UNCLE VANYA to be Presented at Kansas City Actors Theatre This August

Kansas City Actors Theatre will continue their 2025/2026 Season 21 in August with the seminal Russian theatre classic, Uncle Vanya by Anton Chekhov, in a new adaptation from Richard Nelson, with translation from Richard Nelson, Richard Pevear, and Larissa Volokhonsky. This ensemble focused adaptation features Scott Cordes, Sarilee Kahn, and KCAT Company Members Chioma Anyanwu, Hillary Clemens, Nedra Dixon, Jerry Mañan, and Victor Raider-Wexler; directed by KCAT Company Member Matt Schwader. This production runs August 6 to 24 at the City Stage in Union Station. 

Pairing one of the greatest plays ever written with one of the world’s most celebrated Russian translators comes an exhilarating new version of Anton Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya. Mixing the tragic and the absurd in this study of Russian middle-class life, as Vanya and his niece Sonya care for the estate of Vanya’s brother-in-law. When that brother-in-law returns with a new wife, affairs are made known, flirtation brings disaster, and the lives of the family come undone.

Uncle Vanya features Scott Cordes as Vanya, the bitter man who believes he has wasted his life working on the estate of his brother-in-law. Scott returns to KCAT’s stage having previously appeared in Trouble in Mind, And Then There Were None, Hamlet, and more. KCAT Company Member Hillary Clemens appears as Sonya, niece to Vanya who also toils on the estate of her father and pines after Dr. Astrov. Hillary has appeared on KCAT’s stage in Dial M for Murder, Little Women, Spider’s Web, A Doll’s House, and more. KCAT Company Member Victor Raider-Wexler plays Serebryakov, Vanya’s brother-in-law, and father to Sonyam who returns to his estate with his second wife Elena. Victor returns to KCAT’s stage having appeared in Grand Horizons, The Price, Four Children, Morning’s at Seven, and many more. Uncle Vanya is directed by KCAT Company Member Matt Schwader who has directed The Pests at Kansas City Actors Theatre, as well as appearing in Doubt, A Parable and And Then There Were None.
 
KCAT Company Member Chioma Anyanwu plays Elena, Serebryakov’s second wife who disrupts the lives of Vanya and Sonya. Chioma has previously appeared in Trouble in Mind, Little Women, Dot, and The Pests. KCAT Company Member Nedra Dixon returns to KCAT’s stage as Marya, mother to Vanya and Sonya’s late mother. Nedra has been seen in Skeleton Crew and Dot. KCAT Company Member Jerry Mañan appears as Astrov, a young doctor who frequently visits the estate. Jerry has been seen on KCAT’s stage in Little Women, Dot, and The Pests. Rounding out the ensemble cast is Sarilee Kahn as Marina, the kindly nurse and housekeeper of the country estate. This is Sarilee’s KCAT fully-staged debut, but has previously appeared in Any Questions? during KCAT’s staged reading series last year.