Senior's moment

A country estate in late-19th-century Russia. Kigali, Rwanda, on the eve of the 1994 genocide. The backyard of a Midwestern home, shortly after World War II. An interrogation room in a totalitarian state, its exact location in time and space unknown. The settings may seem to have little connection, but Kimberly Senior traversed them all in 2009. Popular success and critical acclaim greeted her riveting, emotionally bruising productions of Cherry Orchard at Strawdog, The Overwhelming at Next, All My Sons at TimeLine and The Pillowman at Redtwist, cementing her reputation as one of the city’s premier younger directors.

Now the 36-year-old prepares to return to Strawdog with her third take on Chekhov, Uncle Vanya (as before, a Curt Columbus translation). The production reunites her with several of the Strawdog actors who appeared in Cherry Orchard or Three Sisters in 2006, including Tom Hickey as Vanya and Shannon Hoag as Yelena. It also reconnects her with a treasured theatrical creator.

“I’m obviously, like, this huge geek for Chekhov,” Senior says as we sit in a Wicker Park Starbucks. She laments the common view of the author as a remote, slightly fusty classic. “When he wrote these plays, they were modern, contemporary, hip: all the things we want in our theater,” she avers. “Stop looking at them like they’re under glass.”

Those qualities suffuse what the New Jersey native, who came to Chicago after Connecticut College, considers the messiest of Chekhov’s plays. Full of stolen moments and ambiguous statements, Vanya presents a tableau of extreme and compelling behavior. The play’s translator offered its director a key insight: “Curt said, ‘All the characters want to fuck each other.’ When you put that lens on, you say, ‘My God.’ These people are amazing: They’re so tired of doing nothing that they’re forced to act.”

The clean-cut lines of Arthur Miller may seem a long way from Moscow, but Senior created an electrifying revival of All My Sons, featuring a striking emphasis on the play’s often-neglected female characters. According to Janet Ulrich Brooks, that wasn’t a conscious choice: “Kim never said, ‘I want to bring the women into this.’ It came from attending to the script,” says the actor who portrayed anxious mother Kate. For her part, the director credits Brooks and Cora Vander Broek, who played Ann: “These two actors had something to say, and it was going to be heard.”

But the choice of actors itself reflected Senior’s unique vision. “I went in feeling quite daunted,” Brooks says. “I didn’t feel a strong connection to the character. She seemed more powdery, more frail. But Kim early on said, ‘I wanted you for your strength.’”

“People said to me, ‘Oh, that’s not who I pictured as Kate,’” Senior explains. “Because Janet has edges. But moms can have edges, especially if they’re protecting their offspring.”

As the mother of a three-year-old son and an 18-month-old daughter, she should know. Senior and actor Lance Baker separated a year ago (their divorce was finalized in November). “We’re best friends—I talk to him every day,” she says. “It’s very, very Chekhov.” Along with family and directing, she juggles teaching at area colleges including DePaul and Columbia.

She’s also broadening her horizons. The longtime Chicago resident, who founded Collaboraction in 1997 and notes decade-long relationships with many of her collaborators, will travel to Fayetteville, Arkansas, after Vanya opens for her first out-of-town directing engagement: Theresa Rebeck’s Mauritius at TheatreSquared.

As she heads southeast, she will bring her particular perspective on theater: “Nic Dimond, Strawdog’s artistic director, says all plays are about power, but I say all plays are about love. If an actor doesn’t know what to do, I’ll say, ‘Love that other character and see what happens.’ I’m just a squishy hippie at heart, with a slightly tougher exterior.”

Uncle Vanya previews Friday 19 and opens Sunday 21.

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