Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike

April 16–May 25

Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike
By Christopher Durang
Directed by Eric Rosen

In bucolic Bucks County, PA, Vanya and his sister Sonia have frittered their lives away living in the same farmhouse where they were raised. Their quiet existence of unease and regret, however, is rocked by the arrival of their glamorous movie star sister (and landlord) Masha, and her hunky boy toy, Spike. As their visit unfolds, a lifetime of sibling rivalry explodes into a weekend of comedic pyrotechnics. Acclaimed playwright Christopher Durang (The Marriage of Bette and Boo, Sister Mary Ignatius…, Center Stage’s My America) weaves Chekhovian themes and modern wit into an unforgettable experience critics have hailed as “a sublime state of hilarity” (New York Magazine). Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike is a co-production with Kansas City Repertory Theatre.

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Cast

Zachary Andrews*
Spike

Bruce Randolph Nelson*
Vanya

Emily Peterson*
Nina

Susan Rome*
Masha

Barbara Walsh*
Sonia

Kerry Warren*
Cassandra

Baltimore Center Stage: Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike (Spike). Regional— Denver Center Theatre Company: Romeo and Juliet, Three Musketeers, A Christmas Carol; Germinal Stage Denver: Long Day’s Journey Into Night, The Actor’s Nightmare, More Stately Mansions, Candida; Riverside Theatre Shakespeare: Two Gentlemen of Verona, Ah! Wilderness, Love’s Labour’s Lost, Romeo and Juliet; Colorado Shakespeare Festival: Three Musketeers, A Comedy of Errors, Much Ado About Nothing. Kansas City—KC Rep: Vanya and Sonia and Mashsa and Spike, Romeo and Juliet, A Christmas Carol; Coterie: Dracula: The Journal of Jonathan Harker; UMKC Theatre: The Last Days of Judas Iscariot (Guest Artist), Arcadia, The Master and Margarita, Great Expectations. Education/Training—B.F.A., University of Colorado; Second City Conservatory Program; M.F.A., UMKC. AEA member.

Baltimore Center Stage: Amadeus,Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike, Animal Crackers, Edgar Allan Poe, Galileo, Arms and the Man. Tour—National Players. Regional—Rep Stage: The Goat, Hysteria, The Violet Hour (Helen Hayes Award), The Dazzle (Helen Hayes Award), Irma Vep (Helen Hayes nom), Faith Healer (Helen Hayes nom); Everyman Theatre: Company Member, The Dresser, Red, You Can’t Take It with You, Private Lives, Shipwrecked! (Best Actor City Paper), I Am My Own Wife, The Pavilion (Best Actor City Paper); Folger Theatre: The Comedy of Errors, She Stoops to Conquer; Olney Theatre Center: Farragut North, The Underpants; Woolly Mammoth Theatre: Company Member, Dead Man’s Cell Phone (Dwight, Originated Role), Fuddy Meers (Helen Hayes nom); The Shakespeare Theatre: The Taming of the Shrew; Signature Theatre: Never the Sinner. Education—Towson University. Professional—Instructor at Howard Community College, Everyman Theatre, Stevenson University; Facilitation at McCormick Spice, Johns Hopkins University.

Baltimore Center Stage: Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike. Regional— Collaboraction: Picasso After Dark; Black Hills Playhouse: Leading Ladies; Old Creamery Theatre: The Glass Menagerie); Okoboji Summer Theatre: Doubt, Alice in Wonderland, Nunsense II. Kansas City—KC Rep: A Christmas Carol, Saved, Liliom; Kansas City Actors Theatre: Picnic, The Mousetrap, Inspector Hound; Heart of America Shakespeare Festival: As You Like It, Antony and Cleopatra, A Midsummer Night’s Dream; The American Heartland Theatre: The Importance of Being Earnest, The 39 Steps; Metropolitan Ensemble Theatre: Pride and Prejudice; Bellenwissle Productions: Alice in Wonderland. TV/Film— Can currently be seen on NBC’s Chicago PD and USA’s Sirens. Education—BFA, Stephens College.

Baltimore Center Stage: After the Revolution, Vanya and Sonya and Masha and Spike, An Enemy of the People, Mud Blue Sky (world premiere). Regional— Rep Stage: The Whale, Las Meninas, A Shayna Maidel; Theater J: The Intelligent Homosexual’s Guide…, The Argument, After the Revolution (HH nominee), The Moscows of Nantucket, The Ride Down Mt. Morgan, The Last Seder, Spring Forward/Fall Back, The Tale of the Allergist’s Wife (upcoming); Baltimore Shakespeare Festival: Richard III, Macbeth, All’s Well That Ends Well; Mark Taper Forum: The Substance of Fire; Seattle Center Stage: The Legacy. TV—credits include NYPD Blue and four seasons as DA Ilene Nathan on The Wire. Films—include John Waters’ A Dirty Shame; My One and Only.

Baltimore Center Stage: Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike, A Little Night Music (Desirée Armfeldt). Broadway—Company (Drama Desk nom); Hairspray; Falsettos (Tony/Drama Desk noms, LA Ovation Award); Blood Brothers; Big; Nine; Rock ‘N’ Roll; Ragtime. Off Broadway—Birds of Paradise; Forbidden Broadway; Hello Again. National tours—Falsettos; Chess (Carbonell Award); Les Misérables; Nine; Oklahoma! Regional—St. Louis Muny: Side by Side; Forum/Parker/Royal: Lawyers, Lovers & Lunatics; George Street: The Sisters Rosensweig; Signature: The Rhythm Club; Hartford Stage: Falsettos; Gretna: A Streetcar Named Desire; Great Lakes: The Most Happy Fella; Goodspeed: Houdini (premiere), Exactly Like You; ATL: Tomfoolery; Barrington: Alice Revisited; Philadelphia Theatre Co.: Some Men; Old Globe: Dinner with Friends. Film/TV—Life with Mikey; Law & Order; L&O: Criminal Intent; One Life to Live (recurring); All My Children.

Creative Team

Eric Rosen
Director

Donald Eastman
Scenic Designer

Melissa Torchia
Costume Designer

Victor En Yu Tan
Lighting Designer

Joshua Horvath
Sound Designer

Brooke Redler*
Stage Manager

Gavin Witt
Dramaturg

Stephanie Klapper
Casting Director

Eric Rosen recently concluded his decade long tenure as artistic director of Kansas City Repertory Theatre and previously was co-founder and artistic director of Chicago’s About Face Theatre for 13 seasons. World premieres under his direction include Venice (named Best Musical of 2010 by TIME), Clay, Roof of the World, A Christmas Story: The Musical, M. Proust and Theater District. Other directing credits include Baltimore Center Stage (Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike), Goodman, Hartford Stage, Chicago Shakespeare, Melbourne Theatre Company, the O’Neill and Sundance. Highlights of his tenure at KCRep include reimagined productions of classic musicals including Evita, Sunday in the Park with George, Hair: Retrospection, and a punk rock Pippin, along with classics from Romeo to Death of a Salesman. Rosen helped develop and produced the original production of the Pulitzer and Tony Award-winning play I Am My Own Wife. As a playwright, his work includes Lot’s Wife, Dream Boy, Winesburg, Ohio, and Venice. Rosen served on the Board of Theatre Communications Group, was inducted into Chicago’s Gay and Lesbian Hall of Fame and was a finalist for the Zelda Fichandler Award. He holds a doctorate in performance studies from Northwestern University and a BA in performance studies from UNC.

Baltimore Center Stage: Vanya and Sonya and Masha and Spike, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom,The Piano Lesson, The Baltimore Waltz, The Loman Family Picnic, Police Boys. Broadway— Cuba…(w/ Robert DiNiro). Off Broadway— The Public, Classic Stage Company, La MaMa Experimental Theatre Company, Signature Theatre, The Women’s Project. Opera—New York City Opera, Glimmerglass Festival, San Francisco Opera, BAM Next Wave Festival, Seattle Opera, Lincoln Center Festival. Regional—KC Rep: American Buffalo, August: Osage County, The Drawer Boy; Arena Stage: My Fair Lady, Mary T and Lizzy K; American Conservatory Theater, Goodman Theatre, Guthrie Theater, Hartford TheaterWorks, Seattle Rep. Awards—2013 Best of Kansas City Award for American Buffalo, Village Voice OBIE for Sustained Excellence, NEA Grantee. Education—California Institute of the Arts and Yale School of Drama. Recent and Upcoming—Cendrillon (Juilliard), Don Quichotte (Canadian Opera), Appomattox (Washington National Opera).

Baltimore Center Stage: Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike. Regional—The House Theatre: Rose and the Rime, The Iron Stag King, The Crownless King, The Magnificents; Chicago Shakespeare Theatre: A Midsummer Night’s Dream; Court Theatre: Jitney, Mountaintop; California Shakespeare Theater: The Verona Project; Lookingglass Theatre: Peter Pan; Steppenwolf: Samuel J and K; Paramount Theatre: My Fair Lady, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Hair; American Theatre Project: Grease; Drury Lane Theatre Oakbrook: Gypsy, Aida, Sugar; American Musical Theatre Project, Northwestern University: Not Wanted on the Voyage; Remy Bumppo: The Importance of Being Earnest (Jeff nom); A Red Orchid Theatre: Abigail’s Party, Butcher of Baraboo. Education—MFA in Costume Design, Northwestern University. Ms. Torchia presented her design work at the Prague Quadrennial, an international scenography conference. www.melissatorchia.com

Baltimore Center Stage: Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike, The Colored Museum. Broadway—NYSF at the Belasco Theater: As You Like It, Macbeth, Romeo & Juliet. Off Broadway/New York—Julia Miles Theatre: Imelda, Shogun Macbeth, Tea, Rashomon; New Victory Theater: Sheila’s Day; Carnegie Hall: Noa Ain’s opera Trio; over 25 plays for New York Shakespeare Festival and over 40 plays for Pan Asian Repertory Theatre. Regional—KC Rep: Romeo & Juliet, Carousel, Death of a Salesman, The Whipping Man, Broke-ology, Borderland, Liliom, Machinal, and others; Crossroads Theatre: KC Swing!, Fishy Waters, Train to 2010; Virginia Stage: Odd Couple; Virginia Stage/Capital Rep/Santa Barbara ETC co-production: Black Pearl Sings!; Hartford Stage: Sheila’s Day; Colorado Shakespeare Festival: King Lear, Taming of the Shrew, Our Town, To Kill a Mockingbird, Hamlet; Goodman Theatre: Ballad of Emmitt Till (Premiere); Arena Stage: Resurrection (Premiere); Theater for the New City: On Naked Soil (Premiere); Cleveland Playhouse: Gee’s Bend; Sacramento Opera, Pasadena Playhouse, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Indiana Repertory Theatre, Mark Taper Forum, Asolo Theatre, Cincinnati Playhouse, and other regionals.

Baltimore Center Stage: Crime & Punishment Around the World in 80 Days. Off Broadway— Lincoln Center: CLAY. Regional—Lookingglass Theatre: Around the World in 80 Days, Fedra, 1984; Long Wharf: A Civil War Christmas, Man of La Mancha, Carousel; Hartford Stage: A Raisin in the Sun; Goodman: The Long Red Road, Ain’t Misbehavin’, Proof, Electricidad, Rock n’ Roll, The Crowd You’re in With; Steppenwolf: Jesus Hopped the A’ Train, Taking Care; Court Theatre: Arcadia, Titus Andronicus, Guys and Dolls, Fences; Kansas City Rep: Saved, CLAY, Winesburg, Trip to Bountiful; Kirk Douglas Theatre: Venice, CLAY, Permanent Collection. Awards—Four-time Joseph Jefferson Award winner and ten-time nominee; LA Weekly Award nominee; ASCAP. Professional— Lookingglass Artistic Associate; co-owner of Aria Music Designs, LLC; teaches sound design for theater and film at Northwestern University.

Baltimore Center Stage: Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike. Off Broadway—Fault Line Theatre: From White Plains, the Faire, Breathing Time; Regional—Kansas City Repertory: Stage Manager The Whipping Man, A Christmas Carol, August: Osage County, Cabaret, Saved, Palomino; Assistant Stage Manager Bus Stop, A Flea in Her Ear, Winesburg, Ohio, Radio Golf, The Drawer Boy, A Marvelous Party!, Bad Dates, The Syringa Tree, Love, Janis, Clay; Starlight Theatre: Production Stage Manager Peter Cottontail III, Assistant Stage Manager Aladdin Jr., Anything Goes, The King and I, Cinderella; HASF: Assistant Stage Manager King Henry V, Romeo and Juliet; Utah Shakespeare Festival: Stage Manager Peter and the Starcatcher, Richard II; Creede Repertory: Stage Manager The Drowsy Chaperone, Is He Dead?, Harry The Great; Stages St. Louis: Assistant Stage Manager Big River, Promises, Promises. Opera—Long Beach Opera: Production Stage Manager Moscow Cherry Town, Medea, Assistant Stage Manager The Good Soldier, Schweik; Santa Fe Opera, two seasons.

Director of Dramaturgy and Associate Director Gavin Witt came to Baltimore Center Stage in 2003, after nearly 15 years in Chicago as an actor, director, dramaturg, translator, and teacher—and co-founder of the classically based greasy joan & co theater. Among his translations and adaptations are a half-dozen Shakespeare plays, including a Jeff-nominated version of Pericles and the BCS production of As You Like It; Jeff-nominated translations of Beaumarchais’ The Barber of Seville and Ionesco’s Macbett; and the BCS adaptation of The Voysey Inheritance. A graduate of Yale and the University of Chicago, he is currently on the Humanities faculty at Peabody Conservatory, having previously taught at the University of Chicago, DePaul, and Towson; has served on the advisory boards of several theaters; and spent more than a decade as a regional vice president of LMDA, the national association of dramaturgs, before recently joining its board.

Baltimore Center Stage: That Face, The White Snake, The Secret Garden, Herzog Festival (4000 Miles and After the Revolution), It’s a Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play, Next to Normal, Vanya and Sonia…, Stones in His Pockets, dance of the holy ghosts, …Poe, The Whipping Man, A Skull in Connemara. Selected credits include: Broadway—Bronx Bombers; A Christmas Story, The Musical; Dividing the Estate; Bells Are Ringing; It Ain’t Nothin’ But the Blues. Off Broadway—Daniel’s Husband; That Golden Girls Show!; Fade; Exit Strategy; The Roads to Home; Informed Consent; The Winter’s Tale; The Glass Menagerie; Billy Porter’s While I Yet Live; The Model Apartment; Emotional Creature; Karen O’s Stop the Virgens!. Regional—Many theaters including: Asolo, Canadian Stage Company; Cincinnati Playhouse, Capital Rep, Ford’s Theatre, Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival; Kansas City Rep, Milwaukee Rep, Berkeley Rep, Chicago Shakespeare Theater, Oregon Shakespeare Company, Old Globe Theatre, Actor’s Theatre of Louisville. Film/TV—Another Dance With Death; Poor Behavior; Stag; Alice Jacobs is Dead, Roberta, Feast of the Goat; Sidewalk Stories. TV—Lazytown. Member—Casting Society of America and League of Professional Theatre Women.

*Member of Actors’ Equity Association

In the Press

For all other press related information please go to our Press Room

Reviews

“"Five stars…a brilliantly funny, compelling piece of theatre."”— DC Metro Theater Arts

“"Hilarious…a funny, zany ride."”— The Baltimore Sun

“"The play triumphs."”— MD Theatre Guide

“"A daffy comedy of manners that will delight."”— DC Theatre Scene

“"Quite the laughfest."”— City Paper

In the News

05.15.14: Jewish Times — Mixing it Up
04.25.14: The Baltimore Sun — Center Stage presents Baltimore premiere of 'Vanya and Sonia...
05.19.14: WYPR — Getting to Know "Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike"
05.05.14: Broadway World DC — VANYA AND SONIA AND MASHA AND SPIKE at Center Stage - What a Hoot!
04.26.14: Broadway World Baltimore — First Crack at a New Comic Classic: VANYA AND SONIA at Center Stage
04.24.14: DC Metro Theater Arts — ‘Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike’ at CENTERSTAGE
04.28.14: DC Theatre Scene — “Chekhovian chuckler” Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike at Center Stage
04.28.14: MD Theatre Guide — ‘Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike’ at Center Stage

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