The Seagull runs 2 hours 15 minutes, including a 15 minute intermission. Seating is general admission. If you need seating accommodations, our box office staff will be happy to assist.

Concessions and drinks from the bar are welcome in the space; however, please no outside food or drinks.

Click here to watch a virtual tour of our Front of House.

Chekhov is like Malort; people either love it or hate it. The people who hate it are always  told by the people who love it that it does vary but, “when it’s done right then it’s actually quite enjoyable,” while the people who love it are looked at by the people who hate it, like they’re lying or something’s wrong with them, “why would you purposely put yourself through that?” And both parties have a tough time explaining it to folks who have never heard of it.  I, unfortunately, fall under the “love it” side of the equation - of Chekhov, not Malort. And out of the small-but-mighty canon of Chekhov’s work, my favorite piece is The Seagull.  (A reveal anyone could’ve seen coming.) 

Like many folks who decided to live a life of debt - I mean go to college for acting, I studied Chekhov.  It was there, the affinity grew for Chekhov. (We get it you like Chekhov, move on ya nerd!)  Right. So, when I was adapting and translating, though I was familiar with the play, one line in particular struck me in a way it never had before. In Chekhov’s Act 2, Trigorin is talking to Nina about himself and says, “I’m not just a landscape painter…” Some insight. Trigorin is a writer, not a painter, not a sketch artist, doesn’t even doodle: just a writer.  I found that analogy so strange, why not “nature novelist” or “autumn’s author” or some other use of alliteration. While I was contemplating the word choice, I looked up from my laptop and noticed my TV had gone into screensaver mode.  Every TV is different, but mine displays photos of wildlife and nature, in this particular instance it was a photo of a giant lakefront. (As if I needed a more obvious sign.) So I decided to research 19th Century Russian landscape painters which led me to Isaac Levitan.  If you aren’t familiar with his work, you are now - the painting you see on stage now is a recreation of Isaac Levitan’s Wood Lake. 

Fun fact: Levitan and Chekhov were best friends. 

The more I researched, I learned Levitan suffered from severe depression and had made several attempts to take his own life. In an 1895 letter Levitan wrote to Chekhov, he confided, “Melancholy reached me before I shot myself, but I am still alive.”  That very same year Chekhov would continue re-writing and finish The Seagull. 

Now, couple all of that with my favorite line of the play, which comes in Chekhov’s Act 4, Nina tells Kostya, “…it’s not about fame or glory, or what I used to dream about; it’s about the ability to endure.”  I love that line: the ability to endure.  For as much as people like to say The Seagull is Chekhov’s love letter to the theatre, I would argue it’s more a love letter to his friend. Chekhov took so many aspects of his friend, the good, the bad, and the heartbreaking and scattered them throughout several characters of this play, all the while telling him to keep fighting; don’t lose hope; stay here, with me. And, ultimately, that’s what I’d like to say to you.  Hold on, keep fighting, don’t give up: endure.  This world is crazy and frustrating and unpredictable and terrifying, but it’s a better place with you in it. We must fight. We must endure.  Together.  

And like a shot of Malort, Chekhov brings us together to laugh, to cry, to contemplate, and to remind us this too shall pass and we will get through it together. 

ARKADINA | Anne Sheridan Smith

TREPLYOV | Kason Chesky

SORIN | Chuck Munro

NINA | Jamie Herb

SHAMRAEV | Joe Zarrow

POLINA | Ana Ortiz-Monasterio Draa

MASHA | Magdalena Dalzell

TRIGORIN | Josh Razavi*

DORN | Chris Hainsworth

MEDVEDENKO | Ben Murphy

YAKOV | Bobby Bowman

*indicates Red Theater cohort member

Click here for full cast bios.

TREPLYOV (U/s) | Jack Hradecky

MEDVEDENKO / YAKOV (U/s) | Ethan Smith

MASHA (U/s) | Jacqui Touchet

NINA (U/s) | Pricilla Torres

TRIGORIN (U/s) | Bobby Bowman

SHAMRAEV (U/s) | Chuck Munro

ARKADINA / POLINA (U/s) | Marisa Macella*

DORN / SORIN (U/s) | Andrew Pond

*indicates Red Theater cohort member

Click here for full cast bios.

SCENIC | Hunter Cole*

LIGHTING | Brenden Marble

SOUND | Kate Schnetzer

COSTUME | Maggie McGlenn

PROPS | Suzanne Barnes

INTIMACY | Victoria Nassif

COMPOSER | Jonathan Hannau

*indicates Red Theater cohort member

Click here for full designer & production team bios.

DIRECTOR / ADAPTOR | Ian Maryfield*

ASSISTANT DIRECTOR | Mary T. Cahoon*

STAGE MANAGER | Tessa Huber*

ASSISTANT STAGE MANAGER | Esau Andaleon

TECHNICAL DIRECTOR | AJ Mueth

CHARGE ARTIST | Mia Irwin

PHOTOGRAPHER | Faith Decker*

POSTER ARTIST | Skyler Simpson

CASTING DIRECTOR | Becca Holloway*

CO-ARTISTIC DIRECTOR | Clare Brennan*

CO-ARTISTIC DIRECTOR | Wyatt Kent*

*indicates Red Theater cohort member

Click here for full designer & production team bios.

The Seagull would not have been possible without the generosity of the following collaborators and supporters: The Chicago Flyhouse Inc, Eclipse Creativity, The Theater School at DePaul University, Bauhaus Woodshop, Amelia Seidel, Caitlin McCarthy, Chicago Green Theatre Alliance, Chicago Printworks, the League of Chicago Theatres, Pastor Kristin and the Edgewater Presbyterian Church, Kevin Brennan, Paige Baumann, Theresa Liebhart, Lizzie Lovelady, and the rest of Red Theater’s Board of Directors.

Special thanks to our season support donors:

• Heidi Graham

• Tom & Dacia Kent

• Robert & Jean Marie Koon

• Marisa & Chris Macella

• Aimee Kleiman

• John & Catherine Brennan

• Jamie Macpherson

• Ansley Valentine

• Edward Brennan

• D.D. Wigley

• Meredith Ernst

• Elizabeth Lovelady

• Matthew Flickinger

• Ruth Johnston

• Jen Sloan

Red Theater is funded in part by grants from The Gaylord and Dorothy Donnelley Foundation, The Clinton Family Fund, and the Illinois Arts Council.