In Which Time is Peacefully Passed
My new laptop just arrived which makes me happy. With the aid of wireless technology I am able to write to you all here. Currently, I am lounging in one of my favorite spots on campus, in a quiet, rarely trafficked hallway just outside of the room designated for rehearsal space.
Yes, I am in a new play to be presented as the Fall quarter mainstage show.
The play is titled "the Cherry Orchard" by Anton Chekov. His last play actually and he died only sixth months after its original production. I play Lopakhin, the leading character who drifts between the protagonist of the show and its villain; it's wonderfully contrasting. His intentions are noble -- and selfish -- but he's a ruthless bastard, feeling stuck in his lot in life. Before I leave you for rehearsal I just wanted to share an excerpt from a letter Chekov wrote to Suvorin, his friend and a playwrite, at a time in his career when he thought he was talentless but wanted to tell a story -- some say a story about himself -- and which later ended up being the inspiration for Lopakhin.
"Write me a story about a young man, the son of a serf, a former shopkeeper, a choir boy, high school and university student, brought up on respect for rank, kissing the hands of priests, belonging to a generation alien to thought, offering thanks for every mouthfull of bread, often whipped, going to school without shoes, quarreling, tormenting animals, fond of dining with rich relatives, playing the hypocrite before God and people without any cause, except out of recognition of his own insignificance -- then tell how that young man presses the slave out of him drop by drop and how he wakes up one fine morning and feels that in his veins flows not the blood of a slave but real human blood."
Oh, and Happy Birthday to me.
Yes, I am in a new play to be presented as the Fall quarter mainstage show.
The play is titled "the Cherry Orchard" by Anton Chekov. His last play actually and he died only sixth months after its original production. I play Lopakhin, the leading character who drifts between the protagonist of the show and its villain; it's wonderfully contrasting. His intentions are noble -- and selfish -- but he's a ruthless bastard, feeling stuck in his lot in life. Before I leave you for rehearsal I just wanted to share an excerpt from a letter Chekov wrote to Suvorin, his friend and a playwrite, at a time in his career when he thought he was talentless but wanted to tell a story -- some say a story about himself -- and which later ended up being the inspiration for Lopakhin.
"Write me a story about a young man, the son of a serf, a former shopkeeper, a choir boy, high school and university student, brought up on respect for rank, kissing the hands of priests, belonging to a generation alien to thought, offering thanks for every mouthfull of bread, often whipped, going to school without shoes, quarreling, tormenting animals, fond of dining with rich relatives, playing the hypocrite before God and people without any cause, except out of recognition of his own insignificance -- then tell how that young man presses the slave out of him drop by drop and how he wakes up one fine morning and feels that in his veins flows not the blood of a slave but real human blood."
Oh, and Happy Birthday to me.