Art and reality collide in Sketchbook Theatre’s production of Anton Chekhov’s “The Cherry Orchard, which will be performed at Tydeman Farm in Germantown, July 20-23 at 6 pm.
“I like going to see plays that are done in a proscenium arch,” says actor and producer Bill Army, who is known for his role in the 2017 Broadway musical “The Band's Visit.” “But given the fact that during Covid, there was so much occuring on Zoom that was on a flat picture frame, I wanted to be a part of creating theater that was more three-dimensional.”
This was the key ingredient in Christopher Marshall, David Barlow, and Army’s decision to put on a site-specific production of “The Cherry Orchard.” The three actors had originally met when working with the Potomac Theatre Project (PTP), which after 35 years of producing Off-Broadway shows, completed its final season last summer. Since PTP’s closing, Army, Marshall, and Barlow have put their focus into “The Cherry Orchard,” which will feature a professional cast of Broadway and Off-Broadway actors.
“Though I am the producer, Chris is the director, and David is playing Trofimov,” explains Army, “We are all Co-Artistic Directors, and we wear whatever hat we need to wear in order to serve this great play.” The sharing of labor became especially important when they decided to expand their idea and form a nonprofit theater company, Sketchbook Theatre, for which this play will act as the company’s inaugural performance.
Premiering just months before his death in 1904 at the age of 44, “The Cherry Orchard'' was Chekhov’s final play. Described by Army as “a tragic comic masterpiece,” the show tells the story of an aristocratic Russian landowner and the agonizing loss of her family estate, which includes a large and beautiful cherry orchard. The show embodies the most influential aspect of Chekhov’s work, which was his dedication to realism. He was the first playwright whose stories strayed from the traditional dramas of passionate love, betrayal, murder, and suicide. As Chekhov himself once put it, “Life on stage should be as it really is, and the people too, should be as they are.”
In a review of a 1920 production of “The Cherry Orchard,” Virginia Woolf wrote “I do not know how better to describe the sensation at the end of ‘The Cherry Orchard,’ than by saying that it sends one into the street feeling like a piano-played upon at last, not in the middle only but all over the keyboard and with the lid left open so that the sound goes on.”
For Army, Marshall, and Barlow, the timeless themes of Chekhov’s work are what makes their production relevant to the concerns of a modern audience. “There are so many things going on in this play that feel very contemporary,” says Army. “Amongst many other things, “The Cherry Orchard” is about societal flux, and the shifting balance of power. It’s also about a family that’s coping with the changing times, and dealing with loss of family members, loss of their homes, loss of the status quo. I think the pandemic did that for many people.”
When searching for a location to perform the show, the team was intent on finding a physical space that would do more than provide a stage, but would further enhance the emotional connection of the audience to the story being performed. This desire brought them to the 172-year-old barn at Tydeman Farm, renovated by its owners, Brian and Lindsay Shea. The barn sits on 150 acres of farmland, complete with orchards of apple, peach, pear, and of course, cherry. “I can’t say enough about how beautiful it is as a place,” says Army. “I think being in the natural beauty will illuminate the theme of loss, that much more.”
The barn offers a nontraditional theater setup, and a direct view of the farmland through the wide open doors at either end of the building. “We wanted to give people something that moved, breathed, and was a 360-degree experience,” says Army. “The kind of staging that has been done is meant to keep with that idea. For example, when the character of Firs enters, and the audience looks up to see an older actor walking down a huge flight of stairs, it takes a long time, whereas in a traditional theater, he would just walk on stage. To hear the creak of the old stairs as he walks is very transporting. The lighting is mostly natural light, and there are almost no sound cues. If you hear birdsong, it is the actual birds in the trees around you.”
