The Cherry Orchard

   

     January & February 2008

YCP TheaterWorks presented, The Cherry Orchard by Anton Chekhov, directed by Melinda O'Brien, in January and February 2008 at the Van Cortlandtville School on Route 6 in Mohegan Lake.

The play takes place at the country estate of Madame Ranevskaya, famed for its beautiful cherry orchard. It is soon to be sold at auction unless the delinquent taxes are paid. Madame Ranevskaaya has returned from Paris where she frivolously squandered the last of her fortune. While they dance at a ball, the estate is slipping away and they can’t come to grips with the reality which they must face. They go on as if nothing has changed. . What unfolds at the end of the play in this household is a comedy- drama of timeliness, bittersweet beauty. The Cherry Orchard is one of the masterpieces of the world theater.

Featured in the play were Jan Dyckman of Montrose, Frank Gatto of Cortlandt Manor, Marilyn Heberling of Cold Spring, Julianne Heckert of Garrison, Abby Jennings of Shrub Oak, Elizabeth Morris of Pearl River, Bill Morton of Scarsdale, Frank and Karen Panzer of Cortlandt Manor, Matt Rowe of Lake Peekskill, Steve Schnapper of Yonkers, and Evelyn Voura of Peekskill.

Melinda O’Brien, the director and member of the YCP TheaterWorks Board of Directors, has appeared on stage, directed and worked behind the scenes on many productions for YCP and other local community theater groups. She most recently directed the play, Over the River and Through the Woods for the fort Hill Players. She, along with her husband, Michael Muldoon, are the founders of M&M Productions, a traveling theater company that brings live theater to local libraries.

 

-