Chekhov! 3 Farces:
The Bear, The Proposal, and The Ravages of Tobacco
February 21st - March 9th, 2025
Thursday - Saturdays at 7:30 p.m.
Sunday at 2:00 p.m.
“In all my plays I haven't introduced a single hero or a villain, but I couldn't spare myself the buffoons." - Anton Chekhov
Think you know Chekhov? Think again.
If you want to really understand his major plays in the sense of what he intended them to be, namely comedies, the early one-act farces, which Chekhov actually called "Jokes," are essential. Their comedic style is fierce, broad and impassioned. The characters are buffoons, yet they are also deeply human. Their idiocy is human, their struggle - as they proverbially slip on a banana peel over and over again - is human, and their eventual triumphs over the laws of human stupidity - however absurd and incomplete those "triumphs" may be - are human too. With that in mind, we’re putting up The Bear, The Proposal, and The Ravages of Tobacco all in one evening of crazy comedy.
The Bear
Popova’s shit of a husband died last year and she’s really into grieving to get back at him. Maybe too into it, much to the regret of her household. Enter Smirnoff, he’s owed some money from her dead husband and needs it like yesterday. He’s not taking no for an answer and may be just what Popova needs.
Directed by Štěpán Šimek, featuring Sammy Rat Rios, Dylan Hankins, and Michael O’Connell
The Proposal
Principles get in the way sometimes. Chubukov’s neighbor, Lomov arrives out of the blue all dressed up, hoping to propose to his daughter, Natasha. Sounds easy. But there’s Oxen Meadows boundary issues, hunting dog disputes, and Lomov’s delicate constitution isn’t helping. Whimsical and rabid culminating in a combative engagement, The Proposal is anything but easy, but super funny.
Directed by Štěpán Šimek, featuring Sammy Rat Rios, Dylan Hankins, and Michael O’Connell.
The Ravages of Tobacco
Nyukhin is on the edge. His domineering wife has made him a last-minute replacement to give a scientificish lecture on the ravages of tobacco for charity. What unfolds is something...else. Longing to be free without the courage or means to do so fractures his speech into a more intimate communion with the audience.
Štěpán Šimek stars, Michael O’Connell directs.
Ticket Prices
Special Performances:
Pay-What-You-Will Preview - February 20th
CAST & CREW
Anton Chekhov | Playwright
Samantha Kemp | Lighting Designer
Andrew Bray | Sound/Projections Designer
Victoria Spelman | Intimacy Coordinator
Micheal O'Connell* | Director, Luka & Chubukov
Third Rail: Two Pints, The Nether, The Realistic Joneses, The Night Alive, Middletown, Sweet and Sad, That Hopey Changey Thing, Penelope, Last of the Boys, The Lying Kind (Drammy), A Skull in Connemara, Shining City, Nobody Here But Us Chickens, Number Three, The Pavilion, The Lonesome West, Dirty Story and Recent Tragic Events (Drammy). CoHo Theatre: The Few. PETE: Three Sisters. Portland Center Stage: Much Ado about Nothing, Another Fine Mess. Artists Repertory Theater: House and Garden, A Midsummer Night's Dream, An Owen Meany Christmas Pageant, Art, The Weir, and Three Days of Rain. Portland Playhouse: Wakey Wakey, Telethon, and The Huntsmen. Profile Theater: The Homecoming. Clackamas Rep: The Odd Couple. New York: Leir Rex, La Mama; Pentecost, Five Points Theater; The Middle Watch, Theater Outrageous; and Lovers at the Players Club. Regionally: A Christmas Carol, Two Gentleman of Verona, and Speed the Plow; Suburbia, The Unicorn Theater; and Taming of the Shrew, Heart of America Shakespeare Festival. Michael is a certified Fitzmaurice Voicework Associate Teacher and teaches The Actors Conservatory. MFA, University of Missouri at Kansas City.
Sammy Rat Rios* | Popova, Natasha
Sammy acts, writes, directs, and composes for theatre and film. Select stage credits: The Brother and the Bird; Blood Wedding (Shaking the Tree), Dracula: A Feminist Revenge Fantasy, Really; Young Americans (Portland Center Stage), Amélie; A Christmas Carol (Portland Playhouse), We're Gonna Die (AT&T Performing Arts Center), In the Next Room...or the Vibrator Play (River & Rail Theatre), Se Llama Cristina (Kitchen Dog Theater). Sometimes Rios will try to sell you a credit card or cheese in a commercial to pay for their cats' vet bills. Other times, they write, produce, and perform music for their electronic solo project 'Rat Rios.' When they're not in the throes of artistic creation, you will find them playing video games or staring at a random leaf and crying about its beauty. Education: B.F.A. in Playwriting and Directing from Southern Methodist University, Conservatory Acting graduate from British American Drama Academy in London, UK.
Dylan Hankins |
Smirnoff, Lomov
Dylan Hankins studied World Languages Lewis & Clark College (’21). Since then he has gone on to translate two works from the Spanish: Miguel Romero Esteo’s Tartessos: a Memorial (to/from) the Darkness and Lorca’s The House of Bernarda Alba. He was the writer-director-actor for (de)composition, S p r a w l (CoHo theatre), and FAENA (PETE Presents). Other notable works include: (de)composition, Spear (Corrib Theatre), and Reflections of a Garbage Collector (Lewis & Clark). His goal has always been to transcend the binaries between “high art” and “low art,” morality and libertinism, the holy and the impure, the personal and the foreign, the profound and the profoundly dumb, and, by doing so, making such distinctions feel unimportant.
AC Campbell | Producer
AC Campbell (they/them) is a Portland based actor, producer, and administrator. They hold a BA in Theatre and Psychology with a Distinction in Performance from Lewis & Clark College. During the day, AC splits their time between Third Rail Repertory Theatre on the Box Office Staff and at 21ten Theatre as Associate Producer. Recent production credits include: Sanctuary City, The Music Man (Third Rail Repertory Theatre), Dorothy’s Dictionary, Stupid F***ing Bird, Uncle Vanya, Adopt A Sailor, A Number, 52 Pick Up and Taking Care of Animals (21ten Theatre), and Fun Home (Fir Acres Theatre). In their free time, they enjoy riding their bike, and trying to convince people to move to Portland.
Mia Webster | Stage Manager
Originally from Philadelphia, Mia is a graduate of Lewis & Clark College. Recent stage management credits include RENT (Fir Acres Theatre), 52 Pick Up (21ten), Here We Are Again Still (21ten), Piercing the Veil (Štepán Šimek/Musica Universalis/Kettlehead Studios//21ten), Taking Care of Animals (21ten), I’m In Control Which Means Nothing Bad Will Ever Happen To Me (PETE Presents/CoHo), Hibernate (Bedrock Theatre), Adopt a Sailor (21ten), Uncle Vanya (21ten), La Mariposa (Sofia Marks/Many Hats), spur(s) (Shaking the Tree Residency), and Veronica, In Bed (Štepán Šimek/Musica Universalis/Shaking the Tree Residency).
Amanda Cardwell-Aiken | Costume Designer
Amanda Cardwell-Aiken is the Costume Studio Manager at the University of Portland, debuting with Costume Designs for a Devised Pride and Prejudice this spring. Amanda earned her MFA in Costume Design and Technology from Utah State University, building on her BA in Theatre Arts from the University of Oregon. Past Designs: Waiting for Godot (Corrib), Dorothy’s Dictionary (21ten), Little Shop of Horrors (UFOMT), Pinocchio Teatrale: a New Musical (USU), Spring Awakening (USU), and Into the Breeches! (Lyric Rep). She has also worked with Arizona Opera, Oregon Contemporary Theatre, Actors Cabaret of Eugene, and Kitchen Theatre Company, among others. This summer she will be at Des Moines Metro Opera.
You can follow her creative journey on Instagram @amandaaikendesign or www.amandaaiken.com
*Appearing Courtesy of Actors’ Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States, appearing under a Special Appearance Contract.
Štěpán Šimek
| Director, Translator, & Nyukhin
ABOUT THE TRANSLATOR
Štěpàn Šimek is a director, translator, adaptor, and a Professor of Theatre, at Lewis & Clark College in Portland, OR. Over the past thirty years he has directed over forty theatre productions in New York, Seattle, San Francisco, and Portland; translated plays from Czech, German, and Russian, and adapted several novels, including Michael Bulgakov’s Heart of the Dog, Franz Kafka’s Amerika and Francois Villon’s The Testament for the stage. He is one of the authorized translators of the former President of the Czech Republic, Vaclav Havel’s work, and his various translations and adaptations have been staged in New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Seattle, Portland, Los Angeles, San Diego, Chicago, and San Francisco, published in a number of anthologies, and received several awards, including the PEN America Translation Award, and “Eurodram” Award for best English translation of a foreign play. Most recently, he collaborated with the Portland Experimental Theatre Ensemble (PETE) on developing and staging his contemporary translations of Anton Chekhov’s major plays, and with Musica Universalis on the creation of Dance Macabre: The Testament of Francois Villon, and Piercing the Veil: A Samhain Celebration. His latest translation of Karel Čapek’s seminal play R.U.R. has been published by the M.I.T. Press. He was born in Prague in what was then Czechoslovakia, lived in Switzerland, and came to the United States in 1986. He received a BA in Theatre from San Francisco State University, MFA in Theatre Directing from the University of Washington, and he was the 1996 Drama League of New York Directing Fellow.
