The Classical Theatre of Harlem

Three Sisters

By Anton Chekhov
Directed by Christopher McElroen
Co-presented with Harlem Stage

Featuring: Roger Guenveur Smith, Sabrina LeBeauf, Reg E. Cathey, Carmen De Lavallade, Billy Eugene Jones & Earle Hyman

February 5 – March 8, 2009
Wednesday –Saturdays 7:30 pm | Sundays 3 pm
Harlem Stage Gatehouse –150 Convent Avenue @ 135th Street

Single Tickets: $40
Students & Theatre Industry: $26 (Id Required At Pick-Up)
Click Here To Purchase   or Call 212.281.9240 Ext. 19 or 20

Group Rates & Reservations Email: Jcarrillo@Classicaltheatreofharlem.Org

Considered by many to be one of the greatest plays ever written, Chekhov's Three Sisters offers audiences a chance to consider the spiritual paralysis that keeps us from pursuing our dreams, the feeling of unlived lives and the longing for meaning. The result is an uncanny blend of the painful and trivial, the ordinary and the catastrophic. Conventional boundaries between comedy and tragedy are deliberately blurred, and things are seldom what they seem in one of the theatre's most enigmatic and beautiful explorations of our pursuit of happiness.

Sabrina LeBeauf (Olga) Off-Broadway: Cherry Lane Theatre: Liza in Eve-Olution.  Regional:  Shakespeare Theatre, Washington D.C.:  Rosaline in Love’s Labour’s Lost at the Landsberg and as part of The Complete Works Festival at the RSC in Stratford-Upon-Avon-U.K.; Beatrice in Much Ado About Nothing and Helena in All’s Well That Ends Well at the Carter Barron, Cordelia in King Lear and Rosalind in As You Like It.  ALSO:  Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey, George Street Playhouse, Goodman Theatre, LaJolla Playhouse, San Diego Rep., Arizona Theatre Company, San Jose Rep., Yale Rep. OTHER:  Eugene O’Neill National Playwright’s Conference, Sundance Theatre Lab,  Chautauqua Theatre Institute. TELEVISION:  Fatherhood, Smart Gardening, Homes With Style, The Cosby Show. TRAINING:  M.F.A. Yale School of Drama, B.A. UCLA Theatre Arts, Bobby Lewis-New York.

Amanda Mason Warren (Masha) has appeared in Sophisticated Ellington: Celebrating 100 Years Of Duke Ellington (Carnegie Hall); All’s Well That Ends Well (Yale Repertory Theatre); Juliet in Romeo & Juliet, Nina in The Seagull, Oba, Shun and Elegua in Tarell Alvin McCraney’s Marcus; Or The Secret Of Sweet (Yale School of Drama); Above The Fold by Bernard Weinraub, directed by Will Frears (2008 NY Stage & Film Powerhouse Theatre). She has a B.F.A. from the Tisch School of the Arts at NYU and in 2008 an M.F.A. in Acting from the Yale School of Drama. TV: a recurring role as CSU Tech Haydon on Law & Order: Criminal Intent.

Carmen Gill (Irina) Most recently seen in The Actor’s Rap at the Baruch Performing Arts Center.  Theater: The La Jolla Playhouse, Williamstown Theater Festival, Rites & Reason Theater.  TV: Law & Order: Svu, Crazy For A Kiss.  Training: MFA in Theater from University of California, San Diego; B.A. in Theater from Brown University.

Billy Eugene Jones (Andrey) last appeared at the Classical Theatre of Harlem As Lucky In Waiting For Godot.  He Appeared In The Broadway Productions Of A Raisin In The Sun, Gem Of The Ocean, Radio Golf And Passing Strange. Billy has many stage, television and film credits.  He is a graduate of the Yale School of Drama '03.

Roger Guenveur Smith (Vershinin) adapted his Obie Award-winning performance Of A Huey P. Newton Story into a Peabody Award-winning telefilm. He has also created and performed Frederick Douglass Now, Inside The Creole Mafia, Iceland, The Watts Towers Project, In Honor Of Jean-Michel Basquiat, Two Fires, Christopher Columbus 1992, Who Killed Bob Marley?, which inaugurated the Harlem Stage Gatehouse.  Mr. Smith's many screen credits range from Do The Right Thing, for which he created the stuttering hero Smiley, to American Gangster, for which he was nominated for the Screen Actors' Guild Award.     

Reg E. Cathey (Chebutykin) has appeared in numerous N.Y. productions.  Broadway: The Green Bird.  Off-Broadway: Cato; Talk (OBIE award); Blue Door; White Chocolate; Macbeth; Hamlet; Taming Of The Shrew.  Regional: American Buffalo; Blue Door; Henry Iv Parts 1 & 2; Art And Dante’s Inferno.  Film & Television:  A N.Y. Thing (Upcoming); Like Moles, Like Rats; S.W.A.T.; The Wire; The Corner; Oz; Homicide-Life On The Street; Law & Order S.V.U. And Square One T.V.

Earle Hyman (Ferapont) first appeared on stage with The American Negro Theatre in Harlem. Broadway appearances include Emily Mann's play Execution Of Justice; Edward Albee's The Lady From Dubuque (Tony Nomination); Les Blancs; No Time For Sergeants; The Climate Of Eden; Waiting For Godot; The Infernal Machine; Mister Johnson And Anna Lucasta. Other theatre includes New York Shakespeare Festival productions of Long Day’s Journey Into Night, which he subsequently taped for cable TV and won an ACE Award for best performance, Coriolanus and The Cherry Orchard. Played in St. Joan with both Siobhan McKenna and Dian Sands. He is the only black actor to have played all four of the Shakespeare giants: Hamlet, Othello, Macbeth, and King Lear. Last Seen On Broadway In Henrik Ibsen's The Master Builder. Mr. Hyman has starred in Scandinavia, especially Norway, playing Othello, Emperor Jones, Master Harold And The Boys in Norwegian. Played Driving Miss Daisy in Copenhagen in Danish. Films include The Ivory Ape, Across 110th Street, and The Possession Of Joey Delaney. Among his more than 100 television roles is Russell Huxtable, The Cosby Show, for which he received an Emmy nomination. He counts himself very blessed to have made a 61 year old journey as an actor that began in Harlem and leads him back to Harlem to play with the wonderful Classical Theatre of Harlem.

Carmen de Lavallade (Anfisa) is an artist whom Duke Ellington once called “one of the most ravishing in the world.” She began her career in 1950 with the Lester Horton Dance Theater and it was in her work with Horton that de Lavallade began a long association with Alvin Ailey. In 1954, she made her Broadway debut in House Of Flowers, where she met and married the dancer and actor Geoffrey Holder. At the Metropolitan Opera, de Lavallade captivated audiences and critics alike as prima ballerina in productions of Samson and Delilah and Aida. She acted in films including Carmen Jones with Dorothy Dandridge and Odds Against Tomorrow with Harry Belafonte. In 1970, she joined the Yale School of Drama as a choreographer and performer-in-residence where she staged musicals, plays and operas, and later became a full professor. She has danced with Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company, and collaborated with choreographer Gus Solomons, Jr. and saxophonist/composer Jane Ira Bloom.

Daphne Gaines (Nataliya Ivanovna) is making her debut at the Classical Theatre of Harlem.  Regional theater: Nella in Gee's Bend at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts, Three Children (Hong Kong Fringe Theater), A Christmas Carol at Actor's Theater of Louisville.  Off-Broadway: a six-hour version of Faust (Classic Stage Company), Mystery Of The Charity Of Joan Of Arc (Target Margin Theater), Cedar Creek (Abingdon Theater Company), Rock-opera Orpheus (Here Arts Center), Yokastas Redux directed by Richard Schechner (La Mama Theater), Private Battles (Judith Anderson Theater), Nightvision: A Vampyre Opera (The Public, Brooklyn Academy of Music, and HERE Arts Center), Revelations: The Outtakes (The Public), and Dead Tech: The Masterbuilder (Smack Melon Theater). Daphne is a graduate of Circle in the Square Theater School and has a B.A. in Theater and Psychology from the University of Georgia.

Joshua Tyson (Tuzenbach) NY: Enemy Of The People, Octopus Love Story, Antigone,The Blue Martini, Life Is Short, Conference Room A, The Duchess Of Malfi, The Blue Martini;  Regional:  Proposals, The Last Night Of Ballyhoo, Picnic, Complete History Of America (Abridged); FILM/TV:  Whales (post-production), Across The Universe, Alabaster, Law & Order(the orig.)

 

Jonathan Peck (Kulygin) Broadway: A Lion In Winter, Roundabout Theatre; Abduction From The Seraglio, Lincoln Center; The Color Of Justice, Victory Theatre.  Off-Broadway: Black, The Women's Project; Julius Caesar, Public Theatre; The Merchant Of Venice, Public Theatre; Othello, Shakespeare Stage Company; Richard III, Pearl Company; Blood Knot, The Acting Company.  Other Theatres: Martin, Malcolm, And Medger, Shabazz Center; Tamburlane, The Shakespeare Theatre; Walker, Boston Playwrights Theatre; Crumbs From The Table Of Joy, Yale Rep; Blood Knot, Area Stage; A Midsummer Night's Dream, Old Globe Theatre; Hamlet, North Shore Music Theatre.  Television/Film: Cadillac Records, Law And Order; The West Wing; The Devil's Own; American Dreams; Here And Now; One Life To Live; Loving; Freedom Road; King; Devil Girl; Someone Else's America; Disney's Aladdin. 

Phillip Christian (Solyony) has appeared regionally in All My Sons for the Emerge Theatre Company at the Crossroads Theatre, The Merchant Of Venice at NJSF, SPUNK at the Delaware Theatre Company, Servant Of Two Masters at Hartford Stage, Troilus And Cressida at NYSF in the park, A Christmas Carol at The Great Lakes Theatre Festival, and Angels In America at Milwaukee Rep among others. He played the first witch in the film Macbeth A Comedy. Phillip is a graduate of The University of New Mexico and The Yale School of Drama, and has been a happy resident of Harlem for five years.

Johnny Ramey (Fedotik) is completely honored to be working with CTH
and his fellow actors on Three Sisters. He is a recent graduate
 of The Juilliard School (37), where he had the pleasure of performing
in such productions As TOPDOG/UNDERGOG, JOE TURNER'S COME AND GONE,
TWELFTH NIGHT, KING LEAR, CYMBELINE, And OUR LADY OF 121ST STREET.
He recently helped conceive, & co-produce The Master Shepherds Of
Hookyjook - a play birthed out of the minds of Friends, and finished up a production of The Toilet by Amiri Baraka. Johnny wants to thank Christine Chambers, and all those close to him for there tremendous support.

Nathan Dame (Rodé) is originally from Ogden, Utah, and has a BA in Theatre Arts from Weber State University. Recent credits include The Hand That Feeds You and Sailors’ Scrapbook. He is also an accomplished composer and pianist. This is his first production with the Classical Theatre of Harlem. .

 

Christopher McElroen (Director) is the Co-Founder of the Classical Theatre of Harlem where he has helped produce thirty-six productions in the past seven years yielding 13 AUDELCO Awards, 5 OBIE Awards, 2 Lucille Lortel Awards, a Drama Desk Award and CTH being named "1 of 8 theatres in America to Watch" by the Drama League. As a director, he has helmed numerous productions at CTH including The Cherry Orchard with Earle Hyman, The Blacks: A Clown Show (4 OBIE Awards) and the post-Katrina inspired Waiting For Godot with Wendell Pierce, which was recently remounted outdoors in the Lower 9th Ward and Gentilly section of New Orleans. He also directed the international tour of Sekou Sundiata's 51st (Dream) State, which premiered at The Brooklyn Academy of Music’s Next Wave Festival.

Harlem Stage (Co-Producer) since its inception, Harlem Stage (formerly Aaron Davis Hall, Inc.) has earned a local, national, and international reputation for its world-class programming and commissioning of new works. Established in 1979 as part of The City College of New York, the organization became an independent nonprofit in 1983. Harlem Stage has hosted such legendary artists as Harry Belafonte, Max Roach, Bill Cosby, Abbey Lincoln, Maya Angelou, and Tito Puente. Harlem Stage’s primary mission is to support and present the development of new work and the work of emerging artists, and connecting these exhilarating and stimulating new programs to our community.  For more information about Harlem Stage, visit www.HarlemStage.org.

 

Startlingly fresh . CTH reconfirms itself as one of the gutsiest and physically fearless groups around - David Cote, Time Out NY