5/23/2023 0 Comments Chekhov plays![]() (Michael Brosilow photo)Ī director’s perspective: Michael Halberstam, director of the 2004 “Seagull”: “American actors tend to look for a character arc, a story arc, and I think there is no arc in ‘Seagull,’ it’s more like a series of circles. And then, you know, you have to put on a corset.”Īmy Morton and Francis Guinan in a 2004 Steppenwolf Theatre Company staging of Anton Chekhov's "Cherry Orchard." Photo by Michael Brosilow. And then go, ‘OK, gotta do it again.’ I haven’t done a role this emotionally difficult in, I don’t know … It’s just terrible. So frankly, every night, I’m a little devastated. And it’s a woman who starts the play in a place of extreme loss - son, husband, lover - and it only gets worse. There isn’t a moment where she’s not feeling and empathetic to somebody, or some situation. On the other hand … Amy Morton, who played “Lovey” Ranevskaya in the 2004 Steppenwolf “Cherry Orchard”: “For me it’s the complete opposite. She just devastates anyone in her path, so there’s great fun in that.” ![]() ![]() What Arkadina says is at the expense of everyone around her, and it makes a big difference in terms of the way I feel when I walk out the door. ![]() With (Chekhov) the opposite happens: I leave it all on the stage. What’s it like for an actor to inhabit a Chekhovian universe eight times a week? Susan Hart, who portrayed Arkadina in the 2004 Writers Theatre “Seagull”: “I did Michael Frayn’s ‘Benefactors,’ playing a woman who absolutely showed no emotion at all, and I’d find myself bursting into tears in the car because I had so much penned up inside me. ![]()
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