UNDERSTUDY VANYA is a devised work, that follows the rehearsal process of an understudy cast for a production of 'Uncle Vanya.' This weeklong developmental workshop will take place  May 18th-22nd in Charlottesville, VA. A collaboration between local and NYC-based theater artists, the workshop will be directed by Caitlin Ryan O'Connell and feature Joe Curnutte, Bill LeSueur, Sallie Merkel, Boomie Pedersen and Ezra Rose, with design and dramaturgy by Ásta Bennie Hostetter. 

Over the summer Caitlin Ryan O'Connell and Sallie Merkel will develop a script based on the material generated during the May workshop, and a full production will follow in the fall.

UNDERSTUDY VANYA is the inaugural production of new theater company FAILURE THEATER. Here is their mission:

FAILURE.* We are proud losers, flops and disappointments in a world made sick by the drive to win. We create work about failure and we hold failure as a core ethical and aesthetic value. We are grateful for our past and future failures. We devote ourselves to:

Failure as antidote to perfectionism

Failure as anti-capitalist practice

Failure as shadow work

Failure as a way of attempting the impossible 

Failure as freedom

We know that Failure Theater will eventually fail, and yet we devote ourselves to this project anyway. PRAISE FAILURE!

 

THEATER. As more and more forces (governmental, technological, cosmetic, military) seek to strip us of our humanity, we can think of nothing better to do than to be in a room with real humans, embodying stories in real time.

 

*We recognize that in order to fail, we must aspire to something, and that the fear of failure can limit aspirations to conventional definitions of success. Embracing failure allows us to imagine wildly towards more equitable and accessible practices as success. For example, if we are not afraid of failing to meet a fundraising goal, we can build a budget that includes paying artists a living wage and providing childcare.