear masks during rehearsals. Due to the ever changing circumstances surrounding COVID-19, these event requirements are subject to change.
PLAYZAPALOOZA Audition information is posted to the backstage page. Click here to go to that page.
Santa Paula Theater Center announces auditions Saturday June 18th 1:00-4:00 PM, Monday June 20th 7:00-9:00 PM, and callbacks Wednesday June 22nd 7:00-9:00 PM for the third Main Stage show of Season 2022, Conor McPherson’s new adaption of UNCLE VANYA by Anton Chekhov. Auditions will be held at The Santa Paula Center. 125 S. Seventh Street, Santa Paula, CA 93060. Phone # 805-525-4645. www.santapaulatheatercenter.com. UNCLE VANYA will play from August 19th- September 25th, 2022 with performances on Friday and Saturday Evenings at 8:00 PM and Sunday Matinees at 2:30 PM. No appointments necessary, cold readings from the script. This is a non-equity production. THERE IS NO PAY. David Ralphe directs and inquiries about auditions and play may be directed to him at dralphe@earthlink.net. *THE PART OF YELENA HAS BEEN PRECAST
In the heat of summer, Sonya and her Uncle Vanya while away their days on a crumbling estate deep in the countryside, visited occasionally by the only local doctor, Astrov. However, when Sonya’s father, Professor Serebryakov, suddenly returns with his restless, alluring, new wife, declaring his intention to sell the house, the polite facades crumble and long repressed feelings start to emerge with devastating consequences.
Olivier Award-winner Conor McPherson’s stunning new adaptation of Anton Chekhov’s masterpiece has a stripped, vivid simplicity which quickens the pace of the drama and speaks to our modern sensibilities. The result is a sumptuous tale of self-pity and its consequences, of finding hope in the hopelessness and learning to move on. It does not radically reinvent or revolutionize Chekov’s 19th-century story. It returns us to the great, mournful spirit of Chekhov’s tale about unrequited love, aging and disappointment in middle-age, while giving it a sleeker, modern beat.
The notable feature of Anton Chekhov’s plays is that they can be very relatable and almost always try to show the truth of existence. Uncle Vanya is deceptively simple, a quiet drama of family altercations. However, it all comes down to the way Chekhov interweaves deep and serious issues with simplicity and irony, and every viewer is bound to see something different, a different theme or idea, in this play. Chekhov's concerns for the environment, for over-worked and under appreciated medics, for all those who feel trapped by their lives, feel wholly relevant. The astute and sometimes comic way in which these themes are explored, along with other timeless concerns such as unrequited love, boredom and unfulfilled potential, gives Uncle Vanya its power and purpose. It is a great work of art.
CRITICAL RESPONSE
"As accessible as a TV drama, without ever betraying the great, melancholy, insightful soul that has made the play last for as long as it has. It is radical and revelatory without ever being gimmicky or insensitive… McPherson pulls off a feat of magical reinvention, and allows us to see the play anew."
- WhatsOnStage
"McPherson's new adaptation feels almost impossibly contemporary in the way it packs in so much lust, wit, rage and regret."
- The Times
"Succeeds resoundingly in making the turn-of-the-20th-century cares of the original resonate today… the contemporary relevance is startling."
- The Arts Desk
"Nobody quite walks the tightrope between comedy and tragedy with the aplomb of Chekhov… in McPherson's version, more than any others I've seen, the women get to deliver the emotional gut-punches that balance the humor."
- Broadway World
"A Vanya for our times."
“Beguiling and soulful and quietly exquisitely heartbreaking…A very special piece of theatre.” - Evening Standard
CAST OF CHARACTERS
(Note: Included in parentheses are the pronunciations of the characters' names; the accents denote the appropriate stress.)
SIDES (taken from Nick Hern Book publication)
In the heat of summer, Sonya and her Uncle Vanya while away their days on a crumbling estate deep in the countryside, visited occasionally by the only local doctor, Astrov. However, when Sonya’s father, Professor Serebryakov, suddenly returns with his restless, alluring, new wife, declaring his intention to sell the house, the polite facades crumble and long repressed feelings start to emerge with devastating consequences.
Olivier Award-winner Conor McPherson’s stunning new adaptation of Anton Chekhov’s masterpiece has a stripped, vivid simplicity which quickens the pace of the drama and speaks to our modern sensibilities. The result is a sumptuous tale of self-pity and its consequences, of finding hope in the hopelessness and learning to move on. It does not radically reinvent or revolutionize Chekov’s 19th-century story. It returns us to the great, mournful spirit of Chekhov’s tale about unrequited love, aging and disappointment in middle-age, while giving it a sleeker, modern beat.
The notable feature of Anton Chekhov’s plays is that they can be very relatable and almost always try to show the truth of existence. Uncle Vanya is deceptively simple, a quiet drama of family altercations. However, it all comes down to the way Chekhov interweaves deep and serious issues with simplicity and irony, and every viewer is bound to see something different, a different theme or idea, in this play. Chekhov's concerns for the environment, for over-worked and under appreciated medics, for all those who feel trapped by their lives, feel wholly relevant. The astute and sometimes comic way in which these themes are explored, along with other timeless concerns such as unrequited love, boredom and unfulfilled potential, gives Uncle Vanya its power and purpose. It is a great work of art.
CRITICAL RESPONSE
"As accessible as a TV drama, without ever betraying the great, melancholy, insightful soul that has made the play last for as long as it has. It is radical and revelatory without ever being gimmicky or insensitive… McPherson pulls off a feat of magical reinvention, and allows us to see the play anew."
- WhatsOnStage
"McPherson's new adaptation feels almost impossibly contemporary in the way it packs in so much lust, wit, rage and regret."
- The Times
"Succeeds resoundingly in making the turn-of-the-20th-century cares of the original resonate today… the contemporary relevance is startling."
- The Arts Desk
"Nobody quite walks the tightrope between comedy and tragedy with the aplomb of Chekhov… in McPherson's version, more than any others I've seen, the women get to deliver the emotional gut-punches that balance the humor."
- Broadway World
"A Vanya for our times."
“Beguiling and soulful and quietly exquisitely heartbreaking…A very special piece of theatre.” - Evening Standard
CAST OF CHARACTERS
(Note: Included in parentheses are the pronunciations of the characters' names; the accents denote the appropriate stress.)
- Ivan Petrovich Voynitsky (Vanya) (iván/ványa petróvich vaynítsky) male, 40’s, any ethnicity. The hero of the play, Vanya (a nickname for "Ivan" that is analogous to "Jack" or "Johnny" in English) is a bitter, broken man who has wasted his life toiling on the estate of his brother-in-law, Serebryakov. He is consumed with his lost life and obsessed with what might have been—a prime object of this obsession being the elusive Yelena. He functions as the play's misanthrope, offering a number of humorous caricatures of those around him. He is thus privileged with a certain bitter insight even as his friends and acquaintances dismiss him.
- Alexandr Vladimirovich Serebryakov (vladímiravich serebryakóv) male, 60’s- 70’s, any ethnicity. Plagued by gout and rheumatism, the pompous and egotistical Serebryakov is a failed scholar, deeply embittered by the onset of old age. He finds himself detestable in his infirmity and bemoans his residence in the provinces and his tomb-like estate, tormented by the meaningless chatter and indifference of his family. Notably he is terrified by his brother-in-law Voynitsky, perhaps betraying some latent remorse at having exploited him for his livelihood. In any case, Serebryakov is quick to cover over tensions in the household and reassert his preeminence. Votnitsky names him his "bitterest enemy."
- THIS PART HAS BEEN PRECAST Yelena Andreevna (yeléna andréevna) female, 30’s, any ethnicity. The professor's beautiful wife, Yelena (the Russian equivalent of the Greek "Helen") fascinates all the major characters of the play, causing them to abandon their duties and fall into idleness. Indeed, she is characterized throughout the play by her infectious idleness and lack of interest in any serious work. Raised in the St. Petersburg Conservatory, she sacrificed a budding music career to marry the aging Serebryakov, whom she does not love but remains bound to him by conscience, convention, and inertia. Like a number of the play's characters, she suffers from a certain sense of self-estrangement, understanding herself as an "incidental character" in her own life.
- Mikhail Lvovich Astrov (mikhaíl lvóvich ástraf) male, 40s-50’s, any ethnicity. The play's brooding and deliberate philosopher, Astrov is an overworked country doctor who feels ruined by provincial life. He is almost always deep in introspection, finding himself numb to the world, unable to want and love, and dejected at the thought that he will be forgotten in the course of time. Continually described as "eccentric" and "strange," he nevertheless is something of a visionary in his passion for conservation, decrying the degeneration of the land and destructive impulse he finds in man and hoping to leave his legacy to future generations. According to critic Eugene Bristow, Astrov's name suggests the word for "stars," which Bristow perhaps simplistically reads as in keeping with his high moral purpose.
- Sofya Alexandrovna (Sonya) (sófya/sónya alexándravna) female, 20’s, any ethnicity. Serebryakov's daughter by his first marriage, Sonya is named after the Greek for wisdom ("sophia"), though one wonders if she is particularly wise. Gentle but homely, she has steadfastly given herself to the maintenance of the estate and pines hopelessly after the brooding Dr. Astrov amidst all her drudgery. Throughout the play, she will be quick to chastise those who would disrupt the household—her father in particular—and will joylessly rededicate herself to her toils at the end of the play.
- Mariya Vasilevna Voynitskaya (mária vasílevna vaynítskaya) female, 60’s late 70’s, any ethnicity. Maria is Voynitsky's mother. She is still enthralled with the professor, and passes her days usually annotating pamphlets on various social issues. Voynitsky probably describes her best in Act I: as a woman with one eye "fastened on the grave" and the other fixed on "her books of learning for the dawn of a new life."
- Ilya Ilich Telegin (ilyá ilích telégin) male, 60’s or 70’s, any ethnicity. Nicknamed "Waffles" for his pockmarked face, Telegin is an impoverished landowner who works on the estate. He is largely a comic figure, pathetic in his love life, cowed by conflict in the household, and prone to make the occasional inappropriate interjections. Ability to the guitar a plus.
- Marina Timofeevna (Nana) (marína timaféevna) female, 60’s late 70’s, any ethnicity. Marina is a kind, elderly, and devout nurse. Apparently finding a beneficent sense of order in the monotonous life of the estate, she resents the disruption of routine that the others have brought to the household. She delivers religious platitudes throughout the play and offers comfort to a number of characters (Sonya, Astrov, Serbryakov, etc.).
SIDES (taken from Nick Hern Book publication)
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Mariya/Astrov/Sonya/Vanya- pages 19 starting with Sonya “Let me get you something nice..”- bottom of 22
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Yelena/ Vanya- pages 35 starting with Yelena “ I’m so sick of it. I can hardly stay on my feet- Page 38, ending with Vanya “ I always thought I was cleverer than him!” *omit the one line Mariya has sleep walking.
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Yelena/ Sonya- starting bottom of Page 44 with Yelena “Where’s the doctor?”- bottom of Page 48
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Serebryakov/Vanya/Mariya/Telegin- Page 62 starting with Mariya “You need the movement and bustle of the city...” - Page 66 ending with Serebryakov “... I’ll be in my room.”
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Nana/Telegin- pages 71-73 ending with Nana “Well of course! Unbelievable!”
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Yelena/Astrov- pages 77 starting with Yelena “Right, well, I’m leaving, so...”- bottom of 79.
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