Notes

Here's what I would like to do: direct a production of Three Sisters in a workshop setting with actors who are ready to take their time. The goal is to produce a version that is recognizable as contemporary with Chekov's time and seeks to understand who these people are and what they are doing rather than draw a frame around them and critique who they are. I imagine a room with a dining room table and several adjacent areas with end tables and chairs to be arranged and rearranged as desired. The first reading would be around the dining room table and subsequent readings would allow actors to drift to and from that table to the other areas where food would be available. Eventually only the actors in any given scene would be sitting at the dining room table, say, third or fourth table read. after that the action would move where the actors want to go. Every day actors and designers would bring in objects they think are appropriate to the room or rooms and the space would become populated with the detritus of the private lives of the actors. Objects that were once familiar to only one actor would become the playthings of any or all the actors depending on their inspiration. I imagine that whatever designers are available would participate as much as possible watching as many rehearsals as they wanted and adding or taking away things as they saw fit with some input from the actors.