SparkNotes: The Cherry Orchard: Context The Cherry Orchard Table of Contents Plot Overview Anton Pavlevich Chekhov was born on January 17th, 1860, in Taganrog, Russia. His father Pavel was a shopkeeper the town, which was small, provincial, and on the Sea of Azov in the south of Russia, and his grandfather was Egor Chekhov, a serf. Serfs were the legal property of the landowners who owned the property on which they resided; it was thus a form of slavery. In 1841, Egor bought freedom for himself and his family at the price of 875 rubles. Russia had been changing ever since the early 18th century, when Tsar Peter the Great carried out a series of reforms with the intent of modernizing Russia in Western Europe's image. European styles in fashion and art were imported, the Western canon was widely read among the nobility, and French was adopted as the language of cultured discourse. A large government bureaucracy was created; the achievement of rank became an obsession of Russian life.

During Chekhov's childhood, in the time of Tsar Alexander II, a second wave of reforms was underway, reforms that further liberalized the country and its economy. The most important of these was the Emancipation Declaration of 1861, which freed the serfs from bondage. These reforms caused great controversy, as they introduced what was, in effect, the beginning of a free-market economy, undermining the power of the nobility, and sometimes even impoverishing them. The situation displayed in The Cherry Orchard, of a wealthy landowning family forced to sell their estate in order to pay their debts, was thus a familiar one in the Russian society of Chekhov's day. Chekhov himself had a relatively quiet childhood. He attended the local Russian grammar school, worked in his father's store and occasionally wrote small pieces for the amusement of his family. Taganrog was not a typical provincial town; it was a multicultural port, with Italians, Greeks, and Turks residing in the wealthier sections of town and Russians such as the Chekhovs living in comparatively poor suburbs. It had a theater, which the young Chekhov would often visit.

When Chekhov was sixteen, Pavel's store failed, and the entire family had to move to Moscow—the entire family, that is, except for Anton. A merchant (and friend of the family) had helped the Chekhovs with a loan, but insisted on keeping Anton with him in the house as a kind of collateral. As soon as he could, he left Taganrog in order to pursue medical studies in Moscow in 1879 at the age of 19. That year, Chekhov began to write comic stories in order to pay his medical school tuition. By the time he was twenty, he was employed by The Spectator magazine as their regular humorist. Over ninety percent of Chekhov's published work appeared in magazines before he was twenty-eight, and, by this age, he had already established himself as a premier writer of short stories. As he developed as a writer, his stories began to take on deeper and more profound themes, as he moved away from his comic roots. To this day, Chekhov's literary reputation primarily rests with his short stories, and Chekhov's early plays, written primarily in his early 20s, are not well-remembered.

It was only in 1896 that he began to turn his attention back to drama; in the eight remaining years before his death, he managed to complete four plays: The Seagull, Uncle Vanya, The Three Sisters, and The Cherry Orchard. The first performance of The Seagull was nearly laughed off the stage; it was criticized as dull, unimaginative, and lacking any sort of dramatic tension (a critical undercurrent that has survived in Russia to this day). Only gradually did Chekhov's new form of drama, emphasizing characterization, detail and symbolism instead of plot development and incident, gain acceptance. Chekhov was the in-house playwright for the Moscow Arts Theatre, which had been founded by his friend Vladimir Nemirovich-Davchenko. During this time, he fell in love with one of the Theatre's leading actresses, Olga Knipper, and would marry her in 1901. Chekhov wrote his last two plays after he had been diagnosed, in 1898, with tuberculosis.

The Cherry Orchard itself was written over a period of more than two years, from early 1901 to late 1903, during which Chekhov was often in doctor-imposed exile from his wife and friends in Moscow, on the Mediterranean island of Yalta, in order to spare his ailing lungs. The germination of The Cherry Orchard probably came from numerous and diverse sources, over a longer period of time than that for any of Chekhov's other works. Chekhov had known cherry trees from his childhood days in Taganrog, before they were all cleared as a result of Alexander's liberal economic policies which encouraged development of the Russian hinterland. Also, Chekhov had himself planted a cherry orchard on an estate in Melikhovo that he purchased in 1892; he lost the estate a short while later, and the new owner cut down the cherry trees. Much of the intellectual discussion in The Cherry Orchard is distinctly influenced by Chekhov's wide reading in literature, philosophy, and the natural sciences, especially Darwin's Origin of the Species (first published only some forty years earlier) and Marxist and socialist philosophy (though Chekhov himself was not himself a member of any revolutionary movements).

Chekhov had initially intended his last play to be a comedy, a vaudeville in fact, and though he may have given up that last idea he still subtitles his play A Comedy in Four Acts. Unfortunately for Chekhov, the most common reaction to the play was typified by his wife: "by the fourth act I burst out sobbing". Stanislavsky, the play's director, decided to interpret the play as a drama, against Chekhov's wishes. The debate over whether the play is in fact a comedy or a drama still goes on to this day. The initial reception of the play ranged from the indifference of Maxim Gorky, who thought the play's story to be completely insignificant, to the loathing of Ivan Bunin, who attacked the play for being unrealistic in its depiction of both the central aristocratic family and the outrageously oversized cherry orchard. But it was also praised as one of Chekhov's best works, and possibly his best play. The Russian Symbolist poets saw the play as a narrative poem mourning the loss of beauty in the world, and thus saw Chekhov as a kindred spirit.

The Bolsheviks would interpret the play as a harbinger of the 1917 revolution, because of Trofimov's speeches (many of which were censored by the Tsarist regime for the 1904 perfomance). Many noticed and applauded its new formal innovations in terms of the use of the empty stage, lost dialogue and its mixing of comic and tragic elements. But many saw the play as undeniably tragic, focusing on Ranevsky's downfall as the important element of the story. Chekhov's critical reception outside of Russia was mixed, partly due to translation problems and the play's unique "Russian-ness", which Chekhov himself foresaw as being impossible for any foreign audience to overcome. Many foreign readers and viewers faulted the play for being unheroic, negative, and devoid of plot. But no less a figure than George Bernard Shaw said that "hearing Chekhov's plays make me want to tear up my own", and Chekhov's drama has gained increasing acceptance and praise over the course of the last century.

Chekhov managed to attend The Cherry Orchard's opening night gala at the Moscow Arts Theatre on January 17th, 1904, his forty-fourth birthday. The night was also intended to celebrate his 25th year in literature; but the sight of the ill, dying Chekhov, now in the last stages of his disease, was not a cause for celebration. He remained in Moscow for the last few months of his life, finally succumbing to tuberculosis on July 1st of that same year, a few days after the The Cherry Orchard's first publication. More Help About the Playwright: The Cherry Orchard — Utah Shakespeare Festival About the Playwright: The Cherry Orchard About the Playwright: The Cherry Orchard By Heidi N. Madsen Anton Chekhov was neither a liberal nor a conservative, feminist nor monk--nor was he entirely indifferent. He dealt with cold realism, in the irony of unfulfillment, and, like Hemingway, he disapproved of adjectives. He detested arbitrariness, though he believed without bias that it equitably and universally existed. In the merchant’s house, at the police station, in literature, in science and among the young it existed.

Chekhov did not look the part of an author or a playwright; his physical appearance most stereotypically resembled his alternate profession as a doctor. Medicine was his “lawful wife,” and writing was his “mistress,” and for this reason, to read Chekhov’s writing we must don the white clinician’s jacket and the gloves and look at the human plight more scientifically. We must not allow ourselves to view the autopsic style of Anton Chekhov with too much morbidity. His heroes, perhaps as did his patients, speak, love, marry, give birth, and die. Physicians, as Chekhov was, must seek to be non-judgmental, even detached, and observe only with clinical precision. The surgeon’s table is sterile, his tools cold and hopefully lacking in pretentiousness; and, omitting political, religious, and philosophical views, Chekhov wrote with the same medical ministrations.

His wife, actress Olga Knipper, wrote to him in 1901: “My heart aches when I think of the quiet sadness that seems to be so deeply entrenched in your heart.” To which Chekhov replied: “But darling, that is utter nonsense!” (Rene and Nonna D. Wellek, editors, Chekhov: New Perspectives. [New Jersey: Prentice-Hall Inc., 1984], 33). Anton Chekhov was born in the Azov seaport of Taganrog. In 1884 he published twenty, of an eventual two hundred, pieces in his first book, Tales of Melpomene; published his only novel, A Shooting Party, and graduated medical school. The Kreutzer Sonata by Leo Tolstoy was Chekhov’s favorite book, but he was only partly influenced by his Russian contemporaries and did not mimic their styles. Some disapproved, including Tolstoy, but Chekhov was a transitional writer--the bridge between classical and contemporary literature. He also must be given credit for his particular revolution of theatre itself.

Instead of the actor being given full reign on stage, his plays were designed to subjugate the actor directly to the text. Words, the words on the script, were responsible for mood and for staging, and it was not how or what the characters said that was most important, but more why they said it. No longer was the dramatist entirely at liberty to interpret. Donna Rayfield suggested that one of his motives in doing this was to antagonize actors as well as audience members (The Cherry Orchard: Catastrophe and Comedy [New York: Macmillan Publishing Company, 1994], 7). However, as stated earlier, Chekhov was not a radical; he did not try to force opinions upon others. In fact, his resolve to leave his stories and plays in a way unresolved, reveals him as unassuming, noncommittal, and almost undecided in most kinds of politics. A good example of this was pointed out by Professor Nilsson, that stage directions may sometimes consist of opposing parts: “cheerfully, through tears” (Welleck, 95). We do know that Chekhov did not believe life to be a series of resolutions; happy endings in his opinion were almost nonexistent.

His most successful plays were Ivanov, The Seagull, Uncle Vanya, and The Cherry Orchard. These owe their initial success to director Konstantin Stanislavsky, the founder of the Moscow Art Theatre and the father of “method acting,” a technique which influenced actors like Marlon Brando and James Dean. In fact, prior to Stanislavsky’s directions, the plays were disastrously received. Anton Chekhov was a writer who refused to pretend. In his stories “men are always being caught buttoning their trousers and women pulling up their stockings” (Frank O’Conner. New York Times Book Review, “A Writer Who Refused to Pretend,” 17 Jan. 1960). Perhaps it was just part of his numerous, intended. and ultimately successful ironical effects. × taganrogcity.com | Chekhov Legacy Chekhov Legacy Theater Chekhov Legacy Anton Chekhov (1860-1904), was a Russian playwright and short-story writer. Anton Pavlovich Chekhov was born in Taganrog, Russia. In 1879, Chekhov moved to Moscow, where he studied medicine.

He began his literary career writing short humorous stories and sketches for popular newspapers and comic sheets to help support his needy family. Chekhov graduated from medical school and became a doctor. His scientific background and his experiences as a country doctor contributed to the realism of his mature stories. In 1890, Chekhov studied the Russian state prisons on Sakhalin Island in the Pacific Ocean. He described the terrible living conditions there in Sakhalin Island (1893-1894). While practicing as a doctor, he had his first full-lenght play, Ivanov (1887), produced, to a disappointing reception. He took up serious themes with such stories as "The Steppe" (1888) and "A Dreary Story" (1889); later stories include "The Black Monk" (1894) and "Peasants" (1897). He converted his second long play, The Wooden Demon (1889) into the masterpiece Uncle Vanya (1897). His play The Seagull (1896) was badly received until its successful revival in 1899 by K.

Stanislavsky and the Moscow Art Theatre. He moved to the Crimea to nurse his eventually fatal tuberculosis, and there he wrote his great last plays, Three Sisters (1901) and The Cherry Orchard (1904), for the Moscow Art Theatre. Books with Anton Chekhov's autographs from the collection of Taganrog Memorial Chekhov Museum In 1901, Chekhov married Olga Knipper, an actress who played leading roles in several of his plays that were staged by the famous Moscow Art Theater. Anton Pavlovich Chekhov died of tuberculosis in Badenweiler , Germany in 1904. Chekhov's plays, which take a tragicomic view of the staleness of provincial life and the passing of the Russian gentry, received international acclaim after their translation into English and other languages, and as a short-story writer he is still regarded as virtually unmatched. Most of his characters are decent and sensitive. They dream of improving their lives, but most fail, victims of their sense of helplessness and uselessness. Scholars believe Chekhov probably was criticizing the backwardness he saw in Russian social and political life under the czars.

But he never preached at his readers or audiences, preferring to present highly individualized characters with specific problems. Chekhov's influence on the modern short story and the modern play was immense. Among his innovations were his economical husbanding of narrative resources, his concentration on character as mood rather than action, his impressionistic adoption of particular points of view, his dispensing with traditional plot, and, as Charles May declared in an essay collected in A Chekhov Companion, his use of atmosphere as "an ambiguous mixture of both external details and psychic projection." In all these regards Chekhov had an immediate and direct impact on such Western writers as James Joyce, Katherine Mansfield, and Sherwood Anderson; indirectly, most major authors of short stories in the twentieth century, including Katherine Anne Porter, Franz Kafka, Ernest Hemingway, Bernard Malamud, and Raymond Carver, are in his debt. Among Western playwrights, George Bernard Shaw was the first to grasp Chekhov's intentions and techniques, and he modeled his own "Heartbreak House" (1919) on The Cherry Orchard.

Yet it was not until the mid- 1920s that Chekhov caught on with English audiences, becoming one of the trio of major dramatists regularly performed in British playhouses, along with Ibsen and Shakespeare. His influence on English playwrights other than Shaw, up to and including Harold Pinter, has been less direct, but no less powerful. In American drama the notion of "subtext" that Chekhov originated informs many of the works of Tennessee Williams, Arthur Miller, Clifford Odets, and William Inge. Chekhov's methods also anticipate Bertolt Brecht's technique of "Vefreundungseffekt" ("estrangement") and Samuel Beckett's dramatic stasis and derealization. Contemporary Writers on Chekhov: There is never a time when I'm not reading or rereading a story or play by Chekhov. - Cristina Garcia In a short story that's next to the poem, almost every word has got to be almost exactly right. In the novel you can be careless but in the short story you can't. I mean by that the good short stories like Chekhov wrote.

That's why I rate that second - it's because it demands a nearer absolute exactitude. You have less room to be slovenly and careless. There's less room in it for trash. - William Faulkner I'm crazy about Chekhov. I never knew anyone that wasn't. - Woody Allen Chekhov! Chekhov! Chekhov! - Tennessee Williams, asked to name his favorite authors Reading Chekhov was just like the angels singing to me. - Eudora Welty If I have to choose between Chekhov and most hip-hop, I'll go with Chekhov. - Cornel West Read Chekhov, read the stories straight through. Admit that you understand nothing of life, nothing of what you see. Then go out and look at the world. - Francine Prose, "Learning from Chekhov" Chekhov's stories are as wonderful (and necessary) now as when they first appeared.

It is not only the immense number of stories he wrote - for few, if any, writers have ever done more - it is the awesome frequency with which he produced masterpieces, stories that shrive us as well as delight and move us, that lay bare our emotions in ways only true art can accomplish. - Raymond Carver Chekhov wrote about 6 good stories. But he was an amateur writer. - Ernest Hemingway Who better to learn from than Chekhov, who is here plainly in front of us to teach, as we can be plainly in front of him to learn. - Romulus Linney, Story Quarterly, 37, 2001 Anton Chekhov, 1897 Anton Chekhov - Bio, Facts, Family | Famous Birthdays Anton Chekhov Born in Taganrog, Russia#2 About Russian playwright and short story writer whose most famous works of dramatic realism include Uncle Vanya, The Seagull, Three Sisters, and The Cherry Orchard. His literary work is marked by an objective presentation of character and a reluctance to neatly answer questions. Before Fame He came from a peasant background and initially wrote as a way of both supporting his family and paying his own way through medical school.

His early literary works include a short story called The Steppe and the Pushkin Prize-winning short fiction collection, At Dusk. Trivia He was a friend of fellow Russian writers, Leo Tolstoy and Maxim Gorky . Family Life A bachelor for most of his short life, Chekhov finally married German actress Olga Knipper on May 25th, 1901. Sadly, he died of tuberculosis just three years later. Associated With Chekhov's numerous collaborations with renowned Moscow Art Theatre director, Konstantin Stanislavski, resulted in the development of an understated, realistic performance style that revolutionized the study of acting.

Stanislavski's teachings directly informed the acting methods developed by such modern teachers as The Cherry Orchard | Broadway Play Publishing Inc Richard Nelson Richard Nelson's plays include the four-play series, THE APPLE FAMILY (THAT HOPEY CHANGEY THING, SWEET AND SAD, SORRY, REGULAR SINGING (Nominated for Outstanding Play in Drama Desk Awards 2014; Public Theater, 2010 – 2013), NIKOLAI AND THE OTHERS (Lincoln Center Theater, 2013), FAREWELL TO THE THEATRE (Hampstead Theatre, 2012), HOW SHAKESPEARE WON THE WEST, (Huntington Theater, 2008), CONVERSATIONS AT TUSCULUM (Public Theater, 2008), FRANK'S HOME (Goodman Chicago, Playwrights Horizons, 2007), RODNEY'S WIFE (Playwrights Horizons, 2004), WHERE I COME FROM (National Theatre Connections), MADAME MELVILLE (which ran in the West End starring Macaulay Culkin and Irene Jacob and opened in May 

2001 Off-Broadway); GOODNIGHT CHILDREN EVERYWHERE (winner of Olivier Award for Best New Play, 2000), KENNETH'S FIRST PLAY (with Colin Chambers, RSC), THE GENERAL FROM AMERICA (at the RSC and the Lucille Lortel Theatre, New York), NEW ENGLAND (RSC and Manhattan Theater Club), MISHA'S PARTY (with Alexander Gelman, RSC and Williamstown Theater Festival), TWO SHAKESPEAREAN ACTORS (Tony nomination for Best Play, RSC and Broadway), COLUMBUS AND THE DISCOVERY OF JAPAN (RSC Barbican), SOME AMERICANS ABROAD (Olivier nomination, Best Comedy; RSC, Lincoln Center and Broadway), LEFT, BETWEEN EAST AND WEST (Hampstead), PRINCIPIA SCRIPTORAE (winner of Time Out Award, RSC and Manhattan Theater Club), THE RETURN OF PINOCCHIO, AN AMERICAN COMEDY, BAL, CONJURING AN EVENT, RIP VAN WINKLE, JUNGLE COUP, THE KILLING OF YABLONSKI, THE VIENNA NOTES (Obie Award).

His musicals include JAMES JOYCE'S THE DEAD (starring Christopher Walken and Blair Brown; Playwrights Horizons, Belasco Theatre, Broadway, Ahmanson Theatre, Los Angeles, Kennedy Center, Washington; for which he received a Tony Award in 2000 for Best Musical Book), CHESS (the book for the Broadway musical), PARADISE FOUND (dir: Harold Prince and Susan Strohman), MY LIFE WITH ALBERTINE (with Ricky Ian Gordon; Playwrights Horizons), UNFINISHED PIECE FOR A PLAYER PIANO (with Peter Golub).

His translations and adaptations include TYNAN starring Corin Redgrave (with Colin Chambers, RSC and West End), LOLITA with Brian Cox (National), Molnar's THE GUARDSMAN (Kennedy Center), Carriere's THE CONTROVERSY (Public Theater), Fo's ACCIDENTAL DEATH OF AN ANARCHIST (Broadway), Strindberg's THE FATHER with Frank Langella (Broadway) and MISS JULIE (Yale Rep), Beaumarchais' THE MARRIAGE OF FIGARO (the Guthrie and Broadway); Molière's DON JUAN, Ibsen's WILD DUCK and ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE, Pirandello's ENRICO IV, Goldoni's IL CAMPIELLO, Erdmann's THE SUICIDE. With the esteemed translators Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky, he was co-translated Chekhov's THE CHERRY ORCHARD, Gogol's THE INSPECTOR, Turgenev's A MONTH IN THE COUNTRY and Bulgakov's DON QUIXOTE.

Films: Hyde Park on Hudson, staring Bill Murray and Laura Linney (Dir: Roger Michell), Ethan Frome, starring Liam Neeson (Dir: John Madden); Sensibility and Sense, staring Elaine Stritch and Jean Simmons (Dir: David Jones). Television: The End of a Sentence with Edward Herrmann (Dir: David Jones). Radio Plays include: HYDE PARK ON HUDSON, LANGUAGES SPOKEN HERE (Giles Cooper Award), EATING WORDS (Giles Cooper Award), ADVICE TO EASTERN EUROPE, AN AMERICAN WIFE (all BBC).

Book Information 9780881453638 Special Notes If original stage producers credits appear in bold below, all licensees are required to include them in the following form on the title page in all programs distributed in connection with performances of the Play and in all advertising in which the full cast appears in size of type not less than ten percent (10%) of the size of the title of the Play: THE CHERRY ORCHARD was originally commissioned by the Manhattan Theatre Club, Lynne Meadow, Artistic Director, Barry Grove, Executive Producer In addition, the following must appear within all programs distributed in connection with performances of the Play: The Cherry Orchard is produced by special arrangement with Broadway Play Publishing Inc, NYC The Cherry Orchard Click Here for Complete Review The Playwright ï¿½ Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (1860-1904), Russian writer and physician. The son of a grocer and grandson of a serf, he helped support his family, while he studied medicine, by writing humorous sketches. His reputation as a master of the short story was assured when in 1888 The Steppe, a story in his third collection, won the Pushkin Prize.

The Island of Sakhalin (1893-94) was a report on his visit to a penal colony in 1890. Thereafter he lived in Melikhovo, near Moscow, where he ran a free clinic for peasants, took part in famine and epidemic relief, and was a volunteer census-taker. His first play, Ivanov (1887), had little success, but The Seagull (1898), Uncle Vanya (1899), The Three Sisters (1901), and The Cherry Orchard (1904) were acclaimed when produced by the Moscow Art Theater. In 1901 Chekhov married the actress Olga Knipper, the interpreter of many of his characters. Three years later he died of tuberculosis. The style of his stories, novels, and plays, emphasizing internal drama, characterization, and mood rather than plot and focusing on the tragicomic aspects of banal events, had great influence. ï¿½ Trevor Griffiths (Adaptation) Has been writing for the theatre, television and cinema since the late 60s. His work has been seen throughout the world and he has won numerous awards.

His best-known stage play, Comedians, has been in constant production around the world since its premiere in 1975. For his film Reds, written with Warren Beatty, he received the WGA Best Screenplay Award and an Oscar nomination. Other films have included Country directed by Richard Eyre and Fatherland directed by Ken Loach. From the 80s onwards he has also directed his own work both in theatre and on film. His most recent production is the television film Food For Ravens which he both wrote and directed. He is known both for his original works - contemporary and historical - and for his adaptations of works by writers such as Lawrence and Chekhov. The Play Chekhov's characteristic genius and feeling for a society in transition are most fully expressed in his last great play, The Cherry Orchard. It is a comedy in a form peculiar to Chekhov and not easily defined, showing as it does thirteen widely differentiated characters in situations that are by turn farcical, tragic and romantic. Written in 1903, the year before he died, the play tells of an old family estate up for auction and how, with the sale, a whole way of life comes to an end.

The Cherry Orchard was first produced by the Moscow Art Theatre on Chekhov's last birthday, January 17, 1904. Since that time it has become one of the most critically admired and performed plays in the Western world, a high comedy whose principal theme, the passing of the old semi-feudal order, is symbolized in the sale of the cherry orchard owned by Madame Ranevsky. The play also functions as a magnificent showcase for Chekhov's acute observations of his characters' foibles and for quizzical ruminations on the approaching dissolution of the world of the Russian aristocracy and life as it was lived on their great country estates. While the subject and the characters of the work are, in a sense, timeless, the dramatic technique of the play was a Chekhovian innovation. In this and other plays he developed the concept of "indirect action," in which the dramatic action takes place off stage and the significance of the play revolves around the reactions of the characters to those unseen events. * ï¿½Of the four major plays that Chekhov wrote, this, his last, is the least fraught, the most delightful.

Even the sadness we may feel at the heroineï¿½s loss of her estate, and the handing over of her beautiful orchard of cherry trees to the real estate developerï¿½s axe, is mitigated by her extravagance, her silliness, her lack of concentration. Thereï¿½s a slight feeling of You Canï¿½t Take It With Youï¿½s household of screwballs, which supports Chekhovï¿½s contention that The Cherry Orchard is a comedy: the stage is crowded with odd characters.ï¿½ ï¿½ Ethan Mordden, The Fireside Companion to the Theatre Click on any image below for a larger view Anton Chekhov - Modernism Lab Essays Anton Chekhov by Pericles Lewis In the plays of Anton Chekhov (1860-1904), tragedy and comedy are inextricably intertwined. Although his major plays are suffused with an air of anxiety and pessimism akin to those of Henrik Ibsen , he insisted on calling The Seagull (1895) and The Cherry Orchard (1903) comedies.

He gave Uncle Vanya (1896) the non-committal subtitle “Scenes from Country Life,” and called Three Sisters (1900) a “drama.” Yet none of these plays is either conventionally comic or tragic. In particular, the central aspect of Aristotelian tragedy, the climactic action entailing reversal or recognition, seems absent from Chekhov’s plays. In general, his Russian gentry are in decline, but the decline is gradual and irreversible. They undergo various minor illuminations in the course of the plays but never a blinding recognition that could lead to a change of fortune. Chekhov, a doctor and the grandson of a serf, became famous as a story-writer before his first successes as a playwright. Doctors come and go in his plays, sometimes expressing wisdom and more often resignation. Generally seen by his compatriots as a naturalist, he was later interpreted by the Soviets as a chronicler of the rise of the bourgeoisie, the decline of the aristocracy, and the imminence of revolution (he died in 1904, the year before the first Russian Revolution).

However, this interpretation depended on an avoidance of Chekhov’s dramatic innovations, which changed the nature of plot and its relationship to character. The plot of Ibsen's first major play, The Seagull , is fairly conventional; Chekhov’s symbolism and self-conscious reflection on the nature of drama are the main features that distinguish this work from that of earlier realist and naturalist playwrights. In the last decade of his life, however, Chekhov wrote three masterpieces that increasingly resembled the symbolist drama of his fictional playwright Konstantin Treplev. One of the characters in The Seagull complains about a play within the play that "nothing happens”— a complaint that has been repeated by critics of Chekhov’s later plays. In them, he turns away from conventions like the love plot, the climactic final gunshot, even the main character; instead Chekhov explores “the drama of the undramatic.” [1] Like life itself, Chekhov’s plots generally lack resolution. The loaded pistol of his famous aphorism provides an example.

In Ibsen's Hedda Gabler, the pistols go off, and if the first one wounds Lovborg in an unexpected way, the second provides a suitably dramatic climax. By contrast, in The Seagull, Konstantin attempts suicide between the first and second acts, and then finally succeeds in killing himself in the last scene. In Uncle Vanya, written a year later, Vanya wants to kill his brother-in-law Professor Serebriakov, a charlatan who has consumed all the money the family estate can produce. As Vanya complains, “For twenty-five years he’s been regurgitating other people’s ideas about realism, naturalism, all that bullshit.” At the end of the third act, Vanya, infuriated with the Professor, shoots at him twice, but misses. The shots do not result in any climactic action. Nothing changes. As Vanya observes in the fourth act, “Funny, isn’t it? I try to kill someone, nobody calls the police, nobody arrests me. Which means you all think I’m crazy.” Vanya thinks of killing himself with a vial of Dr. Astrov’s morphine, but Sonya convinces him to give the morphine back.

The Professor and his second wife return to Moscow, and everything on the estate returns to normal, except that the characters are more disillusioned than ever. In his last work, The Cherry Orchard, a minor character boasts in the second act, “I always carry a loaded pistol.” He brandishes the weapon too. Yet, as Chekhov announced proudly, “There’s not a single pistol-shot in the whole play.” [2] Chekhov’s plays move away from the focus on a central heroic figure. Instead of heroes or villains, the later plays tend to feature ensemble casts of characters who are neither particularly good nor particularly bad. In Three Sisters, the sisters are indeed heroines, but their actions are not typically heroic. Mainly, they endure. Throughout the play, the sisters dream of escaping their country estate and going to Moscow. Irina begs to be allowed to go at the end of the second and third acts.

Gradually, however, their brother gambles away the family fortune, and at the end of the play the oldest, Olga, realizes: “of course, I’ll never get to Moscow….” As Richard Gilman has observed, the sisters’ waiting to go to Moscow resembles the Vladimir and Estragon’s waiting in Samuel Beckett ’s Waiting for Godot (1952), written half a century later. Beckett’s novel, The Unnamable(1953), would end with the line “you must go on, I can’t go on, I’ll go on.” Chekhov sounds the same theme of endurance. At the end of Uncle Vanya, Sonya recognizes that nothing in her life or her uncle’s will change and says: “You and I, Uncle Vanya, we have to go on living. The days will be slow, and the nights will be long, but we’ll take whatever fate sends us.” At the end of Three Sisters, Masha says “we have to go on living.” Like the realists and naturalists (and unlike his character Konstantin), Chekhov claims to represent the world as it is, without moral judgments.

Most of the climactic action in his works takes place offstage, often before the beginning of the play. What takes center stage is conversation. Not exactly, as Irina puts it in The Seagull, “one long speech,” however; in Chekhov’s plays there are many short speeches and many long silences, only occasionally punctuated by a longer monologue. Characters who do make lengthy speeches, about the environment, or the problem of work, or the future of Russia, usually retract or ironize them. Chekhov’s characters often talk past each other, as if they are not hearing one another. Some, like the old butler Firs, in The Cherry Orchard, are in fact deaf. Chekhov defended the dialogue in his plays on realistic grounds: “Things on stage should be as complicated and yet as simple as in life. People dine, just dine, while their happiness is made and their lives are smashed.” [3] Here, Chekhov claimed to be exposing the drama of everyday life, and he does so, but at the same time the effect of non-sequitur in his speeches prefigures the later absurdist plays of Samuel Beckett or Eugène Ionesco.

Throughout Chekhov’s plays, any sort of resolution, comic or tragic, is deferred; he often presents courtships that go nowhere, instead of a conventional love plot. In The Cherry Orchard, the characters expect the successful businessman Lopakhin, the son and grandson of serfs, to propose to Varya, the adopted daughter of impoverished aristocrats. Yet, every time he is left alone with her he seems uneasy. By the end of the play, the family estate is sold to Lopakhin, and Chekhov seems to leave two possibilities open: a comic resolution in which Lopakhin marries Varya and the estate stays in the family, or a tragic one, in which the estate is destroyed for the sake of real estate development (a theme from Ibsen’s Master Builder). Yet, Chekhov resists every opportunity to dramatize this ending. Lopakhin meets with Varya, but instead of proposing he comments on the weather. Uncle Gayev plans to make a speech about the significance of the occasion, but the others dissuade him from speaking.

In the final scene, while axes are heard chopping down the orchard offstage, the comic figure Firs reappears; elderly and ill, he has been left behind by the family, who thought he had been taken to an old age home. He has been locked in the house, which is soon to be demolished. So, he lies down on the stage and waits—for someone to come back, or simply for death to come get him. The scene can be played tragically, but it works better as farce. This is one reason why Chekhov insisted on calling the play a comedy. The Cherry Orchard does not resolve itself in marriage, like a conventional comedy, but it deploys farce to come to terms with the modern failure of resolution. For this reason, Chekhov complained about the lugubrious naturalistic staging of his plays at Konstantin Stanislavsky’s Moscow Art Theater, even though these performances made Chekhov famous. Although Chekhov’s representation of passing time, boredom, and silence can be justified in realist or naturalist terms, his plays continually gesture beyond the naturalistic theater, portending the disruption of naturalism in the twentieth century.

[4] ↑ Richard Gilman, The Making of Modern Drama (New York: Farrar, Straus, and Girous, 1974), p. 120. ↑ Quoted in James McFarlane, “Intimate Theatre: Maeterlinck to Strindberg,” Modernism 1890-1930, p. 519. ↑ Ilia Gurlyand, “Reminiscences of A. P. Chekhov,” quoted in Donald Rayfield, Anton Chekhov: A Life (Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press, 1997), p. 203. ↑ This page has been adapted from Pericles Lewis's Cambridge Introduction to Modernism (Cambridge UP, 2007), pp. 184-187. The Cherry Orchard The Cherry Orchard adapted in English by Dan Wirth, Directed by Dan Wirth Fall Semester, 2013 Sometimes we lose what we love the most because we are not strong enough to keep it.

A family is on the brink of losing their home and land which is slated to be sold at auction to pay delinquent property taxes -- but no one seems willing or able to pay attention to things they could do to help themselves. They are child-like misfits who take comfort in living in the future or in the past and who can't cope with the present. The Cherry Orchard is a very human comedy about needs and wants and letting go. Anya and her governess, Charlotta, have gone to Paris to bring Anya's mother,Madame Ranevsky, back home. They return home to find that their family estate is about to be sold at auction for debt. To all the family it is quite unthinkable that they should lose the wonderful cherry orchard whose white blossoms are part of their childhood memories. Madame Ranevsky is an irresponsible soul who cannot be made to realize the value of money. Her brother, Gaev, is just as hopeless where money is concerned. Varya, the step-daughter, is the only practical one, but how could she raise enough money by herself?

Cast______________ GUESTS AND SERVANTS...Jordan Brown, James Fuentes Russia - the late 1890's The action takes place on Mme. RANEVSKY'S estate Act 1 very early morning May The Nursery Act 2 late afternoon June Outside of an abandoned chapel Act 3 late evening August 22 The Drawing Room (adjoining Ballroom) Act 4 early morning October The Nursery ___________Director's Note___________ Chekhov's plays have a reputation of being sad, slow, tedious, and boring. There is a problem with that because Chekhov isn't any of those things. Those sorts of performances are conducted by people that have a misapprehension of Chekhov, and perhaps they themselves are sad, slow, tedious, and boring. Chekhov himself always claimed (even protested) that his plays were comedies, and who am I to take issue with that? He is the one that wrote them. He should know, after all. My first exposure to Chekhov was a production of his play Uncle Vanya. I was in college in Michigan and took a trip to the Stratford Festival in Canada where it was playing.

I really had no idea what I was in for. I was introduced to a collection of confused and contradictory people who were often unaware of both their best and worst qualities. They either had plenty of ideas about what to do to make life better or they had no ideas at all, but either way, they lacked the capacity to take action to do anything about it. Their struggles were very frustrating - and very funny. My first experience with The Cherry Orchard occurred a year or so later when I was in graduate school. My classmates and I were enjoying a unit on Chekhov and we were reading his four major full-length plays. I went to the library and listened to an audio recording of a performance of the play. It was a production from The Guthrie Theatre in Minneapolis, featuring Hume Cronyn and Jessica Tandy, directed by Tyrone Guthrie. As I sat listening I realized I was having the same experience I had with the production of Uncle Vanya. Here again was a collection of deeply flawed and deeply human characters. They were caught in a trap and were struggling to get out, but they themselves had made the trap, and they alone would be able to devise a way out. However, they couldn't see that.

They thought the trap was their fate. Some couldn't even see the trap. This is how it is with Chekhov's characters. It's as if they are wearing blinders and can only see certain things. And when it comes to their own flaws, they either beat themselves up over them or project them and make others guilty of the very things they dislike in themselves. In either case, nothing gets done about them. When his plays are done well, the audience has sympathy and empathy for the plights of the characters, and they also feel annoyance and frustration because the characters are often so unbearably stupid. Audiences feel sad when the characters lose, and at the same time they laugh at how ridiculous they are. Much has been written about the gloominess of the Russian people, the so-called Russian "cult of suffering," as though the people of Russia have the market cornered on being sad and mopey and depressed. It is an interesting stereotype, and as with all stereotypes there may be a grain of truth to it, but I think Chekhov was writing about all of human-kind, not just Russian human-kind.

In viewing Chekhov's plays, we are viewing ourselves - our foibles, our denial, our strengths, our weaknesses, our victories, and our defeats. I think of Chekhov's plays as a mirror held up to our souls. The mirror has some Russian trimming around its edges, but the center reflects us back to ourselves just as we are. At one time or another perhaps all of us have said or will say goodbye to our own personal cherry orchard. Dan Wirth ___________Anton Chekhov__________ Anton Pavlovich Chekhov is considered one of Russia's most important writers as well as one of the world's greatest playwrights. He was born on January 17, 1860, in Taganrog, a small seaport town in Southern Russia. His father was a grocer, his grandfather a serf who had bought his own freedom. His mother, Yevgenia Morozov, was the daughter of a cloth merchant. The author was only one year old when Czar Nicholas II freed Russia's serfs.

This historic event, generally referred to as either the Liberation or the Emancipation, plays a central role in many of Chekhov's writings, including The Cherry Orchard. After his father was forced to declare bankruptcy, the family moved to Moscow, which presented young Chekhov with the opportunity to gain a good education. He began attending medical school at the University of Moscow when he was twenty years old and while there began to publish humorous articles for newspapers and magazines in an effort to alleviate his family's financial difficulties. Deeply influenced by famous novelist and short story writer Tolstoy, at this time Chekhov also began to write short stories. In time he became a master of this literary genre. Chekhov graduated from medical school in 1884 and spent the rest of his life engaged in medicine as well as writing.

In 1888, Chekhov wrote the popular short story "The Bear" and two years later he published "The Wedding." In 1887, he wrote "The Wood Demon," which was not well received critically but which in time he would rewrite as the enormously popular Uncle Vanya For much of his life, Chekhov suffered from bad health and was forced to travel to more healthful climates, such places as Singapore, India, Ceylon, and Egypt among them. He especially enjoyed France and utilized the opportunity to study other literary forms in depth, especially French theatre, aspects of which he incorporated into his own work. By the turn of the century Chekhov had authored four plays which were to bring him lasting repute: The Seagull in 1896, Uncle Vanya that same year, The Three Sisters in 1901, and The Cherry Orchard, his last play. The Cherry Orchard was staged in Moscow on his birthday, January 17, 1904, and featured his wife Olga Knipper, whom he had married in 1901, in the leading role.

Six months later, on July 14, 1904, Chekhov died in Germany. In an ironic twist that he might have appreciated, Chekhov's body, sent back to Russia in a refrigerator car, was enclosed in a box marked "oysters." In addition to his dramatic works, Chekhov is highly regarded for his short stories which also combine comedy and tragedy. In addition, he is greatly admired for his use of ordinary conversations and verbal pauses to reveal reality in inconsequential words and everyday life. Oftentimes, his characters, like those in The Cherry Orchard, are provincial aristocratic landowners of the era before the Russian Liberation who are unable to take action in times of crisis. In addition, Chekhov's intermingling of the comic and tragic genres characterizes him as one of the greatest playwrights of all time. In addition, he remains highly regarded for his technique, which has come to be called "indirect action." This technique emphasizes the off-stage action which the audience never sees but hears about from the onstage characters. "The Cherry Orchard: Biography: Anton Pavlovich Chekhov." Novelguide. Novel Guide, n.d. Web.

BethAnn Smukowski (Lubov) is delighted to be back onstage at NEIU after performing as Auntie Mae in Me and Auntie Mae and as Madame Arcati in Blithe Spirit. Past credits elsewhere include Nanette in No, No, Nanette, The Baker's Wife in Into the Woods, Cinderella in Cinderella, Amy in Company, and Mary Featherstone in How the Other Half Loves. Her thanks go out to Dan for the opportunity to take on such a great role and for his guidance along the way, to the cast and crew for the outstanding camaraderie, tacos, nightly transportation services, and to her family and friends for their remarkable love and support which never fails to uplift and inspire her. BethAnn hopes to see you again when she performs in Primrose, a new work written by NEIU grad Rand Riggenberg premiering at The Stage Center Studio Series in November. Tea Dzuzdanovic (Anya) is a Communication, Media and Theatre major at Northeastern Illinois University. Although this is her first performance at Stage Center, Tea has been involved in other productions such as Chicago: The Musical and Cabaret at Mather High School.

Tea loves performing and goofing off with family, friends and cast members. She will always remember the long nights with the cast that involved wonderful bananas hands and delicious tacos. She hopes that their taco nights will continue long after this production is over. Also, she would like to thank her family and friends for their continuous love and support. She couldn't have been more blessed with such great people in her life. Mary Nano (Varya) will be graduating May 2014 with her BA in Communication, Media and Theatre. Previous credits include Circe in The Odyssey and Molly in Me and Auntie Mae here at The Stage Centre Theatre. When Mary is not glued to her computer collecting Chekohov tid-bits, running around with the costume team, or showing someone how to use a compound miter saw, she is passed out in her car. She would like to thank the cast and crew for the memories. Lots of love go to her sister, Stefanie, and Ryan and Chrissy; she would be lost without their love and support. Mary hopes you enjoy The Cherry Orchard: A Play About a Pickle. KEEP ON ROCKING IN THE FREE WORLD!

Tony Gasbarro (Leonid Gaev) Tony begins his fifth season of The Stage Center performances with his role in The Cherry Orchard. Tony's previous Stage Center appearances include Blithe Spirit, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Bleacher Bums, Around the World in 80 Days, and Lucky Stiff. Tony extends his thanks to the crew and cast of The Cherry Orchard for creating yet another fun and engaging show, and to director Dan Wirth for envisioning him in yet another challenging -- if not downright weird -- role for his stage. Mark Dodge (Lopakhin) Mark is thrilled to be working with the talented Robert Falls agai-what? Dan Wirth? Eh, he'll do. An actor, director and writer, he has written Fury Theatre's two original kid shows Hamlet & Eggs: A Scrambled Shakespeare Adventure and Professor Evil's Bedtime Stories for Zombies! Recent directing projects include The Glass Menagerie, Romeo & Juliet and Much Ado About Nothing.

Recent roles include Salvador Dali in How to Make a Rainbow, Uncle Peck in How I Learned to Drive, Hyde in Jekyll & Hyde, Bullshot Crummond in Bullshot Crummond and Oberon in A Midsummer Nights Dream. Mark is also a teaching artist running after school drama programs for area schools and teaches acting, TV and monologue work at John Robert Powers. He would like thank the honest craftsmen and women and the steadfast true friends that have been a constant inspiration while living the dream with him. Michael Slas (Trofimov) This is Michael's umpteenth performance at The Stage Center Theatre. Previously he's been spotted in Blithe Spirit, Dr. Jekkyl and Mr. Hyde, You're a Good Man Charlie Brown, Misanthrope, and Fuddy Meers. He graduated in December, but Dan managed to swindle him in to another show. He would like to thank his Mom, Carolyn, Duncan, Dan, and his juicy little cucumber Lily. Andrew Berlien (Pishchik) is thrilled to be performing at The Stage Center Theatre again.

A Chicago native, past productions include You're A Good Man Charley Brown, Fuddy Meers, Lucky Stiff, Charleyï¿½s Aunt, and Lend Me a Tenor among others. Andrew has also worked with Redmoon Theater, Theatre Momentum, and Funny Umbrella. Boundless love and affection go to Dan, Bob, Kathy, Emma, and the entire cast and crew. Imagine THIS. Jill Matel (Charlotta) Jill is very excited to be returning to The Stage Center Theatre for her 13th production!! Thanks to a fantastic cast and crew, Dan Wirth and the CMT department which will finally be rid of her in May of 2014!! Bartholomew Webster (Epikhodov) is excited to be performing in The Cherry Orchard. He is currently a senior majoring in Communication, Media and Theatre. Previous works include The Servant of Two Masters (Dottore) and The Braggart Soldier (Sceledrus). He would like to thank Dan and the whole amazing cast and crew for being so great to work! He thanks his family and friends for being amazing!

Lily Stephens (Dunyasha) is thrilled to be a part of such a fun and fabulous ensemble. This is Lily's third show with director Dan Wirth. She previously played Elizabeth in Dan's production of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde in which she fell in love with a monster (hi Mark), and also played Claire in Fuddy Meers during which she fell in love with her fiancï¿½ Michael Slas. She would like to thank Dan for his excellent casting choices and her father for his excellent impression of like, a super old dude. Shout outs go out to her mother Carolyn, mother-in-law Siobhan, and to her sister Fiona: HDIGYA? Duncan Macnab (A Tramp/A Station-Master) is very excited to return to The Stage Center and is tickled to death with joy by working with such a dedicated cast and crew. He earned his B.A. in Communication, Media and Theatre from NEIU in 2008 where he was Editor-in-Chief of The Independent. He was last seen at The Stage Center as Valentine in Twelfth Night. He will be appearing in Rand Ringgenberg's Primrose next door for the Fall Studio Series in November.

Other NEIU roles include Fergus in Finding the Sun, Various roles in Vaudeville America!, Barsad in Tale of Two Cities, A Cubs Fan in Bleacher Bums, Conveener in The Skin of Our Teeth and at Children's Theatre Workshop in Secret Lives of Toads as Nigel. Other stage credits include appearing in the Play On Festival at Oakton Community College and as Vernon in Summer and Smoke at The Den Theatre directed by Ryan Martin. Patryk Szwankowski (Yasha) Patryk is very excited to be on stage here at The Stage Center Theatre yet again. It is truly becoming a second home. After graduating from NEIU he has set his sights on more roles and working out the most inappropriate of stand up routines to perform. He is very glad to be working with such a great cast in the production of The Cherry Orchard. He hopes everyone has digested their tacos by now. Patryk would also like to thank his support network of friends and family for always believing in him. LWI! Duncan Stephens (Fiers) has been active in theatre since way back in the twentieth century.

He has a degree in theater from the University of Vermont, and did graduate studies at Penn State, the University of Connecticut and the Asolo State Theatre in Sarasota FL. Duncan has played roles ranging from Abraham Lincoln in The Rivalry to the MC in Cabaret, from Judd in Oklahoma! to Ellard in The Foreigner, and once, memorably, as a dangerously beautiful Russian spy, Natasha Natashavich, in The Adventures of Tom Swift. Once Duncan was presented with a family to support (the lovely Lily Stephens and her equally talented sister Fiona), he turned his technical theatre skills into a career as a scenic carpenter, building sets for operas, theatres, TV and movies. He is very happy to return to the stage for this production of The Cherry Orchard, and hopes you all are happy to see him as well. Harley (Knipper) Woof woof, arf, woof woof Trofimov arf arf bark. Arf arf woof-woof Bow Wow, Bow Wow Wow, Bow Wow Wow Wow. Woof bark Epikhodov arf, arf-arf woof. Grrrrrrr....ARF! ___________Production Staff___________

Question: Which Russian playwright wrote ‘Uncle Vanya’ and ‘The Cherry Orchard’?
Answer: Anton CHECKOV