Jessica Hecht, Anna Baryshnikov, Melanie Moore to Lead New Media Presentation of The Cherry Orchard
(image provided by the production)
Jessica Hecht will star in a one-night-only free streamed new media event adapted from Anton Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard, taking place Friday, February 26, at 8pm ET. The interactive piece is presented by Baryshnikov Arts Center and Cherry Orchard Festival Foundation, and created by Boston's Arlekin Players Theatre and their newly established Zero Gravity (zero-G) Virtual Performance Lab.
The Cherry Orchard: A New Media Workshop is conceived and directed by Igor Golyak, and will fuse film, theater, and video game technology into the production, which draws from Chekhov's play, his letters, dreams, and more. The online event accesses Chekhov's desktop computer, where viewers discover six of his classic characters living in a virtual space, searching for happiness.
Hecht will play Ranevskaya, alongside Anna Baryshnikov as Varya, Darya Denisova as Tramp, Jeffrey Hayenga as Fiers, Melanie Moore as Anya, Mark Nelson as Gaev, Nael Nacer as Lopakhin, and Mikhail Baryshnikov as Anton Chekhov.
On the creative team are Vladimir Gusev (technical director), Will Brierly and Snowrunner Productions (game), Anton Nikolaev and Igor Golyak (live production technicians), Anna Fedorova (virtual set and environment designer), Anatoly Krivonos (web developer), Jakov Jakoulov (composer), Blair Caden (assistant director), Irina Vilenchik (props assistant), Guillermo Cameo (director of photography), Joshua A. Friedman (associate producer), Anton Nikolaev (second camera and editor), Sebastian Holst (sound), Sashank Sana (gaffer), Anna Gruman (assistant editor), and Violet de Besche (production assistant).
