This play is not your grandma's Chekhov
Virginia Tech’s School of Performing Arts will present the play "Stupid F##king Bird" by Aaron Posner on Feb. 25 through March 1 in Squires Studio Theatre.
A loose adaptation of Anton Chekhov’s classic “The Seagull,” the play is an exploration of our relationships with art, each other, and the present moment. The play honors the essence of the Russian classic without being tethered to it.
Director and Visiting Assistant Professor of directing David R. Gammons is a friend of Posner’s. The two co-taught an acting class together in the 1990s in Philadelphia, featuring scenes from the Chekhov masterpiece. Now Gammons teaches “The Seagull” in his script analysis course at Virginia Tech every year.
“Some of the students in our cast will be studying it alongside the production this semester,” said Gammons. “The adaptation brings out significant themes from the original, but makes it feel immediate and contemporary. I thought it’d be fun to do something a little off-center, which offers a different way into those characters and the world.”
Gammons connects the importance of adaptation to the show’s provocative title and said it embodies how “our classics still talk to us across time and culture and find new ways to communicate. They’re continually evolving. 'Bird' offers a fresh opportunity to explore our own creative processes and our familial and romantic relationships.”
This evolution is not just about adaptation, but also how to make the ritual of theatre more grounded in the present moment. As people interact with increasingly more media via screen, the theatrical world is adapting accordingly.
The production utilizes technology that highlights both its theatre and cinema programs, incorporating several multimedia elements. Cinema student Maxwell Mandell is the production’s video designer, creating elements that will play throughout the production in various ways.
Screens will be intentionally integrated — televisions, cellphones, and even a live-streamed, play-within-a-play component — enhancing the traditional theatrical experience and putting the theatre attendee starkly in the present moment. “Theatre always asks questions about how we are 'present' in space and time,” Gammons said. “Theatre, more than ever, is trying to figure out how it will remain relevant as a live art form and what it might mean to have an artistic experience where stage and screen coexist in dialogue with one another.”
Gammons acknowledges the continuous conversation about how we tell stories and said artists are “always fighting against the previous generation and what came before. 'Theatre is dead; long live the theatre,' we always say. This play may be a love letter to theatre-makers, but it speaks to all of us about our most profound human struggles and what we individually strive to discover, accomplish and become.”
Tickets, parking, and other details
Performances are Feb. 25 at 7:30 p.m. and March 1 at 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. in Squires Studio Theatre.
Tickets are $15 for the general public and $12 for seniors and students and may be purchased through the Moss Arts Center ticket office in person, online, or by calling 540-231-5300. All seating is general admission. Find ticket links online. Tickets will be available at the door of the Studio Theatre beginning one hour prior to the performance.
All university community members and visitors will need to display a parking permit, use the ParkMobile app, pay a fee, or pay using an hourly meter to park on the Blacksburg campus unless otherwise noted by signage. Find additional parking information online.
If you are an individual with a disability or desire an accommodation, please contact Susan Sanders at susansan@vt.edu at least 10 days prior to the event.
The School of Performing Arts will present its final theatre production of the season, "Little Women," by Kate Hamill, April 23-26.
Written by Katie Beazley, a graduate student in applied theatre and public dialogue in the School of Performing Arts