Think of your childhood home, the size, the yard, the colors. Walk through the open door to a quiet, serene space returning to a time when you were most content. Everything is exactly as you left it. Now imagine the opposite.

A house filled with strange people, the place is a wreck, and it smells of spilt coffee. This is exactly what happens to Vanya and Sonia, middle-aged homebodies who never left their late parents’ home. When their celebrity sister Masha returns home with her new twenty-something-year-old arm candy Spike all their lives are thrown into disarray. Masha’s over-the-top dramatics and Spike’s unprecedented need to flaunt his body make for hysterical confrontations and laughably awkward encounters.

vanyaChristopher Durang shocks and delights with his outrageous farce that won the Tony Award for Best Play in 2013. Durang borrows and manipulates classic elements of famous Russian playwright Anton Chekhov to create a vibrant concoction of motifs, characters, and hilarious dilemmas. Chekhov is one of the greatest writers of the 19th century, revolutionizing playwriting through the creation of his four well-known plays: Uncle Vanya, The Seagull, The Cherry Orchard, and The Three Sisters. All four plays make a cameo in the show as Durang modeled the entire play on these scripts and the characters therein.

The production is directed by Jeff Steitzer. In an interview, he speaks of why Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike is relatable; “In this, [Durang]’s most recent play, he's still wildly funny. But there's a also a coming to terms with growing older and a recognition of how the world has changed. Durang has talked about his lifelong fascination with Chekhov and Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike is his wise, somewhat wacky, homage to the great Russian playwright.”

Experience this ridiculously dysfunctional and heart-warming family reunion as three siblings learn to support and understand each other after years of absence and apathy. 

Hope Summer Repertory Theatre (HSRT) is West Michigan’s premier professional theatre company for the last 45 years. The company is a unique blend of distinguished professionals and young theatre artists from all over the United States, creating an intergenerational synergy between our emerging and advanced artists. The theatre is distinguished by the wide variety of plays and musicals performed by one resident acting company. This wide variety of repertoire is unified by the goal to explore and celebrate the joy and complexity of the human condition. The company numbers over 100 annually taking up residence for the summer in Holland; producing 6 shows in rotation every summer on the DeWitt Theatre stage—a 494 seat thrust space and the DeWitt Studio—a 125 seat theatre in the round.

Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike stars the talents of an intimate ensemble and an accomplished creative team: Cast: Noah Bridgestock (Spike), William Hulings (Vanya), Shannon Huneryager (Sonia), Bridgette Karl​(Nina), Kathleen Mulligan​(Masha), Shonda Thurman​(Cassandra). 

Creative Team: Jeff Steitzer ​(Director), Kristin Ellert ​(Scenic Designer), Kathryn Wagner (Costume Designer), Stephen Sakowski​(Lighting Designer), Matthew Fischer​(Sound Designer), Jordan Kruis​(Stage Manager), Aaron McEachran​(Assistant Stage Manager), Yve Carruthers​(Assistant Stage Manager), Caitlin Billings​(Publicist).