This fall, the University of Utah’s Department of Theatre opens its 2025–2026 season with Anton Chekhov’s masterpiece “The Cherry Orchard,” in a version by Pam Gems. Directed by Alexandra Harbold, with video direction by Nicholas Dunn, the production runs Sept. 26 through Oct. 5 at the Babcock Theatre.
“The Cherry Orchard”
Balancing comedy and tragedy, “The Cherry Orchard” follows the once-wealthy Ranevskaya family as they confront the loss of their beloved estate, struggling to find their place in a rapidly changing world. Harbold describes the play as “detective work,” where actors and audiences piece together Chekhov’s nostalgia, absurdity and sorrow. According to Harbold, this play feels especially relevant today because of “the need to make sense of and find our bearings in a changing world. ‘The Cherry Orchard’ wrestles with nostalgia, memory and loss and what happens when we’re unwilling or unable to see our circumstances clearly.”
For Harbold, the choice to present “The Cherry Orchard” this year came from both affinity and opportunity. The play came across the Department’s radar through the season-selection process. The Department was on a “quest for plays that would highlight and challenge our current cohorts.” She saw Stephen Rea in Brian Friel’s “Uncle Vanya,” and her own work with “The Seagull” in grad school made her “fall in love with acting in Chekhov’s work,” she said. So, when “The Cherry Orchard” came up, she jumped at the opportunity to direct.
Harbold’s approach to the production balances dedication to Chekhov’s mixture of tragedy and comedy with innovation. In auditions, she looked for actors who would make their scene partners matter and who would respond to the material. She said that “company-sense is a priority,” and quoted Mary Oliver as a “guiding North Star”: “I believe in kindness. Also in mischief. Also in singing, especially when singing is not necessarily prescribed.”
In this production, the company will also explore “live cinema” storytelling. Harbold and video director Dunn are integrating cameras onstage: two cameras will be operated by members of the company, giving us “access to the characters’ foibles, private moments and inner worlds,” she said. These are angles not usually possible in conventional staging.
Charley Holt, a senior in the Acting Training Program, said, “The unique thing about live theatre is that you can never put on the same show twice. This combination of people: the cast, crew, creative team and directors will never be the same again. It feels like a once-in-a-lifetime experience to work with so many talented individuals.”
Holt plays Charlotta, an eccentric governess. Holt spoke about how the intersection between comedy, loneliness and identity of the play is personal. Charlotta, at surface level, is “very free-spirited and funny who makes light of everything, but she has an unwavering strength, independence and inner loneliness to her that I deeply relate to,” Holt said.
Though Charlotta is not the central figure, Holt sees her role as essential. In the larger architecture of the play, one built of loss, decay and memory, Charlotta contributes laughter and lightness but also the underside of humor: what we mask, what we perform so as not to disappear.
Our relation to land, nature, heritage and even memory itself is fragile. The play reminds us that sometimes the loss of orchards, literal or symbolic, can happen quietly, incrementally, until we wake up and find the orchard gone.
Produced at the U
The design and production team at the U worked hard to match these themes. Alongside Harbold’s direction and Dunn’s video work, the creative team includes set designer Halee Rasmussen, costume designer Niamh Helwig, lighting designer Colby Carpenter, sound designer Elliott Moore, choreographer Elle Denlea, hair and makeup designer Tami Lee Thompson, props designer Arika Schockmel, dramaturgs Sydney Cheek-O’Donnell and Charlie Miller, and Fight Director Chris DuVal. Each person on the crew and in the cast gives texture, movement and atmosphere to the world of the Ranevskayas and those around them.
The U’s production of “The Cherry Orchard” lets audiences feel what it is to live in a world in flux, and to consider what one must let go, what one must fight to save. What do we keep, what do we lose and what does it cost us to stay or to leave?
“The Cherry Orchard” opens at the Babcock Theater on Friday, Sept. 26 and runs until Oct. 5. Buy tickets here, or get in free with your UID.
