Tuesday, April 14, 2026

Caltech’s Theater Program Brings Chekhov’s ‘Three Sisters’ to Pasadena, Reimagined in 1950s California

Theater Arts at Caltech, known as TACIT, will stage a new adaptation of Anton Chekhov’s “Three Sisters” April 23–26 at Ramo Auditorium on the Caltech campus.

Directed by Brian Brophy, TACIT’s longtime director, the production transplants Chekhov’s 1901 drama from provincial Russia to mid-1950s California. According to a production description posted by TACIT, the adaptation was co-created by the company and serves as “a fresh exploration between aspirations and reality, yearning for a better future, and the comic-tragic cost of inaction.”

Chekhov’s original play follows three sisters — Olga, Masha, and Irina — who are stuck in a small town far from Moscow, the city they associate with a more fulfilling life. Over the course of four acts, the characters grapple with stagnant careers, unhappy marriages, and the slow erosion of their hopes, never quite managing to act on the changes they say they want. It premiered at the Moscow Art Theatre in 1901 and is considered one of the foundational works of modern drama.

The choice to reset the story in California during the Eisenhower era raises the question of what new resonances emerge when the sisters’ yearning for Moscow becomes something closer to home — ambitions deferred in a sun-drenched American landscape where possibility and paralysis can look remarkably alike.

The cast features Caltech graduate students, faculty, staff, alumni, and personnel from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which Caltech manages. That mix is typical of TACIT productions, which draw performers from across the institute’s academic and research community rather than from a traditional theater conservatory. According to the TACIT website, the program provides members of the Caltech and JPL community with hands-on experience in acting, stage crew, set construction, costumes, lighting, sound, and other aspects of theatrical production.

Brophy has led TACIT since 2008. Before coming to Caltech, he worked as an actor in film and television, with credits that include “The Shawshank Redemption,” “Cradle Will Rock,” and an episode of “Star Trek: The Next Generation.” He is a Fulbright Scholar and also serves as the artistic director of MACH 33, Caltech’s annual festival of new science-driven plays.

TACIT’s theatrical roots on the Pasadena campus extend well over a century. According to the program’s published history, dramatic activities at Caltech trace back to the Gnome Club in 1897, and organized theatrical productions began with Pi Kappa Delta and the Caltech Drama Club in 1924. The program was formally established as TACIT in the mid-1980s under director Shirley Marneus, who led it for more than two decades before Brophy’s appointment.

Recent TACIT productions in Pasadena have included “Earth Data: The Musical,” an original work developed in collaboration with JPL climate scientists as part of the Getty’s PST ART: Art and Science Collide festival, as well as stagings of “Rent,” “Avenue Q,” and “Little Shop of Horrors.”

If You Go

What: “Three Sisters,” adapted from Anton Chekhov, presented by Theater Arts at Caltech (TACIT)

When: April 23, 24, and 25 at 7:30 p.m.; April 26 at 2:30 p.m.

Where: Ramo Auditorium, Caltech campus, 332 S. Michigan Ave., Pasadena

Tickets: $5.00–$26.10 (including fees)

Online: tacit.caltech.edu/shows | Purchase tickets