Alma College Theatre Presents 'Three Sisters'
Faculty director Joe Jezewski applies a personal touch to the Alma College Theatre production of Anton Chekhov's Three Sisters.
Jezewski, associate professor of theatre at Alma College, is using his own adaptation of the translated script for the performance, which will take place at 8 p.m. February 15, 16 and 17 and 3 p.m. Feb. 18 at the Remick Heritage Center Theatre.
Tickets are $8 for adults and free for Alma College staff and students and youth 18 and under. Seating is reserved.
Jezewski last directed the play in 1999 using the Brian Friel translation. This year Jezewski read several translations and discovered a directness and simplicity to Chekhov's words that came through in bits and pieces of several translations.
He decided to do an adaptation himself from nine different translations.
“I really tried to keep a focus on the similarity of language and active voice,” Jezewski said. “It feels totally different this time.”
Jezewski works for simple, direct language. Chekhov repeats phrases throughout the play that don't always show through in translations.
“What difference does it make?” is an example of one such phrase repeated many times in the script.
Jezewski has adapted play translations before, “but it's always difficult,” he said. “It's so time consuming.”
“Part of what I like about Chekhov is he has a sense of humanity that very few people possess,” Jezewski said.
For Andrea Martz, a sophomore theatre major who plays one of the characters in the play, working with Jezewski is an opportunity to learn and grow. “He asks a lot of questions, and he always gets you thinking,” she said.
Three Sisters had its premiere at the Moscow Art Theatre in 1901 and has been Chekhov's most frequently performed play. At the heart of the play is the challenge of living in the present. Chekhov's characters yearn for a brighter future or lose themselves in their memories of the past.
The play's characters experience both wonderful and horrible things, but there's always hope for the future. Hope remains the main theme despite the negative experiences that happen to each character.
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Posted: Mon, February 5th, 2007 at 8:33AM
