as•sem•bly |ə-sěm'blē| (noun)
1. a group of people gathered in one place for a common purpose.
2. a public facility to meet for open discussion.
3. the action of fitting together component parts of a machine or
other object.
4. a collective of artists dedicated to realizing a new American theater.
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THE THREE SISTERS
Production Timeline
2010 - The Red Room
2010 - The Cherry Pit
The Three Sisters was developed in part during a 2009-2010 Residency with Horse Trade Theater Group.
Creative Team
Directed by Jess Chayes
Text by Anton Chekhov
Translated by Michael Henry Heim
Scenic & Environmental Design by Nic Benacerraf & The Assembly
Lighting Design by Derek Wright
Video Design by Edward Bauer & The Assembly
Costume Design by Justine Lacy
Music by Brendan McDonough
Props Design by Ben Beckley
Research Dramaturgy by Stephen Aubrey
Production Dramaturgy by Nic Benacerraf
Stage Manager Katy Moore
Producer Rosalind Grush & Horse Trade Theater Group
Cast: Cecil Baldwin (Kulygin), Edward Bauer (Solyony), Ben Beckley (Andrei), Kate Benson (Masha), Peter Feliz (Ferapont),
Christopher Hurt (Chebutykin), Kate MacCluggage (Olga), Susan McCallum (Anfisa),
Brendan McDonough (Rode), Moti Margolin (Tuzenbach), Levi Morger (Vershinin),
Emily Louise Perkins (Irina), Alley Scott (Natasha), Steve Stout (Fedotik)
On the cusp of revolution, three everyday heroines struggle to find meaning amidst a tempest of fractured memories, distant hopes, and thwarted vitality.
Featuring live music, environmental staging, and visceral performances, The Three Sisters creates a powerful communal experience in an intimate space. With audience surrounding the action on all sides, the production embraces its own theatricality through the use of live-feed video and by integrating the spectators into the action.
“The Assembly Theater Project is staging an inventive, lively, passionate Sisters, which effectively answers both the demands of the play and the oddities of its performance space…
Three Sisters invites us in so gently, so courteously, and the production takes our involvement so seriously, that we rush to meet it halfway. The second act concludes with some business about tea; we are served tea at intermission. The final act takes place in an orchard; we are given dead branches to hold. This is hilarious, but it’s more than superficially clever — peering at the scene through branches, we are standing in for our own voyeurism, which becomes a part of the play. In this way the stage, and the production itself, are redefined to include us and the entire theater, and it is magical. We are transformed.”
– Marianne Moore, Show Business Weekly