Another Epiphany!

Increasingly I suspect that these blog posts about Three Sisters and my character work on Tuzenbach are only interesting to me... but who knows! Maybe not! Someone must read them, even if it's just my Mom. (hi Mom!)

Well, anyway tonight was our first Three Sisters rehearsal in like two weeks. I can't think of the last time I had that much of a gap between rehearsals of a play, unless it was like a read through. In the meantime, I've been off in the land of improv and auditions and seeing shows and stuff, you know? In fact, in the time since we last rehearsed, I rehearsed and shot a presentation of another show, joined the cast of another, had three auditions, and went to four theatrical performances.

So tonight, I was dropped back into the world of Chekhov and those three crazy sisters, amIright? I'm still figuring out how aware Tuzenbach is of how creepy his obsession with Irina is because it's pretty... yeah, I want to say delusional. We talked in rehearsal in the contrast between Tuzenbach and Solyony, both of whom are in love with Irina. In his mind, Solyony has cast himself as the romantic lead in his own story and he lashes out at people who don't share or contradict that viewpoint, whereas Tuzenbach on an almost metaphysical level (since Chekhov has written him this way) has been unwittingly cast as the TRAGIC lead in a romantic love story, one seemingly modeled on... wait for it, The Sorrows of Young Werther. Oh, wait wait wait! That's why he's German... he's an echo of Goethe's Werther! Arguably the original and quintessential tragic romantic hero, whom when he is unable to possess the affections of his beloved, kills himself. Just like Tuzenbach. Sad, I know.

I think the literary universe of Chekhov is very interesting. The plays are full of these allusions. I think my case for Tuzenbach as Werther is supported by Chebyutkin who references a group of intellectuals discussing him. Likewise, Ron (aka Vershinin aka Astrov) and I were discussing in Uncle Vanya Telegin's line "A plot worthy of Tolstoy" and it's ability to always get a laugh. Then in the Seagull there's this whole thing of Konstantin being compared to Hamlet, etc. Clearly the guy was very well read, as were the characters in his plays. Tuzenbach's counterpart Solyony is always comparing himself to Lermontov, who Scott (who's playing Solyony) told me wrote this one sort of adventure novel about this guy who fights duels and sleeps around, which is essentially what Lermontov was doing at the time and Solyony wishes he were doing.

Well, I could keep going, but I won't. In other news, the next few days will be busy. Tomorrow night I have a call back for Rosencratz and Guildenstern are Dead at Apollinaire, Tuesday is the first rehearsal for that show I joined up with, then my acting class with Carolyn Pickman then my first jam session with some musicians I found online. Then for the rest of the week... who even knows! I'll try and blog about it after it happens.