The OBIE, Drama Desk and Lortel Award-winning Classical Theatre of Harlem (CTH) will begin their 10th Anniversary Season with a new production of Anton Chekhov's classic THREE SISTERS, directed by CTH Co-Founder Christopher McElroen (The Cherry Orchard). Performances will be at Harlem Stage Gatehouse, 150 Convent Avenue at West 135th Street, and will begin on Thursday, February 5th. Opening night is scheduled for Wednesday, February 18th and the show will run through Sunday, March 8th.
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.
CTH's production of THREE SISTERS is the third high-profile Chekhov production to open in New York City this winter, joining BAM's The Cherry Orchard (directed by Sam Mendes), and Classic Stage Company's Uncle Vanya (starring Maggie Gyllenhaal). Other notable Chekhov productions this season included the Broadway of The Seagull, which closed in December, and starred Peter Sarsgaard and Kristin Scott Thomas.
The cast for THREE SISTERS includes Roger Guenveur Smith, Earle Hyman, Carmen de Lavallade, Sabrina LeBeauf, Reg E. Cathey, Amanda Mason Warren, Carmen Gill, Billy EuGene Jones, Jonathan Earl Peck, Josh Tyson, Daphne Gaines, Phillip Christian, Jonathan Ramey and Nathan Dame. Roger Guenveur Smith is an actor, writer, and director whose work has been internationally acclaimed. He created and performed the Obie Award-winning A Huey P. Newton Story and adapted it into a Peabody Award-winning telefilm, directed by his longtime colleague, Spike Lee. Sabrina LeBeauf and Earle Hyman appeared on "The Cosby Show" together. Reg E. Cathey was a member of the acclaimed cast of HBO's "The Wire." Billy EuGene Jones was in the Broadway productions of Raisin in the Sun, Gem of the Ocean, Radio Golf and Passing Strange.
CTH co-founder Christopher McElroen will direct. Mr. McElroen staged the production of Waiting for Godot for CTH that was also performed in New Orleans, directed the multiple OBIE Award-winning production of The Blacks, and was the director of CTH's highly acclaimed version of The Cherry Orchard.
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.
Since being co-founded in 1999 by Alfred Preisser and Christopher McElroen, the Classical Theatre of Harlem has staged thirty-five productions, which have included numerous works by Shakespeare, Melvin Van Peebles' Ain't Supposed To Die A Natural Death and Jean Genet's seminal political drama, The Blacks: A Clown Show. The Classical Theatre of Harlem is dedicated to producing theatre that truly reflects the diversity of ideas and racial tapestry of New York City. Their long list of awards includes 5 OBIE Awards, 2 Lucille Lortel Awards, a Drama Desk Award and the Edwin Booth Award for Artistic Excellence, among many others. Their most recent work includes the world premiere of Ty Jones' Emancipation, Langston Hughes' Black Nativity, presented by the New 42nd Street, and a site specific production of Samuel Beckett's Waiting For Godot staged outdoors in the Lower Ninth Ward and Gentilly neighborhoods of New Orleans.
