Uncle Vanya (Act 2), Week 1: "Love, Loss and Longing" - The Rehearsal Room - The Working Actor's Journey

Episode Transcript
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>> Nathan Agin (00:00):
Yes, here we are officially to start some Chekhov.
I'm so thrilled to be back in this
rehearsal room. We kind of took the summer off after
doing some repertory sessions. Sarah was part
of that, in the late spring and it was a lot of fun. and
now we're experimenting with Chekhov. And who
better to kick that off with than Libby and
Allison? I'm really, really honored that

(00:23):
you. You can both be here and Libby from
California and Allison from New Zealand, It's
fantastic. So The miracle of this
technology. It's really great. So I
just have a couple things that I wanted to
do up, front and then I'll let you guys get underway with
rehearsal. we will do a ah,

(00:43):
quick intro and all that so everybody can just kind of
acclimate and get to know everybody very briefly.
but as I mentioned, in the email on
Sunday, as some may know, Fran, ah,
Bennett transitioned on Saturday.
And you know, she was a wonderful, wonderful actress and
voice teacher. And I know many on this call, worked
with her and knew her for many years. And even

(01:05):
if you hadn't worked with her, you probably admired her
work, either from up close or afar. and so I
just wanted to take a moment right
now and a moment of silence. We'll just kind of
honor Fran's legacy and
contribution to the. The.

(01:54):
Thank you for doing that. I will
say, as I'm sure many do have, memories
and recollections of Fran,
perhaps at the end of rehearsal today, if people are
feeling so moved to share any of that, you
can, Or the Facebook group, that
some of you have connected with, you know, is another opportunity. I

(02:15):
had been in touch with Fran, you know, via email
about potentially involving her in some of these, workshops
we were going, that were going on and it would have been just
a real honor for her to be part.
But we'll just We'll always keep her in our thoughts
and our hearts. So, But again, thank you for taking
that moment with me. So next,
what I want to do is just

(02:37):
have us go around kind of a quick round robin, and
for everybody to introduce yourselves because maybe not
everybody knows everybody or has worked with everybody, and
just share a little bit about who you are, where
you're coming from, maybe a little bit about
your experience with Chekhov and you don't need to have
any experience with Chekhov. That's what this session is for.

(02:57):
but, I'll start because
nobody likes to go first, so I'll make myself go first.
but, my name is Nathan, and,
I've trained as an actor, worked as an actor, and about a year and a half
ago, over, conversations
with, professional actors. We created this,
series and have just been refining it over
time. And it's been a lot of fun to

(03:20):
have this much time to work on the text
in this way. and, I
personally, I don't know if I've ever. I don't think I've ever done
a Chekhov play. I've certainly seen, a lot of, Chekhov
and scenes and. And all that kind of stuff. But,
my. My kind of main acting gig right now is audiobook
narration. So that's. That's what I do, at night when it's
quiet, and, you know, in the middle of the night, that's what I do. So,

(03:43):
but that's. That's what I'm up to. And, how about we
turn it over to Libby?

>> Libby (03:48):
Oh, I knew you'd do that.
First, I want to say, thank you for taking that moment for
Fran Bennett. She was beloved and
admired and a powerful presence
in anyone's life. Who knew her? Ursula. We
worked with her together at CalArts. Do you remember
that? Were you there at the time that
she was?

>> Ursula (04:10):
I never took that job at Cal Arts, but.

>> Libby (04:12):
Oh, God, I'll never forgive you for that.

>> Ursula (04:16):
but of course, she's a Linklater teacher, so I worked her a number
of times through the Linklater community, and
she. She was very present in this last year
since Kristin passed, and so, very dear
to all our hearts. Mighty presence.
Yeah. And lived a lot longer than it says
she did.

>> Libby (04:37):
Is that so?

>> Ursula (04:40):
She had her 90th birthday a couple years back, but
Wikipedia's clever. Or she was
clever.

>> Libby (04:49):
Well, she, was an extraordinary
woman. Okay. I'm Libby,
and I am Brooklyn born.
Came, lived in a lot of places in this
country. and the one that I lived in the
longest in my life was Ashland, Oregon, believe
it or not. From Brooklyn, New York, to

(05:10):
Ashland, Oregon. That's quite a journey.
I have known and loved Anton
Pavlovich since I'm 16 years old. That's
another story. You can ask it sometime.
And, so in other words, from New
York to Santa Barbara
via a lot of other states,

(05:32):
I've carried the torch for this guy. Somebody just
sent me. Did you see this series, of
pictures of hot Chekhov?
Oh, my God, they're so fabulous. He was
so gorgeous. So I remain in love with
him, and we will all discover
together why I'm such a crazy person about

(05:53):
him.

All right, perfect. more to be discovered,
with Libby. Alberto.

>> Alberto (06:00):
Yeah. Hi, I'm Alberto.
I was born in the Philippines. Screw up
there.

>> Libby (06:07):
where? I'm sorry?

>> Alberto (06:08):
Philippines.
I was born in the Philippines, and I, grew up there.
I, I've lived in Los Angeles ever
since I moved to the United States. Los Angeles
area. haven't been doing
much, Chekhov. I was telling Nathan I did
a production of Three Sisters at East West

(06:29):
Players in the 70s. I.
I played the Baron. Baron Tusenbach.

>> Libby (06:35):
Very nice.

>> Alberto (06:36):
Yeah, I was younger then.
and with the Pandemic, I haven't done much. I
did go off to the Dominican
Republic earlier this year to work in a small
role with J. Lo in
Rom Com. They were filming there.

>> Libby (06:55):
Wow.

>> Alberto (06:56):
But otherwise, locational, zoom m,
reading and so forth.

Oh, great.

>> Alberto (07:02):
Thrilled to be here.

Well, good. Wonderful, wonderful. You can be here. Corey.
Hey, everyone.

>> Corey (07:07):
I'm Corey. It's nice to meet you all.
I'm from Long Beach, California. I,
I studied acting at California State University, Long Beach.

>> Libby (07:17):
I used to teach here.

>> Corey (07:18):
I read that, and I thought that was awesome.

>> Libby (07:21):
Yeah.

>> Corey (07:21):
And then that's where I, did my first Chekhov. I did my first
checkoff scene in Hugo Gorman's. And I met my
partner doing, Yelena and Astrov, the
map scene.

>> Libby (07:31):
And it's a very sexy scene.

>> Corey (07:33):
It sure is.
And, yeah, I'm going back to Harry
Potter and the Cursed Child in November.
And, yeah, that's about
me.

>> Libby (07:45):
Awesome.

Ah, awesome. Corey.

>> Howard (07:46):
Great.

You can be here. Daedre.

>> Deidre (07:51):
Hi, I am Deidre Henry
Dickerman.
Since we're saying we were born, I was born in Barbados and
grew up in Atlanta and lived
everywhere. and my first,
I'm right now in Los Angeles. My
first introduction to Chekhov,

(08:12):
was 20 years ago playing
Irina and three sisters. that
was, directed by Libby Apple at the
Oregon Shakespeare Festival. and
it made me fall in love
with,
these characters, with the story, with their
yearning, and with

(08:34):
their. There's just the connection to life that they
have. and I am very
excited to be working with you guys.
So thank you. Thank you.

Awesome. Thanks, Adri. Howard.

>> Howard (08:49):
Hi, I'm Howard. I'm originally from
Redding, California, which is almost like Ashland.
Not quite. Not nearly as civilized,
maybe.
I have sort of a dual career. I work as an editor in
television. And, have just started acting again about
three years ago. Came back to this. And, this summer I'm at
Utah Shakes, which has been awesome.

(09:11):
My experience with Chekhov is fairly limited. I've always been kind
of fascinated by the plays when
I've seen them, and always been like, how. How does that
even work? And, I took a class, I guess, at
Antaeus probably about a year and a half, two years ago
with, With Rob Nagel, where we worked on
scenes from these plays, for folks to know him.
And that was really kind of my first exposure to playing some

(09:34):
of these roles, which was. It was pretty great and left
me wanting a lot more. So good to meet you
all.

Yeah, wonderful. Thanks, Howard. Alison.

>> Alison (09:45):
Hi, everybody. I'm Alison Horsley. I'm
originally from Tyler, Texas.
And, I moved around a lot working in
theaters. and I guess more of my history
with Chekhov is really because of my history with Russian
language and literature, which started on kind
of a whim. my first year of college, I decided to take
Russian. I thought it would be hard and interesting, and that was

(10:07):
true. And after
that I was really, I was quite intimidated by
Chekhov and really afraid of him until really,
Until, Oregon Shakespeare Festival commissioned
me to, work with Libby to translate Cherry
Orchard for her to direct in her final season at
osf. And so I really got to know
Chekhov and his work through a combination

(10:29):
of, sitting with the plays for a very long time
and looking at the language and then also
working with Libby and learning
how well it can play on its feet.
And so it's been a process for me
of really learning about that. So I'm a theater
person and a Russian person.

(10:49):
but nowadays I live in New Zealand and I don't do as
much Russian. So I'm excited to be back
in a room.

So maybe you'll
be translating into, like, an indigenous language in New Zealand
or something. next.

>> Alison (11:04):
Actually, it's Te Reo, Maori Week here in New
Zealand. So everybody is, like, working on beefing
up their Maori language, which is what my green
sticky notes are in the background.
So that's what that is.

I remember being in Barcelona and the local,
the country was making an effort to teach people
Catalan. So I don't know, maybe there'll be something in New
Zealand where they Want to make sure that this language, you know, stays active.

>> Libby (11:31):
And they should.

>> Alison (11:33):
Yeah, very much so. It's. It's very. It's a very active
effort.

>> Libby (11:36):
Very important that we don't lose these things.

Absolutely. very cool. Well, thank you,
Alison, for joining us, from tomorrow from, New Zealand. That's
wonderful. Julie, how about you?
Next.

>> Julie (11:48):
Yes. Hi, I'm Julie Lee, actor. I spent the
Pandemic doing a ton of zoom
readings, directing and acting. It's been a constant
stream of doing that. As far as Chekhov. I
have, pretty much no experience. I
saw my first Chekhov was watching
Ivanov at the East Coast Players Conservatory.

(12:08):
So it was a student production of Ivanov.
I, did a monologue and an acting class for Studio Steven Book.
And I did a couple of improv scenes that were based
on. On Chekhov genre, based
improv. So I have very little exposure, but I'm really, really
excited to sink my teeth into this. So thank you for
having me.

Yeah, absolutely wonderful, Julie. Thank you,
Ursula.
Oh, you're still mute. Almost. There you go.

>> Howard (12:34):
One second.

>> Ursula (12:35):
I have a monitor, so it takes a while. Should we also
do my.

>> Alberto (12:39):
Of course.

>> Ursula (12:40):
Okay, so I'll go first. Yeah.

>> Libby (12:42):
You're here.

>> Ursula (12:43):
You have to introduce yourself. so,
ah. I was an actress for a while, and then I became a voice
teacher and voice coach. And now I am, heading
the graduate acting program at ucsd. I
had many lovely years with Libby and Deidre
and this guy at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival.
And, I don't know that I worked on a check off with you

(13:03):
there. I think I might not have.
but I worked on 13 Sisters with Diana
Lamar and another group,
years in that many years.
But I taught for four years at
JL School of Trauma. And, Carol
Gister is a wonderful. Or was a wonderful
teacher of, Shakespeare, Chekhov.

(13:25):
And so I did a lot of, a lot of
coach a lot of the plays and loved them
more every time. And they're just
oceans deep and funny. and
then I taught a couple times, acting Chekhov at
ucsd and we had a glorious
time. There's just no way to get to the bottom of it.
And that's the joy.

(13:47):
so, I think I acted in a couple of scenes. I don't
think I've ever acted in one of the plays. I remember Clayton
Crozet coaching me in a scene
in grad school, the Nina
Tergoren, scene where she sits and listens.
And it was a Beautiful time. So
that's. And here's my husband, James Newcombe.

>> Howard (14:07):
Hi, I'm James Newcomb, and, I'm thrilled to be here
and observe this today. And, Libby and I
go back to Oregon Shakespeare Festival. we did
a Merchant of Venice together and a Richard III together.

>> Libby (14:19):
Richard iii. That was pretty
spectacular. Jamie, your Richard III
will stay in my memory and heart
forever.

>> Howard (14:29):
Well, and mine as well. It was really,
really special. Special, time.
I've never done any Chekhov at
all. I have never been in a scene.
I have never been in a Chekhov play. I don't
know how it's passed by
so far. but, it just has never

(14:49):
happened. And, you know, the Treplev was
a role that I was desperate to play and didn't
have an opportunity to, you know.
And now, And, Vanya was one, and
I'm past that.

>> Libby (15:02):
So, no, I don't think you.

>> Howard (15:04):
Fears. Maybe I'll die on stage playing
fears.

>> Libby (15:10):
That's what every Jacobian actor comes to,
fears.

>> Alberto (15:14):
Yeah, that's right.

Well, I'm thrilled that, Ursula,
ah, you know, is here and Jamie can sit in. And for those
who saw Jamie play Silvius and as yous like it earlier
this year, Jamie, there may still be time for you to
play Vanya or Treple there.

>> Libby (15:31):
You know, there's, not Treplev, but definitely
Vanya.

Well, in this. I would say in this format,
we can always revisit, those two characters.
Wonderful. And, Sarah.

>> Libby (15:46):
Hi, everyone.

>> Sarah (15:47):
So happy to be here. I'm
Sarah. I'm from the Seattle region and I'm in Los
Angeles. I'll get to my checkup in a moment,
but I want to say, for Libby and you other
OSF folks, my first. The first
Shakespeare I ever saw was in 2003. It was
midsummer at OSF. And it was,
It blew my mind, made,

(16:09):
me want to go into Shakespeare and play Helena. I'm finally
playing Helena this summer. And it's been this, you know, like
a 15 year goal after watching that. And
it was also the first theater
production I had seen that had color, conscious
casting, which also was, very
significant for me to be able to see that and
helped move things forward. And I just. It was

(16:32):
such a great production.

>> Libby (16:34):
do you remember who directed it or who played in
it?

>> Sarah (16:38):
I was in high school, so I didn't pay
attention to things like that. I was just.

>> Libby (16:43):
I can't remember the 2003 was it
outdoors?

>> Sarah (16:47):
Yeah, it was in the globe. Y Space.

>> Libby (16:50):
Yes.

>> Sarah (16:50):
Yeah, yeah, it was wonderful.

>> Libby (16:53):
It's wonderful to me that you were so touched by it.

>> Sarah (16:55):
Yeah, yeah, it was very, very
impactful. so thank you. And,
as far as Chekhov goes, I feel like I have
some, but not a lot. The first time I read
Chekhov's plays was while I was backpacking across Turkey.
And so I sometimes picture these plays with that setting
as opposed to the Russian countryside.

(17:16):
and then I reread them a few years ago when I took a semester
in improvised Chekhov, at
a company where Julie and I are actually both company
members. so I did six months of fully improvised
Chekhov plays, but I have never done a
scripted Chekhov scene, which is
probably a bit cart before horse. So I feel like I'm catching
up now, to learn how this all actually works the way

(17:38):
it's supposed to be done.

>> Libby (17:40):
Love it.

Awesome.

>> Howard (17:42):
That's great.

Well, thank you, Sarah. and, wonderful that, you can
join us again. And, you know, Sarah, you mentioned
something that has been very important as
part of this, and it's evident in this group today, is that we can
be, you know, with this format and with this
exploration of just the text and the
plays, we, can be very conscious about,
age and gender and, all those

(18:05):
things, that, you know, we can explore that
and explode those concepts and really have
fun with, this. So I'm. I'm excited that, we get to do
that once again with this group, and just, really thrilled
that, you can all be here. And, thank you very much for doing
a quick intro. I believe we, got
everybody. but, yeah, that's wonderful. So I
will.

>> Libby (18:25):
Hello, my name is Joan
Saxton.

>> Ursula (18:28):
I'm one of the white faces here.

Oh, hi, Joan.

>> Ursula (18:31):
The screen is telling me that you.

>> Libby (18:33):
Have my video blocked. Is that true? Yes.

So just for the audience members, we typically have
people off camera and just on mute, so you can
observe. And if there's, you know, opportunity at the end for
questions, you know, we can, you know, if there's
time, we can look at that, but otherwise, it's just kind of a fly,
on the wall experience.

>> Libby (18:52):
Okay, that's fine with me. But I'd like to say just one
thing to another member here.
Are you the Jamie that jumped over.

>> Ursula (18:59):
The casket when you began Richard iii?

>> Libby (19:03):
No. No.

Did you. Did you guys are muted?

>> Howard (19:09):
No, no, I didn't jump over a casket. it started
with me upstage in a ball. And then one crutch
came out, another crutch came out, and
then pulled myself, turned around and came down
to the stage.

>> Libby (19:22):
Okay, thank you.

Yep. Okay, cool. All right, well, with
that all, everything taken care of, I am going to turn it over
to Libby. if you guys have any questions or anything, you can. You
can drop a note in the chat. I'll just be. I'll be another fly
on the wall. but, just excited to listen in
and hope you have a wonderful afternoon.

>> Libby (19:41):
Thank you. Well, it's great to
start, and I was glad to hear,
that some of you had glancing
relationship with, Chekhov.
I, know that every actor
you've ever known who's done a Chekhov has probably
said to you, oh, it's so great. It's so

(20:01):
great. And it is. It's actors territory.
It's the stuff that actors love. Also may
seem like Shakespeare at first because the language is
so demanding. that check of how do I approach
it? How do I do it? I mean, is it, you
know, just. It's too hard. It only
belongs to, the great actors of the world.

(20:22):
Well, of course, Checklist
belongs to everybody. And, we're gonna
try to find our way in it. I
just want to say this format is a little
overwhelming for me. I have
participated in watching Zoom,
and I've had some family Zooms, but I've
never done a class with Zoom.

(20:43):
And I tend to,
comment when people are talking because I
get excited about what you're saying. And you have to forgive
me if I'm interfering with your comment. I
never mean to be. And,
we'll just have to figure out how to work together. The other
thing to say is that I

(21:05):
work mostly by questions. I'm going to ask you
a jillion questions,
and I think it's actually going to be you
that's going to tell us how to play these roles
by the time we finished in another three
weeks. so I have no
answers. I only have what I
have discovered personally. And each one

(21:28):
of you is going to discover for
yourself what's going on here.
That's why Chekhov is so great, because it's for
you, whoever you are,
wherever you are, whether you're in tomorrow
or today, it's
material that, is true.
I'm just reading right now,

(21:51):
a book by Maggie O'Farrell. I don't know if any of you have
caught on to her. She just wrote Hamnet. I mean, she wrote
Hamnet, which is an exquisite book.
And I've been just going through all of her books,
and I keep saying, how Jacobian. How
Jacobian. Because she really understands
the human heart. And she speaks

(22:11):
of it. She writes, of it in a way
that's just small details and stupid little
incidents. And everything is
revealed to you in your heart about what's going on with these
characters. It's so divine to find
that, when that happens.
So you've had a little glancing. Deidre
is, I think, the only one here who's played a

(22:33):
whole role then. Is
that right? Yeah.
and the discovery process. You don't
have to say yes to this, Deidre, but I'll be disappointed if you
don't. The discovery process through
throughout the rehearsals is pretty
fantastic, isn't it? Personal discovery?

>> Deidre (22:54):
Absolutely. Absolutely. Because it just. It's sort of.
It sits on your soul.
It sits right. Right on the. Right on the
edge of where it allows you to
go wherever you need to go.

>> Libby (23:08):
Yeah.

>> Deidre (23:08):
You know, which I thought was really beautiful
about it. and it was unexpected
because reading it is very different than playing
it,
reading it. You know, I found myself
sort of,
Making them somewhat absurd, if that

(23:30):
makes any sense, you know.

>> Libby (23:31):
No, he's looking for you to do that.

>> Deidre (23:34):
Yeah. You know, and then. But then when you play
it, there's. There's a certain place that it
sits in you, where you understand there.
You understand where they are. You understand how they
feel. You understand what. The yearning, you
know?

>> Libby (23:49):
I love you using that word, yearning, which you did
before, too.

>> Deidre (23:54):
Yeah. and it sits right there on the
surface of that. and I think that's why I fell in love
with it so much, was that it was
difficult language, but it was easy to access, if
that makes sense.

>> Libby (24:07):
Of course, we did. The three sisters before Alison and
I began the process of
translating, the five
plays. so I feel like,
wait a minute. Let's do it again.
I want you to wait until you do it again
with these translations. Because I think
these translations are a little bit more

(24:28):
alive than the ones that I used
before. Alison and I
just. It was a kind of amazing
coming, together, wasn't it, Alison? you were
a little scared. I was scared. I spent my
life reading and
directing and playing,

(24:49):
Chekhov's plays and scenes
and all of the short
stories and the letters
and our mutual darling friend
Louis. Doubt that said Libby.
This is your final checkup for the Oregon
Shakespeare Festival. you should
translate. it Yourself. I said, translate myself. I

(25:12):
was too scared. Couldn't begin to do it. I
didn't speak any Russian. and she said,
I'm going to find you a Russian translator.
And she found me, Allison. And it was such a
magic combination, wasn't it?

>> Deidre (25:26):
Oh, yeah.

>> Libby (25:27):
Well.

>> Alison (25:27):
And I met you. I only met you. I interned at Oregon
Shakespeare Festival. And I didn't meet you
because, you were running out the front of the building
because you had a grandbaby that was being born. And
that was the last I saw of you, was you flying out the front of
the building.

>> Deidre (25:42):
Well, I've got four of them now, so.

>> Libby (25:46):
Yeah. What year was that, Allison?

>> Alison (25:49):
That was 1997.

>> Libby (25:51):
My first. Yeah,
he's 23 now.

>> Alison (25:56):
We're so old.
Yeah, it was magical. I think we gave each other
permission to really learn the language.

>> Libby (26:05):
Exactly. In fact, let me just tell this one
little side story. the first
one was Cherry Orchard. Because I wanted to
do Shakespeare's. In my final
season, as artistic director, I wanted to do
a, Shakespeare in his final play, the
Tempest. I know there's question whether that's final

(26:25):
or not, but it was final for me. And,
Cherry Orchard, Cecco's final
play. And, I
had the opportunity to choose these
and do them myself. And
the idea of me
translating
was just beyond possibility. I

(26:48):
forgot where that story was going. Okay, I'll leave it
alone and come back to it. I want to
know. I asked you all to read
the whole play, Uncle Vanya, because it's
impossible to do the scene without knowing
where it's coming from and where it's going. And
I want to get from you,
your. What your feelings were

(27:10):
in reading it. and I want your honest
feelings. I don't want you to hold back, and I don't
want you to think that you need to sound a certain way.
I need you to be really honest with me
about what you discovered as you read it,
even if you hated it.
Anybody take up the.

>> Corey (27:33):
Yeah, I'll go.
I really loved it. I thought it was very,
very sad. all the
characters are very sad. it
seems that there's a huge desire for change or something
new. obviously, everybody's bored and
everybody has nothing to do.

>> Libby (27:50):
And.

>> Corey (27:51):
Or this. This longing for beauty,
for beauty in the world, for beauty in their atmosphere, for beauty
all around. And it seems to just get flip
flopped, back and forth whether, I don't know,
Astro's talking about trees and you
can feel that he feels this certain
way and I mean,

(28:11):
Yelena talking about how bored she is all the time, and
everybody's so annoyed by her, I guess, in that
way. I just. I thought it was very,
very beautiful. Beautifully written. I
loved it.

>> Libby (28:24):
I love those things. Yes. Anybody else
have first impressions of it?

>> Howard (28:30):
This go round for me was like,
I've always had a hard time reading Chekhov
because especially in the first
act or two, so much is
unsaid, I guess, or
like deliberately unsaid. I think particularly in this
play where there's sort of this dam
that breaks all at once in the third act. And I

(28:52):
was like. I suddenly had this, like, thought. I was
like, you almost have to kind of. Though you can't really read
it backwards. You have to kind of read it backwards,
you, know, like. Like knowing where they get to
so that you can see all the things that. All the tensions that are boiling
under the surface in the first act or two of most of these
plays. And for me, I don't know that

(29:13):
kind of. I also thought the translation was really beautiful and I
found. I also thought the ending was really, really
moving. but for me, it was like the first time
where I wasn't just going, how do you play
this? But I was like. I was like, oh, this is kind of an amazingly
constructed play. I never had that experience before. I
often found Chekhov m. Boring to read.

>> Libby (29:32):
People mostly say,

>> Howard (29:34):
And then this time through, I think maybe I had more experience
with it, or I'm just a different person reading it. But. But I
was like. I was like, oh, there's. There. They're not
saying things. And that's what's maybe important as.
As important as the stuff they are saying.

>> Libby (29:50):
Great, wonderful observations,
Howard. Other people. Let me hear what you think.

>> Julie (29:56):
Yeah. It felt like they were not saying so much and yet
saying a lot as well. With the history and the
relationships between the characters just saying it point
blank, like who this person is and what their histories were. I
thought that was interesting. It felt a little,
belabored at first when I was first reading it, but it
definitely places things in context. What really
struck me was its,

(30:17):
Relevance.

>> Libby (30:19):
Yes, it.

>> Alison (30:21):
It's.

>> Julie (30:21):
It's mind blowingly relevant and I can't
imagine a time.

>> Libby (30:26):
Right. Sadly relevantly relevant.

>> Julie (30:28):
But I was thinking in history, and there's not really a time
in life where this isn't relevant.
Yeah, it kind of blew my mind
how this writing did that especially. Especially.
But, you know, especially now in 2020,
this constant. It's just people want
change, but it's just impossible.

>> Libby (30:47):
There's.

>> Julie (30:48):
There's no out. And, it very much
affected me in that.

>> Libby (30:52):
And we're cutting down the forest and. And the climate
is changing and everything he talks about.
And do you remember that he says in a.
In 100 or 200 years, it'll be different. And of course,
it's over 100 years later, and
it's, worse.
Way worse.

(31:12):
Yeah.

>> Julie (31:12):
Yeah. Tragic.

>> Libby (31:14):
Tragic is right. Yes. Other thoughts?
Other impressions, Dage? Yeah.

>> Alberto (31:20):
I'm sorry.

>> Deidre (31:22):
Well, I
remembered, just that same, you know, that the world
will be better in 200 years. I remembered that from,
three sisters. So that was really moving. But I
also realized there were parts of it that were really
funny.

>> Libby (31:39):
Like.

>> Deidre (31:39):
Like, they're like. For some reason
I forgot the humor. And I don't know if
it was because it was the second reading, you know,
the first reading, I was like, oh, God, they're just so
extreme. and, you know, just.
But then the second time I read it through, I really, like, the
humor really came out for me, where I

(31:59):
wasn't laughing at their absurdity. I was just laughing
at just their house.
How, Not just
sincere, they were,
But earnest. They
were. And I just thought, remember.

>> Libby (32:15):
Do you remember any parts that were particularly funny to
you? I'm putting you on the spot. I don't mean to.

>> Deidre (32:21):
Yeah, you're putting me on the spot. let me see if I can find
it. I'll find it.

>> Libby (32:25):
Okay. Okay.

>> Sarah (32:27):
Good weather for a hanging.

>> Libby (32:30):
Sorry?

>> Sarah (32:30):
Good weather to hang yourself.

>> Libby (32:32):
Yes. Good. Good. Yes. Yes.
That's good.

>> Alberto (32:36):
Alberto,
said my. My point about what I
was going to bring up about how funny it was. The,
The, The. The
attempted murder of my character,
is, like, amazingly funny, I thought. I
mean, it's almost flapstick.

>> Libby (32:55):
Very funny. And
let me just digress for a second about that.
Alberto, he wrote a play
before Uncle Vanya that became
Uncle Vanya. It's called the Wood Demon.
Yes. And in that play,
the character actually shoots a

(33:16):
person, kills a person.

>> Alberto (33:18):
Good God.

>> Libby (33:19):
Chekhov got rid of all of the.

>> Alberto (33:21):
I don't remember that. Yeah, that was way back
in the 80s.

>> Libby (33:24):
Chekhov got rid of all of the melodrama and all of
the monstrous activity and made
it funny. He missed twice,
right? Yeah, twice.

>> Deidre (33:35):
Twice.

>> Libby (33:36):
Yes.

>> Alberto (33:37):
Yeah. And I wanted to say how,
gratefully, to an
actor, the translation is. It's
like. Oh, I can say this line.

>> Libby (33:50):
Thank you. That's great.

>> Alberto (33:52):
Some of the more stilted translations, ah,
early 20th century ones.

>> Libby (33:59):
No, they're not good. But we're grateful
for them. They brought Chekhov to the United States and to
England. So you have to be grateful for Constance
Garnett. It was a hundred years
ago, but
there we go. Yes.

>> Sarah (34:17):
so for me, I really remember this being
my least favorite play. And I'm very
pleased to have come out of it, with a completely different
perspective. This read through, I
think what really struck me was,
similar to Three Sisters, at least for me.
the. The obstacles are

(34:37):
simply themselves. You know, like all these characters who are
straining at this rope that's tied around them and holding them back,
but the thing on the other end of the rope is also them holding back. And so,
you know, as an actor, you're looking for, well, what. What is the obstacle? And the
obstacle is you. And
the. This play forces so much personal,
introspection on, what are the. It's

(34:58):
very difficult to look at, I think, as an individual. What are the ways in
which we simply block ourselves
from happiness, from agency, from
moving forward in life? And I, again, the first time
I read Vanya, I was like, oh, this is depressing and sad. And this time
I went, oh, my God, this is. Every single character has a
slightly different way in which they are exploring

(35:19):
this one theme of you are
your own biggest obstacle. And I found it a
fascinating character
analysis.

>> Libby (35:29):
Can you give any examples of that, Sarah? I agree
with you entirely.

>> Sarah (35:34):
Yeah, well, I think
looking at Vanya, for
example, he is so upset
at the professor for having stolen his
life from him. But when you have that big blow up scene, the
professor says, you could have raised your salary at
any point. I just, I didn't. I didn't know.
I had no idea. So there was nothing

(35:56):
getting in the way of him, you know,
improving upon his life. It's just
everybody has, you know, these set
expectations of how they think
something should be happening when in reality it's in
their head. I think, Yelena is similar in that
way. I read through it twice. I was looking for what is the thing that

(36:16):
keeps her from taking a lover. And it's never
stated. And so I have to come to the
conclusion that whatever it is,
it's here.

>> Libby (36:26):
It's not this block is in herself the
black. Yes, but don't you find that
it's true about all of us, that,
it's hard to reveal what we really think?

>> Sarah (36:37):
Exactly. Which is why I think this is such
an incredible picture,
of humanity. And I think that's what Chekhov does best, and
it's so agonizing.
but also, the things that remind us most of ourselves
are agonizing. We always hate the people that are just
like, you know. So reading to us, I was like, oh, yeah, I've got
some things to look at.

>> Libby (37:00):
They're exactly like us. Actually,
I find it true. I reread,
the play this weekend. And, you know, Uncle
Vanya, I've directed it three times
professionally. And so I've worked with
extraordinary actors, and I've known it
all my life. and I found myself

(37:20):
laughing in new places. And I found
myself going, oh, I
didn't get that before.
So it's revealing. It's
constantly revealing. It's like opening
up a, treasure chest and keep
going through the layers. At least that's the way

(37:40):
it responds for me. Let me ask you
this.
Oh, that's my. I'm not used
to technology. You'll have to forgive me. So if I get
buzzes and bumps, I don't know what's happening
at first. you heard my phone
ringing earlier, and I tried to close

(38:00):
the doors, as much as I can. But,
the cat has to have some freedom to move around. So
I have to keep the doors open. But the point
is, I don't know how to turn the phone off. So
you have to live with my eccentricities here.
And being very old school,

>> Sarah (38:20):
I.

>> Libby (38:21):
Wanted to ask you, why do you think.
I mean, this is a setup with a household of
people that go about their business pretty much
normally. Vanya and
Sonia work the farm, right?
And, the professor
and his wife come

(38:41):
to visit. Like they would visit
a. A summer house for a couple of weeks.
Normally, you know, it's a vacation
house. and Vanya and
Sonia send the money. And the people who live in the house
always live in the house. Njania, the
nursemaid, has been with them

(39:02):
the entire time, of Vanya's
life. so she was there for
him when he was a baby. and
Vanya's mother is living there. So the point is
it's a kind of tight household
of normal summer
visit. Except why is this visit
not normal? What do

(39:25):
you think is creating,
someone said, tension boiling
under,
sadness going on underneath,
what's going on in the atmosphere
that's creating that. Why does this play happen
and peak, in a gun

(39:48):
being shot? Any thoughts about
that?

>> Sarah (39:53):
I have a thought, but I'm excited to hear everybody
else's thoughts. Has the professor just
retired? Is this his first year? When he's gone from being an
active member of,
academia to non or
intelligentsia to retired.

>> Libby (40:09):
Yes.
So what does that mean?

>> Sarah (40:14):
So I feel like,
his, status has now been
revealed as a nothing
burger or a lack of status. And his feelings about that and
everybody else's feelings about that are all spiraling and
cooking up this soup of feelings.
The purpose that Vanya and Sonja

(40:36):
and, what's the mother's name?

>> Libby (40:39):
Maria.

>> Sarah (40:39):
Maria have all been looking up to her is just. It's
deflated. It's suddenly deflated in front of their eyes.

>> Libby (40:45):
Yes. Of course, we don't know what it
is that actually caused Vanya.
We don't know whether he read an article. Article
that debuted,
the Professor. I don't think we know
exactly what the specific
circumstances. So that would be something an actor,

(41:06):
Vanya and the professor would need to, to
wrestle with, to figure out. Right.
But yes, I think that's excellent,
Sarah.
he retired.
And what did they decide to do when. When they
retired?

>> Sarah (41:30):
They moved in.

>> Libby (41:31):
Right, Moved in.
You know, it's a big difference in coming for two weeks and you're a
kind of popular star, and
then you bring all
your suitcases and you're here to stay forever.
What does that do?

>> Alberto (41:55):
the, short term
visits, were probably
bearable, but to have to put up with this,
professor for and you know, all you can think
of, and he'll be here forever,
I think. You know, what is it? Guests and
fish start to rot after

(42:16):
how many days? And I'm. I've been here already how
long? I forgot already. since.
Not too long. It feels like this time.
I mean.

>> Libby (42:27):
Yes, I think that's great.

>> Alberto (42:29):
Yeah.

>> Libby (42:30):
Any other thoughts about that?

>> Howard (42:32):
It's also like I. I always have this
saying of be, careful of working for your
heroes because they'll just come off the pedestal. There's
like, There's, There's. They can only come down and
it's like Elena and the
Professor. Everybody's been at kind of this
idealized distance forever and
suddenly you're like, you know, they're.

(42:54):
They're going to be in your face permanently. And it's
like all they can do is lose. Lose
value. I think that's what's happening. And then this
love hexagon, I don't know what it
is, the love Pentagon that's going on, you know,
where everybody's misplacing. The object of
their desire is so rich,

(43:14):
you know, I mean, it's just such an amazing
configuration and of course.

>> Libby (43:20):
It'S kind of the center of most
comedy, isn't it? Everybody's in love with the wrong
person. it's how you use those ingredients
that makes the difference in, in the kind of play. But
that ingredient is really at the center, being in love
with the wrong person.
how about the fact

(43:42):
of, Yelena's extreme beauty? What do
you think about that and what has that got to do with the
play?

>> Deidre (43:58):
I think, you know, there's a part of me that feels
like there's.

>> Libby (44:05):
Like.

>> Deidre (44:05):
It turns up,
the feelings of inadequacy.
It turns up, you know, I mean, everyone's
just doing what they need to do. And
it's dangling. It's
dangling something that is,
irretrievable or

(44:27):
it's like dangling a carrot that's
always going to be dangled and that no one can find any
satisfaction out of. And that, you know,
definitely for Sonia,
you know, I think her devotion and
her, you know, her duty,

(44:48):
has been the thing that has. And her caring
has been the thing that has moved her forward. And now,
you know, here's something that she can't attain,
you know.
Sorry.

>> Sarah (45:03):
No, no, I. Zoom. Delay. I thought you were done. I didn't mean to
interrupt.

>> Deidre (45:06):
No, no, no, no, no, no, no. Go ahead, go ahead.

>> Sarah (45:09):
Well, it also, I love everything you just said and it also makes
me think, it really sets up the
shallowness of beauty,
as a commodity. Because everything
else that's said about Yelena is that she's bored,
she is dissatisfied, she's moving through the life like a
sloth. And then you have Sonja. They say she is plain,

(45:29):
she says I'm plain. But she is running the farm. She has
kept this place alive in every respect.
Sonja should be a catch that
Astrov, would love. Perfect
Match when one will work on Savannah. But because of this beauty with
nothing else underneath it, Yelena is still the more desired
object.

>> Libby (45:47):
In the early 70s, I was lucky enough to
see a production of this, at Circle and
Square in New York. I don't even know if that theater still
exists, but, George C. Scott, the
movie star, played Astro. a
very famous English actor by the name of Nicole
Williamson played Vanya

(46:07):
and Julie Christie. Do you know the name
Julie Christie? The movie star of the
70s, 60s and
70s? Well in the beginning,
as you know, in the opening scene she
played Yelena. And in the opening
scene, and I thought, I'm sorry,
but in the, you know, Julie

(46:29):
Christie, how can she stand next To George C. Scott,
this mammoth, incredible actor. And
Nicole Williamson. I mean it's just
impossible. Julie Christie,
she's a movie star. She belongs
in photo books, not on the
stage playing a character like this. Well, as

(46:49):
you know, in the opening thing. And it makes me know what a
brilliant showman, Chekhov was.
The professor and
Sonia and Waffles come
in from the walk. And they're walking and
trailing behind is Yelena,
you know, da da da, da, da, da da, dawdling
her way. And Julie Christie walks

(47:11):
in in this ivory colored
lace dress.
And I had, had never
in my life seen anything so beautiful.
And it makes you. It made me
turn away for a moment because she
was so beautiful that it's hard to look

(47:33):
at. And I think,
I know that sounds strange, but
I think I certainly have a lot of Sonya in
me. There's something scared of something that
beautiful. She was actually
wonderful in the show. But so, haha,
Libby, for making judgment before. I should

(47:53):
have but that, somebody
said very early that the play
had to do with longing for beauty.
And that beauty
is a very, very important
part of what's going on
this summer. You know, they're
really looking at her

(48:15):
walk across the stage in an ivory
dress. Just
exquisite.

>> Sarah (48:23):
Yeah, it just makes me,
think of the way in which Astroph continues to talk about
the destruction of beauty in the natural world around
them. So it's like as that's disappearing, here's this
thing that's all the more important thing. Person
to cling on to if that's what you're
needing in your life.

>> Libby (48:42):
Yes. And yet he remains sexually
attracted to her even after she's
rebuffed him and he sees how prim
she is. He's still
hoping for a rendezvous
in the forest.

>> Deidre (48:59):
Well, the beauty also breaks the
boredom. You know, it's like
I think the fact that every
day is the same year after year after year. And
you've got this new thing, thing that
helps to break up
the way you think, the way you move,
the way you, you think

(49:22):
about life, the
perception that you have about what really is beautiful
and what really you do yearn for.

>> Libby (49:31):
Yeah, yeah,
exactly, exactly. I think, I think you
have. You're hitting the heart of the play.
Why is this summer different
than any other summer? Why didn't the play
happen? Why did Vanya go a little
nuts this summer?

(49:51):
Thoughts?

>> Corey (49:56):
yes, I have, Perhaps age.
They mention age quite a bit. And
how old. They're all.

>> Libby (50:03):
How old did you see, Corey? How old Is he,

>> Corey (50:05):
Vanya's 47.

>> Libby (50:07):
Right.

>> Corey (50:08):
and, I mean, I'm not sure how old Sarah Bryakov is.
I know astrop's 37. So they're all sort of
getting older and
more unable to do the things that they want to do.
And here's this young beauty in front of
everybody.
Yeah.

>> Libby (50:27):
Yeah. Hard. And he's
longing for her. Vanya.

>> Sarah (50:31):
Right.

>> Libby (50:32):
He's longing for her, and he's
not getting anywhere. She's rebuffing him.
And I don't know. What do
you. What do you think? Do you think that he's
been trying to seduce her every
year when she comes for two weeks?
Or is this new? What's your sense?

(50:52):
Yes, Howard.

>> Howard (50:53):
Well, it feels like they're in a. A pattern,
you know, that the,
A lot of it is. I mean, what I love about Vanya
is. I mean, it feels like a lot of it is
teasing. Almost like kind of sibling style.
Teasing.

>> Libby (51:09):
Yes.

>> Howard (51:10):
And, she just sort of
elegantly and inelegantly sort of rebuffs it.
Like, has figured out how to handle him or how to keep
him. How to keep it contained.
And maybe this summer, because of the duration of
the contact with her, it just.
It just keeps building and build.

Building.

>> Howard (51:31):
Reading your. Reading this translation, one of the things I
was really struck by is that this has been going on
for now 10 years, right? 10, 12
years. That he's been pursuing
or
objectifying her and in love with her. And that Sonia has been
going on for six years. You know, these are like these long,
long, simmering, unrequited

(51:53):
yearnings, you know, that. That all of a sudden, everyone's
like, I'm going to. Okay, I got to make a move now. You know, I got to
figure out how I'm going to break this now.

>> Libby (52:02):
Why is the now, Howard? What's the now about
it, beside the fact that we're doing this
play? So that's the now. But why. Why is it
happening now?

>> Howard (52:15):
I think for Vanya,
I think it is the age.
having just crossed that threshold, there is
this point, where
there is a point of a now or
neverness. And I think
having Astrov as competition.

(52:37):
You, know, reading this translation this past couple days, I
was like. I was. I was
aware that maybe Vanya, even in
the first act, is already clocking
Astro's interest. Like, he can see Astro's
interest. And maybe that's never been, like, there as a spoiler
before. And it's like, well, I better, you

(52:58):
know, pardon my French. Or get off the
pot here. Because if I don't, he could.
He could sweep, you know, And I think there's also a
sense that the professor may
die. You know, that he's fairly
frail and old and, you know,
she's gonna be a widow. And you want to be there to

(53:18):
pick that up maybe, like when. When he goes as well,
you know. but I think it's. I think it's. Maybe it's
the. It's the contact with.
I don't know. I don't know how much exposure Astro has
had to her in the past. It seems like he maybe wasn't around as much when
she was around.

>> Libby (53:33):
He wasn't around. He says that
he. Sonia tells us that he only came
once or twice a year and now,
there every day.

>> Howard (53:43):
Right. And I think his
sensitivity is like, what is this?
Why is he here?

>> Libby (53:50):
And.

>> Howard (53:51):
And, you know,
you know, men are competitive, so.

>> Libby (53:57):
People are competitive.

>> Howard (53:58):
Yeah.

>> Libby (54:01):
I think there's even, dare I say, a little
competition between Yelena and Sonia. Well, that we can look
at at some other point. But.
Yeah. Okay, so
we've got some, male
competition because Astroff is there a little
bit more. So. Heightens the stakes a

(54:21):
little bit. we've got 47.
And what do you think that means, by the way? Chekhov was dead
at 44. So
47 was already for. I mean, it's very
different than the way. I mean, I would say somebody. 47 is
pretty young now, but
it's really middle age, don't you think? I mean,

(54:42):
47 is the middle,
hopefully the middle of someone's life.
what does that matter? Why is that important
that it's harped on throughout the
play. His age?
Anybody have any thoughts about that?

>> Sarah (55:00):
Well, I wonder if, it's linked in
with, Vanya's
constant comparison to his brother
in law and. And,
previously his brother in law was somebody who had,
you know, this academia and had this beautiful wife. So two unattainable
things. And now that the professor

(55:21):
has been revealed as one of these things
being completely empty, it's
possible that, the second thing that he has
is completely empty as well. So Vanya can't.
Vanya realizes one thing has collapsed. Well, maybe this other thing has
collapsed too. Maybe now this is some suddenly unobtainable to me because
this guy is just as worthless
as I am, therefore, why shouldn't I

(55:43):
have that?

>> Libby (55:44):
And he. That's great, Sarah. And
then it's not just that
he's as worthless, but that
he's the one that I've been worshiping. M.
Right. And I've been,
you know, working myself to the bone for.
And. And it's.

(56:05):
I don't know.
It's idolizing somebody all your
life, thinking that they're stars and you're
grateful to be able to serve them, and then
discovering that they're liars and
phonies and mean
nothing. It's, I would. I would

(56:25):
think that it's
very catastrophic.

>> Sarah (56:30):
Yeah. And then when you're facing your own mortality, you are
grasping for some purpose. You're going, okay, I'm
47. Something has to have
mattered that I have done. Let me
attempt this. It doesn't even matter. That's Yelena. It
probably could be another beautiful woman. But there's
just this grasp at purpose from Banya.

>> Libby (56:49):
Yes.

>> Howard (56:51):
There's also, like, you
know, I'm just a few years older than Vanya,
but there's this, like. There's this moment
right around now where people your
age start to die. That is
just, You know, I
mean, everyone who's been through it, you know, you're
just like, whoa, that guy is my age,

(57:14):
you know, or younger. And
that I think,
you know, you suddenly go. You suddenly. Are your parents
age, you know, or you are your parents. And all
of that just kind of. It just catches up with you all
at one time. you know, I've been like. I've always
jokingly said,

(57:35):
I was. I was kind of a late bloomer in my career in
film, in film and tv. And I was like, well, I'm not gonna have time for
midlife crisis because I got here too late.
But it happens.

>> Libby (57:47):
There's always time for a midlife
crisis. But you just said it. Midlife
crisis. How does that work with this
play?

>> Howard (57:57):
I think he's unmarried. You know,
he's unmarried at 47. And he's like, if I
don't get married now, I won't. You know,
and that's.

>> Libby (58:07):
And unaccomplished in his own feelings about,
What if everything that you've been
supporting, holding up
suddenly appears and
Chekhov doesn't tell us what it
is that Vanya sees
about the professor's work. Let's just do a little
imagining here. What could have crashed

(58:29):
the idol from
high up down to the ground into little
pieces? Why. Why would
Vanya lose complete
faith in the professor, do you think, in this
short amount of time?

(58:51):
I don't have an answer for that. I honestly don't. And that
is so individual
and actor oriented. Because Chekhov
doesn't even hint at it.
Corey.
Oops.

>> Corey (59:10):
I'm sorry. My light went out really quickly. So
what was the question?

>> Libby (59:14):
I'm glad it wasn't me. That's all.

>> Howard (59:15):
I.

>> Corey (59:15):
No, no, no. It was my light. Sorry.
But, I'm sorry. Can you repeat the question?

>> Libby (59:21):
What do you think it is that
the professor did that made Vanya
just see that he's a sham?

>> Corey (59:33):
I mean, it could be that
he's. It's just the way he carries himself. Perhaps
that he's. Like.

>> Howard (59:40):
He has.

>> Corey (59:41):
He's sick. He's very sick With. With rheumatism,
I think. And he sees
that he's still being himself, his pompous self.
And I.

>> Libby (59:50):
It.

>> Corey (59:51):
Perhaps it was an article like you said earlier,
or word of mouth. Maybe someone he went into
town and had heard from
a local shopkeeper or something that
he's nothing. He's. He's written about nothing that
nobody else has written about. He's written about things that
other really smart people have already
written. So he's not smart. He's.

(01:00:14):
Well, not as intelligent as he puts off, I guess. Kind
of a sham.

>> Libby (01:00:19):
I think that's good. Anybody else have any thoughts
about that? I. I don't know the answer. Yes,
Julie.

>> Julie (01:00:25):
Going deeper into that. I mean, it sounds like it could have been
plagiarism.

>> Libby (01:00:29):
Oh, that's a fantastic
thought. Where.

>> Julie (01:00:35):
Where he's taking someone else's words and making it his, own. Which is kind of what he's doing
with Vanya's life work, right?

>> Libby (01:00:40):
Yes.

>> Julie (01:00:41):
Taking Vanya's life work and profiting
off of it himself.

>> Libby (01:00:45):
Yes, he is. Yes.
Deidre, you. You were starting.

>> Deidre (01:00:51):
There's just, like, the wonder of, like,
in trying. You know, it's
like you have an idol, and you try to engage them
in. You know, you try to learn what they
know. And try to either impress them or
engage them in the conversation. Or to
gain knowledge and find out that he's not getting back
what he thought he would. He's not getting.

(01:01:13):
Getting. Getting the responses
that he thinks that he would get. He's not getting the.

>> Libby (01:01:19):
The,

>> Deidre (01:01:21):
Wisdom that he thought that he would receive
from this person who is supposed to
be so lauded, you know?

>> Libby (01:01:30):
Exactly. And, that's a
pretty big crash. And
Vanya, from the minute we meet him very early in
the play, remember, first we have the little scene
between, Marina and,
Astrov. She's trying to get him to
eat something because he's pacing back and

(01:01:50):
forth. That is my favorite scene
because it's my Jewish grandmother
saying, eat, eat something.
You will never find that in any other translation.
Take a look at other Uncle Von. She's
trying to offer him something to eat. But. But the eat,
eat something is definitely from my family.

(01:02:13):
Vanya is. From the first
moment he speaks to
Astro when he wakes up,
he's absolutely
deplores. He absolutely deplores
the professor and talks about
how his feelings have crashed.
and plagiarism is a

(01:02:36):
fantastically interesting idea.
in any case, who's ever playing both
Vanya and the professor, and
probably everybody there, all of you need
to have an idea in your head
why the. Why it would be
such a tremendous fall into the

(01:02:58):
ground. I don't know, it would be like somebody telling me
or, ah, finding out that Judi Dench really
doesn't even speak. And it's somebody else's voice
that's going, you know, somebody that I think is so brilliant and so
wonderful. Or that Maggie O'Farrell,
who's my latest passion,
you know, didn't write these books. And
so, it all came crashing down. But

(01:03:20):
there's something there that creates
Vanya from the first minute he doesn't learn it over
the play, it's there from the first
minute the play begins that
he's crashed. His idol
has fallen at his feet. And
if you've spent your whole life supporting that

(01:03:40):
idol and doing everything
for that idol, and
that idol crashes at your feet,
that's a pretty big blow
to your life. And if you're
47, it's
a very big blow because there's not a lot to
change after that.

>> Deidre (01:04:03):
But maybe it's also. Sorry, maybe it's also
seeing that here's this woman that
you have that you love. You only see them for two weeks at a
time, so you're not really able to
see. See the interaction that happens. And so when
you see this interest that you have, this
love that you have, this yearning, and

(01:04:23):
you see that she's not receiving
the attention and the love that you
expect that she should get, and you're not able
to give that to her and she's tied in with someone
else. That also breeds.
Like, why him?
You know, what does he have that I don't?

(01:04:45):
You know? And so, like that. That's
a cancer in itself.

>> Libby (01:04:50):
Yes, absolutely. You're absolutely
right. And so you see
that these two figures who
have decided to live
there until the third act, the
professor, says that they're going to sell,
these two, the
beautiful, exquisite,

(01:05:11):
almost impossible to look at because she's so
beautiful. and
the idol of the academic world
who turns out to be a phony or
whatever. It
all comes together this summer when he's
47 years old.
And at 47, living on a farm.

(01:05:34):
What are his opportunities of anything else
happening in his life? Alison, can you
share what do you think
his job opportunities are
life opportunities for Vanya?

>> Alison (01:05:49):
Oh, I think, I mean, Russia in this time
was pretty calcified
in terms of roles and the way
that you're born into a kind of
caste system in a way, and you don't
generally leave it. Like you can't, you know,
you usually can't aspire to like,

(01:06:09):
be a self made man. I mean,
maybe that's possible, but there's, but not
in the rural part of Russia where this
is not for somebody who's older,
not for somebody who, you know, whose level of education
is what it, is what it is. There's not the sense
of, like, upward mobility where, like, if you just work
hard enough, you can be anything. Like that

(01:06:32):
idea doesn't exist at all in
Russia at this time. Like at all.
Unheard of.

>> Libby (01:06:38):
That's great, Alison. That's very helpful and
very true. So that's another thing. Remember,
the play is called Uncle Vanya. Everybody's yearning
and everybody's lost, but the play is called
Uncle Vanya. Dadya. Vanya. Right.
God, Giovanna, I love that.
he doesn't have very many options.

(01:07:01):
And if everything that you want and
have worked for
becomes a soap bubble. Do you remember when he says,
oh, it's an arsene. I won't even talk about that
now.
okay, so we
have a beautiful
woman who won't

(01:07:24):
act upon her own desires,
but only provokes everybody else's
desires coming, to
stay permanently. And we have
a phony professor
who. And, I think
all of us that have ever done anything in academia

(01:07:45):
have met the professor by before. You
know, that guy that takes over
a meeting and has, pronouncements,
about everything and opinions about everything.
when those two come, it's
like, the summer of the locusts or the forest
fires or. It's

(01:08:06):
the event. The event
in this play is not
the shooting.
It's that these two people have come to
stay and they have created,
all of this panic and pain from

(01:08:26):
everybody there. Does that make sense to
you? It's such a
subtle thing that that's what creates
it. You need to know, and maybe
Allison, you know a little bit about this,
the theater of Chekhov's time
was melodramatic,
not realistic. Right.

(01:08:49):
Alison, do you have any thoughts about. I
mean, Chekhov was taking
seemingly quiet, ordinary
events and
making.

>> Alison (01:09:02):
Well, he was taking normal domestic events and making
them interesting, as opposed to putting
extraordinary events onto
domestic situations.

>> Libby (01:09:12):
Yes.

>> Alison (01:09:13):
You know, and so, like, the melodrama comes
out of the desperation and the earnestness
of the characters and what a normal person
is willing to do under extraordinary
conditions, as opposed to the
opposite, which is so often
historically true in theater,
you know, that, like, in classical theater, it's always like,

(01:09:36):
extraordinary people, you know, meeting with even more
extraordinary circumstances. But with
Chekhov, you know, it's a normal person
who is just experiencing unrequited love. And
that's the stuff of drama.

>> Libby (01:09:49):
Yes, exactly right. Yes.
And so it's groundbreaking in its own
time, but it's even groundbreaking now.
Although I do have to say I realize
that, situational
comedies are not about extraordinary
families and friendships. They're about ordinary.

(01:10:09):
So I think we've learned a lot from
Chekhov's theater. Chekhov was the base for an awful
lot of writers and playwrights.
and that was known. But here's
this kind of ordinary event of people coming
and staying longer, and the whole world
crashes. What else do you see going
on in the play? what other things

(01:10:32):
are there for you? Somebody talked a little bit
about, the environmental. What
do you think about that? was Chekhov preaching?
I mean, what do you think
about Astrov's views about,
the environment and the wastefulness?
It seems.

>> Sarah (01:10:53):
I'm not an expert, but it seems like it must
have been, a common theme being discussed at the
time. Because doesn't,
Lenin and Anna Karenina also focus
on the environment quite a
bit?

>> Libby (01:11:08):
Levin is Levin. Thank you. Yeah.

>> Sarah (01:11:10):
Not Lenin.

>> Libby (01:11:12):
Lenin had a different environment.

>> Sarah (01:11:16):
So I don't have an answer. It's a
bigger question. Is. It makes me wonder. This
seems to be a big discourse that was
happening amongst, at least the
educated in Russia at the time.

>> Libby (01:11:30):
I think Tolstoy. Yes, absolutely
everything was a boil in Russia at the time.
this play was what, 1899 and
1905 was the first of the big
revolutions. 1917 is the big one, but
1905 was almost as big. And
the revolutionaries, were seething

(01:11:51):
about the czar and the
way the country was run,
always for hundreds of years. So all
of that was going on.
Yes. Tolstoy
felt that going back into the
peasantry, going
back to the earth, making yourself in tune with

(01:12:13):
the Earth was a way of
finding your spiritual side.
And developing yourself as a human
being. I think we understand that,
and a lot of us feel
similarly in the world that we live in.
But astro is not

(01:12:34):
11. He's not.
That's not what it's about for him.
What do you think it's about for him? He talks an
awful lot. and he doesn't
just talk to Jelena when he's trying to seduce
her, in a way, with his drawings.
But, he talks almost

(01:12:56):
right from the beginning. He talks about what's
happening to the forests and the animals.
What do you think that's about for him?

>> Corey (01:13:07):
well, I think maybe since he's a
doctor, he's, trying to heal something.
And probably try to heal something about himself as
well in that way. I don't know. He
sees.

>> Howard (01:13:20):
I,

>> Corey (01:13:20):
Mean, he talks about this constant beauty in the
forest. And that's where you'll find beauty. And then
everything's crashing down. And then
Yelena's beauty is also being wasted.
It's a sedentary lifestyle, just being wasted. The
world's being wasted. And.

>> Libby (01:13:37):
Yeah, that's great
waste. Big, big question in
this, In this play, isn't it?

>> Howard (01:13:47):
Oh, sorry. No, you go ahead
with Astro. One of the things, like
Chekhov himself, you know, who was,
at least in my understanding, traveled a lot.
Chekhov. And was traveling all over Russia
by train. And as a doctor,
you're different than Vanya and Sonia. Sitting in a

(01:14:07):
house surrounded by the same world,
day in and out. He's like. I mean,
Astroff talks about to get to their house is 20
miles. And you get this sense that he's a person constantly kind of
moving around. With this
kind of Chekhovian, detached,
observational eye. That he's just
seeing the countryside over these two

(01:14:29):
decades disintegrate,
you know. And you read about Chekhov making
those. Like, didn't he travel to the very far east
of Russia?

>> Libby (01:14:39):
The island. That's
right.

>> Nathan Agin (01:14:42):
Yeah.

>> Alison (01:14:43):
Partially by courage, which is, like,
insane.

>> Libby (01:14:46):
Yes. He was ill
at the time. He. He wanted to see it.
And it was after wood demon crashed for
him. So, you know, he made that.

>> Howard (01:14:57):
Yeah, but just. Just the sense of. He's
like. He's not. He's just.
He's seeing things and describing what he's seeing.
The trees are disappearing.

>> Libby (01:15:08):
He's stuck there. He can't seem to
move. This is. He's very. Well,
he's a country doctor. Right,
Astrov. And, he has to travel to
people. And he sees the worst of poverty
and the worst of, unfulfilled lives
all the time. And he's found a way to,

(01:15:30):
guard against it
by falling in
with nature, which is pretty
spectacular.

>> Sarah (01:15:39):
Yes, Sarah, he's also. He's
answering in his attempt to keep the forest
the thing that is impossible for him as a doctor. As a doctor, you are
fighting a losing battle permanently, because we're all going to
die. But the forest can continue on.
You know, the land can continue on. Nature can
endure if you take care of it, unlike human beings. And so it's

(01:15:59):
this. It's like this unsatisfied thing in his
doctor's life that he's attempting to resolve on
the land itself. Yeah, he has that huge monologue about
that. You know, he's so fixated on that man who died on his operating
table. He can't solve that, but he
can solve the forest. If.

>> Libby (01:16:16):
What do you think about that fixation?
about the man that was dying on the operating,
table. And I don't know whether, Deirdre, you remember,
but,
Chebu Tikin tells you the
story, Irina, the story about
the man dying on the table,
which traumatized him. And he was

(01:16:39):
a pretty guarded guy
who didn't let much in except liquor.
so this obviously had a,
painful m meaning for
Chekhov. Sarah, I interrupted you.
What do you think about that man?

>> Sarah (01:16:59):
Oh, that's as far as I had
gotten. I mean, I think that man,
serves in contrast to, like. It's just this
clear example of he cannot, no matter what he
does, he cannot prevent death
ultimately, but he can help the
forest endure long past his own life.

>> Libby (01:17:19):
But as you said, it's interesting to me because I think it's
a little bit of a mystery, and it's a
joyful thing, which I think,
Corey, I think you'll have fun trying
to figure out is why this bothered. I
mean, he sees death every day. Why
did this man on the operating

(01:17:40):
table who died under
anesthetic, why
is it so touching to him?
It is true that Chekhov, was a doctor.
He paid his way through med school in
Moscow by writing stories and became very
famous in his time. Actually. He was a

(01:18:00):
very well known, and celebrated
author of short stories. And he
took risk writing plays. But,
he, was a doctor. And
that's so key, isn't it, to
the kind of objective,
scientific attitude that he sees

(01:18:23):
in people?
I know we're going to say how awful the
professor is and what a she is and so
difficult, but that's not what
Chekhov is saying. we'll
explore all that as we work through the characters in the play.
But the fact that he was a

(01:18:43):
physician is so key to his
attitude about all of these things
that are happening to these people.
He sees it with a dispassionate eye, but
tells the truth.
Okay, what. What else I. What I'm

(01:19:04):
trying to do tonight? Let me. Let me give you an
overview of the way I'm looking at this. we
will start next Monday with reading our
scene. It's actually a long. It's more than one scene.
It's a few pieces. And. And Nathan and
I had some fun trying to figure,
out how many pages we were allowed to go because

(01:19:24):
of timing on it, of course. I wanted to do the
whole second act, because those
last couple of scenes are pretty spectacular with the
two girls and the two guys, and
the guy and the girl. but
anyway, we'll start by reading our
scene. and then
we'll go back through

(01:19:46):
line by line and figure out what people
are thinking and why they're thinking it and how
that's put together. So we're going to take it apart
in a way that you never have enough time in rehearsals to do.
You always wish that you could do that at the table.
and then, at the end of the evening
next week, we'll read it again and then go back.

(01:20:08):
And no matter how short, how
little we get through, we'll
always read and then read again at the
end, so that the. The play will continue to
flower with your discoveries and my
discoveries of what's going on. But I want
to. But tonight I wanted this to
be. And it is about, kind of

(01:20:30):
the big themes,
the theme that the play is based
upon and,
the themes that are operating through
these characters.
Have you got any further thoughts about that? Let,
me outline for you what we've been talking about. We've been

(01:20:53):
talking about middle age crisis. Right.
We've been talking about the destruction of the environment.
We've been talking about the
impermanence, if you will, of beauty.
and the longing for beauty. Someone said that very
early. and
feeling dissatisfied with your life.

(01:21:13):
Middle. Middle age crisis.
And what's the weather,
Alison?

>> Alison (01:21:25):
Oh, it's summer. And there is a storm
coming.

>> Libby (01:21:28):
The storm coming.
He does use some theatrical devices.
Yes. And what
happens in a climate like
that when a storm is coming? What's the air
like?

>> Alison (01:21:46):
so it's very humid,
actually, and very
hot. And when the wind
starts up With a storm, you can actually go
on YouTube. I was finding all of this footage
of. Of a couple different storms that hit
Moscow in the last, like, five years or so.
And, Melychovo, ah, which is,

(01:22:08):
Chekhov's estate, which is 40 miles outside
of Moscow. So it's like, pretty much the same
climate. Like these storms in Moscow.
You can see, like, parts of buildings
flying off and, like, the
canvas cover of a tennis pavilion, like,
coming up and flying off. So

(01:22:28):
unbelievably dramatic,
very chaotic. It's not like
a. Oh, is it raining? You know, like a
romantic, like, light kind of storm. It's
like a run, run, get shelter
kind of storm.

>> Libby (01:22:44):
Yeah.

>> Alison (01:22:44):
So I would recommend looking around online to actually
see the footage of it. And you can see the
volume of the rain and stuff. It's like what many
of us would think of as, like, a monsoon
or something, you know, like an
extraordinary, you know,
because it's a fertile landscape. And so, of

(01:23:05):
course, it's gonna be this, like, you know,
green landscape with these storms that blow
in of thunder and lightning and
aliveness and the.

>> Libby (01:23:15):
And the air is very heavy
and very heavy.

>> Alison (01:23:19):
Like, I mean, especially those of you, who have
experienced the east coast, like the mid
Atlantic, you know, up through New England. That's a. It's a
particular kind of summer. Like,
heavy.

>> Libby (01:23:31):
Yes, exactly. Yes.
So the storm is coming, and
we've, got midlife,
crisis happening in the middle of it, which is the storm,
really. One of the
other things that strikes me that I wanted to,
share with you is this

(01:23:53):
sense of
nervous breakdown or
nerves that are exposed or raw. Ah.
Where do you see that? And how do you think that
affects the whole thing?
Anybody have any thoughts about that?

(01:24:14):
Nerves.

>> Deidre (01:24:17):
You know, you definitely see it with,
Jelena and Sonia. You
see that in there. You know, Sonia's just.
She's nervous and she, you know,
she needs to talk, but she, you
know, she's,
afraid of the truth being told, and she's afraid

(01:24:39):
of showing her heart, and she's afraid of. Of,
the fact that she's not going to be, you know, that she's not beautiful.
And so you
just. You sense the tension between her and
Yelena and the fact that they want to make up, but they, you
know, they want to be friends. And there's
that struggle in that relationship.

(01:24:59):
yes.
What I thought was really interesting not to
leave this. But what I think was really
interesting is right at the end, where it almost feels like
the end of the storm, you know, it just. It
all kind of gets pedestrian in.

>> Libby (01:25:20):
A way, at the end of the play.
Yeah.

>> Deidre (01:25:25):
You know, even though there's all this stuff bubbling
underneath. I mean, everything that's happened,
but they're like, you know, getting their
figures together, you know, counting out
the number, the covers that they. Back to.

>> Libby (01:25:39):
Yeah. Yeah, but then. But then
you have. Yeah. And that. What
do you make of that? Why do you think that happens?
I mean, when. When there's big stuff happening in
a play and big crisis, nobody goes back to normal.
Somebody dies, somebody. You know, things
happen. What do you. What do you make of the fact that this goes

(01:26:00):
back to. Well, you'll get the same amount
as I've always given you. And
scratching of the pens and the reading,
of the pamphlets.

>> Deidre (01:26:10):
I mean, there's a part of me that feels like there's just.
There's comfort even in the boredom.
There's comfort in the familiar. In the familiar.
Like, you know, let's just.
Let's just. Let's just go back to
zero again. You know. Let's just go back
to what's comfortable.

>> Libby (01:26:31):
safe.

>> Deidre (01:26:32):
Yeah.

>> Sarah (01:26:33):
Yeah.

>> Deidre (01:26:34):
But I don't want to change the topic
because you were.

>> Libby (01:26:38):
You were talking about the war nerves. No,
I like what you're saying too. I want us to
examine these larger things. I
think it's kind of daring of Chekhov, to
let things go back to. In quotes, normal. When nothing
is normal anymore. Everything's been exposed.
Astrav is not allowed to come anymore.

(01:26:59):
This is tiny, but it doesn't occur in
our scenes, so I'll mention it to
you. Astrov is a
drinker, which is
very, very common. And especially in a
rural life where there's very little
entertainment, or fun. And drinking vodka

(01:27:20):
is what you do. So
he's a big drinker. And Sonia.
Oh, that is in our scene, isn't it?
Sonia begs him. Yeah.
Well, do you remember in the end,
in the fourth act, Deidre,

(01:27:40):
Nanya offers him a drink.
And he has promised her that he'll never drink.

>> Deidre (01:27:45):
And he does.

>> Libby (01:27:47):
And he does.

>> Deidre (01:27:47):
Yeah.

>> Libby (01:27:49):
I mean, to me, that little touch
of, He promised her he'd never do it again.
And then it just happens at the end. I mean, it's.
Here's what I want to say. Here's what I kind of want to
have you think about a little bit.
Chekhov is like the painter
Monet or any of

(01:28:11):
the Impressionists in
that he will take
different colors to make one
color. And he will daub
different colors and different
textures. That you don't know what it is
when you're standing up close to it. Because it looks
like it's mushy paint and funny colors.

(01:28:32):
And when you step back, it's a beautiful lady in a
poppy field. Or whatever it is.
Clouds coming over. He. He
daubs his canvas
with little actions.
Don't drink anymore. Then nothing
is made of it. She doesn't say to him in the fourth
act, why are you drinking?

(01:28:55):
Nothing. We just have to notice
that he's drinking again.
All of the actions are
ordinary and expected
and put together. They tell you
what's really going on inside these human
beings. So for me,
these are very great paintings or

(01:29:17):
great works of art. That it takes
very close looking at.
Before you, can get
the whole picture. You have to stand back. But you
also have to examine all of the different
colors. That make blue.
Make a sky or make a

(01:29:38):
lake.
That's the journey for the
actor to find
the behaviors. The
ordinary thing that Things
that people do. Vanya is a
very ordinary guy. You

(01:29:59):
know, he spent his life working this farm. He's
not a farmer, per se. He's kind of a
manager. But he's not stupid. He has
had some education. His mother
reads political and
critical pamphlets. These
are not people who

(01:30:19):
have not had any opportunities.
It's a surprising and
interesting view of a group
of people. Without them being
melodramatic or
special in any way. Except one
is unbelievably beautiful. And

(01:30:40):
before this, I don't know that Sonia worried about
her beauty. It was only until she was able
to let out that she was in
love with Astrov. I mean, it's a
hot summer night with a storm coming.
That's what's happening in this play.

(01:31:00):
Do you have any other thoughts?

>> Sarah (01:31:06):
I have one other thought. which is
just that we haven't talked yet. About, the
professor's first wife. And how that might be playing
into Vanya's psyche as well. As far
as he lost his beloved
sister. Is there an impulse
to save Yelena.
As a way to make up for the fact that his sister is

(01:31:28):
gone?

>> Libby (01:31:29):
I think that's great thought. I don't
know. What do you think,
Howard? Do you have a sense,
in that it's
interesting.

>> Howard (01:31:41):
Like what, Allison was talking
about earlier. That there's no social
mobility. And this will all
come back to the professor. But it seems
like for the sister. For my
sister to marry. The professor was
upwardly mobile. Correct.

>> Alberto (01:32:02):
He's.

>> Libby (01:32:03):
Well, he's an academic star.

>> Howard (01:32:05):
But he's in a Higher. He's in a higher cast. And we sort of
had to buy our way into that. And that was
the, you know, that was the,
like, star
staking the farm on getting. Making this
change for her and for all of us, probably. Right. That was going
to lift all of our boats. And then it didn't. And

(01:32:25):
then. And then this
trophy wife, for lack of a better word, comes
along and. And
it's like. And
he. And I meet her at this young impression. I love
that speech where he says, I could have married her,
you know, that the. That

(01:32:49):
it's all part of his fantasy or his,
delusion, I guess, that
he could have been this academic. He could have been the professor
he could have married.

>> Libby (01:32:59):
He could have been Dostoevsky.

>> Howard (01:33:01):
He could have been. Right, he says that.

>> Libby (01:33:02):
Right.

>> Howard (01:33:03):
I could have been. I could have been Dostoevsky.

>> Libby (01:33:06):
and Nietzsche. Schopenhauer. Who is it?

>> Howard (01:33:09):
Schopenhauer. Yeah, yeah, I could have been Schopenhauer.

>> Libby (01:33:11):
Dostoevsky.

>> Howard (01:33:14):
that she's, like, all part of this wrapped up
in this fantasy of
changing who I am. Like, I think that's
what Vanya constantly has, is this
fantasy of, like, I can become
somebody. I can just by saying so, I can be
somebody else. And then constantly having that
pushback in his face. So, all of

(01:33:36):
that's relative to Giulayda somehow, I guess.

>> Libby (01:33:39):
No, no, no, it is, it is.

>> Howard (01:33:40):
She's part of the fantasy. I could have that. I could have
that sophisticated, conservatory, educated,
beautiful, princess.
And just as. Just as much as
she's a. She's a possession
in some ways, I think, to find his
fantasy and do.

>> Libby (01:34:01):
Do. That's a terrific word to use
because do you remember a woman's place
was as a possession to their
husband. Aren't they still.
Maybe not, no. But that's
great.

>> Sarah (01:34:17):
And there's that. I, can't remember the details,
but he says something about the fact that his sister
died taking care of the professor. Like she
wore herself down to the ground in order to keep
him elevated. That is the final result of helping
this guy.

>> Libby (01:34:34):
It's interesting, too. I never stopped to think about that until
you just said that, Sarah, that,
they only had one child, Sonia,
which is,
I think, not ordinary. She was
very young. She was obviously a student. No,
Yelena was worshiped,

(01:34:57):
him as a professor. but, Sonia's
mother only had the one child.
And, you do get a sense that Sonia
knew her mother, so she didn't die in
childbirth, but
one child is a small
family. I wonder what that dynamic

(01:35:18):
was.

>> Howard (01:35:20):
Maybe it's also, you have a
narcissist child of a husband. Do you
have time for more?
You know, if you're taking care of the professor, would you be like,
well, one kid is maybe as much as I can handle with this
marriage.

>> Libby (01:35:39):
That's true, but I don't think people made those kinds of
choices.

>> Howard (01:35:43):
One kid is maybe that's too modern.

>> Libby (01:35:46):
That is a little. And it's a little
giving freedom of thought
and planning to a woman, which
I think it would have to do with what he wanted.
I mean, he. He must be a full time job
to take care of him.
I don't know. Have to think about that.

>> Sarah (01:36:08):
And also, how young did she die?
was there even time and opportunity for a second child
if this guy just wore her to
death after one child was out?

>> Libby (01:36:23):
Yeah.

>> Alison (01:36:25):
To me it's an interesting question too, because he
doesn't seem to.
This, is probably best for Alberto, but
to look at what it is that Sarah
Byakov is into
in terms of his marriages and what
he likes with his partners. You know,

(01:36:46):
it's funny if there's a discussion of Yelena as a
possession. I think somebody who relates to
women as a possession relates to them
differently in an intimate way. I don't know. I think there's so much
to be looked at there.

>> Libby (01:36:59):
I think that's true, Alison. And
clearly, his first wife,
Sonia's mother was very beautiful too,
that we keep hearing that. I don't know that she's the beauty.
That Yelena is an exceptional beauty. She's the kind
that you have to look away from. She's Julie Christie,
you know. but

(01:37:19):
one gets a sense that Sonia's mother was
also very beautiful. And he
seems to attract,
these young worshiping students,
beautiful young women.
There must have been something there. Alberto, what do you
think?

>> Alberto (01:37:39):
Well, yeah, the, academic
just going beautiful.
so our daughter got my looks, I
guess.

>> Howard (01:37:48):
And,

>> Libby (01:37:51):
yes, that's right. She looks more like the professor than she
does the mother.

>> Alberto (01:37:58):
I think a
certain intellectual
cachet that he had
that. That was
very attractive. I mean, there's something
about what one perceives as smart people
that is also attractive, I

(01:38:19):
think.

>> Libby (01:38:20):
Yeah.

>> Alberto (01:38:21):
You know, and he wasn't.
He was in the prime of his life, probably, what,
early 30s or something.

>> Libby (01:38:28):
Yes.

>> Alberto (01:38:30):
and, and
this, this family seems to have,
artistic yearnings
almost. I mean, the mother is, you know, has
literary interests, and
Vanya and Sonia spent a lot of
time, transcribing and,
translating for, For, the

(01:38:52):
professors. So it's not like they were, you know,
hicks or rubes. You know, they had a
certain literary sophistication.

>> Libby (01:39:00):
Absolutely.

>> Alberto (01:39:02):
Which I. Which,
Which the professor probably fed
into, you know. and
the sense of them doing something
worthwhile, you know,
artistically, I think might have been very
attractive to, consider.
And, Yeah, I think

(01:39:25):
in terms of, him,
m. The professor, being able to attract this.
Younger, beautiful women. I think it's
not. It's not
unlikely. I mean, I find that,
I just think. Why do
certain literary, stars attract

(01:39:47):
groupies? You know, I mean, they may not be in the
best shape, you know, and yet they,
They do attract the person, of the
opposite sex. Yeah.

>> Libby (01:40:00):
I think you're right. And it's true that,
people in really almost any profession that
become stars, kind of act
as magnets for others
who may not feel as if they could go as
far.

>> Alberto (01:40:16):
Yes. And he has supreme confidence in his
talents, at least at that time. So
that. That's also very attractive, I think.
Confidence, self worth, you know, is
very attractive to, a very young
woman.

>> Libby (01:40:32):
This play. You just said something so important. I think,
Alberto, this play is a lot about
measuring your own self worth. And when it.
When it's been pricked and hurt,
what happens to you? What.
How do you dissolve into. Into what?

(01:40:53):
I mean, you know, in the fourth act, Vanya is ready to
take, the heroin or whatever
are the pills that, The
liquids that, Astro has. He wants to finish his
life. And that's a
very good. Yeah, sorry, go ahead.
No, you.

>> Alison (01:41:12):
I was just gonna say, I mean, there's also the difference
between the self confidence that's projected
out into the world and the self concept, the self
confidence that's performed in the bedroom
or, you know, in. When people are not
looking.

>> Libby (01:41:27):
That's right. That's right. That's
right. There's a lot about intimacy
in this as well. We. We could really get a
sense of sexual repression and
sexual, possession on the part
of,

>> Alberto (01:41:46):
I have the thought that
Absolutely no basis in the play. That Sonia
was a difficult birth for my, first wife.
The reason there was never another child was
because she was unable to have another child.

>> Nathan Agin (01:42:01):
Child.

>> Alberto (01:42:01):
And, you know, her. Her health, as a matter of
fact, deteriorated from that point on.

>> Libby (01:42:07):
So. So do you think you. The professor, might
blame Sonia? Is that,

>> Alberto (01:42:14):
You know, I don't know if it even entered my
mind. Yeah. It's just like, oh,
well, you know, I'm not sure
how true, if any, my
feelings were for Sonia's mother. You know,
if I, mean, it just feels like
he's so self absorbed and
narcissistic that it almost like,

(01:42:37):
Yeah, it's like, oh, well, my
first wife died and there's this
new young, lady, you know, who
can fulfill that role that my first
wife.

>> Libby (01:42:49):
That trophy wife.

>> Alberto (01:42:50):
Yeah.

>> Libby (01:42:51):
Yeah. That's great.

>> Alberto (01:42:54):
Yeah. I don't know if feelings of blame
or, you know, enter his mind even.
It's almost like, oh, what an annoying
imposition. My wife has died.

>> Libby (01:43:07):
Well, well, well, I don't
know. I don't see him
as. He is absolutely self
absorbed. There's no question about that. And he is definitely
arrogant. There's no question about that.
But I feel for him.

>> Alberto (01:43:24):
There's a certain self awareness though, so
I think I might be painting him with two.
It's not a cartoon.

>> Libby (01:43:34):
No, it's not a cartoon. Thank you for saying that.

>> Alberto (01:43:37):
Yes, he has a
certain self awareness. I'm not sure if
it translates into his
behavior, but he is aware
that. Yeah, I may m not.

>> Libby (01:43:50):
He's aware that his world is falling apart.

>> Alberto (01:43:52):
Right.

>> Libby (01:43:53):
He's trying to make other plans.

>> Alberto (01:43:56):
but it's also very solipsistic because it's
still him, you know, I mean, he's
unaware that what his plans would
mean to all these other people. It's like, yes,
what, what, what did I do wrong?

>> Libby (01:44:10):
Yes, exactly.

>> Alberto (01:44:12):
You know?

>> Libby (01:44:12):
Yes. Yes.
Well, we have a lot to think about, I think,
for, next time. I'm very
excited to be with you all.
You're. You're all going to be just so lovely
reading this. I can feel it, feel it already. The
energy is very good and I

(01:44:34):
appreciate your interest in this
project and I
think. Anybody
have anything else they want to talk about? Nathan, do you want to come
back or are you gone forever or. Well, there
you are.

>> Nathan Agin (01:44:50):
I'm never really gone, Olivia.

>> Libby (01:44:57):
You know, Deidre, Nathan reminds me of
a tusimbar. Doesn't he seem like he would be a good
toosenbo.

>> Deidre (01:45:05):
I watched that video,
and I, and I saw, Was David
Kelly on there? I don't think he was, but yeah.

>> Libby (01:45:13):
David Kelly was tusompak.

>> Deidre (01:45:15):
Yeah, I know.

>> Libby (01:45:17):
Oh, I worked with David Kelly.

>> Deidre (01:45:19):
I worked with him a, couple years ago.

>> Libby (01:45:22):
Oh, I didn't know that. You know what,
speaking of film, let me just
say, did anybody see the Uncle
Vanya that was done on pbs. That was an,
English. That was awfully good.

>> Howard (01:45:36):
Toby James.

>> Libby (01:45:37):
Yes, Toby Jones. And
I thought it was very well directed. And
I thought the translation, Alison, was really
interesting and contemporary. And
it's, Colin McPherson,
contemporary playwright, did the translation,
and I thought it was really good. And

(01:45:58):
did any of you ever see Vanya on 42nd
Street? The Wallace Shawn?
It's awfully interesting. Also, you should
watch both of them.
It's just to add to the experience, because
every. Every
Chekhov, showing is,

(01:46:19):
personal for the actors that play them.
which makes it so wonderful because actors
reveal themselves so deeply in a
Czechoff play if they're doing well.
and, it touches
you on another way. I mean, because these
plays are so purposeful.
Somebody was saying earlier that, you know,

(01:46:41):
the defenses that you use on top to hide
what's really going on underneath, that's called subtext
gang. But anyway, just,
watch these things if you can find them. I
forgot how you would find the uncle,
Vanya on the pbs. Does anybody know how you would
do that?

>> Howard (01:47:00):
You can get it on itunes.

>> Libby (01:47:03):
Oh, there you go.

>> Alberto (01:47:07):
It's also the David Mamet, adaptation
Terrible, Terrible, which, I don't
really remember well. And, of course, there's,
Olivier's, production for
the Chichester Festival with Michael.

>> Libby (01:47:22):
Was it. Was it Three Sisters or
Vanya?

>> Alberto (01:47:26):
With, Olivier as Astro and Michael,
Redgrave as Vanya.

>> Libby (01:47:30):
Was it good? Was it good, Alberto?

>> Alberto (01:47:33):
I'm sorry?

>> Libby (01:47:34):
Was it good?

>> Alberto (01:47:35):
It was the first Uncle Vanya I ever saw, and I was
bowled over. I remember being
very impressed with Rosemary Harris, who was
Yelena.

>> Howard (01:47:46):
But, I saw it a couple years ago.

>> Alberto (01:47:48):
I mean, I saw it when I was, in my 20s.
So I may have fond
memories that when I see it again, I might go,
oh, my God.

>> Libby (01:47:58):
Yeah. Yes, I know. I know all those things.
Howard, did you like it? Was it.

>> Howard (01:48:03):
I loved it. It was so energetic
and, you know, because he's just so
virile, for lack of a better word.

>> Libby (01:48:12):
Olivier?

>> Alberto (01:48:12):
You're talking about Olivier?

>> Howard (01:48:13):
Yeah. And the first part of it I'd ever
seen was the map scene. And he.
It's just that the, sexual
chemistry between them is
very palpable in the way they both.

>> Libby (01:48:26):
Where did you find it? On what screen?

>> Howard (01:48:28):
I think you can see clips of it. I don't know if the whole thing is
available, but clips of it are on YouTube.

>> Libby (01:48:35):
Is everything in the world on YouTube? I never go to
YouTube.

>> Alberto (01:48:41):
The library. The la, city
library app called Canopy, where
you canopy
with A K?

>> Ursula (01:48:51):
Yeah, Canopy with a K. Universities
all have it too. So if you have a
UCSB through your kid
canopy, you could get it on canopy.

>> Alberto (01:49:02):
I haven't dared to watch it again because I don't want to
spoil my.

>> Libby (01:49:06):
Fond memory, you know. I know how you feel. Don't spoil
it. Don't. Because it would spoil it. It would look
old fashioned. And don't do
it.

>> Alberto (01:49:15):
you can. On YouTube, there's the Russian,
rather, very fast moving Uncle Vanya.

>> Deidre (01:49:23):
really?

>> Alberto (01:49:23):
Yeah.

>> Libby (01:49:24):
I'm gonna look it up.

>> Alberto (01:49:25):
Yeah.

>> Libby (01:49:26):
Okay.

>> Nathan Agin (01:49:29):
if anyone, you know, wants to send me links
or you know, respond to a group email or whatever,
I can try to, you know, pull those together and
put them on like the dashboard or something like that so that, you know, people
can find. And even if it's just a link to, you know, here's
where you would purchase this version or here's where you would,
you know, that kind of thing. We can just have that all in one

(01:49:49):
place as additional resources, for all you guys.

>> Libby (01:49:52):
Great. That would be great.

>> Nathan Agin (01:49:54):
Yeah, sure.

>> Alberto (01:49:55):
I don't know how to do that, but tell
you about it. I'll, continue.

>> Nathan Agin (01:49:59):
Give me a call, Alberto, and just, you know, tell me, tell me where these things
are. I'll go find them.

>> Libby (01:50:04):
Oh, I'm so glad I'm not the only one in the room who doesn't
have.
You will. You will send us a new link. I
mean, it's the same, but you'll send it again next week.
Yeah.

>> Nathan Agin (01:50:16):
So you'll, you'll all get an email to tomorrow with if you want
to go back and watch any of this replay, you'll get an email tomorrow
with that link. and then, we have, a session with
Ursula on Thursday afternoon. Thank you actually
for reminding me. So on Thursday afternoon, anyone that has just
voice questions or would like to talk to Ursula more
about, exploring voice with regards to this

(01:50:37):
scene. Thursday, at 5, you can show up
and talk to Ursula then. Or if you can't make it,
send me some questions that, you know, I can share with Ursula.
And then we can get that recorded so you can, you can you know, hear back
any answers. And then, I know on Friday,
Ursula and Howard are working, on the voice
with on Vanya. And then once we
get the schedule with sorry, Allison

(01:51:00):
and Howard, we'll get that on the calendar and let, let you guys know
if people want to sit in on

>> Libby (01:51:05):
Nice. That's great.

>> Nathan Agin (01:51:08):
We Try to do as much as we can.

>> Deidre (01:51:10):
You sure do.

>> Libby (01:51:11):
It's great. Those are wonderful. Wonderful.
And to have Alison. My God, how long has
it been since I've seen you, Allison?

>> Alison (01:51:20):
I was thinking about that. I think it's been nine years.
I think it's been since 2012 or so.

>> Ursula (01:51:29):
Well, none of us have aged.

>> Libby (01:51:30):
Oh, no, no. We did the other
translations. I don't think we were finished
until 14, and the
book came out in 15.

>> Alison (01:51:41):
Oh, wow.

>> Libby (01:51:42):
Yeah.

>> Alison (01:51:43):
Well, because the last time. Oh, yeah. Actually, if
Ivanov was the last one.

>> Libby (01:51:49):
Yeah. Ah.

>> Alison (01:51:49):
Maybe 20. Maybe 2014.

>> Libby (01:51:52):
And somebody here said that
Ivanov was in production that they
saw was a. You, Julie
Ivanov. Nobody does
Ivanov. I'm begging anybody to do
Ivanov.
Oh. And that's the one Chekhov play you had
ever seen. I love that. I absolutely

(01:52:14):
love it. When no one on earth has seen
Ivanov.

>> Howard (01:52:19):
I saw Cate Blanchett do Ivanov.

>> Libby (01:52:22):
You did.

>> Howard (01:52:23):
On M. Broadway. Yeah.

>> Ursula (01:52:25):
Saw her do Vanya, too.

>> Libby (01:52:26):
No, that was Vanya or
Seagull.

>> Howard (01:52:30):
No, it was in Ivanov with her and Richard
Roxborough. They brought it over from.

>> Libby (01:52:36):
From their Australian.

>> Howard (01:52:38):
They called it the Gift or the Party or
the Present or the,

>> Libby (01:52:42):
It was modern.

>> Ursula (01:52:44):
It was modern. Yeah.

>> Howard (01:52:45):
Yeah. It's modernized.

>> Libby (01:52:47):
Oh. Was it funny?
Should be very funny.

>> Howard (01:52:52):
It wasn't very good.

>> Libby (01:52:54):
Oh, okay.

>> Ursula (01:52:56):
But the Vanya was
fabulous. that Vanya with the Australian
company, that was really good.

>> Libby (01:53:04):
You saw it in person?

>> Ursula (01:53:05):
Yeah, yeah, in D.C. i saw it. It was a
Russian director, the Australian company.
But really physical. People fell out of
windows, and it's great.

>> Howard (01:53:17):
The Ivanov was. It was bedlam. I mean, there was
just, like, fireworks going off and
lights. I mean, it was just. It was like a farce almost. But it
was.

>> Libby (01:53:26):
Well, it is like a farce. And the second and
fourth act are really. The second act certainly is a
farce.

>> Howard (01:53:33):
Yeah. It just kind of ran. You were just like, this is too
much of the same thing.

>> Sarah (01:53:36):
I know.

>> Libby (01:53:37):
It's really hard. It's not a great play. It's not one of the great
ones, but it's got good stuff in it.
All right, my dear friends, I'll see
you, on Monday.

>> Nathan Agin (01:53:48):
Yeah, we'll see you on Monday. And I just wanted to pipe in. I just found.
And maybe you'd already covered it, but, to go back to the beginning, the
midsummer that Sarah saw. Ken,
Albers directed that. And
Libby, you directed, if, this is correct, Richard
ii, that same season.

>> Libby (01:54:04):
Alan Knight. Yes. With David
Kelly. Speak of the devil. Yes.
There you Go.

>> Nathan Agin (01:54:11):
All right.

>> Sarah (01:54:11):
And, Ursula messaged me privately.
that was her husband in the same. And, he
was the, Theseus
and Oberon in that production that I saw.
I just got to meet him.

>> Libby (01:54:27):
Yeah.

>> Nathan Agin (01:54:27):
Yeah, he's fantastic.

>> Libby (01:54:29):
He m. Is. He's a fantastic actor. Just
fantastic actor.

>> Nathan Agin (01:54:33):
Yeah. And he's so. He's
so, humble, but he's just so, you
know, easy going. You would never suspect it. And I watched
the Goodman production of, Measure
For Measure, and I had worked with him a little bit on this, and I
knew Jamie was good. And then I watched that and, you know, after the
first scene, I was like, oh, no, he's really good.

>> Libby (01:54:53):
Yes, that's right. He's really good.

>> Nathan Agin (01:54:55):
But you just don't. You don't. He doesn't give up that
air. He's just like, oh, yeah, how's it going? You know, it's just very easy going.
And, But yeah, there's a lot of talent there.

>> Libby (01:55:03):
And, he's extremely funny.

>> Nathan Agin (01:55:06):
Yeah. If, we'll eventually put it up on the
podcast and YouTube. But again, the
Sylvia scene he did from as yous Like It. I mean,
it. It's hilarious and you know it. He's
not, you know, he wouldn't be cast in the part.

>> Libby (01:55:19):
Well, you know, for age 50 years too.

>> Nathan Agin (01:55:22):
Right. But it is no less
hilarious. So that's the fun part about
this kind of work, is that you can dive into these
parts at any time. But, yeah. Wonderful. I've been listening
to almost all of this, and it's been really, really wonderful
conversation and fascinating and, a couple hours
has already flown by.

>> Libby (01:55:41):
And Nathan, thank you again for bringing up
Fran. That was, important for me to have a moment there,
which I have and for myself, so.

>> Alberto (01:55:49):
Right.

>> Nathan Agin (01:55:49):
Because you knew. You knew her both at CalArts, did you? Did you
know?

>> Libby (01:55:53):
I knew she. I took. Brought her to CalArts. She was
right on, my faculty for several years while I was
there.

>> Nathan Agin (01:55:59):
And did you work with her at Oregon as well or just
okay?

>> Libby (01:56:04):
I tried to get her to come to Oregon.
She was a tough broad. She did what she wanted to
do.

>> Nathan Agin (01:56:10):
Reminds me of somebody else I know.

>> Libby (01:56:12):
Oh, God. Love you
all. Daydre, don't ask how
much I love seeing you.

>> Deidre (01:56:22):
I won't. Because it's the same. It's the same.

>> Libby (01:56:26):
Love to you all.

>> Corey (01:56:29):
Thank you.

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Uncle Vanya (Act 2), Week 1: "Love, Loss and Longing" - The Rehearsal Room

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Uncle Vanya (Act 2), Week 1: "Love, Loss and Longing" - The Rehearsal Room