BroadwayGirlNYC EMBEDDED: “The Orchard” Off-Broadway (Chekhov, with robots and Mikhail Baryshnikov!)
June 5, 2022
Cherry Orchard
Aaaahhhh NEW THEATRE!!! I was so excited to get a call from Arlekin Players, asking me to come learn about The Orchard and share what I learned with YOU!! This Embedded Fan experience is my absolutely fave — the chance to get exclusive access and gush about the specific things I find exciting and thrilling about a production. In this case, The Orchard is an unlikely adaptation of The Cherry Orchard by Anton Chekhov. I say “unlikely” because it is super high tech and one of the main characters is a robot?!! (A non-binary robot with it’s own Instagram handle, I might add: follow instagram.com/ronintherobot for quality content!) Plus, in addition to in-person performances here in NYC, there’s a separate and intertwined online experience to be enjoyed via livestream (it’s not just the show on video; it’s a completely different experience that I’ll hopefully get to share with you in future a stories!) Jessica Hecht and Mikhail Baryshnikov star alongside a stellar ensemble (inc a personal fave, John McGinty) and, of course, Ronin. 🤖 I’m not generally a fan of “the classics” per se, but this production looks like it could truly break the mold. Performances begin 6/7 and go through July at Baryshnikov Arts Center! Tickets for both the online and in-person versions of The Orchard are on sale now at www.TheOrchardOffBroadway.com. Check it out!!
🍒 🌳 🎭 🤖
The Orchard invites us into the fragile world of a family yearning for connection and struggling with the end of their world as they know it. Threatened with foreclosure and the loss of their beloved orchard, they face unstoppable, destructive forces that dismantle their lives like the breaking of a string.
Live & In Person
Baryshnikov Arts Center, NYC
The Orchard is an intimate, fully staged live performance of The Cherry Orchard. Audiences in the theater will enter an immersive, dreamlike environment where perceptions, illusions, and reality collide as a family in crisis tries to process their uncertain future.
Virtual Experience
Online
The online experience invites audiences on a journey through a beautifully rendered, three dimensional virtual property that has been abandoned and is in foreclosure. There, audiences can explore and discover magical rooms where they uncover echoes of a past life, now lost, including Chekhov’s letters, memories, and ultimately the play, live, in progress at Baryshnikov Arts Center.
The Orchard
Conceived, adapted and directed by Igor Golyak
Based on The Cherry Orchard by Anton Chekhov, as translated by Carol Rocamora
With new material by Igor Golyak
Featuring Jessica Hecht as Ranevskaya With Juliet Brett, Darya Denisova, Elise Kibler, John McGinty, Nael Nacer, Mark Nelson & Ilia Volok
And Mikhail Baryshnikov as Anton Chekhov and Firs
Executive Producer, Sara Stackhouse
Produced by Arlekin Players Theatre and (zero-G) Lab
In association with Cherry Orchard Festival, Groundswell Theatricals and ShowOne Productions