The College at Brockport’s Department of Theatre and Music Studies’ production of Aaron Posner’s Stupid F***ing Bird has been chosen to represent the College at the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival (Region II). Before the show hits the road, the department will be giving one final performance of their lauded production on home turf. The free performance will take place on Monday, January 13, 2020 at 2 p.m., in the Tower Fine Arts Center Mainstage, 180 Holley Street, on the Brockport campus.
Professor Frank Kuhn, director of Stupid F***ing Bird is “terribly proud and excited” about the recognition the production has received, and is confident that the acclaim will continue at the University of Maryland, College Park, where the regional festival will be staged on January 18.
Posner’s self-deprecation, humor, reflection and anachronisms run through his life and works. Writers are told to “write what they know.” When Posner started to write about his own life, he “turned to Chekhov. He’s never been my favorite playwright, but he gave me the structure—and the permission, maybe? – to write about things that were deeply personal to me.” And what might those things be? They are the broad brushstrokes that resonate with generations that are often at odds with each other. Subjects that occasionally find family, friends, and lovers taking on life’s age-old contradictions: Old vs. New. Old vs. Young. Truth vs. Fiction. Show-biz vs. Reality. Parents vs. Children. Life vs. Death. And, of course, how to remain connected to those who inhabit your life, through the passage of time. According to LA Weekly, Stupid F***ing Bird is “the most authentic, self-aware, playful… world-wise adaptation of Chekhov.”
Kuhn was “intrigued by the way Posner attributed his new work: ‘sort of adapted from The Seagull by Anton Chekhov.’ What does that mean, ‘sort of adapted?’ The shocking irreverence of the title led me to think it must be a comic parody of The Seagull, Anton Chekhov’s 1896 masterpiece.” Once Kuhn read the play, he “realized Stupid F***ing Bird doesn’t depend on the audience knowing its source play anymore than Rent depends on familiarity with its source, the opera La Bohème. As for the ‘sort of adapted,’ I was amazed at how the script manages to be irreverent toward this hallowed piece of dramatic literature while at the same time genuinely exploring, in a contemporary way, the characters, relationships and themes found there. In that respect, I look at it as a ‘translation’ into our cultural idiom. As in Chekhov, we share the characters’ passions and frustrations while laughing at their comic fumblings and foibles, all very 21st century, and presented in a surprisingly contemporary theatrical style. And our cast is finding humor and truths that speak to them. This is not your great-great grandparents’ Seagull.”
More information about the Fine Arts Series at The College at Brockport can be found at www.brockport.edu/academics/fine_arts or on Facebook.
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