By SHARON EBERSON
Quantum Theatre gave a few dozen patrons a peek at the future on Saturday, March 15, with a preview of the first show of the 2025-26 season, the Joanie Schultz adaptation of Anton Chekov’s The Seagull, and an introduction to the two remaining shows: Enron by Lucy Preble and 10 out of 12 by Ann Washburn.
The gathering at Chatham University’s Eddy Theatre featured a first-act reading of The Seagull, with most of the cast that will be in place for the outdoor show, July 24-August 17, 2025, at Chatham’s picturesque Mellon Pond.
Artistic director Karla Boos noted that The Seagull will mark Quantum’s long-anticipated return to the Shadyside/Squirrel Hill campus, for the first time since the 1994 production of Polygraph, which she said helped put her company on the map.
at Chatham University’s Eddy Theater for a reading of the first act
on Saturday, March 15, 2025. (Images: Sharon Eberson)
“It’s a magical place to me, a magical landscape, and so appropriate for the work that we’ll do,” Boos said before bringing Schultz to the stage to introduce the reading.
“This is such a gift,” said the director and associate artistic director for Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park. “This campus is gorgeous, and there aren’t theater companies like Quantum around. I’ve been working in a lot of different cities, and there just isn’t anything quite like this. It’s such a special place, and Karla is a special artistic director, to see an artist, want to follow their work and bring them into the fold.”
Schultz spoke in depth about her inspirations for adapting The Seagull, with the character of Konstantin being played by a woman.
Chekov’s Konstantin is an aspiring writer whose endeavors are mostly overshadowed by his mother, Irina Arkadina, a famous actress. Konstantin is in love with Nina, who falls for Irina Arkadina’s lover, and so on.
Noted Schultz, “The central conflict in the play between two people is really between Konstantin and his mother, and I’ve always thought … when you have this mom who is a single mom who really worked her way up in the world but has some level of narcissism, the way it would affect her daughter would be so different than the way it would affect a son.”
Her research included the history of the LGBTQ community in Russia, “and during this time it was much more accepted; it was only later that it became criminalized.”
As an educator, Schultz wound her way down a rabbit hole that would lead to an unsung woman director of the early 20th century. Her research started with British acting royalty, Ellen Terry and Henry Irving, and Dame Ellen’s son, Edward Gordon Craig, a theatermaker and theoretical writer, and finally, Craig’s sister, Edith Craig, a prolific director of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. She also was as an out lesbian, in a decades-long relationship with two woman, and an active suffragette.
“Konstantin is very much inspired by Edith Craig for me, who became my hero at some point, and Irina Arkadina, by Ellen Terry,” the director said.
Dates and venues for the other two plays of the Quantum season are TBA, but director Kyle Haden and collaborator Michele de la Reza of Attack Theatre were on hand to amp up excitement for Enron.
Boos had approached Hayden, the director of the innovative The Devil Is a Lie for Quantum in 2023, about doing a Shakespeare play. He came back to her with a list of the Bard’s works, and added that he’d really like to do Enron.
The artistic director read it and found it to be a real-life Shakespearean tragedy – the 2010 play follows the rise and fall of Jeffrey Skilling, seen as “a modern-day Macbeth,” who received the longest sentence for corporate crime in history, after Enron went bankrupt to the tune of $38 billion.
Hayden noted that he had vivid memories of the company’s highly visible ad campaign and prominent “E” symbol, before it’s downfall in December 2001.
A native of Houston, Texas, de la Reza and her family were hyper-aware of Enron, which was formed through a merger involving Houston Natural Gas. She was excited both at the prospect of providing movement to the piece and of continuing a longstanding collaboration with Quantum.
The final show of the season, 10 out of 12, came to Boos via frequent director Andrew William Smith, currently in the City Theatre production of Birthday Candles.
The “10 hours” of the title are what is allowed by union crews for the tech rehearsal, that most important of prep days focused on integrating technical elements such as lighting and sound cues and the movement of set pieces.
Audience members will be equipped with headsets that allow them to eavesdrop on what’s being said backstage, during the often funny and chaotic process faced by the cast, creative team and crew on a tech day.
Reviewing the Soho Rep production in 2015 for The New York TImes, Ben Brantley wrote, “The evening’s accumulated frustrations blend joyously into a wholly original love song to the maddening art of the theater.”
Pulling back the curtain on Quantum’s recent years, Boos said the company that she founded in 1990 has “bucked the trend” of diminishing subscribers by increasing its numbers the past three seasons.
Quantum’s next big event is the annual Q Ball, on April 5 at Rockwell Park, North Point Breeze, with the theme: “Reveal Yourself.” Tickets for the Q Ball are on sale now; tickets for The Seagull go on sale in May. For details, visit www.quantumtheatre.com.
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