Three Sisters Dramaturgy Page
Play by Anton Chekhov
Other productions and/or interpretations of Anton Chekhov's Three Sisters:
Past, Present, and Future
In order by date.
Three Sisters and a Great Soul
We are back from Uzbekistan, and looking toward the future. We are currently digging into our next full production of Chekhov's Three Sisters, which opens at ACT Theatre in January 2014! In the meantime, keep us with us via our blog and Facebook. We hope to see you as we unpack from our Uzbek journey at the Great Soul of Uzbekistan, at ACT Theatre, on September 2nd.
Click here for The Seagull Project's homepage.
The Man Who Can Forget Anything
Two of the co-creators of legendary Seattle ensemble Run/Remain return to OtB with a next-generation familial mash-up of film, music, theater, and dance.
Murphy and Lachow continue their 25-year artistic collaboration in a performance featuring longtime friends and (now grown-up) children. Their deceptively nonchalant dance moves, nouvelle vague aesthetic, moody films, pointe shoes, and nods to Chekhov transcend the generational divide in a charmingly clever package laced with optimism and melancholy.
Oct 9-12, 2014 @ On the Boards.
For more information, please click here.
Three Sisters
The PlayGround Theatre's transformation from an ambitious children's theater to an ambitious adult theater — rechristened Miami Theater Center — should have surprised no one familiar with its previous work. But its debut production of Anton Chekhov's Three Sisters pulled so many avant-garde surprises on its audience that it somehow honored the 1900 text while modernizing it and streamlining the theatrical experience to new heights. The unpredictable, period-spanning costumes, up-close addresses to the audience, modern slang, and music translated Chekhov's timeless words into a more contemporary context. And while choreographing a staggering 17-member cast, director Stephanie Ansin used every inch of the largely unadorned industrial-style space, from the aisles to a sprawling three-room set design, parts of which could be accessed only through an intimate seating area that rotated on a pivot. The complicated and airy mise en scène resulted in some occasional problems with spectators' sight lines, but a spectacular experiment beats out a safe, polite success any day.
2013. Source.
Irina's Birthday Party
The women of Miss Conni’s company (namely Goodi, Sue, and Muffin) are presented with a copy of Anton Chekhov’s Three Sisters and the directive to “find the play!” The audience dons mustaches in order to stand in for the Russian soldiers (the invited guests at Irina’s party), and are served a meal of borscht, black bread, and birthday cake. Meanwhile, Goodi, Muffin and Sue grapple with playing Chekhov’s great female roles. Originally created and presented in a week-long residency at North American Cultural Laboratory’s retreat space in Highland Lake, NY in October, 2012. (1.5 hours; cast of 5) Source.
Three Sisters at Seattle's Intiman Theatre
This is the first time the 46-year-old Sher, lauded for his Shakespeare outings, has tackled Chekhov. And he's well aware the Russian author's century-old scripts have flummoxed many American directors, with their subtle shadings of humor and poignancy.
"I've always wanted to direct Chekhov, but told myself I needed to be older because the experiences of his characters are hard to get inside of when you're young," Sher noted.
Opened June 15th, 2005.
Review 1 (and source of above quote)
Three Sisters at the Moscow Art Theatre
"Three Sisters was Chekhov's first completely new play since 1896. [...] Three Sisters was also specifically written for the Art Threatre and with a definite casting in mind, even if this was not followed. [...]
Success had not diminished Chekhov's fear of ridicule. On the contrary, if anything it was worse. His moods were increasingly volatile - an effect of his tubercular condition. He could be savage. As Gorki wrote in his short Memoir, on a bad day Chekhov hated everyone.
He also resented being labelled as a pessimist. He kept announcing his intention to write something light and amusing and seemed to imagine that he had done so. He insisted Three Sisters and, later, The Cherry Orchard, were comedies or even farces. No one else in the company - including his wife - nor his sister agreed with him. Gorki, perhaps, came nearest to the truth when he said that Chekhov diagnosed his characters like a doctor. They were what they were. One was supposed to learn from them not weep for them." -The Moscow Art Theatre Letters,
edited by Jean Benedetti, pg 72.
First performed 1901 in Russia at the Moscow Art Theatre.