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The first production of a partnership between Pasco schools and Saint Leo University tackles a heavy classic, Chekhov's The Seagull.
By BARBARA L. FREDRICKSEN
© St. Petersburg Times, published October 19, 2001
Russian playwright Anton Chekhov labeled his morose and tragic play The Seagull a comedy, but it is far from funny.
That's one reason it was chosen as the first production by a class that is part of a new partnership between Pasco schools and Saint Leo University.
"We wanted something heavy, something classical," said Kurt V. Wilt, who heads the school of arts and sciences at Saint Leo. "We could do either Shakespeare or Chekhov, and we chose this. Ordinarily, in high school, the (students) would do popular plays like Neil Simon and those, and we wanted something different."
Apropos of a theater studies class project, The Seagull examines the purpose of theater and the nature of acting and looks at the creative attitudes of actors and writers.
The four main characters are all involved in the performing arts: the jealous and bitter Madame Arkadina (Land O'Lakes senior Audra Nuru), an aging actress; her son Trevlev (Saint Leo freshman T.J. Demetriou), a frustrated and misguided aspiring playwright; the fickle Nina (Land O'Lakes junior Crystal Elorich), a young, aspiring actress who betrays Trevlev; and the older, successful playwright Trigonin (Saint Leo freshman Mike Genetti), Mme Arkadina's perfidious lover.
The play takes place at the country estate of Mme Arkadina's brother, Sorin (Wesley Chapel High School senior Tyler Jung), a retired government worker who has lived a life full of regrets for what might have been and is slowly dying of a degenerative disease. Trevlev presents his play on a makeshift stage near a bucolic lake, is mocked by his mother, eventually rejected twice by his beloved and winds up shooting himself while his mother casually plays cards in a nearby room.
The four-act play is being presented in two acts and runs about two and a half hours.
"We're doing it in modern dress with a contemporary set," said Charles Grimes, the Saint Leo instructor who is directing the play. "It's a mix of high school and college students with one faculty member, Jack McTague," a Dade City resident who has been involved with the Center Stage Players for years.
Wilt and Wesley Chapel Performing Arts Center director Patrick McDermott have been working since last year putting the joint theater arts venture together. Grimes, an associate professor at Saint Leo with a doctorate in theater from New York University, is the lead instructor of the 22-member class, with input from both Wilt and McDermott. Classes are held at both Wesley Chapel and at Saint Leo. Both the high school and the university students will receive college credit for the course.
The upcoming production is the first major theatrical undertaking of all the four leads. Genetti has performed with a teen musical group at his church, and Demetriou has done skits with another church group. Ms. Nuru has had small roles in several Land O'Lakes productions and attended drama competition, but for Ms. Elorich, this is an altogether new experience.
Others in the show are Mark Terry (Saint Leo senior) as Shamrayev, the manager of Sorin's farm; Cindy Daly (Saint Leo senior) as his wife; Genevieve Lau (Wesley Chapel senior) as their daughter Masha; David Singletary (Wesley Chapel senior) as the lovesick schoolteacher Medvedenko; Catherine Cuellan (Land O'Lakes junior) as Yakov, the hired hand; and Mayling Lee (Zephyrhills freshman) as the dual roles of the cook and the maid. McTague plays Dorn, the local doctor.
WHAT: The Seagull, a drama in four acts
WHERE: Wesley Chapel Performing Arts Center, Wells Road (off Curley Road, 1 mile north of State Road 54), Wesley Chapel
WHEN: 7:30 p.m. Oct. 27 and 2 p.m. Oct. 28
TICKETS: Unspecified donation at the door