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About Being A Broad Abroad

I'm in Texas today working on a big party for General Electric. I woke up this morning in the hotel thinking about how it feels to be AWAY from home. There's a little bitty ache just below my ribcage that is accompanied by something that may be excitement. Home and all my dealings are a little further away and I'm tempted to run out and toss my cap in the air like Mary Tyler Moore does ---except I have no hat.

Lyubov is interesting in that she starts the play in our minds from Lopakhin's recollections " a sweet simple girl" yet that is hardly what we see when she appears.

What was the rest of the world like while Lyubov moved around in it? What would it be like for me to return home after so long ---or be away for so long? I have no frame of reference and I suppose I need one. Off to work!

Welcome

I first read Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard in High School and I'd be lying if I said that I GOT it.

Comedy?

Huh?

YepiWHOdof?

Still, there was something moving, even to a clueless teenager, about physically running away from sorrow. It reminds me of a short story I read years ago called Sorrow Rides A Fast Horse. In the story a woman loses her beloved husband and almost immediately after the funeral packs her young children and travels all over the world, never stopping --- just moving forward into some fairly extreme and dangerous settings. Ultimately the family is confronted on a winding mountain road by bandits who are prepared to kill the entire party. When the woman is asked why she is so foolish to bring young children into such a dangerous place, she can only mutter "sorrow rides a fast horse". The bandits hear this and immediately release the party to go on their way. Sure, it is a little sappy now and if this fictional event happened in today's world, the happy ending would be replaced with a more accurate event--- we'd be looking for body parts in mountain caves. Morbidity aside, there is something incredibly powerful about the way pain and loss connects even the most diverse people. Likewise, The Cherry Orchard reminds us that we are all much more alike than different.

Meaning/Action/Protagonist

What is The Cherry Orchard about? Who is the main character? Can you articulate a main action or spine for the piece?

The Cherry Orchard is a play about a woman, Lyubov Ranevskaya, who spends most of her life evading the realities of pain and loss and who is forced home after years of blind flight, respectability and finances waning, to linger in the immediate but temporary safety of her debt-ridden family estate.

Protagonist Action Reflecting Meaning

How do Lyubov's actions relate to the overall meaning?

The cherry orchard on the estate acquires an almost mythical quality, though never seen, and bookends Lyubov's journey. Grisha's death sends her away from her beloved cherry orchard and the dwindling finances compel her to return many years later, the message being that some things exist with such a ferocious tangibility that they cannot be put off forever. Like the land,the cherry orchard itself, Lyubov’s suppressed awareness of her great loss exists whether it is directly under foot or not.

Lyubov is propelled by the lack of money and more significantly by the loss of her child. Although we are able to laugh at her blatant ineptitude where the ruble is concerned, the humor is undercut by a deep vein of sadness surrounding Grisha's drowning and the fact that Lyubov is broken by this event. Chekhov reminds of us of the significance the lost child right away by setting Act 1 in a nursery, a now unnecessary place on the estate. Time and Previous Action also force the action by emphasizing the length of time Lyubov has been at a distance from both the estate and her raw, exposed memories of Grisha's drowning. However, despite her absence of five years we see a still fragile and wounded woman, not benefiting from the time and distance she has kept but hampered by it both financially and emotionally. Due to finances, she now has no choice but live in the presence of her pain, whether she is able to confront it or not.

Relevance

Why is this play important in this particular time? Are there social and/or political issues that resonate for you?

Aren't we all a little dazed by life right now? I certainly have been tempted to disassociate from my life from time to time, especially in the face of personal and financial loss. I see even the most practical and intelligent people succumb to a kind of stunned submission.

A month ago my mother asked me to go online and help her answer a question about my father's insurance policy. A letter she had received had urged her to go to the company's website and complete a form. My mother has had trouble learning how to use her computer so she had tried on several occasions to take care of the insurance issue on the phone but the automated 800 attendant had disconnected her and kept her on hold so long that she'd finally given up. I was shocked to see that my father's policy had been canceled and when I asked Mom why she'd let it go so long she just shrugged and said,

“I didn't know what else to do.”

So, she had waited, hoping something (she didn't know what) would happen to make things right. Ellen Crowe is no fool. Years of running a family business on a tight budget and through some difficult times has proven that she is a vastly capable businesswoman. The use of money and business transactions in general have become complicated, though. My mother and father feel shamefully uninformed and left behind by technology and the ever-expanding series of complicated rituals forced upon us by our government --- and culture in general. I imagine, the Russian aristocracy felt a similar sense of confusion as their way of life disappeared.

What do we do???! Wait and see if it just gets better ---

On a more personal note, I fight every day to stay out of the place that Lyubov and Gaev live, a place just a bit out of focus and removed from reality. They live there because they are stuck, with no skills to move ahead into a changing way of life that Lopakhin has mastered so well. It is simply not in their nature. Although I am currently managing the demands of my life, I see clearly the predicament of those who are unable to.

Right now, this second in fact, life is changing past someone’s point of understanding. Everyone I know has been bumping into obstacles that they are not prepared to comprehend, much less overcome.

Production Ideas

Translate the meaning of The Cherry Orchard into dynamic production ideas. What is the organizing image or metaphor you would articulate to your design team? (You must include at least SIX visual images with annotation to support your design ideas.)

The remarkable thing about The Cherry Orchard is that despite the daunting multi-syllabaic names and the occasional unexplained noise in the distant woods, Lyubov’s plight might easily be lifted and transplanted to any culture. In Russia, Greece, and even here in rural Georgia there is an acute awareness and regard for status and for family that is mirrored in Chekhov’s play. Likewise, the themes of lost children and the slow dying of the ideals and way of life held dear by our parents are sadly front and center in just about any culture that has been exposed to the 20th Century. Nothing can be more dynamic than a clear and uncluttered examination of these themes through Chekhov’s text.

Visually, the immediate world of the play (Nursery, Meadow, Drawing Room, and finally an empty Nursery) should confront Lyubov. If Lyubov’s escapades abroad are a long drunken binge, then the trip home and the point at which we pick up with her is the morning after, the reality of a hangover and the deeper sense that she has lost control of her life. We can argue that all these characters, to a degree, are stuck in the past, regret crippling them in the present. Like all of us, they try to pretend that they are free, but we know better. Visually, the play requires a series of triggers, vivid sights or sounds that threaten to expose the characters to their own lives: A GRAVESTONE, A ROCKING HORSE, A PHOTOGRAPH, AN UNIDENTIFABLE NOISE. Actor and set creates the two poles of tension which unfold within each event. Right away this lays the groundwork for a dynamic, taut, and visually assertive way for the action of the play to unfold. Chekhov exploits this trigger tactic most clearly by introducing Trofimov, a beloved family friend --- who also happens to have been the dead child’s tutor. Lyubov has no choice but to acknowledge him and navigate the surfacing feelings that threaten her peace of mind. Structurally each act and possibly each event should contain a trigger --- a prop, set piece, or sound/lighting effect, that stands out from its surroundings. PLACE forces the action in the following ways: A meadow and cemetery overlooking the cherry orchard most directly addresses what has been lost and what is at stake to be lost. The odd sound in the distance hauntingly punctuates the growing sense of quiet desperation. In Act 4 the emptiness of a bare nursery becomes the most telling aspect of the world of the play, literally suggesting the void that the estate has become and foreshadowing the fate of all but Lopakhin. To unify the ideas of The Cherry Orchard, the production requires that each locale remain homogenous, even commonplace. Within this monochromatic world, a single set piece or sound/lighting effect must stand out vividly, forcing Lyubov and others, by its mere presence, to acknowledge the pain they’ve tried so hard to suppress.

Problems/Challenges

Are there problems with the script that you would have to overcome?

Integrating and clearly presenting all the information from the text will require diligence. Chekhov is generous in supplying us with plenty of information about the world of The Cherry Orchard. This places a great burden to express many facets of the world of the play. Society, Economy, and Previous Action dwarf the other Given Circumstances in forcing the action in the play. However, Time, Religion, and Politics push hard too. It would be easy to ignore all the historical hoopla of Russian political strife in favor of the more immediately accessible social and financial themes. This would do a disservice, as would ignoring the Religious ramifications the play offers. Lyubov clearly presents a god who harshly punishes her for her indiscretions. This ties directly to what may be the most significant aspect of the world of the play and the most difficult to translate to American audiences: Place. Russia. Brrr. Cough. Lyubov believed in a hard god because she lived in a hard place.

And here’s the real challenge ---

The Cherry Orchard doesn’t read funny to Americans and finding the frivolity in the big mess of Lyubov’s agony is quite a task. We understand the source of tragedy in the play (loss, loss, oh --- and more loss) but most audiences have a hard time grasping the daily level of sheer hardship that turn of the century Russia offered up and how blessed the characters are to simply breathe, much less mourn for a long dead child or plan a budget. The humor, dark as it is, flows out of the characters’ odd, nonchalant responses to their impending but theoretically manageable poverty and their overaction and melancholy towards the things over which they have no control.

In a practical sense, there are challenges in producingThe Cherry Orchard. Assuming a budget exists to satisfy myriad design needs and the paying of sixteen or so actors, the trickiness shifts to our expectations about how this kind of play is presented. The trappings of a period piece (big skirts, classical music, very long names) can augment the product but hamper the process. A real challenge, even for the best artist, is to bust open all that frou and connect with the stuff that is immediate and visceral--- what we know in our heads, hearts, and souls.

That's a lot to manage but as my favorite teacher used to say,

"There are no easy explanations for anything important."

Staging

What stylistic and staging challenges do you face? How does music (where applicable) influence dramatic action?

Using popular music and some classical music in my plays makes me nervous because it has such a potential to derail a well staged moment. People are fickle and varied in their emotional responses and I have no talent for guessing what kind of song might aid or hamper my play in an audience’s eyes (or ears). Original music or sound compositions can be effective in creating mood and even in framing threads of action within a play. In fact, sound often weighs in heavily when I first consider staging. During early staging rehearsals, I try to find a specific physical vocabulary for the piece by creating a series of movements, gestures, sounds, or tempos unique to the play. This is my favorite part of the entire process. I use my background in design and treat blocking as if I were making ten thousand paintings with my actors. These paintings, in every play, are in turn linked together by a unique physical signature.

The Cherry Orchard contains a lot of information in the text, facts and details that carry enormous weight in terms of the overall emotional impact of the piece. Extraneous movement complicates the actor’s task of simply delivering the information clearly. On the other hand, The Cherry Orchard is a long play and can feel even longer if each moment is not staged in a crisp and active way. So, the challenge is to find the balance between still and active---precise and spontaneous.

Tiny climaxes occur throughout the script and attention to focus in each stage picture is essential to punctuate these moments. One of my biggest influences is a photographer named Tina Barney, mainly because she creates enormous tension in her work by choosing what her viewer sees first in each shot and how their eye travels over the rest of the photograph. On the page she creates a clear primary focal point that the viewer’s eye moves to immediately, then she draws the eye to a secondary point of focus. This secondary focal point either alters or directly contradicts first impressions about her work. In other words, her harmless looking family photos have --- subtext. If we look a little longer we will see something more penetrating, something that is offbeat, hidden and vastly disturbing. Applying this concept to a play is tricky but possible.

Tempo is an underused element of design. Often in rehearsals I find explosive moments of clarity by using altered tempos within a beat. Having two actors moving simultaneously but at different tempos can create a powerful sense of focus and conflict within a scene. It allows moments that would normally split an audience’s focus to resonate the way Tina Barney’s still photos do.

In staging The Cherry Orchard, the ideas discussed above represent the beginnings of what will eventually become a clear physical vocabulary for my actors to incorporate.