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an amateur theatre production presented by
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WELCOME
Welcome to our latest production. This is the second play
that we have presented in the lovely surroundings of The
Regal in Tenbury Wells following on from Anne Boleyn by
Howard Brenton last autumn.
One of the aims of the company is to give our actors a
chance to be involved in performing classic plays butpreferably ones where there is the introduction of some
new dynamic. Classics need occasionally to be given a
fresh airing and this production is an excellent modern
adaptation by the young, but brilliant, Anya Reiss
(pronounced Reece).
Is it a sacrilegious act to transport a late nineteenth century
Russian play to contemporary United Kingdom? Some arguethat Chekhov plays should be left in the nineteenth century.
In an interview earlier this year this point was put perhaps a
little more subtly to Anya Reiss and her attitude to it was
that no classic play is out of bounds as long as the adaptor
is trying to be true to the play and not hijacking a famous
title in “order to say your own thing”.
In fact, it took some years for Anya Reiss to warm to the
play. She first read it at school in Year 10 and hated it.
Even seeing the play a few years later at The National left
her far from convinced by its merits. But when she was
considering adapting the play it was the dialogue between
Trigorin and Nina at the end of Act Two which persuaded
her that this was a worthy project. As a writer she readilyidentifies with the anxieties of Trigorin but there is a little bit
of every character in the story which strikes a chord.
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She feels caught between Konstantin’s hope to make
something new but his inability to do it “without affectation”,
and Arkadina’s frustration with people who feel they need
to destroy the old forms before you can create new ones.
Chekhov did not write a history piece. He did not expect
his audience, in Anya’s Reiss’ eyes, to have read a book on the social economic circumstances of 19th century
Russia to be able to understand the play. Chekhov was just
writing about people and art and love and life. In adapting
it Anya Reiss has been trying only to free the characters so
an audience can see who they are and how they are still
walking around now.
We hope you enjoy this performance and that you will join us later in the year at the Assembly Rooms in Ludlow
(23rd to 25th October) for Yes, Prime Minister.
Going forward we have a number of exciting productions
in the pipeline including the recent award winning Richard
Eyre adaptation of Henrik Ibsen’s Ghosts which will be
performed at the end of March 2015.
Anybody wishing to join this company in any capacity
should feel free to contact us. You will find us online at
www.heretothereproductions.com
Thank you for your support.
Andrew WhittleProducer
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ANYA REISS
Anya began writing plays when at 14 she became a member
of the Royal Court Theatre's Young Writer's Programme. For
the stage she has most recently adapted Frank Wedekind's
Spring Awakening, which has toured for Headlong Theatre,
as well as a new adaption of Anton Chekhov's Three Sisters,
which played at the Southwark Playhouse.
She previously wrote Forty-Five Minutes for the National
Theatre's 2013 Connections Festival. Prior to that she wrote
The Acid Test, which opened at the Royal Court in May 2011
and received rave reviews.
Her debut play, Spur of the Moment, which was written when
she was 17, opened at the Royal Court Theatre in July 2010,
for which she won MostPromising Playwright at the
2010 Evening Standard
Awards, Best New Play at
the 2010 TMA Awards and
Most Promising Playwright
at the 2010 Critics' Circle
Awards.
She is currently writing a
screenplpay for DNA /
Film4, Handsome Devils,
another for Number 9
Films, is developing a TV
series idea, Exclusive, with
Lovely Day Productions,and is also a core writer
on EastEnders. p h o t
o b y E M M A B U L L I V A
N T
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SCENES
Act 1
Scene 1 Outside, by a lake
Scene 2 The next morning
Act 2
Scene 1 Entrance hall,
one week later
Scene 2 Konstantin's study,
several years later
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DIRECTOR’S NOTES
Chekov. Gloomy, weighty subject matter played out in a
dark Russian dachas, surely? Well, possibly - but Anya Reiss,
whilst remaining true to Chekov's story, has brought it into
the more familiar background of modern Britain.
It is a testament to Chekhov that his story still rings true when
set in such a different environment and demonstrates Reiss'
skill in adapting a story which might otherwise be seen asdifficult for modern audiences.
The Seagull has been described as 'darkly comic' and it was
our job to bring out both the light and shade in this play.
There is a lot of fun to be had in recognising the very human
side of these characters - they spring off the page into the
mind's eye and the cast have fully rounded them into thepeople you will see living, loving and squabbling onstage.
Human foibles make them laughable with their pomposity,
vanity and self-absorption but we perhaps also recognise
ourselves in their tales of hopes and disappointments
- and sympathise.
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This is the second project on which I have worked with
Here to There Productions. Quite a challenging task to get
the ideas out of my head and on to the stage, bringing to
life those characters whom I could see so clearly! Of course
this cannot happen without cast and crew; and I am very
fortunate in having a very supportive team about me.
It has been a marvellous experience working with peoplewho are as enthusiastic about this particular play as I am.
It has truly been a team effort, harnessing our ideas and
crafting this jewel we are to present to you.
I sincerely hope you enjoy the performance and that it
stays with you on your return home.
Skye WitneyDirector
The cast and crew would like to thank;
Little Witley Village Hall - rehearsal venue
St Leonard’s Press - publicity materials & props
RP Joinery - carpenter
and all at The Regal Theatre in Tenbury Wells for
having us and for helping to promote this production
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THE SEAGULL SOARS
“It’s boring, dull and has nothing to say to anyone. The actors aren’t
interested, which means the audience won’t be either.”
These are the words of Anton Chekhov (1860 - 1904) after leaving a
rehearsal for The Seagull which was to be performed in Moscow in
December 1898 by the newly formed Moscow Art Theatre (“MAT”).
Such was Chekhov’s disenchantment of what he had seen through
rehearsal he thought of withdrawing the play, especially as he could notprevent the cast delivering half-learned lines bombastically or convince
them that his characters were “simple ordinary people”. Despite these
misgivings and his despondency he allowed the performance to proceed
on 17th December 1898 to what was critical acclaim.
The actor and director Konstantin Stanislavski (1863-1938), mainly known
these days for his systematic approach to the training of actors had, in
conjunction with Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko, created in 1897 the
Moscow Public-Accessible Theatre, which became known as MAT. Their
plan was to establish a network of touring theatre companies that wouldbring high quality drama to the surrounding area of selected towns.
The company consisted of 23 actors and 16 actresses and was up and
running during the summer of 1898. However, it was in December of that
year that MAT launched its first major production; Chekhov’s The Seagull.
Stanislavski met Chekhov at a literary-musical evening in February 1897.
The choice of play is perhaps surprising given that The Seagull, first
performed in 1896, had been nothing short of an unmitigated disaster.
The first production was at
St Petersburg’s Alexandrisky
Theatre. Such was the hissing,
booing and mocking that
Chekhov left the theatre with
his overcoat collar hiding his
face. Walking the cold streets
alone until the early hours
served only to exacerbatehis deteriorating TB.
Anton Chekov reading the Seagull in May 1899
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Chekhov had expected the play to be a disaster. He is recorded as having
said that “The Seagull flagrantly disregards the basic tenets of the stage”,
adding that it had “much conversation and five tons of love".
His family and friends had been unimpressed when he had read the play
to them. The committee of MAT thought that the play lacked structure.
The cast of MAT, it seemed to Chekhov, were oblivious to the subtlety with
which he had charted the affair between Trigorin and Arkadina, Trigorin’s
seduction of the aspiring actress Nina and the suicidal despair of herwould-be lover and Arkadina’s son, Konstantin.
The Seagull was on 17th December 1898 the curtain-raiser in a benefit
evening for a popular farce actress, and her supporters were in no mood
for a delicate tragi-comedy. Her friends felt that the presentation of
such a play was nothing but an insult.
“Everyone kept assuring me that my characters were all idiots and my
play was dramatically unsound, ill-advised, incomprehensible, even
nonsensical”, Chekhov wrote to a friend who admired the piece.He declared following the 1896 flop that he would never write for the
stage again “even if I live for 700 years”.
However, since the original disaster The Seagull had been successful in
both Kharkov and Odessa. Further, Chekhov had another play, Uncle
Vanya, which was thriving in the provinces and so it was that Chekhov
gave his blessing to the Moscow revival for his play.
On the opening night the curtain fell at the end of the first half to what
Stanislavski, who was playing the part of Trigorin as well as directing,called “the Silence of the Tomb.” At its conclusion the performers huddled
together, one starting to sob and another, Olga Knipper, who was playing
Arkadina and who would later marry Chekhov, struggling to avoid hysteria.
However, when the curtain fell at the end of the play “the audience gave
a kind of moan” wrote Stanislavski, “and burst into applause”.
The play’s success was so colossal, he added, that it was like a second
Easter on stage. At the end everyone kissed everyone else and many
people, including, Stanislavski himself,“danced a wild dance of joy and
excitement”. The audience chanted “author, author!” followed by “senda telegraph!” upon hearing that Chekhov was in virtual hiding at the
southern tip of the Crimea in Yalta some eight hundred miles away. One
was duly dispatched informing the dramatist of the unexpected triumph.
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It was this production which forged a long standing relationship
between Chekhov and Stanislavski. It was the MAT who were given
the rights to premiere both Three Sisters and The Cherry Orchard.
Yet all was far from straightforward. Chekhov was of the opinion that
Stanislavski opted for a realistic atmosphere at the expense of comedy
and, in the case of The Seagull, was not pleased by sound effects that
included birds and frogs or by the idea of introducing a crying baby.
Moreover, he found Stanislavski’s down beat Trigorin in need of“a sprinkling of thyroid extract”. He walked and talked like a paralytic.
He interpreted his part of that of a man without a will of his own and
in a way that absolutely nauseated me”.
His honest but blunt thoughts may seem somewhat ungrateful.
Stanislavski had after all established Chekhov as a great dramatist,
although it took some years after the playwright’s death for this
to be acknowledged in the English-speaking world. An impresario,
motivated by “making suffering fashionable”, introduced the play
to New York in 1905. It was well enough received but was performedin Russian. It was not until 1916 that the city saw an English-language
production.
Chekhov’s British debut, in 1909 in Glasgow, was again warmly
received. The Evening Times praised the “sure hand” with which
Chekhov portrayed contrasting characters and The Herald admired
the play’s humanity, warmth and vivid picture of rural dullness.
Following on from a poorly received presentation of The CherryOrchard in 1911, The Seagull was performed in London the following
year. The reaction was lukewarm. For all its subtlety The Daily
Telegraph felt the play “left no decisive mark”.
It was not until the 1920s that Chekhov’s influential admirers,
Desmond McCarthy in London and Edmund Wilson in New York,
found themselves in the majority: “sheer light, a work of unalloyed
genius”, wrote the New York Times of The Seagull in 1929.
Nowadays most theatre critics agree.
Andrew Whittle
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Thurs 23rd to Sat 25th October 2014
(including matinee)
at Ludlow Assembly Rooms, Shropshire
Anton y Ja y & Jonathan L ynn
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CAST AND CREW
Janet Bright: Arkadina
Janet first appearance on stage as the second angel on the
left in her primary school nativity, circa 1976; she always
wanted to be Mary. Her last production saw her directing
whilst playing George in Here to There's outstanding 'Anne
Boleyn', and she will soon be starring as Dotty Ottly/ Mrs
Clackett in 'Noises Off' with the Swan Amateur TheatreCompany, Worcester.
Tom Clarke: Medvedenko
Having always had a love of theatre Tom studied Performing
Arts at Worcester Technology College and has appeared in
‘Les Miserables’ and ‘RENT’. He is very excited and pleased to
be performing the role of Medvedenko.
Jimmy Corbett: Konstantin
Jimmy’s first performance was in March 2014 as George
Deever in Miller’s ‘All My Sons’. He is very much looking
forward to the challenge of taking on this second, more
challenging, role of the complex Konstantin.
Sue Hawkins: Polina
From her first performance as a water baby, aged 3 (exit
stage left, crying) Sue Hawkins has been hooked on the
stage. She has acted with various amateur companies in her
native Kent and in Worcestershire, in particular with the Swan
Theatre Amateur Company. Favourite roles have included:
Lady Felmet in Wyrd Sisters, Miriam in Outside Edge, Irene
Ruddock in A Lady of Letters (one of Alan Bennett's Talking
Heads monologues), Sheila in Relatively Speaking and Pearl
in Ladies Down Under. This is her first outing with Here to There
Productions and she is enjoying all the cake at rehearsals!
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Cerys Jones: Nina
Cerys began performing at the age of three when she joined
Star Stage School of Dancing. She progressed to appear in
shows with Worcester Operatic and Dramatic Youth Section,
landing lead roles including Anne in “Half a Sixpence” (2011)
and Gladys Murphy in “Copacabana” (2013). Since then,
she has started up her own cabaret act specialising in OldClassics and Rock ‘n Roll, performing across the Midlands.
Cerys has just finished her second year of studying Performing
Arts at Worcester College of Technology. She now hopes to
pursue a career in acting. Next year, she is auditioning for
drama schools across Britain and hopes to move away to
continue following her dreams in September 2015. She has
thoroughly enjoyed her time working on this show and is very
grateful for the opportunity that was presented to her.
Christopher Kingsley: Shamrayev
Christopher Kingsley was bitten by the performing bug just
a few years ago and has since appeared in numerous stage
plays, sketches and Murder Mysteries for several local
companies. These include Anne Boleyn for Here to There
Productions, Journey's End, Black Comedy and Calendar
Girls for the Swan Theatre Amateur Company; The Witches,
Alice in Wonderland and Wind In The Willows for Malvern
Theatre Players and Murder Mysteries and sketch shows
with Worcester Pub Theatre Company. He also dabbles in
performance poetry and has performed in award-winning
"fright" scenes. He has just completed a role as Creon in
Oedipus The King with Colwall Players.
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CAST AND CREW
Tom Martin: Trigorin
Tom lives and works in Worcester and is often to be found
cycling through Tenbury on the way to Clee Hill. He has
been known to enjoy a cup of coffee and a slice of cake at
'The Spotty Dog' to give him some strength for the climb!
Andrew Whittle: Dorn
Andrew directed the Company’s first play The Hound of the
Baskervilles. He has also appeared in Betrayal, Anne Boleyn,
Funny Money, The Diary of Anne Frank, An Inspector Calls,
Taking Steps, Nil by Mouth, Murdered to Death, Rumours,
A Man For All Seasons, The Witches and Inherit the Wind.
Femke Witney: Masha
Femke has been performing in professional and amateurproductions for the last 15 years. She has worked in radio,
television and theatre; and has sung both musical theatre
numbers and covers of current hits with a band in London.
She has performed locally with More is More frightening the
people of Worcester in a “horror experience” and has
appeared with Swan Theatre Amateur Company in several
productions, most recently Alan Ayckbourn’s ‘Confusions’.
She is currently training at Birmingham School of Acting.This is her first performance with Here to There Productions.
Jim Austin: Sorin
Director: Skye Witney
Producer: Andrew Whittle
Playwright: Anton Chekhov (a new version by Anya Reiss)
Stage Manager: Chris HarperAssistant Producers: James Dakers and Lauren Edwards
Lighting Designer and Operator: Wild Edric Media
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“We need the theatre,
couldn’t, couldn’t dowithout it. Could we?”
Anya Reiss' new version of Anton Chekov's
THE SEAGULL was first produced by JaggedFence Productions and premiered at the
Southwarm Playhouse, London, in 2012.
THE SEAGULL by Anton Chekov
Version © Anya Reiss (2012)