{"id":371236,"date":"2025-08-12T20:06:38","date_gmt":"2025-08-13T00:06:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dctheaterarts.org\/?p=371236"},"modified":"2025-08-12T20:06:38","modified_gmt":"2025-08-13T00:06:38","slug":"a-visit-to-an-open-air-seagull-in-pittsburgh-thats-as-visceral-as-it-is-new","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dctheaterarts.org\/2025\/08\/12\/a-visit-to-an-open-air-seagull-in-pittsburgh-thats-as-visceral-as-it-is-new\/","title":{"rendered":"A visit to an open-air ‘Seagull’ in Pittsburgh that’s as visceral as it is new"},"content":{"rendered":"

Summer is always a great time to hit the road and explore theater companies yet unseen; this year, for the first time, I hit Pittsburgh because word had it that there was a dynamite production of Anton Chekhov\u2019s classic The<\/em> Seagull<\/em> (here simply Seagull<\/em>). The kicker was that it was staged in a temporary open-air theater on the Chatham University campus, which is as picturesque as it gets. The stage, flanked by frequently opened gauze curtains, was backed by a small pond and surrounded by a green meadow, which was exploited by the cast in ways that were truly delightful to see, with parallel \u201csilent\u201d scenes playing out to complement the onstage dialogue.<\/p>\n

The production featured a new approach to the central character of Constantine (the brooding, tortured avant-garde artiste), which created a new dynamic among Chekhov\u2019s characters and made the visit all the more worthwhile. Adaptor and Director Joanie Schultz has taken a sprawling, three-plus-hours slog of a play, condensed it to some two hours\u2019 traffic, and, to top it all off, has also unleashed her company of talented actors to explore Chatham\u2019s grounds.<\/p>\n

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Julia Rocha as Nina, with the ensemble looking on, in \u2018Seagull.\u2019 Photo by Jason Snyder courtesy of Quantum Theatre.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The result is a concise, environmentally vivid rendering of a play that seems set literally in the countryside, complete with all the cicadas, birds, and even rabbits, whose timing for entrances and exits is exquisite, I must say. The sense of place is fully realized, and the energy of the space alone is worth the ticket. Quantum Theatre specializes in staging productions in spaces that are not theaters, using neutral spaces as opportunities for actors to explore new relationships with their audiences and each other.<\/p>\n

Anchoring this production, and setting it ablaze with passion, is Phoebe Lloyd\u2019s turn as Constantine; in Schultz\u2019s adaptation, the young, aspiring playwright is a daughter who identifies as male (n\u00e9e Katerina); and although much could be made of the \u201cqueering\u201d of this classic character, the brilliance and vulnerability Lloyd brings to the role leaves all academic theorizing in the dust (or, there being a pond here, in the muck). We\u2019re not watching a grad student thesis project brought awkwardly to life; what we see in Lloyd is a human being, struggling with misprized love and the crushing disappointment of having a famous mother \u2014 Arkadina, played with fire by Lisa Velten Smith \u2014 who only pretends to give a damn.<\/p>\n

The dynamic between Smith\u2019s Arkadina and Lloyd\u2019s Constantine is here recast as a variation on the eternal mother-daughter struggle, with moments of loving tenderness turning on a dime to bitter rebuke. The battle between mother and child in this play has never been as vivid as it is here, and in Schultz\u2019s able hands, there is no sense of a play out of kilter. Because of her fidelity to the original script, Schultz\u2019s big change is easily taken in stride, offering us a fresh look at Seagull<\/em> and reminding many of us what drew us to Chekhov in the first place. The struggle for love, for new art, and for authenticity is real for all of us in the theater, whoever we may be, however we understand ourselves.<\/p>\n

Perhaps one of the most pleasant surprises of the evening is Maxine Coltin\u2019s turn as Masha, the local country girl smitten with Constantine. In other productions I\u2019ve seen, her character blends with the woodwork after her opening line (\u201cI\u2019m in mourning for my life\u201d), but Coltin\u2019s presence always adds an element of exquisite irony; her ever-present hip flask illustrates her ennui, her cynicism, complicated, of course, by her undying, unrequited love for Constantine.<\/p>\n

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Phoebe Lloyd as Constantine and Lisa Velten Smith as Arkadina in \u2018Seagull.\u2019 Photo by Jason Snyder courtesy of Quantum Theatre.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Chekhov loves to create romantic merry-go-rounds, in which A loves B, who\u2019s in love with C, who\u2019s in love with Z, who gets no rest (I hope you get the picture). I say this because Coltin\u2019s Masha is also part of one of the most hilarious, unscripted uses of the meadow behind the stage. While a couple of actors under the klieg lights chatter away about something forgettable, in the distance we first see Lloyd\u2019s Constantine jump out from behind a bush, racing furiously stage left \u2014 only to be followed a short while later by Coltin\u2019s Masha, whose pursuit is, of course, hopeless. (Keep your eyes peeled, in other words.)<\/p>\n

There isn\u2019t a weak link anywhere in the cast; Evan Vines\u2019 Medvedenko, the sad sack school teacher whom Masha reluctantly marries, creates ample sympathy as his attempt to get attention \u2014 let alone affection \u2014 fails miserably. And as Arkadina\u2019s fun-loving brother, Sorin, Ken Bolden personifies the bon vivant retiree who\u2019d fit in perfectly on that next Viking cruise, his doctor\u2019s sage advice notwithstanding.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile as Dorn, the village doctor (who is supremely annoyed by Sorin\u2019s booze and tobacco habits), Daniel Krell gives us a glimpse of that golden boy who always got the girl for years, and whose possible fling with Polina might explain his unusually sympathetic talks with Masha (who maybe possibly was the product of that possible fling? We\u2019ll never tell).<\/p>\n

Unlike all the other characters we encounter, Paul Anderson\u2019s turn as Shamraev, the estate\u2019s manager, provides that much-needed reality check. Because for all of Arkadina\u2019s fame and fortune, it is Shamraev who actually controls her comings and goings, because the horses she needs for her trips into town, or to the train station, are needed in the fields where the late summer grain harvest is already in full swing. (As Chekhov, ever the pragmatist, would remind us: no harvest, no money; no money, no estate; no estate, no fancy dresses, and no excuse for putting on airs.) Equally grounded, and wary of the main characters, is Shamraev\u2019s wife Polina, played here with just the right touch of gravitas by Gwendolyn Kelso. And yeah, she\u2019s got eyes for Dorn.<\/p>\n

As Chekhov\u2019s alter ego, the writer Trigorin, Brett Mack does a great job of at least pretending<\/em> not to understand why everyone makes such a fuss about him. He\u2019s Arkadina\u2019s plus-one, for now, and she clearly regards him as a trophy never to be surrendered. Trigorin\u2019s long confessional monologue, where he lays out his almost OCD-like need to write about everything and everyone, is delivered with one eye on his faux modesty, and another eye on gaining the sympathy, and romantic attentions, of Nina, a local girl who aspires to a career on the stage like that of Arkadina. His obsession with young girls is matched by his need to use Nina as fodder for his fiction, and use her he most definitely does.<\/p>\n

So now we come to Nina, who in other productions (and in Chekhov\u2019s eyes) is the center of attention: a village girl who grew up on the same lake as Arkadina, smitten with the theater bug. In most productions, she is crafted to be a tragic figure, an Ophelia-like waif who is abused and discarded by Trigorin in her quest for stardom. Here, however, Schultz has decided to give her Nina, played forcefully throughout by Julia Rocha, an entirely different character.<\/p>\n

Assertive and ambitious from the beginning, she engages in a consensual kiss with Constantine at the very opening of the play (by contrast, Chekhov has her dodging Constantine\u2019s embrace with a silly question about a tree). Her response to Trigorin\u2019s long lament about his work is met with glances that are more wary and calculating than sympathetic. This is definitely a young woman who can pinpoint that precise quote in that one story, have it engraved in a locket, and use that locket to leave Trigorin helpless. Not a waif in sight.<\/p>\n

It makes sense to give Nina more agency, from our modern perspective, and I fully understand why Schultz would want something more out of this part than just the usual pathetic victim. The biggest change comes with her final scene, where Rocha repeats the famous line:<\/p>\n

\u201cI am a seagull; no, I am an actress.\u201d<\/p>\n

Originally, this line was designed to show a woman who was distracted, desperately trying to keep it together, half-losing her grip on reality. Here, however, Nina\u2019s refusal to show any signs of distress, let alone remorse \u2014 not even for the baby, which she bore and lost \u2014 creates a very different ending. Nina is on her way to a small provincial\u00a0 theater, and knows she\u2019ll have to put up with advances from the local men (with whom she may have to sleep, in order to pay for the costumes she\u2019ll use onstage). But this Nina is OK with it, and embraces what she has to do, to have a career.<\/p>\n

Put it another way; in most productions Nina is a Russian version of Ophelia; in this production, Nina has matured to become a younger version of Arkadina, equally tough on the outside, and equally reluctant to show any vulnerability whatsoever. Smith and Rocha end up mirroring each other in fascinating ways. And it is Constantine\u2019s realization that Nina has a strength of character that he lacks \u2014 that she has become his mother \u2014 which leads to the play\u2019s climactic scene, after Nina\u2019s final departure, played out by Lloyd in complete silence.<\/p>\n

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Phoebe Lloyd as Constantine and Julia Rocha as Nina appearing in \u2018Seagull.\u2019 Publicity photo by Jason Snyder courtesy of Quantum Theatre.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The design team here is stellar; I was immediately struck by the symbolism of Ryan McMasters\u2019 incidental music before the show, cascading notes on a keyboard accompanied by staccato violin, previewing the tensions we\u2019re about to witness. His interludes shift, from one act to the next, mirroring the action in fascinating ways. Costume Designer Damian E. Dominguez finds just the right balance, between the plain workaday wear favored by Shamraev (and also by Trigorin, ever the fake working stiff) and Arkadina\u2019s dazzling dresses, clearly designed to stop the conversation dead in its tracks. His designs for Nina, too, help to tell her story; from demure, to hot on Trigorin\u2019s trail, to maturity, we see exactly where she is and who she thinks she is.<\/p>\n

Given this production\u2019s choice of site Chelsea Warren\u2019s task, as scenic designer, was something of a challenge; there needed to be some sort of performance area for the dialogue, and for the opening play-within-a-play, but there also needed to be visual breathing room for the surroundings, which do so much of the \u201cscenic\u201d work from an audience\u2019s perspective. The placement of posts and gauze curtains, easily dropped and raised, creates the illusion that both the stage and the environment are working together. C. Todd Brown\u2019s lighting, meanwhile, apart from the usual stage wash, features some discreetly-lit drum faces lining the pond behind the stage, which \u2014 if you look closely \u2014 adopt red, beady eyes during the opening sequence.<\/p>\n

In the program notes for this production, Joanie Schultz makes clear that this version of Seagull,<\/em> a labor of love that was years in the making, is designed in part to honor and reflect upon her own personal struggles, which have been intense indeed. What\u2019s fascinating is that she not only identifies with Constantine\u2019s struggles, but she also chooses to find strength in Nina and her insistence on staying with the theater, come what may.<\/p>\n

Schultz, whose work has been seen at Baltimore\u2019s Everyman Theatre and Studio Theatre in Washington, DC (where she has also served as an artistic cabinet member), has created a concept for Seagull<\/em> that is as visceral as it is new. It is a loving variation on Chekhovian themes, and a great way to introduce new audiences to this seemingly stale, dead white guy\u2019s work.<\/p>\n

Running Time: Two hours and 15 minutes, including one intermission.<\/p>\n

Seagull<\/strong><\/em><\/a> plays through August 17, 2025, presented by Quantum Theatre performing outdoors on the Chatham University campus in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Ticket prices vary from $35 to $70. For more information, visit quantumtheatre.com\/seagull\/<\/a><\/p>\n