Cherry Orchard

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USING THIS STUDY GUIDE IN YOUR CLASSROOM A Letter from Artistic Associate Tyler Dobrowsky Welcome to Trinity Repertory and the 40 th season of Project Discovery! The Education Staff at Trinity had a lot of fun preparing this study guide, and hope that the activities included will help you to incorporate the play into your academic study. It is also structured to help you to introduce performance into your classroom through a process developed in partnership with the Brown University Arts and Literacy Project, and with teacher Deanna Camputaro of Central Falls High School. The elements of the process include: • Community Building in Your Classroom (Applied Learning New Standards: A1; A2; A5) • Inspiration and Background on the Artist (English Language Arts New Standards: E1; E2; E3; E5; E6; Applied Learning New Standards: A2; A3; A5) • Entering and Comprehending Text (English Language Arts Standards: E1; E2; E3; E5) • Creating Text for Performance (English Language Arts Standards: E1; E2; E3; E5) • Performing in Your Class (Applied Learning Standards: A1; A2; A3; A4; A5) • Reflecting on Your Performance (E2; E3; A1; A2; A5) We’ve also included a unit on design, as well as character descriptions and a plot synopsis. Please refer, as well, to the Audience Etiquette section on page 3, particularly for students who have never attended a live theater performance. If you do no other preparatory work with your students, we strongly encourage you to spend some time talking to your students about appropriate behavior in the theater. We hope that this guide will be a useful classroom tool for you and your students. We are extremely interested in your feedback about the plays and study guides, as well as any ideas that you may have that can help us to better serve the teachers and students who come to Trinity. We hope that you will feel free to call us anytime at (401) 521-1100, ext. 255, or e-mail us at education@trinityrep.com. For further information on upcoming productions and other Educational Programs please visit our website at www.trinityrep.com. Enjoy the show! Tyler Dobrowsky, Artistic Associate for Education 4
Unit One: Background Information on Chekhov, Russia, and the Moscow Art Theater ANTON CHEKHOV (1860-1904) “You write that you wept at my play. You aren’t the only one. It’s Stanislavsky who has made them so weepy. I wanted something quite different. All I wanted to say to people, quite honestly, was ‘Look at yourselves, just how stale and tedious your lives are.’…What is there to weep at in that?” - in a letter to Serebrov “Besides medicine, my wife, I have also literature--my mistress." Anton Chekhov was born in Tanarog, Ukraine on January 17, 1860. He was one of six children. A year after he was born, Alexander II liberated the serfs (indentured servants living on the land of the nobles) in his Emancipation Manifesto. Chekhov’s grandfather was a former serf who had bought the family’s freedom right before the emancipation. As a child, Anton was playful and witty and enjoyed attending the theater. At 16, his father went bankrupt and moved the family to Moscow. Chekhov stayed behind, and supported himself and his education by tutoring. He moved to Moscow to rejoin his family after passing his exams, and enrolled in the Moscow University Medical School. Chekhov paid his tuition by writing short stories for newspapers and magazines. By the time he was 20 years old, he was hired by the Spectator to write comedy stories. By 1886, after being published in several Russian magazines, he had gained fame as a writer. After the failure of his 1889 play, The Wood Demon, he took a sabbatical from writing and went to Siberia, South East Asia, the Indian Subcontinent, and the Middle East for doctoral research and travel. When he returned in 1892, he stopped his medical practice and recommitted himself to writing. The four plays for which he is best known combine the elements of tragedy and dark comedy: Seagull in 1896, Uncle Vanya in 1896, Three Sisters in 1901, and Cherry Orchard in 1904. He enjoyed a rich collaboration with the Moscow Art Theater, and in 1901 he married Olga Knipper, an actress who appeared in each of the four major plays. Cherry Orchard premiered on Chekhov’s birthday in Moscow on January 17, 1904. Chekhov died six months later, of tuberculosis, which had plagued him for most of his adult life. Chekhov’s Most Prominent Works Plays The Swan Song 1889 The Proposal 1889 Ivanoff 1889 The Bear 1890 The Sea-Gull 1896 The Tragedian in Spite of Himself 1899 The Three Sisters 1901 Uncle Vanya 1902 The Cherry Orchard 1904 Novels and Short Stories Humorous Folk 1887 Twilight and Other Stories 1887 Morose Folk 1890 Variegated Tales 1894 Old Wives of Russia 1894 The Duel 1895 The Chestnut Tree 1895 Ward Number Six 1897 Miscellaneous Sketches The Island of Saghalien 1895 Peasants 1898 Life in Provinces 1898 Children 1899 5
Page 1 and 2: presents Cherry Orchard By Anton Ch
Page 3: THEATER AUDIENCE ETIQUETTE AND DISC
Page 7 and 8: Although serfdom was abolished, sin
Page 9 and 10: 1890 - Ibsen’s Hedda Gabler 1894
Page 11 and 12: Introducing Cherry Orchard Making i
Page 13 and 14: Cherry Orchard: A Summary Cherry Or
Page 15 and 16: Lost (and Found) In Translation by
Page 17 and 18: Activity: LOOKING AT THE TRANSLATIO
Page 19 and 20: Lopakin: I tell you every day. Ever
Page 21 and 22: SAY WHAT?… Anton Chekhov had a lo
Page 23 and 24: translation of Three Sisters. Curt
Page 25 and 26: Unit Two: The Role of the Actor and
Page 27 and 28: You point at speaker one… Speaker
Page 29 and 30: 5. If only trouble would get lost.
Page 31 and 32: FEMALE MONOLOGUES Anya: We made it
Page 33 and 34: ehave like a proper gentleman, and
Page 35 and 36: Dunyasha: Anya: Dunyasha: And guess
Page 37 and 38: Gaev: Anya: Gaev: Varya: Anya: Gaev
Page 39 and 40: to do it now, today - the auction i
Page 41 and 42: Varya: Trofimov: Anya: Trofimov: Va
Page 43 and 44: ONE MALE, ONE FEMALE Laughter and w
Page 45 and 46: THE “CONCEPT” MODEL: This one c
Page 47 and 48: POST -SHOW CELEBRATION • Bow to y
Page 49 and 50: As the designs are solidified, the
Page 51 and 52: The Role of the Designers: Percepti
Page 53 and 54: FOR THE SET DESIGNERS: Create a mod
Page 55 and 56:
• What steps did you need to take
Page 57:
• Boal, Augusto. Games for Actors
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Cherry Orchard

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