Hello, all! For the next few weeks, the Rep's weekly newsletter will be featuring articles on the three plays we're producing this season in order to provide a little extra insight into the texts. I wrote this week's article and its focus was on our first show, Christopher Durang's Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike, and the play's Chekhovian roots. For those of you who don't receive our newsletter, I'm going to recap some of what I said in the newsletter, and then I'll go a little bit more in depth into playwright Christopher Durang's own background.
Durang likens his 2013 Tony award-winning play to Chekhov in a blender. It is not a parody, however, and no prior knowledge of the 19th-century Russian playwright is needed in order to enjoy this exceptional play. But it does make the story more fun!
Born in Taganrog, Russia on January 29, 1860, Anton Pavlovich Chekhov was a grocer's son who became one of Russia's greatest storytellers. His plays are considered comedies of the human condition, and they emphasize emotion and the exploration of character and existence in ways that his contemporaries had not done. Some of his greatest works feature characters in country estates mourning the lives they never led and living in excruciating anguish and boredom. This often makes his writing seem deeply tragic, but this was not Chekhov's intention. The playwright once explained that:
"All I wanted was to say honestly to people: 'Have a look at yourselves and see how bad and dreary your lives are!' The important thing is that people should realize that, for when they do, they will most certainly create another and better life for themselves. I will not live to see it, but I know that it will be quite different, quite unlike our present life.
Enter Christopher Durang, a playwright born on January 2, 1949 in Montclair, New Jersey. This places him on planet Earth forty-five years after and 3,881 miles away from Chekhov's death (July 14, 1904 in Badenweiler, Germany). Durang holds a B.A. in English from Harvard College and an M.F.A. in Playwriting from Yale School of Drama. His writing style is darkly satirical and he uses "wit and absurdity" (The New York Times) to explore topics such as family and religion.
Durang's first professional production was the play The Idiots Karamazov, which he co-wrote with classmate Albert Innaurato. Prada-wearing Meryl Streep, a classmate of theirs at the time, starred in the play as a quirky 80 year-old at the Yale Repertory Theatre. His play, Titanic, premiered 1976 and was his first production to be transferred to off-Broadway. It starred yet another one of his famous classmates, the alien-hunting Sigourney Weaver. This was the beginning of a long line of collaborations with Weaver, leading up to her performance as Masha in Durang's Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike.
Durang earned his first nomination (Best Book of a Musical) for his 1978 musical A History Of The American Film. He earned his first Tony for Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike (which we'll be producing in July!). Vanya premiered at the McCarter Theatre Center in Princeton, New Jersey, in September of 2012; was transferred to Lincoln Center Theater in October 2012; and was finally transferred to Broadway in March of 2013.
In Vanya, Durang pulls character traits, situations, and themes from Chekhov's four greatest plays, The Seagull, Uncle Vanya, The Three Sisters, and The Cherry Orchard, and creates a witty and contemporary play in dialogue with Chekhov's masterpieces. Be ready to see them on stage at the Nebraska Rep this summer!
Durang likens his 2013 Tony award-winning play to Chekhov in a blender. It is not a parody, however, and no prior knowledge of the 19th-century Russian playwright is needed in order to enjoy this exceptional play. But it does make the story more fun!
Born in Taganrog, Russia on January 29, 1860, Anton Pavlovich Chekhov was a grocer's son who became one of Russia's greatest storytellers. His plays are considered comedies of the human condition, and they emphasize emotion and the exploration of character and existence in ways that his contemporaries had not done. Some of his greatest works feature characters in country estates mourning the lives they never led and living in excruciating anguish and boredom. This often makes his writing seem deeply tragic, but this was not Chekhov's intention. The playwright once explained that:
"All I wanted was to say honestly to people: 'Have a look at yourselves and see how bad and dreary your lives are!' The important thing is that people should realize that, for when they do, they will most certainly create another and better life for themselves. I will not live to see it, but I know that it will be quite different, quite unlike our present life.Enter Christopher Durang, a playwright born on January 2, 1949 in Montclair, New Jersey. This places him on planet Earth forty-five years after and 3,881 miles away from Chekhov's death (July 14, 1904 in Badenweiler, Germany). Durang holds a B.A. in English from Harvard College and an M.F.A. in Playwriting from Yale School of Drama. His writing style is darkly satirical and he uses "wit and absurdity" (The New York Times) to explore topics such as family and religion.Durang's first professional production was the play The Idiots Karamazov, which he co-wrote with classmate Albert Innaurato. Prada-wearing Meryl Streep, a classmate of theirs at the time, starred in the play as a quirky 80 year-old at the Yale Repertory Theatre. His play, Titanic, premiered 1976 and was his first production to be transferred to off-Broadway. It starred yet another one of his famous classmates, the alien-hunting Sigourney Weaver. This was the beginning of a long line of collaborations with Weaver, leading up to her performance as Masha in Durang's Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike.
Left: Sigourney Weaver in Titanic.
Right: Meryl Streep in The Idiots Karamazov
In Vanya, Durang pulls character traits, situations, and themes from Chekhov's four greatest plays, The Seagull, Uncle Vanya, The Three Sisters, and The Cherry Orchard, and creates a witty and contemporary play in dialogue with Chekhov's masterpieces. Be ready to see them on stage at the Nebraska Rep this summer!
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