NEW YORK — Marital strain on stage is rarely a private affair. While couples can fester in silence behind closed doors, theatrical conflict thrives when the door is thrown open to intrusive neighbors, eccentric landladies, and the cruel spark of third-party vanity.

This autumn, the historic American Theatre of Actors (ATA) pairs two European masterworks that probe the razor-thin boundary between high domestic drama and absurd human folly: August Strindberg’s The First Warning and Anton Chekhov’s The Proposal. Helmed by director Sean Szak Prasso, the 80-minute double bill brings sharp emotional stakes and comic desperation into intimate focus, anchoring Strindberg’s psychological naturalism alongside Chekhovian satire.

At the center of Strindberg’s claustrophobic vacation battleground is actress Amy Losi, stepping into the pivotal role of The Baroness—a meddling catalyst whose presence accelerates an already fractured marriage toward its boiling point.

The Catalyst in the Room: Amy Losi as The Baroness

In Strindberg’s The First Warning, a fifteen-year marriage between Axel (Dustin Pazar) and his younger wife, Olga (Jean-Marie Stodolski), reaches an exhausted precipice during a stay at a German retreat. Axel is packed and ready to sever the cord, but his exit is thrown into chaos by the sudden romantic advances of his landlady, The Baroness (Losi), and her adolescent daughter, Rose (Annie Unger).

The Baroness is far more than a farcical complication; she represents the outside world’s unapologetic intrusion into private misery. Playing an interloper who disrupts an established domestic fracture requires striking a delicate chord—delivering humor without diffusing real dramatic consequence.

“Sean [Szak Prasso] is a wonderful director, and he’s always making sure we’re ‘serving the story,’” Losi explains when discussing the balance between comic intrusion and dramatic tension. “As an actor, your intent has to be to take the story seriously and stay true to the playwright’s words. The comedy emerges from the text itself.”

For Losi, excavating that organic humor is an exploratory process embedded in the ensemble’s daily rehearsal work.

“One of the rewards of rehearsing is finding the comedy in the characters’ interactions,” Losi notes. “It’s more of a challenge with the Strindberg than it is with the Chekhov, I think. Strindberg’s plays rely on naturalism and psychology. Chekhov incorporated irony and absurdism into his stories, which makes them more obviously humorous. But we think audiences will laugh at both plays!”

Losi’s grounding of The Baroness underscores Strindberg’s psychological precision: jealousy is rarely rational, and the people who provoke it often operate under their own beguiling, self-serving logic.

Two Masterworks, One Fractured Theme

Prasso’s pairing crafts a dynamic dialogue between two foundational dramatists exploring romantic combat from distinct stylistic vantage points:

• August Strindberg’s The First Warning: A psychological study of pride, aging, and simmering resentment. As Axel’s resolve falters against the romantic overtures of The Baroness and Rose, the play exposes how vanity and fear can keep people trapped in cycles of mutual torment.
  • Cast: Dustin Pazar (The Husband), Jean-Marie Stodolski (The Wife), Amy Losi (The Baroness), and Annie Unger (Rose).
• Anton Chekhov’s The Proposal: Chekhov’s iconic one-act farce follows Ivan Lomov (Jonathan Beebe), a hypochondriacal suitor seeking the hand of his neighbor Natalya (Annie Unger). Mediated by her nervous father Stepan (Dustin Pazar), the prospective courtship devolves into petty, obsessive squabbles over property lines and hunting dogs before the question can even be popped.
  • Cast: Dustin Pazar (Stepan Stepanovich Chubukov), Jonathan Beebe (Ivan Vassilevitch Lomov), and Annie Unger (Natalya Stepanovna).

Together, the two pieces run a taut 80 minutes (with a brief intermission), demonstrating how two titans of 19th-century theater dissected marriage: one dissecting the agony of staying together, the other exposing the lunacy of getting started.

Preserving Independent Theatre at ATA

Staging this double bill at the American Theatre of Actors continues a fifty-year legacy of unvarnished theatrical exploration. Founded in 1976 by President and Artistic Director James Jennings, ATA remains one of New York’s vital incubators for actors, directors, and playwrights working outside commercial pressures.

Having hosted over 2,000 new works and served as an artistic home for early-career luminaries such as Bruce Willis, Dennis Quaid, Edie Falco, Chazz Palminteri, and Kathryn Hahn, ATA provides the essential atmosphere for actors like Losi and her castmates to tackle classical texts with modern immediacy.

Performance & Ticket Details

• Production: The First Warning & The Proposal
• Director: Sean Szak Prasso
• Venue: American Theatre of Actors, 314 West 54th Street, New York, NY
• Runtime: 80 minutes (with a brief intermission)
• Ticketing: Available via On The Stage – American Theatre of Actors

Performance Schedule:

• Thursday, Oct 22 – 7:00 PM
• Friday, Oct 23 – 7:00 PM
• Saturday, Oct 24 – 7:00 PM
• Sunday, Oct 25 – 3:00 PM
• Wednesday, Oct 28 – 7:00 PM
• Thursday, Oct 29 – 7:00 PM
• Friday, Oct 30 – 7:00 PM
• Saturday, Oct 31 – 7:00 PM
• Sunday, Nov 01 – 3:00 PM