‘Thinking with Chekhov’: the Evidence of Stanislavsky's Notebooks

1995 ◽  
Vol 11 (42) ◽  
pp. 175-183 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jovan Hristić
Keyword(s):  
Russian Edition ◽  
Cherry Orchard ◽  
Over The Top ◽  
Three Sisters ◽  
Moscow Art Theatre

In the second and third volumes of the Russian edition of Stanislavsky's notebooks, Rezhisserskie Egzemplary (Moscow, 1981 and 1983), are to be found Stanislavsky's own notes on his productions of Chekhov's plays for the Moscow Art Theatre – The Seagull, Three Sisters, and The Cherry Orchard. Questioning the received wisdom that in many ways his first director served Chekhov ill, with over-elaborate productions which failed to bring out the humour and ambiguity of the plays, Jovan Hristić here draws deeply upon the notebooks to contrast their instructions and descriptions with the directions and stated or presumed intentions of Chekhov himself. He illuminatingly reveals that, while some of Stanislavsky's solutions understandably appear over-the-top to more minimalist modern tastes, they are almost invariably complementary rather than contradictory to Chekhov, and designed to serve the plays rather than to subject them to directorial whim.

Exploring the Limitless Depths: Mike Alfreds Directs Chekhov

1986 ◽  
Vol 2 (8) ◽  
pp. 320-335
Author(s):  
David Allen
Keyword(s):  
Shared Experience ◽  
National Theatre ◽  
Present Feature ◽  
Cherry Orchard ◽  
Collective Creation ◽  
Three Sisters

‘Deadly British productions of Chekhov remain all too common.’ Or so suggests David Allen, who finds in the Chekhov productions of Mike Alfreds a refreshing recognition of the distinctively ‘Russian’ qualities of the plays, and an ability to render these in terms of the choices available to British actors. Mike Alfreds founded the Shared Experience company in 1975, and in Theatre Quarterly No. 39 (1981). Clive Barker interviewed him and members of the company on the processes of collective creation through which most of their productions then evolved: the present feature thus in part reflects Alfreds's own developing interest in working on ‘fixed’ scripts, both with Shared Experience, for whom he directed Three Sisters earlier this year, and in his work as guest director of The Cherry Orchard, first for Oxford Playhouse in 1982, and subsequently for the National Theatre at the Cottesloe, in 1985. In the following interview, Mike Alfreds's own perceptions of his work are intercut with author David Allen's observations during rehearsals, and the subsequent reactions of the critics.

Chekhov: The Four Major Plays: Seagull, Uncle Vanya, Three Sisters, Cherry Orchard

2006 ◽  
Vol 50 (2) ◽  
pp. 328
Author(s):  
Carol Apollonio Flath ◽  
Anton Chekhov ◽  
Curt Columbus
Keyword(s):  
Cherry Orchard ◽  
Three Sisters

Uncle Vanya, Three Sisters, the Cherry Orchard

1947 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
pp. 60
Author(s):  
Michel Benisovich ◽  
A. P. Chekhov
Keyword(s):  
Cherry Orchard ◽  
Three Sisters

scholarly journals Self-praise and Positive Self-assessment in Chekhov’s Plays

2021 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 202-229
Author(s):  
Veronika A. Makarova
Keyword(s):  
Literary Theory ◽  
Speech Acts ◽  
Speech Act ◽  
The Self ◽  
Self Assessment ◽  
Cherry Orchard ◽  
Literary Device ◽  
Character Building ◽  
Three Sisters

This paper applies Speech Act Theory towards an investigation of the use and role of self-praise/positive self-assessment in the texts of three Chekhov’s plays: The Seagull, Three Sisters and The Cherry Orchard. The findings conducted with manual coding of texts for the speech acts of self-praise/positive self-assessment suggest that Chekhov employed self-praise for a number of textual and character-building functions. In particular, self-praise functions as a literary device to identify less likable characters as well as to provide a chance for more likable characters to stand up for themselves against injustice and provocation. The self-praise/positive self-assessment comes in mitigated and aggravated forms. Mitigation is mostly achieved through grammatical or phrasal means, as well as semantically through self-criticism, whereby the only form of aggravation observed in the data was other-criticism/other-derogation. Specific forms of a positive self-assessment likely unique to Chekhov’s plays are ‘linguistic brags’, i.e., contextually unjustifiable switches to French and Latin as well as ‘generational’ positive self-representation in Three Sisters. The results suggest that investigations of speeh acts in dramas could be productive for literary theory, as they shed more light on the characters development as well as the genre mastery of the playwright.

The Russian Text of three Plays: Uncle Vanya, Three Sisters, the Cherry Orchard

Books Abroad ◽  
1947 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 105 ◽  
Author(s):  
H. K. L. ◽  
A. P. Chekhov
Keyword(s):  
Russian Text ◽  
Cherry Orchard ◽  
Three Sisters
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