[NEohioPAL] GLTF Launches FREE Touring Production of TWO BY CHEKHOV

[Todd Krispinsky]

For Immediate Release
January 13, 2009

Great Lakes Theater Festival Launches
FREE Touring Production

TWO BY CHEKHOV:
The Harmful Effects of Tobacco and The Brute

 The pair of comedies will visit twenty-seven venues 
throughout northern Ohio.

Great Lakes Theater Festival (GLTF) will launch a free outreach touring
production of two Chekhovian comedies, entitled TWO BY CHEKHOV: The
Harmful Effects of Tobacco (Tobacco) and The Brute (Brute) scheduled to
visit twenty-seven neighborhood venues throughout northern Ohio, to kick
off the company's 2009 series of Surround programming.   The production
features a touring company of three actors and is directed by GLTF's
Associate Artistic Director Andrew May.  The tour commences February
17th, continues through March 18th and is designed to support the
Festival's upcoming main stage production of Chekhov's The Seagull at
the Hanna Theatre, PlayhouseSquare.  All performances of the touring
production are free and open to the public, with the exception of
performances at area high schools, which are private.

"Now more than ever, we believe it is important to share free,
professional theatre with people out in their own communities," remarked
Daniel Hahn, Great Lakes Theater Festival's Director of Education, when
asked about the Festival's annual tour.  "These two comedies give a
fascinating context for viewing Chekhov's The Seagull, and will afford
our audience a rich theatrical experience, right in their own backyard.

The Festival's 2009 touring production features a pair of one act
comedies.  In the first, Chekhov's The Harmful Effects of Tobacco, Ivan
Ivanovich Nyukhin's wife has insisted that he give a speech on the
dangers of tobacco, and although he himself is a smoker, he relents.
However, his speech quickly devolves from the intended topic into a
series of revealing personal confessions, as the psyche of Nyukhin is
laid bare to great comedic effect. This short play is a rarely produced
gem highlighting Chekhovian humor at its quirkiest.

The tour's second play, The Brute, focuses on Yelina Ivanovna Popova, a
widower who is visited by one of her late husband's creditors seeking
repayment. But Smirnov's attempt to reclaim his old debt is waylaid when
he unexpectedly falls in love with the hostile widow. Perhaps Chekhov's
funniest farce, The Brute is an excellent companion piece to Tobacco and
an excellent bridge to The Seagull.

The three-actor touring company features Cleveland actors Michael Gatto,
David Hansen, and Elizabeth Wood.  The design trio of Terry Martin
(scenic design), Melanie Boeman (costume design) and Richard Ingraham
(sound design) complete the play's production team.  "It has become
somewhat of an annual tradition to bring this team of talented artists
together for our touring play, and I am so excited to have their skills
utilized again this year, under the skilled direction of Andrew May,"
Hahn said.

TWO BY CHEKHOV is a seventy-minute program that includes an introduction
and post-performance discussion. Times and dates are subject to change.
Call individual venues for more information about the performances.

TWO BY CHEKHOV is part of a series of community programs surrounding
Great Lakes Theater Festival's upcoming Spring Repertory production of
The Seagull by Anton Chekhov (April 8 - May 2, 2009, at the Hanna
Theatre, PlayhouseSquare).  Held throughout northern Ohio from February
through May, the 2009 Surround is designed for audiences of all
backgrounds and ages.  All Surround events are free and open to the
public when at non-high school venues.  For more information, visit the
Great Lakes Theater Festival website at
www.greatlakestheater.org/education/surround
<blocked::BLOCKED::BLOCKED::BLOCKED::http://www.greatlakestheater.org/ed
ucation/surround> / or call the Festival's education department at (216)
241-5490 x307.

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Media Contact:
Todd Krispinsky
Marketing and Public Relations Director
(216) 241-5490 x 317
tkrispinsky at greatlakestheater.org
<blocked::BLOCKED::BLOCKED::BLOCKED::mailto:tkrispinsky at greatlakestheate
r.org> 

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