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 CHESTER - Chester Theatre Company will present a thrilling new version of one of the most famous murder mysteries ever written: Crime and Punishment, the second installment in its Classic Stories/Contemporary Voices Season, opens July 20. Playwrights Marilyn Campbell and Curt Columbus won a Joseph Jefferson Award (The Chicago version of the Tony Awards) for this winning adaptation of Fyodor Dostoyevsky's classic novel. The New York Times had high praise, "Crime and Punishment, in a feat that rivals the construction of the Hoover Dam, has been distilled into a taut 90 minute play."
Performances run July 20-31, Weds-Sun at 8pm with matinees Thurs and Sun at 2pm. Tickets are available on CTC's website: www.chestertheatre.org or by calling 800-595-4TIX. Tickets are $28-$33; call 413-354-7771 for group rates.
The Classic Stories/Contemporary Voices Season, according CTC Artistic Director Byam Stevens, celebrates the art of adaptation. "The classics continue to inspire the writers of today, so we're presenting a season of classic works re-imagined by contemporary American playwrights. The result? Our audience will get something familiar -- masterpieces by Dostoyevsky, Shakespeare, Jane Austen, Henry James, Christopher Marlowe -- and something new B exciting, fresh versions from today's best writers."
In this compelling three actor version, Raskolnikov re-enacts the events that drove him to the horrible crime, the duel of wits with the detective Porfiry Petrovich, and his search for love and redemption with Sonya. The play is simultaneously an electrifying journey into the mind of a killer, a cat and mouse detective story, and a tale of overpowering love for a fallen woman. Curtain Up raved about Crime and Punishment calling it "Riveting... a brilliant script, which distills Dosteyevsky's language into pure poetry... not to be missed!"
Adaptor Marilyn Campbell is a playwright, actress, and co-founder of the Writers' Theatre in Glencoe, Illinois. Crime and Punishment won Chicago's Joseph Jefferson Award and was subsequently published by Dramatic Publishing. Her other full-length adaptations include the award-winning My Own Stranger, based on the writings of poet Anne Sexton; The Beats, based on the writings of the 1950's beat poets and The Gospel According to Mark Twain, based on the later writings of Mark Twain.
According to Campbell, "Adaptation can give you the extraordinary sensation of experiencing the classic and the contemporary co-existing in one work. When classic literature moves from page to stage, it shines a contemporary light on voices from the past, it gives wonderful writers and great ideas another platform in which to be heard and it gives audiences a chance to hear work they might have missed or always wanted to read."
Daniel Elihu Kramer, adaptor of CTC' current hit show pride@prejudice, adds: "The challenge is to find an approach to the source material that is uniquely theatrical. What can we do on stage that is different from the page or, for that matter, the screen? You want to take advantage of the excitement of live performance, and of great acting."
Campbell's co-adaptor Curt Columbus is the artistic director of Trinity Repertory Company in Providence, Rhode Island. In addition to Crime and Punishment, he has adapted Sophocles' Antigone and Anton Chekov's Three Sisters, winning the Joseph Jefferson Award twice. Columbus was the associate artistic director of Chicago's famed Steppenwolf Theater Company from 2000-2005, where the world premieres of his translations of Chekov's The Cherry Orchard and Uncle Vanya were presented.
THE ARTISTS
Sheila Siragusa will direct.The cast features Chad Hoeppner as Raskolnikov, Steve Hendrickson as Porfiry, and Kim Stauffer as Sonya. Set Design by Vicki R. Davis, Lighting Design by Lara Dubin, Costume Design by Gail Brassard. Sound Design by Tom Shread.
Chad Hoeppner's (Raskolnikov) Broadway credits include Come Back Little Sheba and Butley. Off-Broadway: The Glass Cage (The Mint Theater), Richard III (Classic Stage Company), The Three Musketeers and Macbeth (The Acting Company), and As You Like It (New York Shakespeare Festival). He played Frank Sweeney in last season's CTC production of Brian Friel's Molly Sweeney.
Steve Hendrickson is making his third appearance at CTC, following Mercy of a Storm and Blackbird. He has been seen nationally at Circle-in-the-Square, Playwright's Horizons, Chicago Shakespeare, Folger Shakespeare, Orlando Shakespeare, Old Globe, Pittsburgh Public, Cincinnati Playhouse and Yale Rep. Steve was the first performer to be awarded the Dayton Hudson Distinguished Artist Fellowship. He is also an Ivey Award winner for his performance as Cyrano de Bergerac.
Kim Stauffer is making her CTC debut. She has played starring roles in the Berkshire area in A Streetcar Named Desire and The Crucible (Barrington Stage Company). Her extensive classical credits include: Much Ado About Nothing, Mary Stuart, Macbeth (New York Classical Theatre); Dracula (Actors' Theatre of Louisville); Lady Windermere's Fan, The Tempest, Macbeth, Pericles, Lorenzaccio (The Shakespeare Theatre Company); Taming of the Shrew, Merchant of Venice, The Tempest (North Carolina Shakespeare Festival).
This is Director Sheila Siragusa's third collaboration with Steve Hendrickson at CTC, following Mercy of a Storm and Blackbird. Ms. Siragusa is a founding member of the KO Festival of Performance. Her direction of The Dirty Girls saw productions at Manhattan Class Company, The Village Gate, the Raw Space and the Philadelphia Women's Theater Festival. Recent directing credits include The Things They Carried, and The Catonsville 9 (with Howard Zinn). She is a frequent director of Shakespeare for The August Company in Northampton, including Taming of the Shrew, King Lear, Much Ado About Nothing and As You Like It.. |
