By Daniel Stoller

Donnie Darko is coming to Boston, and there’s no need to travel by wormhole. It’s accessible by T.

A stage adaptation of the movie, written by Marcus Stern at the American Repertory Theatre (ART), will give students another avenue to experience the magic of Darko when it opens Saturday.

The entire cast for the show, is comprised of students from the Moscow Art Theatre School. Working in conjunction with Harvard University and ART, the actors auditioned for the production last year, said Perry Jackson, who plays the role Frank, a rabbit that haunts Darko.

The rehearsals began in September and are in the technical stage, where lights, sounds, sets and other related elements of the show are carefully planned and rehearsed.

Jackson, who is currently pursuing a master’s degree in fine arts, said he was excited for the opportunity to work so closely with his fellow classmates and Stern, a professor at Harvard University.

“Marcus Stern is one of the associate heads of the program. It was really cool because we were getting to work with a director that was our teacher,” Jackson said. “We had this rapport with Marcus because he had taught us techniques.”

Despite the fairly short rehearsal schedule, preparations have been going well, according to cast members, with Stern impressing many of them as a director.

“I would say that my personal experience has just been really amazing,” Jackson said. “Marcus has a way of making things really clear and concise. He talks to every actor accordingly. If there are issues, he is always willing to talk things out.”

Concerns the play will not meet expectations set by those who have seen the movie are unfounded, Jackson said.

“It’s close enough to make you feel that feeling that I got when I first saw the movie,” he said. “The thing that I try to tell people who don’t go to a lot of theatre is that there is a theatre vocabulary and a cinema vocabulary.”

On ART’s blog of updates about the show, one post is a discussion between Stern and Matt McAdon, set designer for the play, about some carryover of cinematic style.

“I was wondering if close-ups are important or worth-exploring – a live feed idea – or if there’s an idea about juxtaposing a feed of something like the model house to a larger scale behind action,” Mcadon wrote.

Then, considering the differences between cinema and theatre, he added, “