The Theater Club paid tribute to Anton Chekov, a Russian playwright and short story writer, with their Short Play Festival, on October 15, at 7:30 p.m. in Bucknall Theater.

The members of the Theater Club were happy to share Chekov’s work with the campus community, and to have anyone in the student body get involved. They had started auditions and have been rehearsing since mid-September.

“It’s great that the theater club gets so many people involved with their events, we are the outlet for anyone on campus who wants to involved in theater. It’s nice to see those that are non-majors coming out!,” said Bobby DellaCamera, the Theater Club’s Treasurer.

There were three different short plays presented. The first performance was The Tragedian in Spite of Himself, directed by Amanda Grillo, Gabe Unger played Tolkachov, and Tony Chen played Murashkin.

“I thought it went really well, you sometimes wonder casting to non-theater majors, but Tony did a wonderful job and I am so proud of both of them and admire their determination in this hard piece,” said Grillo.

Gallery • 13 Photos

The second performance was The Bear, directed by Jared Reynolds, starring Tim Sheean as Smirnov, Dalimar Irizarry as Popova, and Amanda Cohen as Luka.

Reynolds stated that Chekov is hard so it was definitely great to expose people to it. He also explained that the club enjoys getting to do a series of plays all in one night. It also gives people a chance to see a lot of the works.  

“Short plays are easier to put on because it’s a smaller set, cast, and less demanding. Which makes it easier for theater club to put on,” he said.

“It was an honor to bring Chekov’s work to life, and I enjoyed acting among my peers. The theater club works so hard to put these shows on, to present them, it was a great show and I had a great time,” said Cohen.

The third short play was The Proposal, directed by Leakana Ly, with Michael Kennedy as Lomov, Noah Castro as Chubukhov, and Samantha Slaza as Natalia.

“I had been waiting for the day to finally pour the water, and it was supposed to be just a glass, but it ended up being half the pitcher and it was a lot of fun,” said Slaza, whose character Natalia got to pour water on Lomov.