UNCLE VANYA Final Session: “Echoes of the Past” – Chekhov – Act 2 – The Rehearsal Room [Video, Audio, and Transcript versions]

UNCLE VANYA Final Session: “Echoes of the Past” – The Rehearsal Room

Nathan Agin: Was Chekhov ever considered, controversial, when he was doing his plays, or were they, you know.

Libby: Well, he got terrible reviews for Siegel, when it was first produced, before the Moscow Art Theater took and made a huge hit out of it. But, you know, he wasn’t controversial.

Nathan Agin: Okay. Yeah.

Libby: and Tolstoy was kind of mad at him for not taking more stands, trying to. Because Chekhov was so fair about everything scientifically, not emotionally. He was a doctor.

Howard: Yeah.

Nathan Agin: M. Interesting.

Libby: Yeah.

Nathan Agin: I know. It’s such a. Such, a novel, idea to just, you know, not. Not be scandalous or something, you know, because, that’s. That’s. That’s what a lot of people do to, you know, get attention.

Libby: It was also a very, volcanic time. The revolution was seething, and it had been for many years. And in 1905, the year after he died, was the first revolution. We only know 1917, but 1905 was a real revolution. They just couldn’t carry it through, but that political atmosphere. And he chose not to take stands and.

Alison: Interesting. Later, the Soviets kind of adopted him as like, one of their own, even though he hadn’t bought into it.

Libby: Absolutely.

Alison: They certainly carried him as though he was like a big flag bearer for ovation.

Nathan Agin: Wow, that’s fascinating. we could do a whole separate, Chekhov history class here.

Libby: Yes. Look, are you in?

Alison: I’m in.

Nathan Agin: When you allow people to nerd out in what they are, they’re just going to be like, I’m there.

Libby: It’s really scary, isn’t it?

Nathan Agin: Well, great. on that note, well, we can kick. We can get, into what we’re doing, which has been also exciting and lovely. so hello, everybody. my name is Nathan Agan. I am the, host and producer of the Working Actors Journey, that started as a podcast, and over the last year and a half, we’ve been doing these workshops, online workshops, which, have been, really wonderful and exciting. And for a number of reasons. It is able to combine professional actors with newer and younger actors. We’re able to bring in, dramaturgs and voice coaches and give everybody an opportunity to work on material in a way that they very rarely get a chance to do, especially at a professional level. You know, being able to take one scene and just look at that one scene for a month has been really exciting. And just, you’re going to see what happens, the richness of playing that scene when that’s all you have to really think about. And there’s no concern about lights. Or costumes or sets. And all of those things are wonderful when it comes to theater. but it is really nice to just be able to focus, on the text and characters and all that kind of stuff. and as you’ll discover, or you may know, what is also exciting about this is that we can be very conscious about age and gender and race in terms of casting. we can really explore that and have fun with it and do different things. And we’ve had, you know, previous workshops where people have played parts that they just figured had passed them by. and here they have an opportunity to do that. So that’s, that’s really wonderful and exciting too. and so I’ll just mention a couple other quick things. we just did, our director this evening, Libby Apple. We just did a really fun Q and A on Facebook. And you can find that on our Facebook page, and learn more about Libby’s career and a little bit more about ah, her love and enjoyment, with Chekhov. and then, we are also running a class coming up in October, where people can focus on one character. Up to now we’ve been doing one scene and now we’re going to focus on one character over the course of the play. And we’ve chosen Lady Macbeth. Professional, actress Susan Angelo, based in la, has played that part a number of times at regional theaters around the country. And she will walk you through that character. So it’s a part, as she said, it’s very feared and revered and a lot of people look up to it and think of it as a part they’d love to play. And this is something that could really give you a leg up on understanding this woman. so, yeah, that’s coming up. You can find out more. I’ll send out links to all of this stuff so that you can, check out more. But, lovely to have you here and very excited. And at this point I’ll mentally kind of go through my list. I think that’s everything I needed to do. but I’m going to turn it over to our director, Libby, Apple, and she’ll, you know, take it from there and you’ll meet the cast. if we haven’t gone through everybody at the beginning, we’ll do that at the end. but that’s it for me. So, Libby, thank you so much for being here and all yours.

Libby: Thanks, Nathan. When Nathan called me, about this, he asked me first if I would Do a Shakespeare scene because that’s what they’ve been doing. And of course, a Shakespeare scene with a voice coach and a dramaturg and actors. What could be better? But I said, I don’t know. I’m not done doing my Chekhov work yet. And I said to Nathan, I’ll do it if you let me do Chekhov. And he was so gracious and he read the plays. And, we decided together on Uncle Vanya. And I pointed toward the second act because I think it’s so ripe and full. I wanted to do the whole act, but he wouldn’t let me. I just want you to know that. And actually, I’m happy now because there. As much time as I thought there would be, there’s never enough time. I don’t know a director in the world who doesn’t say that I didn’t have enough time. but anyway, I’m very grateful, to Nathan and to the working actors.

Howard: Journey.

Libby: Working actors Journey. For, letting Alison and I, in to do the work on this play again. We had a great time translating it, and now it’s wonderful to be together again to do it. Alison set the scene for us.

Alison: Okay. so. Hi, everybody. I’m Alison Horsley. I did the literal translations from the Russian to the English with Libby. And we worked together for more than 10 years, on all of these. So, a little background on where we are in the play. The play is set in the late 1890s in, rural Russia. And we’re at a country estate, that is still a working farm. Very much a working farm. And the play starts with, a retired professor named Sera Byakov, and his younger wife Yelena Andreevna, having returned to the estate after living away for a long time. the people who normally have lived at the house are a, ah, man with the last name Voyanitsky. And, his nickname is Vanya. His niece is Sonya. And Sonia’s father is the professor Serbyakov. there is a visiting doctor in the picture who, pops by periodically to check in on Sarabyakov, or respond to his request for treatment. otherwise there is an older woman, who is, named Marina, who’s been the lifelong family nurse. Basically, she was a. A wet nurse at one point. And then transitioned to being a kind of like, you know, inhabitants of the estate. And kind of a servant type character. But more integral to the family than that. And then there’s Maria Vasilievna, who’s, the mother who’s referred to. And she’s Vanya’s mother. And she is the mother of the professor’s first late wife, Zakin Libby. Have I covered everybody who’s mentioned.

Libby: Just say. I think it’s important to know that the professor and his wife Yelena normally come for a week or two in the summer. But this year he’s retired and they’ve moved in. They’ve cut off their ties, with the city and the university where he worked. And they’ve moved in because that has caused the crash that’s happening in the household.

Alison: And they’ve been back about a month, a few weeks. Around there?

Libby: Yes. But everyone in the house knows they’re staying, so that’s a burden.

Alison: Great. So we’re starting with the top of Act 2. I’m going to just read these opening stage directions. And then we’ll get going. so, act two of Uncle Vanya. The dining room in Serebyakov’s home. Night in the garden. The watchman can be heard tapping. Serebyakov sits in an armchair before an open window and dozes. And Yelena Andreevna sits beside him and also dozes.

Alberto: Who’s there? Sonia, is that you? I’m here, you dear Notchka.

Alberto: The pain is unbearable.

Sarah: Here. Your blanket fell. I’ll shut the window.

Alberto: No, I’m suffocating. I was just nodding off. And I dreamt that my left leg was attached, to someone else. I woke up with such excruciating pain. No, this is not gout. Probably rheumatism. What time is it?

Sarah: 20 minutes after 12.

Alberto: In the morning. go look for Batyushkov in the library. I’m sure we have him.

Deidre: What?

Alberto: Look for Batyushkov in the morning. I seem to recall we have him. Why can’t I breathe?

Sarah: You’re tired. This is the second night you haven’t slept.

Alberto: they say Turgenief developed angina pectoris from gout. I’m afraid I’m getting it too. Damned, disgusting. Old age. The devil take it. Now that I’m old, I can’t stand looking at myself. And I’m sure all of you must be repulsed by me too.

Sarah: Make it sound as if it’s our fault you got old.

Alberto: But I’m most disgusting to you. Of course, you’re right. I’m not stupid. I understand. You’re young, healthy, beautiful. You want to live. And I’m an old man, almost a corpse.

Sarah: True.

Alberto: I understand all too well. And of course it’s a terrible crime I have lived this long. But, wait a little. Soon you’ll be free of me. I won’t last much longer.

Sarah: I’m exhausted. For God’s sake, be quiet.

Alberto: Yes, everyone is exhausted. All because of me. They’re bored. They’re wasting their time. They’re wasting their youth. I’m the only one who’s happy. I’m the only one having a good time. Well, yes, of course.

Sarah: Be quiet. You have worn me out.

Alberto: Yes, I have worn everyone out. of course.

Alison: This is unbearable.

Sarah: Tell me what you want from me.

Alberto: Nothing.

Sarah: Well, then be quiet. I begged you.

Alberto: It’s so strange. Ivan Petrovich talks his head off. And that old idiot Maria Vasilyevna. And it’s just fine. Everyone listens. But when I say one word, everyone suddenly feels desolate. Even my voice is offensive. Well, let’s assume I am offensive. I’m an egoist. I’m a despot. Don’t I have the right to be a despot? To be an egoist in my old age? Think about it. Haven’t I earned it? I ask you, don’t I have the right to a comfortable old age, surrounded by my admirers?

Sarah: No one is, taking away your rights. It’s very windy. I’ll close the window. It’ll rain soon. No one’s denying your rights.

Alberto: All one’s life to be dedicated to scholarship, to become accustomed to one’s study, to the classroom, to respected colleagues. And suddenly, for, no apparent reason, to find oneself buried in this tomb. Every day to deal with stupid people, to. To listen to insignificant chatter. I want to live. I love success. I love fame. I love action. But here I’m in exile. Every minute I’m longing for the past, watching the success of others, fearing death. I, cannot. I don’t have the strength. And no one can forgive me for being old.

Sarah: Wait a little. Have patience. In five or six years, I’ll be old too.

Deidre: Papa, you sent for Dr. Astro, but when he came, you refused to see him. It’s so rude. You bothered this man.

Alberto: Why do I need your Astrov? He understands as much about medicine as I do astronomy.

Deidre: He cannot send for the entire medical faculty just for your gout.

Alberto: I won’t talk to that idiot.

Corey: As, you wish.

Deidre: It’s all the same to me.

Alberto: What time is it?

Sarah: Almost one.

Alberto: It’s stifling. Sonia, give me the drops from the table.

Deidre: Of course.

Alberto: Not these. I can’t ask, for anything.

Deidre: Please, stop acting like a baby. It might be fine for others, but spare me Please. I don’t like it.

Libby: I don’t have time.

Deidre: I need to get up early tomorrow. I have the hay. Tomo.

Howard: The storm’s coming. Here we go. Helen, and Sonia, go to sleep. I came to relieve you.

Alberto: No, no, don’t leave me with him. No. He’ll talk my head off.

Howard: But they’ve got to get some rest. They didn’t sleep at all last night.

Alberto: well, let them go to sleep. But you go too. Thank you. I implore you in the name of a former friendship. Just go.

Howard: Our, former friendship. Former.

Deidre: Be quiet, Uncle Vanya.

Alberto: My dear, don’t leave me with him. He’ll talk my head off.

Howard: Can you believe how ludicrous this is?

Deidre: you ought to be in bed, Nanya. It’s very late.

Julie: Samovar is still boiling. You can’t exactly expect me to go to bed.

Alberto: No one is sleeping. Everybody’s exhausted. I alone am in a state of bliss.

Julie: Oh, what is it, my dear? Are you in pain? My legs ache too. They ache so. You’ve been in pain such a long time. Vera Petrovna, Sonietzka’s mother, may she rest in peace, never slept either. She nearly killed herself taking care of you. she loved you very much. Oh, yes. Old people are like children. They want someone to feel sorry for them. But no one feels sorry for the old. Let’s go to bed, my dear. let’s go, my little boy. I’ll make you some lime leaf tea. I’ll warm your legs. I’ll pray to God for you.

Alberto: Let’s go, Marina.

Julie: Legs ache too. They ache so. Vera Petrovna nearly killed herself. Always crying. You, Sonietchka, were still little then. Come, Come, my dear.

Sarah: I’m completely exhausted with him. I can barely stand on my feet.

Howard: You’re exhausted with him, and I with myself. This is the third night I haven’t slept.

Sarah: Something is wrong in this house. Your mother. Your mother hates everything except her own pamphlets. And the professor. The professor is irritated. He doesn’t trust me. He’s afraid of you. Sonia is angry with her father. Angry with me. Hasn’t talked to me for two weeks. You hate my husband and openly hold your own mother in contempt. I am short tempered, and at least 20 times today I started to cry. There is something very wrong in this house.

Howard: Should we cut the philosophy, please?

Sarah: You, Ivan Petrovitch, are educated, intelligent, and you must see that the world is not being destroyed by thieves and fires and wars, but rather by hatred, hostility from all these petty squabbles. You shouldn’t add to the noisy complaining around you. You should be helping to find peace with your own family.

Howard: Help me find peace in myself, my darling.

Libby: Stop.

Sarah: Go away.

Howard: Soon it’ll stop raining and everything in nature will be refreshed and alive. I alone will not be refreshed by the storm. Day and night I’m strangled by the idea that my life is irrevocably lost, that I’m dead, that I wasted my life, that I spent my life on trifles. Here. Take my life. Take my love. What good are they to me? What have I done with them? My feelings are dying away in vain. Like sunbeams falling into a dark pit. I’m dying.

Sarah: When you talk to me about your love, I just go numb. And I don’t know what to say. Give me. I have nothing to say to you. Good night.

Howard: If you only knew how I suffer from the thought that next to me in this very house, another life is dying. Yours. What are you waiting for? What damned righteous morality stops you?

Sarah: Don’t you see, Ivan Petrovich? You’re drunk.

Howard: Possibly. Possibly.

Sarah: Where’s the doctor?

Howard: He’s, here. He’s spending the night. Possibly. Possibly everything is possible.

Sarah: Why are you drinking so much?

Howard: Because it makes me feel alive. Don’t try to stop me, Helen.

Sarah: You never used to drink so much. And you never talked so much. Go to sleep.

Howard: I’m bored to death of you, my darling. Beautiful, marvelous.

Sarah: Leave me alone. This is just disgusting.

Howard: She’s gone. I first met you 10 years ago, my darling sisters.

Corey: Remember?

Howard: You were 17. I was 37. Why didn’t I fall in love with you and propose to you then? Would have been so easy. Today you would be my wife. Yes. Tonight both of us would be awakened by the storm. You would be afraid of the thunder. And I would take you in my arms and whisper, don’t be afraid, little darling. I’m here. Marvelous thoughts. I’m laughing, but God, I’m so mixed up. Why m. Am I old? Why doesn’t she understand me? The way she talks. Her stupid morality. Her silly prattling about making peace in the world. I hate it so much. I’ve been deceived. I worship that professor. That pathetic, gout ridden idiot. I worked for him like a slave. Sonia and I squeezed every drop out of Fist estate. We were like kulaks haggling over vegetable oil peas, starving ourselves with crumbs just so we could save a few copecks to send to him. I was so proud of him and his glorious scholarship. I lived for him, I breathed. For him, Every word he wrote or uttered seemed like genius to me. God. And now he’s retired, and it has become perfectly clear that the sum total of his life adds up to nothing. Not one word of his, not a single scholarly word, matters to anyone. A. Ah. Soap bubble. And I’ve been swindled. I see that now. Stupidly swindled.

Libby: Play.

Julie: Everyone is sleeping, sir.

Alberto: Oh.

Corey: Play. Are you alone here? No. Ladies, go to the peasant house. Go to the fire. There is no place for the master to expire. The storm woke me. Big storm. What time is it?

Howard: Who knows?

Corey: I thought I heard Yelena Andreyevna’s voice.

Howard: She was just here.

Libby: What?

Corey: A gorgeous woman. Medicines, drugs. There’s nothing missing. Kharkov, Moscow, Tulskaya. Every city is plagued with his gout. Is he really sick or faking it?

Howard: Sick?

Corey: And why are you so sad today? Pity for the professor.

Howard: Stop it.

Corey: Or maybe you’re in love with the professor’s wife?

Howard: She’s my friend.

Corey: Already.

Howard: What does that mean, already?

Corey: A woman can only be friends with a man. In this order. First an acquaintance, then a, lover. And then finally a friend.

Howard: Vulgar.

Corey: Oh, yes. I’m becoming vulgar. I’m drunk.

Libby: Usually.

Corey: I get drunk like this once a month. And when I’m drunk, I get completely vulgar and fearless. Everything seems so easy. Easy to me. I take on the most brilliant operations and do them brilliantly. I make daring plans for the future. When I’m drunk, I no longer seem like a freak. And I actually believe I’m bringing some enormous benefit to humanity. Enormous. And when I’m drunk, I see how valuable my own personal universe is. And the rest of you piddling creatures seem like insects to me. Microbes, waffles. Play.

Julie: Dear one, I would love to play for you with all my soul. But understand, everyone is sleeping.

Alberto: Play.

Corey: You need a drink.

Howard: Oh.

Corey: Oh, I see there’s some cognac left. In the morning, we’ll go to my place, right, Jar? I have a medical assistant who never says right, but, Right you are, idiot. Right you are. Pardon me, I forgot my tie.

Deidre: And you, Uncle Vanya, you got drunk again with the doctor. A couple of juveniles just hanging around. Well, he has always been like that. But what in heaven’s name is wrong with you? At your age, you should know better.

Howard: Age has nothing to do with it. You don’t have a life. You live on soap bubbles. Better than nothing.

Deidre: Our hay needs to be cutted. It rains every day. Everything is rotting. And all you can talk about is soap bubbles. You’re completely neglecting the farm. I have to work alone. I am straying to the breaking point. Uncle, do you have tears in your eyes?

Howard: Tears? Nothing. Nonsense. The way you looked at me just now, it’s like your mother.

Corey: M. Sweet.

Howard: My sister. Sweet, dear sister. Where is she now? Only she knew my family. she knew, you know.

Alberto: M. What?

Libby: Uncle?

Deidre: What?

Howard: It’s so hard.

Nathan Agin: Nothing.

Howard: Later. Nothing. I’m going.

Alison: End of scene.

Libby: That was so good. Come back, everybody. Yay. That was so good, wasn’t it? God. Kind of don’t want to do it again, but I do. I do. How do you feel about it? I want to know how you feel. Oh, come on.

Deidre: You must have definitely love another pass. You know, it’s like it takes a minute to kind of get into the. You know, I love just the feel of the evening because, you know, it’s like having the, ambient rain and sound and all of that. So just, you know, it’s. It’s like putting on a nice, blanket and sort of getting in. You got to kind of get it settled. Yeah.

Libby: Yes, of course. And, you know, it’s always difficult to start a play or, you know, to start a scene. You know, the start is always, always difficult. And this is the start of Act 2, and when you come in, it’s the start of being in the middle of something. But I just.

Deidre: I thought it was lovely. It really was so delicious.

Libby: I’m kind of sad you can’t hear me because I’m laughing all the way through. I know I’m the only one in the world who laughs at this, but I just, And you.

Sarah: Yes, I was laughing all the time.

Libby: Oh, good. I’m so glad, Ursula.

Nathan Agin: And crying.

Libby: And crying. Yes. It was very touching. Everybody, what other reactions? Anybody else have reactions?

Sarah: Well, that actually answers my reaction, because right as we finished, I went, oh, my God. I think this is still supposed to be a comedy, and I certainly don’t feel like one. And I’m certainly not acting as if I’m in one. But that’s so great to know that despite how you feel and how your character feels, the response is very different coming from the audience. And I always think that’s so fascinating, how you can feel as if you’re in a very dramatic scene, but something’s working, something is happening.

Libby: You have to trust. You have to trust the text, and you have to trust yourself in the text for it to happen. I don’t think it’s a Laugh riot. But it’s ironic. And when you know all of the characters in the situation, having had an act before this, and to see them in this state at this point, it is both funny and tragic, at the same time. And the kind of play between both of them is, funny. It just makes you laugh. Other thoughts? I have a few things for you, but I want to hear from you. Yes, you want. From the audience. Yeah, okay. No, I don’t want the audience yet, except. Oh, okay, I’m sorry, because we’re going to. Yeah. Oh, come on, Howard. You must have felt very good. You’re really getting somewhere, don’t you think?

Howard: I’m trying. it’s interesting, as sort of. We sort of have this image of sort of indolence and lethargic check off. But once it starts moving, it’s so fast, I almost couldn’t process, you know, I was like, slow down, slow down, slow down. This is going too fast.

Libby: I know exactly how you.

Howard: And I don’t know what that feeling is exactly, but it’s like, it’s like, you know, when you prepare by yourself without like, you know, you like, take all this time to like, sit in these emotions and be, you know, and then it’s like once it’s happening, you’re like, oh my God, it’s going much, much faster than I know how to.

Libby: Keep up with it.

Howard: That was, that. That was my experience.

Libby: How about you, Alberto? Oh, put your, put your, take your mood off, Alberto.

Alberto: I think the one thing that, kept coming to my mind after the fact, after I accident was the phrase the death of love. It seems not my love, but her love, totally gone. Oh my God.

Libby: Do you think that’s a great question also, Alberto? Do you think that you see that she’s dead to you, that. That you’re dead to her? Or, Uh-huh.

Alberto: Yeah, I think it’s like. So, my dear, why are you still going through the motions? You know, I mean, you. Obviously, it’s. Whatever we had, Whatever you felt for me is gone. Totally. At least from what I can see.

Libby: Do you think that you’re attempting to get it back in this scene or you’re just blaming her?

Alberto: a little tentative emotions, but I, think there’s a certain masculine pride. I don’t know, or human pride, maybe. like, I’m not gonna beg, you know, but I do anyway. I got old.

Libby: Yes. Yes. Keep looking for Alberto the positive. Trying to win her back.

Alberto: Okay.

Libby: Find any of that in There.

Alberto: All right.

Libby: don’t give up. Yeah, I have a few little notes. but, there’s a big question I don’t think we’ve ever answered. Why does Vanya think that Srebryakov’s work is worthless now? How did that happen? It’s not in the text. You have to build it, and we all have to. And why is he completely disillusioned with the professor when he has spent so many years of his life dedicating himself to it? And Yelena, you married, Sebry Yakov because he was, you know, a celebrity professor kind of thing. Do you know that his work is worthless now?

Sarah: Yeah, I have my own guess on this. At least for my character’s perspective, which is if he actually mattered, if his work mattered, when it came to him retiring, somebody, somewhere, some institution, some patron, some something would have picked up the bill and made sure this guy was taken care of for the rest of his life and continued to celebrate him. You know, great, great men don’t retire to their. To, you know, desolation in the country in isolation. And the second he was off the payroll, here we are, we’re in the middle of nowhere. And I just feel like none of that notoriety had any substance. Ultimately, that everybody’s gone.

Libby: So what does it feel like? You don’t have to answer. You just need to have the question. What does it feel like when Vanya speaks aloud? What you’ve begun to realize or have been realizing? I don’t want to put a time on it. That has to cost you. Something, that has to come in. I don’t know the answer to it, Sarah, but, it’s important. He’s not just gabbing, he’s. He’s stabbing at something that was important to you.

Deidre: Yeah.

Sarah: Yeah. It’s almost as much of an insult to me as it is to him. Because I’m aligned by being married.

Libby: Exactly. And you, who could have had anybody, you chose this older man who was the center of something that made him. For a minute. Yeah. I just wanted to mention, Alberto, maybe m rheumatism has a little bit more, worry for you. You throw it away as unimportant as gout.

Alberto: Oh, I totally misunderstood. I, was going exactly the opposite. Okay, great. All right. Thank you. All right.

Libby: And I thought your thinking process up until the pause before Batushka. I don’t know why you asked for Batushka. Are you trying to get her back? What’s your action there?

Alberto: Well, it felt like I Gave her a book of Batyushkov’s poems when she was a student, of mine. Like, here, you’ll love this. and I think I wasn’t investing it this time around. I wasn’t investing it with any of that emotionality.

Libby: That’s a great choice. And yes, you need to invest it with it.

Alberto: And you know, when I mentioned her name, his name, she’s like, totally. Yeah, but you just got. Yeah, so what? You know, it’s like, I think it’s like. Don’t you remember?

Libby: Another stab in the heart. Right.

Nathan Agin: Okay.

Libby: God, you poor guy. I feel for you.

Alberto: okay.

Libby: I can’t agree. My own handwriting. Sarah, no one is taking away your life. What’s your action on that?

Sarah: let me turn to it. No one’s denying your rights. Yeah, my action on that.

Libby: Are you flattering him? Are you shedding?

Sarah: No, not at all. I feel like in that moment I am pointing out, nobody did this to you. You did this to yourself.

Libby: okay. Yeah, that’s big.

Sarah: Yeah. and that I like how she goes away from it and then comes back again. It’s like she can’t let it go of this. You have got to stop blaming other people for this. This was not me. This was not anybody else. You lost your own friends. You lost all of your own. Everything. You did this to yourself.

Sarah: But she’s not able to say it correctly.

Libby: How able are you to tell him that?

Sarah: Yeah, yeah, exactly. She’s not able to come out and say it. So she says it passively.

Libby: Right.

Sarah: It’s as far as she’s able to go.

Libby: That’s good, Sarah. That’s a very good choice. Sonia, exactly what you were saying. Deidre, I didn’t know where you were coming from. Were you just woken? I know you’re not spending the time with Astro. Astros getting, drunk in another room. So where were you coming from? Were you trying to get some sleep before. And what brought you to the room?

Deidre: Well, I think, I don’t think she’s asleep. I think she’s, you know, she’s checking in on. Checking in on everyone. I mean, it’s late. There seems to be. You, know, I’m recognizing that Dr. Astro. That he’s still awake and he’s still in the house.

Deidre: And you know, sending. And that he hasn’t, he hasn’t met. So I’ve been waiting for him to go in and meet with my father and then be on his way. So I keep thinking that that’s going to happen and it hasn’t.

Deidre: So I think I just come in to say what’s the hold up? What’s happening? It’s where, you know, this man is still here. And I’m now having to, you know, take care of yet one more person in our in.

Libby: And do you hear, do you hear that, Sebriar. Well, you know that he’s in the wrong room. They’re not in their bedroom or they’re in the dining room.

Deidre: Exactly.

Libby: So I’m just interested to know if you. It isn’t that you overheard what they were saying, but did you hear their voices? Did you know that?

Deidre: Yeah, you know, I didn’t give myself that, but yes, I mean, my feeling.

Libby: Is look at that and see how that informs your end.

Deidre: Yeah, absolutely.

Libby: Okay, Vanya, same, question. Where, where are you coming from? What brings you to the room to take over?

Howard: I’m. I think I’m. I’m coming from my bedroom and I think I must. I think I was up. I was up late drinking in bed, not able to fall asleep. And then I hear voices and I think that drew me down there. And you know, there’s just, just all this activity in the house in the middle of the night. What’s happening.

Libby: Right. And you know it. There aren’t electric lights, of course, but there’s some light going on in this room. and I just want you to build for yourself the sir. The little bit of circumstances of what did the light did. The voices did. Her voice did hit. What part did his voice play? Just the way we come into a room is because of something that brought us into the room.

Howard: Okay.

Libby: Okay. So just take a look at that and see if there’s something in that for you. the most important. Wait, Marina. Oh, yes, Marina, same question. Really, Julie, by the way, really good work. Really good work. Julie, what brought you into the room finally? I mean, you’re the last one in of this group.

Julie: Yeah, well, I have to tend to the samovar still boiling. So as a caretaker of the home, I think I’m always up at this time. I mean, since Jelena and Sarah Bracho has, you know, come right. Regularly. My last thing that I do of the day.

Libby: Yes. And of course at this hour, 12:30 at night, you should have long been asleep because you’re up so early and do the house. So is it their voices or is it the light or is it the agitation that you sense? I don’t know. And you don’t have to answer, Julie. But you need to answer it for you. That brings you into the room. Now, the biggest question of all. Why did the professor’s work go so badly for you? Vanya, what created Jekhov? Doesn’t tell us. So it’s gotta. We’ve gotta create it.

Howard: I’ve, been working a lot. Did you want me to answer that?

Libby: If you have some thoughts to share with us. I think.

Howard: I don’t know is the short answer. And I’ve really been playing around with it, like I’ve invented all kinds of different scenarios in my head. I mean, the closest thing in my own life that I can put it down to is sometimes when you are jealous of somebody or, envious. That it just becomes its own.

Libby: That.

Howard: That becomes the needle that then begins poking a hole in that person.

Libby: Uh-huh.

Howard: And, you know, I had an experience about 10 years ago I was working with.

Libby: Wait a minute. Hold it. Hold it. I. I lost. I lost my picture. How do I come back into it? Guys?

Sarah: We see you minimize.

Libby: Yeah.

Nathan Agin: You just probably want to find a zoom window.

Libby: Just try the arrow back. But that’s not getting me. Your meeting is launched. I’m, Launching meeting.

Sarah: We’re already with you.

Libby: Okay. I’m so sorry if you’re making fun of me, Deidre, you’re in deep trouble.

Deidre: I’m not. I’m not. Not at all.

Libby: Okay, finish what you were saying, Howard.

Howard: I was in my own life about 10 years ago. I was working with a writer of some renown. And there was this moment we were working together. Were many people in the room at this conversation where they displayed certain amount of vanity and human fallibility in front of everybody. And from that moment on, it colored all the work for me. Like, I just. I was. I could never hear that conversation. And so with Vanya, because he’s so not specific about it. Nobody else seems to have clocked that the professor had this fall, necessarily.

Libby: Well, you don’t know whether Yelena has clocked it. That’s something.

Howard: Yeah. I was. I finally kind of. I mean, at one point, I was like. I was like. Did reviews appear when he retired? Of people saying, of course he’s passe now, but that seemed a little on the nose. But a lot of his reasoning just seems to be very subjective. I was so proud of him, his glorious scholarship.

Libby: Yes.

Howard: Everything seemed like genius. And now it’s clear that it’s just nothing. You know, that. That. That whatever the. Whatever the, The glue that was holding it all Together. Just disappeared for Vanya. And then the whole thing just fell down.

Libby: Yes. And. And. And I think everyone in the house has to have some version of what’s going. Whether. What’s going on here? why. Why does Vanya think that the professor is so terrible? I think Yelena is on her way to. As you were saying, Sarah, before, about no celebration, you know, no big tribute.

Sarah: Yeah. But I think Yelena was out even before the retirement. I think Yelena’s been out for a while. I was kind of answering the wrong question. Now I’m realizing what you were asking. I think for Yelena, it’s been, several years that she has been utterly disillusioned by the hot air. because she doesn’t exist in the marriage. She’s. She’s not a person there. And there’s only so long you can go not being a person before you realize it’s a terrible position to be in. And I actually wonder, you know, for Vanya. Take this or leave this, Howard, if seeing Yelena’s disillusionment also, sparked Vanya’s disillusionment. Because before, he’s this great guy who has all the thoughts and has this beautiful woman. Well, if this beautiful woman has fallen out of love with him, it must not be his brain. Then there’s got to. You know, we have to reject that in order for you to get after the other thing that you want. I didn’t say that very clearly, even though it makes sense in my head.

Howard: I understand.

Libby: Yeah, I understand, too. And, of course, in a rehearsal room, we would be able to see each other eye to eye. And, you know. But I think it’s important to share these ideas, even if it’s, on Zoomy Boom.

Howard: It’s so interesting to me that Vanya. I criticize her first. The way she talks.

Libby: That’s really important, Howard. That’s really important.

Howard: And then that’s, like, too much of a nerve to touch.

Libby: Yes. It hurts too much.

Howard: Yeah.

Libby: And so you have to turn. And you turn pretty viciously in your. I mean, you were on your way, Howard, with this. And I urge you to think that way. This very personal. Setting up your dolly right in front of you to talk about would have been so great if we would have been married. You know, you’re really on your way. Well, that’s opening. That’s very vulnerable. And as we would have continued to work through this if we were going to put it on a stage in the whole play, I, would continue to urge you to Go to let that personal little dialogue between you and Yelena and then it will help you make the turn more violently about Sebryakov. You’ve just exposed your nerves. Do you understand? Yeah. Okay. I’m going to move along because we haven’t got very much time here.

Libby: Yelena, it’s just disgusting. That’s an ending for you with Vanya, of course, but that, that’s a whole evening’s worth. I just want you to find that it’s. It’s kind of a. It’s months worth, worth years, maybe that this has been going on, but it. It’s what you have to feel this moment. Astrov, do you have, Corey, do you have any bottles or cans? Can you.

Corey: Bottles.

Libby: Great. So that’s what it is. Moscow.

Corey: Oh, Moscow. Tulskaya Carpool.

Libby: We are looking at all of the different medicines. That’s right. That’s exactly right. It’s like crazy that the whole world is suffering from his gout.

Corey: Great. Okay. Yeah.

Libby: I just want to say it’s not talked about in this scene. It’s talked about in the very first scene in the play. Corey, when you and Marina are together, you talk about the dead woman, you know, on the operating table when you were operating. And that is a weight. I mean, you must have seen thousands of dead people. It is a very poverty stricken part of Russia where nobody takes care of their health or themselves. So you must have seen. But something touched a nerve there. And that is the opposite of what you’re saying. I don’t know if I’m going to say this right, what you’re saying about when I’m drunk, I feel the master of the world. I could operate on anybody. I could win. Because it’s bothering you inside here.

Corey: Yeah.

Libby: Yes. So I want you to consider as we work it through this or run it through this last time. And don’t worry, don’t push anything, but consider the idea that this master of the universe moment, he needs the liquor to inflate it. So, don’t be afraid of it.

Corey: Okay? Okay.

Libby: Okay. I don’t think you’re afraid of it, but I don’t think you’re allowing it. And I don’t think you’re allowing the thought of that dead woman to inform how you have to get over it. Does that make sense?

Corey: Definitely.

Libby: Yes.

Corey: thank you.

Libby: Great. Yes. Let yourself get high on the image of being the master of the world, you know?

Corey: Okay.

Libby: Yeah.

Corey: Yeah.

Libby: Okay. Any other. Alison, do you have any comments? And Ursula, do You have any comments? Because we’re going to do it again.

Alison: Just going off of that, the idea that Vanya might be kind of maybe pushed to fall a little more out of love with Serebyakov because of Yelena’s comments, it just made me think about the fact that in so many Chekhov plays, characters lash out at each other over things that they see within themselves, you know, and they’re kind of like, I can’t, you know, this kind of like, I can’t believe you’re so vain, when actually they’re just directing it back at themselves.

Libby: Yes, yes.

Alison: In this kind of wonderful. Little bit childish, little bit self loathing it out on the closest person available. And I feel like with this kind of cabin fever, this shows up a lot in this play in particular, so I don’t know.

Libby: And in this act in particular, this scene that we’re doing. Yes, that’s beautiful. Alison, Ursula, do you have any comments?

Sarah: All I will say is, the zoom world, our little tiny rectangles, tends.

Libby: To limit our pitch range.

Sarah: And there’s so much inside that wants to go to another octave. And I think it’s okay to let.

Libby: It go when the stakes get high.

Sarah: Your voice can, fill that.

Libby: Thank you. All right, my friends, we’re. We’re perfect timing here. let’s do it again. Okay.

Alison: Everybody good to go?

Libby: You’ll read the first stage direction, yeah? Okay.

Alison: Act two, Uncle Vanya. The dining room in Serebyakov’s home. Night in the garden. The watchman can be heard tapping. Serebyakov sits in an armchair before an open window and dozes. And Yelena Andreevna sits beside him and also dozes.

Alberto: Who’s there? Sonia, is that you?

Sarah: I, am here.

Alberto: You. The pain is unbearable.

Libby: Here.

Sarah: Your blanket fell. I’ll close the window.

Alberto: No, I’m suffocating. I was just nodding off and I dreamt that my left leg was attached to someone else. I woke up with such excruciating pain. No, this is not gout. Probably rheumatism. what time is it?

Sarah: 20 minutes after 12.

Alberto: In the morning. Go look for Batyushkov in the library. I’m sure we have him.

Libby: What?

Alberto: Look for Batyushkov in the morning. I seem to recall we have him. My cat. I breathe.

Sarah: You’re tired. This is the second night you haven’t slept.

Alberto: they say Turgenev developed angina pectoris from gout. I’m afraid I’m getting it too. Damned disgusting old age. The I will take it. Now that I’m old, I can’t stand looking at myself. And I’m sure all of you must be repulsed by me too.

Sarah: You make it sound as if it’s our fault you got old.

Alberto: But I’m most disgusting to you. Of course, you’re right. I’m not stupid. I understand. You’re young, healthy, beautiful. You want to live. And I’m an old man, almost a, corpse. True, I understand all too well. And of course it’s a terrible crime I have lived this long. But, wait a little. Soon you’ll be free of me. I won’t last much longer.

Sarah: I am exhausted. For God’s sake, just be quiet.

Alberto: Yes, everyone is exhausted. All because of me. They’re bored. They’re wasting their time. They’re wasting their youth. I’m the only one who’s happy. I’m the only one having a good, good time. Well, yes, of course.

Julie: Quiet.

Sarah: You have worn me out.

Alberto: Yes, I have worn everyone out. Of course.

Sarah: This is unbearable. Tell me what you want from me.

Alberto: Nothing.

Sarah: Well, then be quiet, I beg you.

Alberto: It’s so strange. Ivan Petrovich talks his head off, or that old idiot Maria Vasilyevna. And it’s just fine. Everyone listens. But when I say one word, everyone suddenly feels desolate. Even my voice is offensive. Well, let’s assume I’m offensive. I’m an egoist. I’m a despot. Don’t I have the right to be an egoist in my old age? Think about it. Haven’t I earned, it? I ask you, don’t I have the right to a comfortable, ah, old age, surrounded by. By my admirers?

Sarah: No one’s, taking away your rights. It’s very windy. I’ll close the window. It’ll rain soon. No one’s denying your rights.

Alberto: All one’s life to be dedicated to scholarship, to become accustomed to one’s study, to the classroom, to respected colleagues. And suddenly, for no apparent reason, to find oneself buried in this tomb. Every day to deal with stupid people, to listen to insignificant chatter. I want to live. I love success. I love fame. I love action. But here I’m in exile. Every minute I’m longing for the past, watching the success of others, fearing death. I cannot. I don’t have the strength. And no one can forgive me for being, old.

Sarah: Wait a little. Have patience. In five or six years, I’ll be old too.

Deidre: Papa, you sent for Dr. Astro, but when he came, you.

Libby: You. So rude.

Deidre: You bothered this man.

Alberto: And why do I need your astro. he understands about as much about medicine as. As I do astronomy.

Deidre: We cannot send for the entire medical faculty just for your doubt.

Alberto: I won’t talk to that idiot.

Sarah: As you wish.

Deidre: All the same to me.

Alberto: Well, what time is it?

Sarah: It’s almost one.

Alberto: It’s stifling. Sonia, give me the drops from the table. Ah, not these. I, can’t ask for anything.

Deidre: Please stop acting like a. Stop acting like a baby. It may be fine for others, but spare me, please.

Alison: I don’t like it.

Deidre: I don’t have time. I need to get up early tomorrow. I have the hay to mow, and I.

Howard: No. The storm’s coming. Here we go. Leon and Sonja, go to sleep. I came to relieve you.

Alberto: No, no. Don’t leave me with him. No. Just talk my head off.

Howard: But they’ve got to get some rest. They didn’t sleep at all last night.

Alberto: Doesn’t go to sleep. But you go too. Thank you. I implore you in the name of a former friendship. Just go. We’ll talk later.

Howard: Our, former friendship. Former.

Deidre: Be quiet, Uncle Vanya.

Libby: My dear, don’t.

Alberto: Leave me with him. He’ll talk my head off.

Howard: Can you believe how ludicrous this is?

Deidre: You ought to be in bed, Nanya. It’s late. It’s very late.

Julie: Samovar is still boiling. You can’t exactly expect me to go to bed.

Alberto: No one is sleeping. Everybody is exhausted. I alone am in a state of bliss.

Julie: Oh, what is it, my dear? Are you in pain? my legs ache too. they ache. So, you’ve been in pain such a long time. Vera Petrovna, Sanotzka’s mother, may she rescue in peace. Never slept either. She nearly killed herself taking care of you. Oh, she loved you very much. Oh, yes. Old people are like children. They want someone to feel sorry for them. But no one feels sorry for the old.

Julie: Let’s go to bed, my dear. Let’s go, my little boy. I’ll make you some lime leaf tea. I’ll, warm your legs. I’ll pray God for you.

Alberto: Let’s go, Marina.

Julie: my legs ache too. They ache so navera. Petrovna nearly killed herself. Always crying. You, Sonietchka, were still little then. Come, come, my dear.

Sarah: I’m completely exhausted with him. I can barely stand on my feet.

Howard: You’re exhausted with him? I’m with myself. This is the third night I haven’t slept.

Sarah: Something is wrong with this house. Your mother hates everything except for her pamphlets and the professor. The professor’s irritated. He doesn’t trust me. He’s afraid of you. Sonia is angry with her father, angry with me, and hasn’t talked to me in two weeks. You hate my husband and openly hold your own mother in contempt. I am short tempered, and at least 20 times a day I have started to cry. Something is very wrong with this house.

Howard: Should we cut the philosophy, please?

Sarah: You, Ivan Petrovitch, are, educated, intelligent. And you must see that the world is not being destroyed by thieves and fires and wars, but rather by hatred, hostility. And from all these petty squabbles, you shouldn’t add to the noisy complaining around us. You should be helping to find peace in your own family.

Howard: Help me find peace in myself. My darling.

Libby: Stop.

Sarah: go away.

Howard: Soon it’ll stop raining. everything in nature will be refreshed and alive. I alone will not be refreshed by the storm. Day and night I’m strangled by the idea that my life is irrevocably lost, that I’m dead, that I. I wasted my life, that I spent my life on trifles. Here. Take my life. Take my love. what, good are they to me? What have I done with them? My feelings are dying away in vain. Like sunbeams falling into a dark pit. Dying.

Sarah: When you talk to me about your love, I just go numb. And I don’t know what to say. Forgive me. I have nothing to say to you.

Libby: Good night.

Howard: If you only knew how I suffer from the thought that next to me, in this very house, another life is dying. Yours. What are you waiting for? What damned righteous morality stops you?

Sarah: Don’t you see, Ivan Petrovich, you are drunk.

Howard: Possibly. Possibly.

Sarah: Where’s the doctor?

Howard: he’s here. He’s spending the night. Possibly. Possibly. Everything is possible.

Sarah: Why are you drinking so much?

Howard: Because it makes me feel alive. Don’t try to stop me, then.

Sarah: You never used to drink so much. And you never used to talk so much. Go to sleep. I am bored to death of you, my darling.

Howard: Beautiful, marvelous.

Libby: Leave me alone.

Sarah: This is just disgusting.

Howard: Scum. I first met you 10 years ago, my darling sisters. Remember? You were 17 and I was 37. Why didn’t I fall in love with you and propose to you then? It would have been so easy. And, today you would be my wife.

Libby: Yes.

Howard: Tonight both of us would be awakened by the storm. You would be afraid of the thunder. And I would take you in my arms and whisper. Don’t be afraid, little darling. I’m here. Marvelous thoughts. Wonderful. I’m laughing But my God. So mixed up. Why am I old? Why doesn’t she understand me? The way she talks. Her stupid morality. Her silly prattling about making peace in the world. Hates so much. Now I’ve been deceived. I worship that professor. That pathetic, gout ridden idiot. I work for him like a slave. Sonia and I squeezed every drop out of this estate. We were like kulaks, haggling over vegetable oil peas, starving ourselves with crumbs just so we could save a few kopecks to send to him. I was so proud of him and his glorious scholarship. I lived for him. I breathed for him. Every word he wrote or uttered seemed like genius to me now. Now he’s retired and it has become perfectly clear that the sum total of his life adds up to nothing. Not one word of his, not a single scholarly word matters to anyone. There’s a soap bubble. I’ve been swindled. She not. Ah, now. Stupidly swindled.

Libby: Play.

Julie: Everyone is sleeping, sir.

Alberto: Play.

Corey: Are you alone here? No. Ladies, Go to the peasant house. Go to the fire. There is no place for the master to expire.

Libby: No.

Corey: The storm woke me. Big storm. What time is it?

Howard: Who knows?

Corey: I thought I heard Yelena Andreevna’s voice.

Howard: She was just here.

Corey: What a gorgeous woman. Medicines. Drugs. Well, there’s nothing missing. Kharkov. Moscow, Tskaya. Every city is plagued with his gout. Is he really sick or faking it?

Howard: Sick.

Corey: Why are you so sad today? Pity for the professor.

Howard: Quit it.

Corey: Or maybe you’re in love with the professor? Professor’s wife.

Howard: She’s my friend.

Corey: Already.

Howard: What does that mean, already?

Corey: A woman can only be friends with a man. In this order. First an acquaintance, then a lover, and then finally a friend.

Howard: Vulgar.

Alberto: Oh.

Corey: Yes, it’s. It’s true. I’m becoming vulgar. I’m. I’m drunk. Usually I get drunk like this once a, month. And when I’m drunk, I get completely vulgar. And fearless. Everything seems so easy to me. I take on the most difficult operations and do them brilliantly. I make daring plans for the future. When I’m drunk, I no longer seem like a freak. And I actually believe I’m bringing some enormous benefit to humanity. Enormous. And when I’m drunk, I see how valuable my own personal universe is. And the rest of you piddling creatures seem like insects to me. Microbes.

Alberto: Waffles.

Nathan Agin: Play.

Julie: Dear one, I would love to play for you with all my soul. But understand, everyone is sleeping.

Libby: Play.

Corey: You need a drink.

Howard: Oh.

Corey: Oh, I see there’s some Cognac left. In the morning, we’ll go to my place, right, Char? I have a medical assistant that never says right, but, Right, Shar? Idiot. Right, Shar. pardon me, I forgot my tie.

Deidre: And you, Uncle Vanya, you got drunk again with the doctor. A couple of juveniles hanging around together. Well, he’s always been like that. But what in heaven’s name is wrong with you at, your age? You should know better.

Howard: Age has nothing to do with it. When you don’t have a life, you live on soap bubbles. Better than nothing.

Deidre: Our hay needs to be cut. It’s raining every day. Everything is rotting. And all you can talk about is soap bubbles. you’re completely neglecting the farm. I have to work alone. I. I’m strained. I’m strained to the breaking point. Uncle, you have tears in your eyes.

Howard: Tears? M. There’s nothing where you looked at me just now. It’s like your mother. So sweet.

Libby: Sister.

Howard: My dear, sweet sister. Where is she now.

Julie: Uncle?

Nathan Agin: What?

Howard: It’s so hard. Nothing. Later. Nothing. I’m, going.

Alison: End of scene.

Libby: Oh, gosh. Was so nice. Well, you know, I feel like you’re really starting to fill, in specifics, Alberto. That was so many specific choices there. Really, Really. I feel like you were all getting somewhere with this in a big way. and I do want to say that if anything, any transition feels unfilled, to you, not quite right. You’re probably right. It probably isn’t filled. And you must find the specific that makes that happen. This was so touching to me that for the first time I began to see a kind of sexuality between Szebryakov and Yelena. Really, Alberto, after the lenochka and you tried, I felt like on the stage you would hold onto her hand a little or try to hold onto her arm a little bit more. You know, there was a time you wooed her, and I felt that starting to develop in there. Just. And it just needs a little bit. it was wonderful. I also just want to tell you that soap bubbles is purposeful, Howard. you can play with. Because your whole life adds up to A. we all know what happens to soap bubbles. So the B and the P. The P and the B, I should say. Well, you know, but play around with that, because it’s so pathetic and horrible that his whole life adds up to that to him. And that’s the image he chooses. Well, what do you guys think? I mean, we’re kind of done. What do you think?

Sarah: I had a thought Going through this, that of each of the times we’ve run it, at least for me, with the Sarah Bryakov relationship, there’s an infinite number of places to live as far as, is there lack of love? But there’s still the natural care you have for another human being. Is there a lack of love, and actual disgust, like, can’t be around this person? Is there, you know, the love has changed. It’s just no longer romantic, you know, and then on top of that, you know, what does somebody show versus what does somebody try to hide? And I don’t have the final answer for where, you know, that lives for me, but there’s just a billion different combinations of where that could live. And there’s, you know, a whole rehearsal process to keep exploring where that might land.

Libby: Exactly. Exactly, Sarah. And maybe all of that is in there at different moments.

Libby: Because being married for 10 years is complicated. And your disappointment and your pain and you’re being admired by other men. It’s really important for you to recognize that you’ve had a lifetime of men looking at you m. And wanting you. So all of that is lost. Very, very good thinking. What other thoughts? Alberto, turn your sound back on. Sonia, turn your sound back on. Oh, come join us, everybody.

Nathan Agin: Everybody, turn your unmute and I’ll just jump in, very quickly. If people in the audience, if you have comments, a few have come in through the chat. You, can also send in questions that way, and I’ll collect those. Or if you’re feeling brave enough when we open it up, you can always come on the mic, yourself. But, I just want to let people know if there are things that you want to ask, that’ll be good way for me to collect all of that. But, but yeah, if any of the cast have, other thoughts they want to share, that’d be great. Now that I put you on the spot.

Libby: I did too. Both of us did.

Deidre: I think, Libby, that just. Just the note of, of that. She catches that. She possibly catches some of that. Because I, like, I was just following it and it’s like my feeling is maybe what brought, brought Sonia in was the banging of the window. And so the bang.

Libby: Okay.

Deidre: Why is the window open? I thought I closed it. All right, let me go in. So she’s, you know, so then she’s catching some of that. And there’s. There is the moment with Jelena that’s like, you know, there she is. And there’s this, you know, there’s this woman that’s just making my life, you know, I guess make either making my life difficult or she’s not lending a hand. You know, I’m serving her, too. And, you know, we’re, You know, I mean, because clearly we’ve been fighting for a couple of weeks.

Libby: Yes, yes, yes. And probably she has felt your mistrust for a long time. Not just the basketball.

Alberto: Two weeks.

Deidre: Yeah.

Libby: Yeah.

Deidre: But it was just something.

Libby: And it was so much more specific when you came m in. Yes. Made a big difference. It makes a big difference. You have with Chekhov. You have to fill in every blank or it’s flat. Who cares? You know, I got the message that married couples shouldn’t be together anymore, and this guy loves her and can’t get her. But, when it’s filled in with all the personal specifics, that’s when it reaches us out here in the audience, and it makes us cry and makes us laugh. It touches us. That’s when Chekhov works. It only works when you are specific and, committed to the action. Acting 101. But it really needs acting 101. It needs you to fill in every blank way. The storm is starting to come where I am. There’s, thunder, and. Which is, of course, perfect timing. And my electricity is shaking a little bit. So if I get lost. Get lost, Nathan.

Nathan Agin: Yeah, no, I. I keep. I keep hearing, the storms coming because I’m at the top of the canyon. I can. I’m seeing lightning coming down, like, at the other end of the canyon. And it’s like, oh, yeah, that storm is coming this way. I better watch out. that had a massive boom in.

Sarah: The middle of our first run.

Deidre: In the middle of. Yeah.

Libby: Oh, well, that’s kind of good. Yeah. Did you start to see the difference?

Corey: Definitely, yes. Yeah, no, I was trying to play around with it. like, I would love more rehearsal this gave me.

Libby: I know. We should be doing the whole act and the whole play, shouldn’t we?

Nathan Agin: I mean, isn’t it. Isn’t it funny? Because, as you said, Libby, at the beginning, it’s like, oh, yeah. Well, you know, four weeks will be plenty of time to work a scene, and you guys could work another six weeks on this scene.

Libby: It’s really true. It is true. I don’t know about six weeks, but we certain could do more on the scene. But, without finishing the act, without Sonia and Astro coming together and Yelena and Sonja coming together, and the cry in Yelena’s soul for the music at the end of the act. I mean, that’s what makes the act perfect, the whole arc.

Nathan Agin: well, I think it’s exciting that it makes, You know, I, think many of you hungry to continue, you know, developing these characters. And I, you know, at least for me as an audience member, hungry to see where this goes, you know, what happens with these characters, you know, and even if you’re familiar with the story, but just to see it played out, it’s really exciting. I will, I’ll just, mention a few comments that have come in. Jan said, this is such a wonderful project. So good to see Libby. Paul mentioned, that, watching and listening to this workshop, I can see the Racine in Chekhov and the Chekhov in Beckett. So he was kind of seeing, some inspirations there. Eileen says lovely work. Back in the room with Libby. Thank you. Annalisa, beautiful. I love the rawness and how the cast is able to show the complexity of the relationships and yet bring about the joy and humor of Chekhov. I love being a part of this. Thank you. So, yeah, no, it’s just, great to see those comments come in. And, again, if anyone has questions, you can send them in, or I’ll open up in just a little bit. But there’s so much we could talk about. And you guys did talk about so many things, over the weeks. one of the first things I’m curious about, and this is open to any of the cast, if there were particular things that, either coming into this or during the weeks really challenged, you about what was ahead of you or, you know, parts of, parts of the scene or understanding the character. I’d be curious to hear what, you know, how you saw that and then maybe a little bit of how you overcame that to some degree.

Julie: Yeah, Well, I had a concern because my character is so much older than I am, and I actually had a question for Ursula and how to embody an older voice. and she gave me some great advice saying, like, not to play at being old. Not to, like, fake it, you know, but to work on breath work and trying to, like, have that belabored breath, to kind of inform, what’s happening in her body physically, and. And that really helped.

Libby: You were starting to do that, weren’t you, Julie? In this last run of the scene, I felt as if you found the center a little more. Did you?

Julie: Yeah, it was interesting because he told me to come in possibly. Maybe she’s Irritated. And I was like, oh, I like that. So I came in a little more agitated, and then when Gabrielle cough was complaining, it made me so much more.

Libby: Oh.

Julie: Because I’m already in a heightened agitated state. It made me feel more like I wanted to serve him.

Libby: Yes.

Julie: And I felt myself being more physically, in service to him, which created more of a physical.

Libby: Yes, absolutely. Came through. And it made things more specific.

Howard: It also, like, the more nannying, like you. I mean, you were talking like a nanny to a child, and it was so annoying. Like, I mean, not. Not annoying. You know, I mean, it was great acting, but. But. But, like the. I, was just like, why does he.

Nathan Agin: Why.

Howard: Why. You know, why are you catering to him? And the more you did it as, like, this nursey, you know, nanny character in the nursery, it was just like. It was like, oh, God. It was just. It was kind of repulsive a little bit.

Libby: But that’s. Isn’t that great that you’re in the room to get those signals?

Julie: That’s so funny, because I’m really your nanny.

Sarah: Really?

Howard: right. Yeah. Well, then maybe it’s, like, jealous. It’s like that you get. You know, it’s like, that’s my nanny, not your nanny. You know, there’s a little. There’s a little bit of that in there, so.

Libby: And. And, there’s that little selfish streak in Vanya.

Julie: And it’s a shame that we’re not in person because I. I was kind of, clocking Yelena, trying to, like, a little bit for your benefit, what I’m saying.

Deidre: Oh, I got it.

Julie: You got it?

Sarah: Oh, yeah, I got that. Eye contact.

Libby: That’s good. Well, that’s why it’s there, I think. Julie. I think it’s there for you. And you found it reminding her who. Who was the mistress of this house before you came on the scene and how wonderful and devoted she was, because I’m sure you take in Yelena’s, indifference toward him. Whatever is the word.

Nathan Agin: I don’t know.

Howard: She’s also the first one Marina throws out. The dead sister, Right?

Libby: Yes.

Howard: Like.

Libby: Like, yes.

Howard: May she rest in peace. Never slept either. Near nearly killed it like this last go through. I really heard that very clearly, that. That everybody, for. For decades now has been taking care of him like. Like that. It’s all been. I mean, we were in sort of almost a, pact together to, like, make it work. Right?

Libby: This my absolutely true. He’s gotten the attention of everyone in this household. Not as, of course, who sees through him immediately.

Deidre: But the thing is, those moments, I think there was probably a different intention in taking care of him because he wasn’t around for that period of time. So it was like, we’ll lavish him for. You know, so he’s going to be here for two weeks, you know, two weeks in the summer or just one month, you know, in the summer we can lavish all of that, and then we can get back to our real life.

Libby: Yes.

Deidre: Now knowing that we have the pressure of his. Never be. He’s never going to be satisfied. Everybody’s tired because he’s up. everybody’s up.

Libby: Yes.

Deidre: The pressure is just on and, like, things are rotting in the field. I mean, it’s just too much.

Libby: Yes, that’s exactly right. And it’s interesting carrying the scene through. Deidre. This also becomes this irritation, this impossibility, this exhaustion. And yet it also is the beginning of your expression of your love. You. You never talk to anybody about that. This before. Yeah. So this night is bringing about this ultra irritation and misery. What’s going on in that. In this house, as Yelena would say, brings about really raw feelings, really opening hearts. That’s why it’s so great.

Deidre: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. The pressure and the agitation is weeding out all of the stuff to get to the core of what’s really going on.

Libby: Yes, exactly. Yes.

Nathan Agin: there were a couple other comments that, came in, and there was one that, I want to jump off of. But, Ursula wrote that her husband, Jamie Newcomb, or many, on this call, know. And others listening may know he’s a great actor. and he’s directed scenes here as well. But he said, bravo. really enjoyed it. Would like to see the production. and the comment that comes to mind, Libby, brought this up, and then I actually heard it from another audience member who, said, you know, watching these rehearsals, they said if I went to go see this play, I think I’d be disappointed if it weren’t these actors, because I think they, you know, they. They’d kind of gotten so used, to, you know, hearing all of you guys work on these parts and. And Libby, I know you. You made a comment that you felt like, you know, the casting was just so. So perfect. And. And, as much as I’d love to take credit for that, a lot of it is just logistics. And m. You know, like any. Any producer, you’re just trying to make sure you get everybody, you know, every. Every part filled. But the comment. I wanted to make, and I’m curious if any of the actors wanted to speak to this, is that. I think that feeling from the audience and what Libby brought up, that having this kind of time to drop into these parts, it seems like it allows each of you to really connect on a very deep, genuine level with these characters. So that it becomes so seamless that, you are these players. And so when it seems so perfect, I think what people are speaking to is that you guys have had the time to really connect on very personal levels with each of these people. So that you’re not playing anything. You’ve had the time to really think about where these people are coming from. So I’m curious if any of the actors, wanted to speak to that point at all. Did this. That. This process allow you to, you know, kind of drop in in a different way or, you know, connect in a different way?

Howard: Well, it’s interesting, you know, living near the. I think at our very first rehearsal, maybe she said, it’s hard to reveal things about yourself and doing this playwright and this particular character. For me, it’s. It’s almost kind of a striptease. Like a personal striptease. Like. Like, I felt. I felt, you know, like. Because I’ve been here doing Shakespeare all summer, which is like you’re sort of trying to bring your emotions up to the level of the thing, you know? And this. It’s like I just found. The more I took away and took away and took away until it was just exposing myself more and more and more that it. That was where it started to kind of work, for me, at least. And I think that’s been one of the things I’ve always struggled with, with Chekhov, is that it doesn’t really. There’s nowhere to hide in some of this. You know, it’s like you’re just putting yourself on display a little bit. And, without feeling like you’re on stage, like, whatever that thing is, you know, I’m on display and not on display at the same time. I’d be really curious to try this with an audience. Just because I’m like, what would you do the first time they laughed? And you’re in this so enclosed, hermetically sealed world. And it’s like, who’s out there? Who’s out there laughing at this? Like, who are those people? You know?

Libby: Oh, I think you’d get. You’d love the laughter. You’d love it.

Howard: I think I would take to it pretty quickly, but, it’d be the nights where they didn’t laugh. I’d be like, what’s wrong?

Libby: Oh, well, that’s true. That always happens, you know. Has there ever been a time when. When you haven’t walked off stage and said, the audience is great tonight, or the audience is dead. It’s always their fault.

Howard: They didn’t show up. It wasn’t.

Libby: They didn’t show up. By the way, I want to tell you, I saw. I don’t. I haven’t seen Vanya on stage in a long time, but I saw the pbs, film. They didn’t film it, but they produced the film, from the. I think the National Theater did it somewhere. Somewhere in England. It was just recently. It was past six months. Look it up, Uncle Vanya, pbs. It’s a really good production, and I don’t say that very often. Did you see it, Allison? Did you. Did you catch it?

Howard: I saw it.

Libby: Well, didn’t you think it was good?

Howard: I thought it was extraordinary.

Libby: Yeah.

Howard: I’ve watched it a couple times.

Libby: Yeah, I agree. Extraordinary. It was very special. I’d actually like. You know, I feel like I’ve taken the bait. I’d like to watch it again now.

Howard: You can rent it on itunes. Available.

Nathan Agin: Oh, a lot of times in the theater, they, you know, people have the idea of, you know, steal what isn’t nailed down. You know, if you. If you see a good idea, it’s always something you can use later or try out and try your own work. a few other comments that have come in. see, Paul said, it was a most interesting interpretive comment that in a marriage quote, when you are no one, it just can’t go on. And, that’s really, really good. Yeah. Gail says, I found the first round of the scene bittersweet. I didn’t feel like laughing out loud, but I found a lot of it funny. And then I’d find a lot of other parts moving and sad, but not tragic. I enjoyed it very much. Bravo. Brava. Thank you. That, was from Gail. And then Annalisa said, thank you so much. Have, to take a child to work. So. But isn’t that nice that, you know, we live in the virtual world where people can drop in, see some checkups, see some rehearsal, and then, ah, and then get somebody off to work. I’ll open up to comments in a second if anyone has any other, comments, either from the audience or the actors. But, I just want to ask, for example, Corey. You know, I Don’t know how much you’ve had an opportunity to do this kind of work or certainly in this format. So I would just love to hear your experience of being able to spend, this much time on a character and work not only with Libby and Allison and Ursula in the room, but just all the other actors and hearing everything. So I would just love to hear, your experience.

Corey: Yeah, this is the first zoom thing that I’ve ever done. It was, Very, very scary for me to walk into here, honestly. And, Yeah. And I guess having heard that, the atmosphere.

Corey: I’ve only read Chekhov a couple times. I’ve done a scene in school, and that’s about it. But hearing how the atmosphere really plays a huge, huge role in this play, and probably all of Chekhov in particular in any play, really. But to not be in the room with the other actors was kind of daunting for me to take on that atmospheric challenge. But it’s all in the writing. It’s all in the ensemble. And I really felt from everybody that that helped me a lot. So I just want to say thank you to everybody. And it was a really, really wonderful process, and I had a great time working with everybody.

Libby: Yes. Right.

Nathan Agin: I’m glad to hear it. And, yeah, I mean, that’s one. That’s one of the wonderful things about this, is that we have the time where it can be so collaborative that, you know, anyone, you know, even if they’re not on stage during a scene, that they might have an idea or a thought or whatever, that we can. You know, the good ideas can come from anywhere, really. and so that’s really wonderful that, you guys have the time to explore the scene, in that way. And, Alison, I’m curious. You know, I know for a lot of dramaturgs, if you’re lucky enough to work on a production, maybe you have the first day, and then it’s, you know, talk to this actor for 20 minutes and then talk to that actor for 20 minutes. So what was it like for you to have a little bit more time, really, and dive into some of the things probably you never get a chance to talk about?

Sarah: Oh, yeah.

Alison: I mean, table work is. I mean, obviously, that table work is the part of the process that I’m the most involved in, usually. And it’s cool to be able to evolve along with the process and be able to keep participating in that way, because I love even just, like, what we did today, just talking about. Just having that conversation about character and about why somebody is doing something right now and what it means. That’s something as a dramaturg. It’s a version of dramaturgy that you don’t get to do all the time unless you’re in table work with a trusted group of people. And that was a wonderful thing to experience. And, I mean, the whole process has been so bizarre because Libby and I, you know, we’ve been, going down this road since, like, 2004, I think.

Libby: No, the 2000. Was it four?

Alison: I started on the Cherry Orchard stuff in the fall of 04. yeah, so I was working on it for the time before.

Nathan Agin: So you’ve birthed a teenager who can drive, basically.

Alison: Yeah, certainly that’s the m. Length of.

Nathan Agin: Time you’ve been working on it.

Libby: Yeah.

Alison: And so I feel like my understanding of Chekhov has changed so much, and yet. And it just continues to grow so much deeper. And working with this group of actors and seeing your observations and how you’ve played with it, and being able to see Libby working with this amazing group, you know, 10 years later, all these years later, as an older human being who’s been through more of this stuff, it’s so extraordinary. It’s wonderful. and just to constantly be revisiting it at different stages.

Nathan Agin: That’s great, wonderful. Wonderful to hear. you know, just to honor everybody’s time, we’ll probably wrap things up shortly. the whole Vanya crew. You guys can just stay put. I’ll, put everybody back into the. All the audience back in the waiting room in a second. if there’s any final comments or questions, you know, anything burning that people really want to, you know, bring up, I’ll give you a chance in a second. There is one more comment. Another comment from, Jamie, Ursula’s husband. He says, whenever I watch Chekhov, I’m reminded of the line from the film the Sixth Sense. I see dead people.

Deidre: Oh, dear.

Libby: So.

Nathan Agin: Probably, It seems like a very Jacobian line that there’s a lot. There’s a lot in there. but, But, But, yeah. So thank you, Jamie, for that. any, Any final things, Anything from the actors or the audience. If not, we’ll. We’ll kind of have a. You know, Mark, an official wrap on, on the Vanya work. So well. Yes, Sarah.

Sarah: I just want to, you know, props to Libby. Obviously, you don’t need props from me, Libby, but props from the world with your career and experience. But, you know, I came into this very intimidated because I, Yelen. Is a very intimidating character to me. But also Chekhov is in general, there’s this. I was like, I don’t know how to play this. And, all you did was ask questions. But you’re so good at asking questions that the questions just created all of the character and all of this scene. and that. It’s pretty.

Libby: You created it. You created it.

Sarah: Yeah. I mean, yes. And I mean, it was so. It was remarkable, the experience with you. and, you know, it makes me want to do that with every rehearsal process I go to of just. God, how can I get better at, thinking of those detailed questions? The way you, you know, like, I do my own pass and I come up with maybe 10% of the questions that, that you thought to ask. And so it’s just, it’s cool to learn through that and, a very rich way to dig into something very quickly the way you’ve done it.

Libby: Thank you. Appreciate that. I do want to say that this whole four week period is two hours a week. It’s like doing table work when we’re together in a rehearsal room. But it’s also your work. This is, this is, I feel like this is a process class in doing the work on the scene that we’re helping to strengthen the actors journey. Process, in all of this, you know, you might not have a director who has. No director, has eight hours to spend on 10 pages. No, no director. You know, so this is all what you have to do. You have to ask yourself every. Why does she say this? What’s she holding on to, what she’s letting go, what, you know, you have to do. Of course, you know that. But I hope that this is a spur you to recognize that this is the way to work. Always.

Sarah: It is.

Nathan Agin: Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful, wonderful. Thank you. and so, yes, one more comment that came in. People were curious, you know, well, how do I get involved in future scenes? by, you know, if you register to watch this, you’ll be part of our email list. So we can definitely let you know about future opportunities to get involved. Like I said, we have a class coming up with Lady Macbeth to focus on that role. And again, it’s, as Libby just so, eloquently said, it’s about the process. That’s what, I love about these projects, is that we can really make it about what is the work that goes into doing this stuff. So thank you all so much for the audience, for attending and thank you so much to the, creative team and cast and again, the Vanya group. You guys can stay put, and I will, move everybody else into, the waiting room. The attendees. but thank you again so much for being here, everybody. Hope you had a great night. Enjoyed, the scene from Chekhov, and, yeah, hopefully we’ll see you for another one.