Three Sisters

Chekhov fills seats at Utah State

By Ford Rasmussen

Getting there wasn't easy but Utah State's theater department performed Anton Chekhov‘s “Three Sisters” to a packed house each day of its showing last week.

Rebecca Swan was one of the lead performers in the play. She said that this is the first time the school has done a performance by Chekhov.

According to Swan, Chekhov's work is very difficult. "It's the most human play I've ever done," she said. " It pushes us. Teaches us to grow."

The play was performed in the school’s Black Box Theatre, which is the size of a classroom. Leslie Brott, the director, said the cast of 16 posed a “very large staging challenge” for being performed in “so small a space.” 

For Swan, performing in a black box "took a little adjusting." As the actors came within close proximity to those in the audience "people would move their feet," Swan said.

Brott said the play fulfilled its mission to give the theater students an opportunity to work on translated text by an early theatrical modernist. Students also developed skills for playing in a large ensemble as the focus "rapidly shifted from one group to the next."

According to Ben LeVere, the manager of the Cain College of Arts Box Office, the play sold out every day except for three tickets Thursday.