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A companion guide to Stupid Fucking Bird by Aaron Posner sort of adapted from The Seagull by Anton Chekhov original music by James Sugg; directed by Kirsten Brandt September 14-October 15, 2017

Above: From left, tortured playwright Con (Jacob Marker), cheerful but lovelorn Dev (Tasi Alabastro), aspiring actress Nina (Sarah Haas) and gloomy cook Mash (Sharon Shao) in Stupid Fucking Bird. Previous page: Sharon Shao, who plays ukulele and sings in the show. All show photos by Taylor Sanders.

Synopsis

This is Chekhov — as you’ve never seen it. Award-winning playwright Aaron Posner’s bold, raucous, contemporary riff on The Seagull moves the action to a country house where requited desire drowns in sarcasm and alcohol. Actresses, writers and even a ukulele-playing cook all bare their souls as they struggle to find the truths of life. And everyone discovers the disappointments of art, love and growing up in this skillful remix of Chekhov’s classic. “Makes us view the original with fresh, startled eyes.” -The New York Times

Characters

The dialogue in Stupid Fucking Bird is smart, punchy and often quick. In that spirit, we have written character descriptions that attempt to be smart, punchy and quick. Word.

Con (Jacob Marker): Tortured playwright. Does not love the modern theater. Does love Nina.

Dev (Tasi Alabastro): Affable. Funny. Loves Mash. And also cardamom.

Mash (Sharon Shao): Gloomy. Plays ukulele. Makes good pie. Loves Con.

Nina (Sarah Haas): Young aspiring actress. Dreamy. Floaty. Loves seagulls.

Sorn (Stefan Fisher): Doctor. Con’s uncle. Sympathetic. Possibly confused; possibly content.

Emma (April Green): Famous actress involved with famous author. Outspoken. Con’s mother. Not necessarily’s Con’s fan.

Trigorin (Andrew Cooperfauss): Aforementioned famous author. Good talker. Fan of self. Not necessarily fan of art. A look at Chekhov

A doctor and an advocate for prison reform, a short-story writer and one of the most influential playwrights in modern theater, Anton Pavlovich Chekhov filled his 44 years with countless stories. More than a century and a half before Aaron Posner’s Stupid Fucking Bird first appeared on the stage, Chekhov was born in 1860 in southern Russia to a storytelling mother and a bullying father. Chekhov would later say that he and his siblings inherited “our soul from our mother.”

Even while enrolled in medical school in Moscow, Chekhov was writing. He would earn his living as a doctor for years, but his talent and ambition with a pen grew. From brief comic newspaper pieces to respected short stories, the young man refined his voice.

Unfortunately, his health concerns were also growing. By his mid-20s, Chekhov was ailing and coughing blood, heralding years of struggle with tuberculosis.

Despite this serious development, Chekhov went through a period of penning farces. These comedic plays showed a flair for the ridiculous that might surprise readers more familiar with the playwright’s later comedy-tragedy hybrids. The Bear: A Joke in One Act (1888) is a perfect example. This short play pits a dramatically mourning Elena Popova, all in widow’s black, against Smirnov, a fiery man

Anton Chekhov in 1898, painted by Osip Braz. determined to make good on the debt owed him by Elena’s late husband. (Some of the insults Elena throws at Smirnov are “You’re a boor! A coarse bear!”)

Chekhov’s full-length plays, moodily funny and amusingly tearful, remain his most vivid legacy, along with his short stories. The Three Sisters (1901), Uncle Vanya (1897), The Cherry Orchard (1904) and of course The Seagull (1895) are still seen on stages all over the world. His admirers have included Virginia Woolf, George Bernard Shaw and Tennessee Williams; Williams penned his own adaptation of The Seagull, called The Notebook of Trigorin.

In 2015, Chekhov’s work inspired an online read-a-thon of his writings, called “Chekhov Is Alive.” Spearheaded by the Chekhov Moscow Art Theater, Google and other organizations, the marathon lasted for 24 hours.

The great writer, of course, did not live to see the computer age. He lost his long battle with tuberculosis in 1904, his wife Olga by his side. A 1901 publication of The Three Sisters. Meet the playwright

If Aaron Posner moved into a theater, no one would be surprised.

He’s a marvelously prolific playwright whose words really get around. Last fall, he told American Theatre magazine that he estimated there’d be at least 50 productions of his plays in 2016-17 in the U.S.

He has also directed hundreds of productions, and he co-founded the Arden Theatre Company in Philadelphia. Also, he’s married to actress Erin Weaver.

His career has a through-line; American Theatre called it “his ability to take text that is smart, canonical or literary and make it arresting and luminously accessible.”

The playwright is best known for his adaptations, which bring new meaning to the classics. As the New York Times put it, his Stupid Fucking Bird “makes us view the original with fresh, startled eyes.”

Other Posner theatrical adaptations include Life Sucks (a new Uncle Vanya) and No Sisters (The Three Sisters), with nods to Chekhov; and his own versions of Chaim Potok’s My Name is Asher Lev and The Chosen. And then there’s District Merchants, his take on Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice. “It lets people know in Born in Madison, Wisconsin, the playwright now lives in Washington, D.C., where no uncertain terms the Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company premiered Stupid Fucking Bird in 2013. what kind of play they are going to see.” The irreverent play title in no way denigrates Aaron’s admiration for Chekhov. Instead, he told the Arden, “It lets people know in no uncertain terms what kind of -playwright Aaron Posner on play they are going to see. If you don’t want to hear colorful language or are not his title Stupid Fucking Bird comfortable with passion and nudity and adult complexities of life…then this is, perhaps, not the play for you.”

About our director

New to City Lights, Kirsten Brandt nevertheless may be familiar to many readers of Highlights. An award-winning director and playwright, she is co-author of the musical The Snow Queen, which premiered in 2013 at San Jose Repertory Theatre and was then performed at the New York Musical Theatre Festival. Kirsten was also Associate Artistic Director at San Jose Rep before the company closed down in 2014.

As a director, Kirsten has credits at many companies including TheatreWorks, Santa Cruz Shakespeare, Marin Theatre Company, Jewel Theatre, Utah Shakespeare Festival, Arizona Theatre Company and The Old Globe Theatre.

She also served for seven years as Executive Artistic Director of Sledgehammer Theatre, San Diego’s alternative theater known for thought- provoking world premieres.

Kirsten’s other playwriting credits including Berzerkergäng, NU, The Waves,The Frankenstein Project and an adaptation of Wuthering Heights, She lectures in the theater departments at San Jose State and U.C. Santa Cruz, and lives in the Santa Cruz mountains. Some of the many, many other Chekhov adaptations

The L.A. Weekly has called Stupid Fucking Bird the best Chekhov adaptation in two decades. That’s saying something, since it seems to be a rite of passage for artists to take pen to the master’s work. The first film adaptation of Chekhov’s work was released in 1911, and the hits just keep coming. Here is but a sampling.

Novel with a Double Bass Chekhov famously said that he said people wouldn’t be reading his work seven years after his death. So director Kai Hanson released the film in 1911, seven years after the writer left us. This seven-minute Russian film, a silent comedy, is based on the short story by the same name.

The Grasshopper This 1955 Russian movie turns the short story about marital betrayal into a drama directed by the wonderfully named Samson Samsonov. The film received a Best Film nomination from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts.

Three Sisters This 1970 British film adaptation of the same-named play was directed by Laurence Olivier and John Sichel. Stars included Olivier himself, along with Jeanne Watts, Joan Plowright and Louise Purnell as the sisters and Derek Jacobi and Alan Bates as Andrei and Col. Vershinin, respectively.

Lyudmila Tselikovskaya, who starred in The The Seagull (1972) Grasshopper, with actor Mikhail Zharov. Directed by Yuli Karasik with music by Alfred Schnittke, this Soviet film (Chayka) is an adaptation of, well, you know. Honors included a nomination for Best Feature by the Chicago International Film Festival.

Wild Honey Playwright Michael Frayn, the man behind Noises Off, in 1986 transformed Chekhov’s early play Platonov (which was five hours long) into a bittersweet comedy that starred Ian McKellen as a schoolmaster with a wandering eye. Early in 2017, Cate Blanchett starred in another adaptation of the same play on Broadway. This one, called The Present and adapted by Andrew Lipton, came from the Sydney Theater Company before traveling to New York.

Kasba Chekhov has fans all over the world, including India, where Kumar Shahani directed this 1991 movie based on the short story In the Ravine. This rather serious offering is considered characteristic of the Parallel Cinema or Indian New Wave movement, which was big on realism.

Vanya on 42nd Street The final film of director Louis Malle’s career, this critically praised 1994 version of the play Uncle Vanya stars Wallace Shawn and Julianne Moore, with a Mamet twist — David Mamet adapted the play. The cameras rolled at the old New Amsterdam Theater on 42nd Street in New York City. The New Amsterdam Theatre in 1905. August Chekhov in Wales, with a few lines in Welsh? Hey, we wouldn’t quibble with director and star Anthony Hopkins. Leslie Phillips and Kate Burton also featured prominently in this 1996 adaptation of Uncle Vanya.

El Nogalar In this 2011 play by Tanya Saracho, the drama of The Cherry Orchard moves to present-day northern Mexico, which is being strafed by drug wars. The title means “The Pecan Orchard,” and the dialogue is bilingual. El Nogalar’s curtain went up for the first time at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago, in a co-production with Teatro Vista.

Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike A Tony Award-winner for Best Play, this 2012 Christopher Durang play grabs a little bit of Chekhov here (a cherry orchard) and a little bit of Chekhov there (um, most of the characters’ names) to create a popular comedy that has been widely produced. Three middle-aged siblings wrangle with life, Snow White, experimental theater and poorly timed texts.

Days and Nights With a starry cast including Allison Janney, Jean Reno, William Hurt, Katie Holmes and Cherry Jones, this 2014 movie is inspired by The Seagull and set in New England. It has the dubious honor of having eaned a 0% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Playwright Tanya Saracho with actress America Ferrera, in a snapshot The Seagull (2017) from Saracho’s Twitter feed. This new movie adaptation of the bird play will star Annette Bening, Saoirse Ronan, Elisabeth Moss and Billy Howle, directed by Michael Mayer. It remains to be seen whether “Peggy” will play the ukulele.

Sounds like Chekhov, but it’s not

Looking at City Lights’ season, you might be forgiven for thinking that we’re doing two adaptations of the same play. Next May 17 through June 17, we present The Siegel by Michael Mitnick. Wait, is this another version of the bird play? Nope, it’s one of our favorite playwrights having fun with a title.

Mitnick, who also wrote the 2013 City Lights world premiere Spacebar: A Broadway Play by Kyle Sugarman, has crafted a sprightly new romantic comedy in The Siegel. The action focuses on irreverent, fast-talking Ethan Siegel, who starts the play by asking Alice’s parents for her hand in marriage. But there’s a catch: Ethan and Alice broke up two years ago. And Alice is reeling from working on a political campaign that just went belly-up.

Mark Anderson Phillips (Ideation, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde) is back to direct, and we know the results will be hilarious. Learn more about The Siegel and our season at cltc.org. Stupid Fucking Bird by Aaron Posner sort of adapted from The Seagull by Anton Chekhov with original music by James Sugg

City Lights Theater Company presents Stupid Fucking Bird from Sept. 14-Oct. 15, 2017. Shows are Thurs-Sat at 8 p.m., Sun at 2 p.m. (no show Sept. 17). The theater is at 529 S. Second St. in San Jose. Details: cltc.org, 408-295-4200.

Director: Kirsten Brandt

Scenic Design/Production Manager/Technical Director: Ron Gasparinetti Lighting Design: Nick Kumamoto Costume Design: Alina Bokovikova Sound Design: George Psarras Properties Designer: Miranda Whipple Stage Manager: Joseph Hidde Assistant Stage Manager: Charnnee’ Young Supported by producer Kovin Hagan.

Featuring: Dev: Tasi Alabastro Trig: Andrew Cooperfauss Sorn: Stefan Fisher Emma: April Green Nina: Sarah Haas Con: Jacob Marker Mash: Sharon Shao

Highlights is researched and written by City Lights dramaturg Rebecca Wallace. Read digital versions of this and other issues of Highlights at cltc.org/highlights.