Director seeks essence of Willa Cather's "My Ántonia" for Book-It staging

Every time Book-It Repertory Theatre takes on a classic American novel, the company is treading on literary ground that's sacred to many readers.

But the necessity of reshaping prose to make it viable on stage is much on the mind of Susanna Burney.

The Seattle director is staging the debut of Book-It's new adaptation of "My Ántonia," the third book in Willa Cather's trilogy of novels set on the Nebraska prairie.

"A novel form is not a theatrical or dramatic form," Burney says. "And this novel is a sweeping series of stories that moves around all over the place. So we had to find that fine line between how true we are to the book, and how we keep moving the drama forward."

Burney has plenty of help in that task. She is working closely with Annie Lareau, who plays the title character, and who also wrote the show's script (after penning shorter scripts, based on excerpts from the novel, for Book-It's touring program, Book-It All Over).

On a spare, prairielike set, 15 performers (including two musicians) will re-enact the story of the Bohemia-born Ántonia and her family, who come as immigrants to make a new life in the Nebraska Territory ("the loneliest of countries," wrote Nebraska native Cather), in the late 19th century.

Lareau, who has cherished "My Ántonia" since reading it as a youth, has condensed the book's five parts into two succinct acts. Burney notes that the script, like the novel, unfolds from the perspective of Jim Burden (played by Seattle Shakespeare Company's George Mount), who forges a childhood bond with Ántonia and later observes her during her turbulent young adulthood, her struggles as an unwed mother and her happier later life as the matriarch of a farm family.

Live dance and music (mainly Eastern European and American folk tunes) also figure in the show.

But Burney's main task, she says, is to sensitively translate the prose of "My Ántonia" into a live event.

"I just keep going back to the essence of the book," she explains, "and if we can bring that essence to the stage, we're doing what Book-It always strives for."

Misha Berson: mberson@seattletimes.com