- Announcer: Funding for APT'sOut of the Woods
is provided by
Boardman Clark Law Firm,
Arcadia Books,
Dane Arts,
Nancy A. McDaniel,
Natural Resources Foundation of Wisconsin,
Orange Tree Imports,
Wilson Creek Pottery,
Focus Fund for Wisconsin Programming,
and Friends of PBS Wisconsin.
[whippoorwills singing]
[crickets chirping]
♪ [classical music] ♪
♪ [discordant piano notes] ♪
- This cannot be right.
Did I-- Am I, am I?
Okay...
♪ [strumming harp] ♪
- Uh, can you tell me if the lens is scratched
or is that my glasses?
[overlapping voices, audio cutting out]
[man does a verbal vocal warm-up]
[overlapping voices] - Man: Hey, Jimmy!
[man does throat exercise]
Jimmy, you frozen?
- Places!
- I'm here, I'm here, coming!
- Places, everyone!
This is places.
♪ [playful, expectant keyboard music] ♪
- Oh, hey, what's up Marcus?
How ya doing?
- Man: Good luck, everybody!
♪ [birds warbling] ♪
♪ ♪
- Brenda DeVita: Hi, everybody, hi and welcome tonight
to our very first live tape recording
of our "Out of the Woods" play reading series.
I wanna say "Happy Mother's Day!" to everyone
and thank you for being our guinea pigs
in all of this.
This is our first time we've ever done anything like this
and you are our first audience
so we appreciate you being here tonight.
It's a big adventure for us.
This all happened incredibly fast
so I want to thank our staff at APT, our incredible staff.
who just jumped on board to make this happen.
I specifically want to thank
Jacki Singleton and Evelyn Matten.
Our stage managers are kind of backstage running the show.
I want to thank Carey Cannon and Jake Penner,
who are the artistic team who helped put this together
and Eva Breneman, our voice and text coach.
Such a great night.
I'm so excited for you all you get to see this.
Before we start, I need to take a moment to thank
all of you for being so supportive of us.
I also have special thanks to our season sponsors.
As you know, the season, you know,
it can't go the way it was planned probably.
It's going to look like what it's going to look like,
but they have all stuck with us
and are still supporting us financially,
which is imperative at this time,
but also emotionally and with their generosity of spirit.
They mean so much to us,
and they give us confidence
that what we do at APT, that the theater, The Hill
is important to you all.
And I want to make sure we say thank you to them.
So, the season sponsors, humbly I thank you:
Stephen and Laurel Brown Foundation,
Doug and Sherry Caves,
JJJ Productions,
Sherry and Rick Lundell,
Alfred P. and Ann M. Moore,
Nelson-Jameson,
Allison M. and Dale R. Smith,
Steve Brown Apartments,
the Mr. and Mrs. C.J. Williams Central Storage Foundation,
and last but not least, U.S. Bank.
We're very excited to partner with PBS Wisconsin on this.
They've been amazing with us
and very patient as we learn the whole process for these plays
all while they're being taped live tonight.
They will be recorded and released on the PBS website.
So, we believe the release date will be around June 5th.
And so, you can stay tuned
throughout our series of readings.
And we'll have more information about that,
but tell your friends they can see--
If they're missing it tonight or you want to see it again,
you can tune in to PBS Wisconsin online.
And last, but not least,
I just need to say thank you to our artists, our actors.
Tonight, you'll get to see a few of them.
Tracy Arnold, Brian Mani,
Jim Ridge, Colleen Madden,
Marcus Truschinski,
Brian Mani, Colleen Madden,
and our very own Ms. dare--
I'm sorry, dare I say, Dame Sarah Day.
They have just gotten this material
for a little time
and this is a reading of that material
and they have bravely thrown caution to the wind
and are sharing these stories with you,
the only way they know how:
with their full hearts.
And I want to welcome them to the stage now.
Without further ado,
Anton Chekhov's three one-act plays
and the core company.
Have a good time!
- Narrator: "The Bear."
A Vaudeville in one act by Anton Pavlovich Chekhov.
Our characters are:
- Elana Ivanovna Popova.
A middle-aged widow.
With dimples.
- Grigoriy Stepanovich Smirnov.
Middle-aged landowner.
Without dimples.
- [speaking cheerfully] Luka.
An old manservant of Elana Ivanovna Popova.
Dimples, irrelevant.
- The drawing room in the country estate
of Elana Ivanovna Popova.
[Elana weeps]
- Narrator: Elana Ivanovna Popova dressed in deep mourning,
holds a framed photograph of her deceased husband,
Nicolai Michaelovich Popova.
- LUKA: It's not good, Madame.
You only are wasting yourself.
The maid and the cook have gone off to pick berries;
every breathing thing is joyous,
even the cat understands how to find happiness;
she's taken a walk outdoors
in hopes of catching some little birdie,
but you sit all day in a room as though in a monastery;
you find happiness in nothing.
A year has passed since you even left the house.
- ELANA: My life is finished.
He rests in his tomb
and I have entombed myself within these four walls.
We both are dead.
- LUKA: Nikolai Michailovich is dead.
The Kingdom of Heaven is his.
You have grieved, it's time to cease.
One is unable to weep forever.
My old wife passed away. what then?
I grieved and wept for a month, and that would do for her,
but to wail for a whole year?
My old wife was not worth that. [hmph]
You have been forgetful of all the neighbors.
You don't go out
You don't wish to receive anyone.
We exist as spiders-- we never see the light.
It would be different if there was no decent people about,
but the entire region is filled with such people...
in Riblovo a regiment is stationed,
such officers, one never tires of staring at them!
At the garrison, there is a ball on Friday!
You are young, beautiful, blooming...
beauty does not last long!
In ten years,
then you will wish to go out with an officer,
but then... it will be too late in the day for you.
- ELANA: I beg you never to speak to me about this!
Since the death of Nicholas Michailovich,
you know life has lost all its worth for me.
To you, it appears that I am alive
but that's only an appearance.
Let his soul see how I love him...
Yes, I know, it is no secret to you
how often he was unfair to me,
hard-hearted, and even unfaithful.
But I shall be faithful till my grave
and I shall prove to him that I know how to love.
- LUKA: It would be better that you took a walk in the garden
or gave orders to harness Toby or Velikan
and pay a visit to the neighbors.
- ELANA: [weeping] Ohh, no...
- LUKA: Madame, dear, what is it?
- ELANA: He so loved Toby!
He always took him to the Korchagins and the Vlasovs.
How marvelously he rode.
What a graceful figure he was
when with all his might he drew on the reins.
Oh, Toby, Toby!
Oh, oh, oh, give Toby an extra helping of oats today.
- LUKA: Yes, Madame.
[rings a sharp piercing bell]
- ELANA: Who is it?
Say I never receive anyone!
- LUKA: Oh yes, Madame, yeah.
- ELANA: You shall see, Nicholas,
how I know how to love and forgive.
My love will only falter when my poor heart ceases to beat.
And don't you feel guilty?
I am such a true little wife,
I have closed myself up
and shall remain faithful to you until death,
but you-- don't you feel guilty?
You were unfaithful to me.
You made scenes,
for entire weeks you left me alone...
- LUKA: Madame, there is someone here asking for you.
He wishes to see--
- ELANA: But didn't you say I receive no one
since the death of my husband?
- LUKA: I said so but he refuses to listen;
he says it's a pressing matter.
- ELANA: I do not receive!
- LUKA: I told him,
but he is like some sort of forest beast.
He cursed and came straight into the rooms.
Now he is standing in the dining room.
- ELANA: Oh, all right, ask him to come in.
What boors!
How distasteful these people are!
What do they want of me?
Why do they disturb my repose?
[Elana groans]
In reality, I should be off to a convent.
Yes, to a convent.
- GRIGORIY: You blockhead!
You love to prattle!
You ass! [Elana gasps, Luka cowers]
Madame, I have the honor of presenting myself:
Retired Artillery Lieutenant Grigoriy Stepanovich Smirnov!
I am forced to disturb you about a very pressing matter.
- ELANA: What is it?
- GRIGORIY: Your late spouse,
with whom I had the honor to be acquainted,
owed me 1,200 rubles.
Tomorrow I must pay the interest on my loan from the land bank
and therefore I ask you to pay me the money today.
- ELANA: One-thousand two-hundred...
For what did my husband owe this debt to you?
- GRIGORIY: He bought oats from me.
[Elana whimpers]
- ELANA: Luka, don't forget to see to it
that Toby has an extra helping of oats.
If Nikolai Michailovich owes you a debt, I shall pay you;
but, please excuse me, I do not have any cash at hand.
The day after tomorrow my overseer returns from the city.
I shall instruct him to pay you what is due
but until then,
I am unable to settle your request.
Besides, today marks the seventh month
since my husband died.
And, at present, I am not in the mood
to occupy myself with money matters.
- GRIGORIY: Unless I have the money tomorrow
to pay the interest,
they will auction off my estate!
- ELANA: You will receive your money the day after tomorrow.
- GRIGORIY: I don't need the money the day after tomorrow,
I need it today.
- ELANA: I am unable to pay you today.
- GRIGORIY: But I can't wait until the day after tomorrow.
- ELANA: What am I supposed to do if I haven't got it?
- GRIGORIY: You are unable to pay?
- ELANA: I am unable.
- GRIGORIY: Is that your last word?
- ELANA: Yes, the last. - GRIGORIY: The last?
Positively?
- ELANA: Positively.
- GRIGORIY: Most respectfully, I thank you!
[pounding on wall, shouting] And they expect me
to be composed!
[breathing angrily]
The customs man on the road just met me and asked,
"Why are you so angry at everything,
Grigoriy Stepanovich?"
But how am I not to be angry?
I desperately need money.
I departed yesterday morning before dawn.
I drove to all of those who owed me money
and if only just one of these had paid what they owed!
Ah, I'm tired as a dog.
I passed the night hell knows where.
In a cheap tavern, next to a small barrel of vodka.
Finally, I arrived here, seventy versts from home,
I had hoped to recover a debt
but instead she offers me "moods."
[yelling, pounding fists] How am I not to be angry?
- ELANA: I said it clearly.
The overseer will return from the city
and then you will receive the money.
- GRIGORIY: I didn't come to see the overseer, but to see you!
Excuse the expression, but
what the hell does your overseer have to do with me?
- ELANA: Forgive me, sir, but I am not accustomed
to these odd expressions, nor to such a tone.
No longer shall I listen to you.
- GRIGORIY: Moods!
Seven months since her husband passed away!
Must I pay or not pay the interest?
Well, you have a dead husband, moods, and lofty whims.
Your overseer has gone somewhere-
the devil take him-
[hollering] but what am I to do?
What, shall I flee from my creditors in a hot air balloon?
Run and smash my head against a wall?
[banging]
No.
I call on Gruzdev.
He's not home.
Yaroshevich is hiding.
I cursed Kuritsin to death
and almost threw him out of a window.
Mazutov had a stomach complaint
and this one--
moods!!!
Not one of the scoundrels will pay up!
All because I have indulged them too much,
because I am a sniveler, an old woman!
I am too delicate with them.
I shall stay and hang about here until she pays!
Brr, how angry I am today, how angry!
Hey you, servant!
- LUKA: What is it?
- GRIGORIY: Give me some kvas or water!
- LUKA: Oh, okay.
- GRIGORIY: Well, what sort of logic is this, huh?
A person desperately needs money
even to the point of hanging himself
but she will not pay because, you see,
she is not in a MOOD to occupy herself with money matters!
There's real female logic.
Precisely because of this, I have never cared for women!
I would rather sit down in a barrel of gunpowder
than converse with women.
I only need catch sight of such a poetical creature
and spasms of anger run through my calves.
It's enough to make one scream for help.
- LUKA: Madame is indisposed and not receiving.
- GRIGORIY: Off with you!
[Luka mumbles indistinctly]
- She is indisposed and not receiving!
Yeah, well then, don't receive!
I shall stay here until you come up with the money.
Be sick for a year.
I shall get my money, my dear!
You don't touch me with your mourning and your dimples.
We all know all about those dimples.
I slept poorly during the night
and now this mourning gown with moods!
My head aches, shall I,
shall I have a glass of vodka?
Yes, [snaps fingers] I shall drink.
Hey, you! Servant!
- LUKA: What is it?
- GRIGORIY: Give me a wine glass of vodka.
[Luka whines quietly]
- Uff!
Well, well, there is nothing to say.
What a fine figure, huh!
Dust everywhere, dirty boots, unwashed, uncombed,
straw in my waistcoat.
Madame most likely took me for a thief.
It was a bit rude
to appear in such a state in the drawing room.
Well, it's nothing.
I am not a guest, but a creditor
and for creditors there is no special dress.
- LUKA: You take great liberties, sir.
- GRIGORIY: What?
- LUKA: I-- I, nothing.
I, as a matter of fact, I...
- GRIGORIY: With whom do you think you are speaking?!
Keep quiet!
- LUKA: A forest beast has been thrust on our heads.
What devil has brought him here?
- GRIGORIY: Ah, how angry I am!
So angry, I could grind the world to dust.
Oh! I feel faint.
Hey, you! Servant!
- ELANA: Sir, in my solitude, I, for some time,
have not been accustomed to a human voice.
I cannot bear shouting.
I beg you not to disturb my repose.
- GRIGORIY: Pay me the money and I shall leave.
- ELANA: I told you in plain Russian accent:
I do not have the cash until the day after tomorrow.
Wait until the day after tomorrow.
- GRIGORIY: I also have the honor to tell you
in plain Russian accent
that I don't need the money the day after tomorrow.
I need it today.
Tomorrow, I shall have to hang myself.
- ELANA: What am I supposed to do if I don't have the money?
How odd!
- GRIGORIY: So, you will not pay now? No?
- ELANA: I am unable.
- GRIGORIY: If that is the case,
I shall stay here until I get the money.
You will pay the day after tomorrow?
[snaps fingers] Excellent!
Then, the day after tomorrow, I shall stay.
Until the day after tomorrow, I shall stay here.
I ask you,
do I need to pay the interest tomorrow or not?!
- ELANA: Sir, I beg you not to shout!
This is not a stable.
- GRIGORIY: I am not asking about a stable,
but whether or not I need to pay the interest tomorrow.
- ELANA: You do not know how to conduct yourself
in the company of a woman.
- GRIGORIY: Oh, no, no, no, no!
I DO know how to conduct myself in the company of a woman!
- ELANA: No, you do not know!
You are an ill-bred, rude individual!
Decent people do not speak in such a manner to a woman!
- GRIGORIY: Oh, this is a surprising state of affairs!
How do you wish people to speak with you?
In a French accent?
[speaking sarcastically] Madame, je vous prie.
How delighted am I that you are not paying me the money.
Oh, pardon me that I have disturbed you!
What a delightful weather today!
How a mourning gown becomes your face!
- ELANA: It's not clever and it's rude.
- GRIGORIY: "It's not clever and it's rude!"
I don't know how to conduct myself
in the company of a woman!
Three times have I fought duels with pistols
for the sake of women;
I have dropped twelve women and nine have abandoned me.
Yes, there was a time when I played the fool.
I loved, I suffered, I sighed at the moon.
I loved passionately, madly--
ah, the devil take me!!!
Don't lead me on!
You don't fool me.
Dark eyes, ardent eyes, scarlet small lips,
dimpled cheeks, the moon, a whisper, timid sighs.
For all that, Madame, now I would not give a tin kopek!
Present company excepted, all women
from the most humble to the greatest are
affected, posturing, gossiping, odious, inveterate liars,
vain, small-minded, mean, and logically insane.
- ELANA: [appalled] Oh!
- GRIGORIY: Forgive my bluntness.
Honestly, you tell me, in your time
have you ever seen a woman who was sincere and true?
[Elana gasps indignantly]
You have never seen one, huh!
The true and faithful ones are only the old and ugly!
You sooner would encounter a small cat with horns
or an albino woodcock than a constant woman!
- ELANA: But who, in your opinion,
is true and constant in love?
The man?
- GRIGORIY: Yes, the man!
- ELANA: The man! [outraged] OH!
The man true and constant in love!
What type of truth is this?
A man true and constant?
I tell you that of all the men whom I have known,
the best of all was my late husband
and he betrayed me at each step!
After his death, I found in his table
a drawer full of love letters,
but even before he died, he left me alone for whole weeks
and before my very eyes,
he made advances towards other women
and betrayed me;
He threw away my money and made light of my feelings.
And in spite of all this,
I loved him and to him was true.
Even though he is dead,
I still am constant and true to him.
I have entombed myself forever within these four walls
and I shall not take off this mourning garb
until I myself die--
- GRIGORIY: [laughs cynically] Mourning!
I don't understand what you take me for, huh!
See I know exactly why you wear a black costume
and entomb yourself within four walls.
How secretive and poetic!
Some cadet or bob-tailed poet
will peer up into the windows and will muse,
"Here lives the enigmatic Tamara
"who because of her love for her husband
buried herself within four walls."
Ah, I know these tricks too well!
- ELANA: What?
How do you dare to speak all these things to me?
- GRIGORIY: You have buried yourself alive
but notice
that you have not forgotten to powder your face.
- ELANA: [gasps] How dare you speak with me in such a manner?
- GRIGORIY: Ah, no, I am not your steward.
Allow me to call things by their real names.
I am not a woman
and I am accustomed to state my opinions frankly!
- ELANA: Please leave me in peace.
- GRIGORIY: Pay me the money and I shall leave.
- ELANA: I shall not give you the money!
- GRIGORIY: Hand it over!
- ELANA: You will not receive a kopek!
Leave me in peace.
- GRIGORIY: I have the pleasure
of being neither your fiancé nor husband,
and therefore, please don't make a scene.
[Elana gasps] I don't care for it!
- ELANA: I beg you to leave.
- GRIGORIY: Give me the money!
Oh, how wicked I am!
How wicked!
- ELANA: I do not care to carry on a conversation
with insolent men!
Please leave, now!
You are not leaving? - GRIGORIY: No!
- ELANA: No?! - GRIGORIY: NO!!
- ELANA: Very well.
[rings a sharp piercing bell]
[shrieking] Luka!!
- LUKA: [whimpers] Ah, oh, coming!
- ELANA: LUKA, escort the gentleman out!
- LUKA: Oye, sir, please leave when she orders!
There's nothing here for--
- GRIGORIY: [yelling] Silence!
With whom do you imagine you are speaking, huh?
I'll make a salad out of you!
- LUKA: Good God! Ohhhh...
Oh, Lord!
Oh, I feel faint!
I can't breathe!
- ELANA: [shrieking] Where is Dasha?
[rings a sharp piercing bell]Dasha! Dasha!
Pelagaya! Dasha!
- LUKA: [voice quivering] Oh, all are berry picking.
No one is home, and I feel faint!
Water!
- ELANA: Please go, get out!!
- GRIGORIY: Would you be good enough to be more polite?
- ELANA: [gasps] You lout!
Coarse bear!
Brute! Monster!
- GRIGORIY:: What-- what did you call me?!
- ELANA: I said that you were a bear, a monster!
- GRIGORIY: Allow me to ask
what right you have to insult me?
- ELANA: Yes, I insult; What of it?
Do you think I am afraid of you?
- GRIGORIY: And do you think
because you are a romantic creature
that you have the right to offend me with impunity?
Yes?
I challenge you to a duel!
- LUKA: Oh, good God!
Good Lord! Water!
- GRIGORIY: A duel!
- ELANA: [enraged tone] Although you have...
powerful fists
and the throat of a steer,
do you think I am afraid of you?
Eh?
You're a brute!
- GRIGORIY: A duel!
I allow none to insult me and I shall not overlook anything
because you are a woman!
- ELANA: Bear! Bear! Bear!
- GRIGORIY: Equal rights are equal rights, damn it!
A duel!
- ELANA: You want a duel, huh?
So be it!
- GRIGORIY: This minute! - ELANA: Now!
My husband had pistols.
I'll bring them here now.
Oh, with what enjoyment
I'll put a bullet in your block head!
To HELL withyou!
- GRIGORIY: Ooh!
I'll shoot her down like a chicken, huh?
I am not a boy, a sentimental cub!
- LUKA: My good sir! Be so kind.
Have mercy on me, an old man.
Leave here!
You've terrified me to death
and now you're preparing to duel!
- GRIGORIY: Oh, that is equal rights, huh?
I'll shoot her down on principle!
But what kind of woman is she?
"To hell with you!
I'll put a bullet in your block head!"
What words are these?
She was flushed, her eyes blazed.
She accepted the challenge!
On my honor, this is the first time in my life
I have seen such a woman--
- LUKA: Sir, leave!
I'll forever remember you in my prayers! [fretting noise]
- GRIGORIY: This is a woman!
I understand her!
A real woman!
No sourpuss, no wishy-washiness!
But fire, gunpowder, and noise!
What a pity to kill her!
- LUKA: Sir...
Sir, leave!
- GRIGORIY: I really like her!
No, No, Ireallylike her!
I even like the dimples on her cheeks.
I am ready to forget about the debt.
My fury has passed.
What an amazing woman!
- ELANA: Here they are, the pistols.
But before we duel, please show me how to fire.
I have never even held a pistol.
- LUKA: Be merciful, O God, have pity...
I'll go for the gardener and the coachman.
Why has this horror come upon our heads?!
- GRIGORIY: You see there are several sorts of pistols.
Here you have Smith and Wesson revolvers with triple action.
Beautiful pistols.
A pair like these cost at least 90 rubles.
One must hold a revolver like this.
Oh, the eyes! The eyes!
What an exciting woman!
- ELANA: Like this?
- GRIGORIY: Yes, fine...
Then, you pull the hammer back,
and then you aim thus--
and put your head back a little.
You stretch out the arm,
and then, press this little thing with your finger.
[Elana exhales passionately]
That is it.
The important thing
is not to become excited and not be hasty in aiming
and see to it that your hand does not tremble.
- ELANA: Fine.
It's awkward to fire here in these rooms.
[breathily] Let's go into the garden.
- GRIGORIY: Let's go.
Only I am warning you beforehand
that I myself shall fire in the air.
- ELANA: That would be the last straw! Why?
- GRIGORIY: Because-- because--
It is my business why.
- ELANA: Follow me!
I shall not rest until I put a hole in your forehead,
in that very head which I hate!
Why are you unwilling to fight?
- GRIGORIY: Because-
because you-- [clears throat]
I like you.
- ELANA: I like you!
He dares to say that he likes me!
Please!
- GRIGORIY: Oh, listen, listen, are you still angry?
How may I put it?
You see the matter as it stands,
speaking truly--
God, is it my fault if I like you?!
I like you!
You understand?
I almost love-
- ELANA: Leave-
I loathe you!
- GRIGORIY: Oh, God, what a woman!
Never in my life have I seen the likes of her!
I am lost! I am ruined!
I'm trapped like a small rodent!
- ELANA: Go, or I shall fire.
- GRIGORIY: Shoot!
You would be unable to understand the bliss it would be
to perish under the gaze of those marvelous eyes.
I'm mad!
Consider and decide now whether I should go from here
for if I go, we shall never see each other again!
Decide!
I have a yearly income of ten thousand.
I am able to hit a small coin from mid-air.
I have fine horses.
Will you be my wife?
- ELANA: To the duel!
- GRIGORIY: God, I am mad.
I understand nothing.
Hey you, servant, water!
- ELANA: Duel!
- GRIGORIY: I am mad!
I love you! - ELANA: [in disbelief] Oh!
- GRIGORIY: I love as never have I loved!
I am vanquished, destroyed, defeated!
I beg your hand.
Yes or no?
You are unwilling?
You need not! [stammering]
- ELANA: Wait--
- GRIGORIY: Well?
- ELANA: Nothing, go.
But wait--
No, go, go!
I loathe you!
No, don't go!
Oh, if you only knew how angry I was, how angry!
My finger is swollen from that wretched revolver.
Why are you standing there?
Get out!
- GRIGORIY: Farewell!
- ELANA: Yes, yes, go!
Where are you going?
Wait! [moans of despair]
Oh, clear out now.
Oh, how angry I was!
Don't-- don't-- don't come nearer!
- GRIGORIY: How angry I am with myself!
I love you!
Tomorrow, the interest is to be paid, the haymaking begins,
but here you are.
Never can I forgive myself.
- ELANA: Leave now!
Oh, keep your hands away!
I... loathe... you!
Duel!
[kissing 'mwah'] - LUKA: [screaming] Good Lord!
Oh, boy!
- ELANA: Luka, [laughs awkwardly]
see to it in the stable
that Toby does not have any oats at all.
♪ [playful orchestra music] ♪
- Narrator: "On the Harmfulness of Tobacco."
A lecture in one act by Anton Pavlovich Chekhov.
Our speaker is:
- Ivan Ivananovich Nyukhin.
Ladies, and [clears throat] so to speak, gentlemen.
It was suggested to my wife
that I give a public lecture here for charity.
Well, if I must, I must.
It's all the same to me.
I am not a professor
and I've never finished at the university.
And yet, nevertheless, over the past 30 years
I have been ruining my health
by constant, unceasing examination of matters
of strictly scientific nature.
I am a man of intellectual curiosity, and appearance,
and at times, I write essays on the scientific matters.
Well, not exactly scientific, but...
scientific-ish.
[clears throat]
Just the other day,
I finished a long article entitled:
"On the Harmfulness of Certain Insects."
My daughters enjoyed it immensely,
especially the part about the bedbugs.
But I just read it over and tore it up.
What difference does it matter if such things are written?
You still have to use arsenic.
We have bedbugs,
even in the piano.
For the subject of my lecture today,
"I" have chosen,
is one way to put it. [clears throat]
"The Harm Done Mankind By the Use of Tobacco."
I myself smoke, but my wife told me to lecture
on the harmfulness of tobacco, and so, what is to be done?
Tobacco it is.
It's all the same to me. [chuckles, clears throat]
Ladies and, so to speak, gentleman.
I urge you to take my lecture with all due seriousness
or something awful may happen!
[inaudible vocalization]
[clearing throat]
Oh... if, uh...
If any of you are afraid of a dry scientific lecture,
cannot stomach that sort of thing,
[sotto voce] mmm... you needn't listen.
You may leave. [pfftt!]
[clears throat] Are there any doctors present?
If so, I insist that you listen very carefully,
for my lecture will contain much useful information,
since tobacco, besides being harmful,
contains certain medical properties.
For example, if you take a fly and put him into a snuff box,
he--will--die,
probably from nervous exhaustion.
Tobacco, strictly speaking, is, a plant!
Yee, [stammers] I know
that when I lecture, I blink my right eye. [laughs]
Pay no attention.
It's simple nervousness.
I am a very nervous man, generally speaking.
Em...
I started blinking several years ago, in 1889.
To be precise, September, the 13th,
the very day my wife gave birth to our, so to speak,
fourth daughter, Varvara.
All my daughters were born on the 13th.
[clears throat]
But time at our disposal is strictly limited.
I see I have digressed from the subject.
[clears throat] Ohh...
I must tell you, by the way,
that my wife runs a boarding school.
Well, not exactly a boarding school,
but, eh, it's boarding school-ish.
[clears throat]
You know, just between us,
my wife likes to complain about "hard times",
but she has managed to put together
a... nest egg of some forty or fifty thousand rubles!!!
Hmm...
As for me, [chuckles]
I haven't a kopek to my name, not a penny.
[laughs]
Eh, well, what's the use of dwelling on that?
At the school, it is my lot to look after the housekeeping.
I buy supplies, keep an eye on the servants,
balance the budget, stitch together the learning books,
exterminate the bedbugs,
take my wife's little dog for walks. [heh-heh]
Catch the mice.
Ooh, just the other day, it fell to me
to give the cook flour and butter for today's breakfast.
Well, to make a long story short, this morning,
my wife came to the kitchen and said that
three students would not be eating the breakfast,
as they had swollen glands.
So, it seems we had a few too many pancakes!
What to do with them?
First, my wife said, "Store them away,"
and then she thought a while,
and she said, "You eat those pancakes, you scarecrow!!!"
When she is out of humor,
that is what she calls me: [laughs]
"scarecrow," [chuckles]
or "viper," or "devil."
What sort of devil am I?
She's always "out of humor".
I didn't eat those pancakes.
I wolfed them down.
I am always hungry.
The other day, she gave me no dinner.
She says, "What's the use of feeding you, you scarecrow?!"
However, I have strayed from my subject. [chuckles]
Let us continue. [clears throat]
But some of you, I'm sure,
would rather hear a romance, or a symphony, or an aria--
♪ "We shall not shrink In the heart of battle ♪
♪ Forward, beeeeeee stroooooooong" ♪
I forgot what that is from.
[sniffles, clears throat]
Oh, by the way, [chuckles]
I should tell you that at my wife's school,
you know apart from looking after the bookkeeping,
my duties include teaching
mathematics and physics,
and chemistry, and geography,
history, solfeggio, literature,
and so forth, so forth, so forth.
For dancing, singing, and drawing, my wife charges extra,
although the singing and dancing master is...
is yours truly.
[clears throat]
Our school is located at Dog Alley, number 13.
I suppose that is why my life has been so unlucky.
I live in house number 13,
all my daughters were born on the 13th,
I think I told you,
and our house has thirteen windows!!!
[high-pitched wheezing laugh]
So, in short,
what's the use?
[high-pitched wheezing laugh]
Appointments with my wife may be made for any hour,
and the prospectus may be had for 30 kopeks.
House number 13.
I'm a failure.
I've grown old and miserable.
Here I am, lecturing,
and to all appearances somehow enjoying myself,
but I tell you I have such an urge
[whispering] to scream at the top of my lungs,
to run away to the ends of the earth...
There is no one to talk to.
I want to weep.
Oh, but what about your daughters, you say, eh?
Well, what about them?
I try to talk to them, they only laugh.
My wife has seven daughters.
Seven!!!
No, sorry.
No, it's only six.
Yeah, it's six.
No, wait.
It is... uh...
Anna, the eldest, is 27 and the youngest is...
17?
[clearing throat, 'ahem']
Ladies and gentlemen, ladies and gentlemen...
Ladies and gentlemen, I am miserable.
Miserable.
I have become a fool, a non-entity.
But still, all in all, you see before you
the happiest of all fathers.
Why shouldn't I be?!
And who am I to say I am not?
[laughing half-heartedly]
If you only knew...
I have lived with my wife for 33 years,
and, I can say
they are the best years of my life.
Well, maybe not the best years of my life,
but uh, the best years of my life... -ish.
They have passed, as it were, in a...
Well, to hell with them!
[laughs]
You know, I don't think my wife has arrived yet.
She is not here.
So, I am free to say what I want, heh!
I am afraid...
[whispers] I am terribly afraid when she looks at me.
But we were talking about our daughters.
[laughs]
Yes.
They don't get married, probably because they're so shy,
and also because men can never get near them.
My wife doesn't give parties.
She never invites anyone to dinner.
She's a stingy, shrewish, ill-tempered old biddy,
and that is why no one comes to see us,
But, I can tell you confidentially, hmm,
on holidays,
my daughters can be seen at the home of their aunt, Natalia.
Hmm?
It's the one with the rheumatism
that always wears the yellow dress
with the black spots that look like cockroaches.
There, you can eat.
And, uh... [crinkling paper]
If my wife happens not to be looking,
then you shall see me, you know. [laughs]
You'll see I can get tipsy on just one glass.
And then, I am so happy
and at the same time so sad. [troubled laugh]
It's, it's unimaginable.
I think of my youth,
and then, somehow, I long to run away.
If you only knew how I long to do it!
To run away, to be free of everything,
to run without ever looking back.
Where?
Anywhere, so long as it is away
from that vile, mean, cheap life
that has made me into a fool, a miserable idiot.
To run away from that stupid, petty, hot headed, spiteful,
nasty old miser, my wife,
who has given me 33 years of torment!
To run away
from the music, the kitchen, the bookkeeping ledgers,
all those mundane, trivial affairs.
To run away and then stop somewhere far, far away
on a hill,
and to stand there, like...
like a tree, a pole,
a scarecrow,
under the great sky and the still, bright moon,
and to forget,
simply forget.
Oh, how I long to forget!
[breathing audibly]
Ahhh... [laughing bitterly]
How I long to rip off this frock coat, [chuckles]
this coat that I wore 33 years ago at my wedding,
and that I still wear for lectures for public charity!
Take that! And that!
And that, and that!
[flustered, frustrated vocalizations]
[breathing with exertion]
I am a poor, shabby, tattered wretch,
[weeping]
like the back of this waistcoat.
But I, I ask for nothing.
I am better than that.
I was young once.
I went to university, I had dreams,
I thought of myself... [weeping silently]
as a man,
but now...
now, I want nothing.
Nothing...
but peace.
Peace!
She is here.
[whimpers]
My wife is in the wings waiting for me!
[clears throat]
I see our time is up. [chuckles]
[whispering] If she asks you, please, I beg you, I beg you,
tell her that her scarecrow--
I mean, me--
behaved with dignity.
[clears throat]
[falsely cheerful voice] Oh, she's looking right at me!
Given that tobacco contains a terrible poison,
which I have had the pleasure of describing to you,
smoking should at all costs be avoided,
and permit me to add my hopes
that these observations
on the harmfulness of tobacco
will have been of some profit to you.
And so, I conclude.
Dixi et animam levavi! (I said and I lifted my soul)
[whines]
♪ [playful orchestra music] ♪
- Narrator: "The Proposal."
A Vaudeville in one act by Anton Pavlovich Chekhov.
Our players are:
- Svetlana Stepanovna Chubukov:
a widowed landowner.
- Natalya Semyonovna Chubukov:
her unmarried daughter.
- Ivan Vasilevich Lomov:
an unmarried friend and neighbor of the Chubukovs.
- Narrator: The play takes place in the drawing room
of the country estate of Svetlana Stepanovna Chubukov.
Ivan Vasilevich Lomov enters the drawing room
wearing tails and white gloves.
- SVETLANA: My dove, my dear!
Whom do I see here!
Ivan Vasilevich!
I am delighted!
This is a surprise! [laughs]
Bless my heart, how are you?
- IVAN: I thank you, and how are you?
- SVETLANA: With the help of your prayers,
et cetera, et cetera,
not bad at all.
I beg you, most humbly, to sit down.
It is true wickedness to be inattentive to a neighbor.
Oh, my God, my dove, why all this formality?
In tails and gloves, et cetera.
Where are you bound, my jewel?
- IVAN: It is nothing.
I came solely to visit you, dear Svetlana Stepanovna.
- SVETLANA: But why, my charmer, in tails?
Is this a New Year's visit?
- IVAN: It is simply for this reason.
I have come to you, dear Svetlana Stepanovna,
with one single petition.
I have had the honor
of repeatedly turning to you for assistance...
[yelling] always you, but I--
Forgive me-- I am so anxious.
I'll just take a sip of water.
Dear, dear Svetlana Stepanovna.
- SVETLANA: He has come to borrow money!
[laughs cooly] I shall not give it.
What is it, my Adonis?
- IVAN: You see, my dear Svetlana Stepanovna,
I feel like a criminal...
I mean, I am terribly anxious, as you see.
In a word, you alone are able to help me,
although, I do not even have the right to hope
for your assistance
- SVETLANA: Oh, don't pussyfoot around.
Bless me, speak straight away.
Well? - IVAN: At once,
this very minute.
It comes down to this:
I have come to ask for the hand of your daughter,
Natalya Semyonovna.
- SVETLANA: Oh, my dove.
I am so happy, et cetera.
Oh, for so long a time it has been my constant hope--
Always have I loved you, my angel, as my own son.
May God grant you both concord, love, et cetera--
Oh, why am I standing here like a nitwit?
I am overwhelmed by happiness!
Totally overwhelmed!
I'll call Natalya, et cetera, et cetera.
- IVAN: Dear Svetlana Stepanovna, what do you think?
Am I able to hope for her consent?
- SVETLANA: Really, my Adonis...
She will give her immediate consent!
She is in love like a kitten, et cetera.
Now!
- IVAN: It's cold...
I am as tense as if before an examination.
The most important thing is this must be resolved.
If one deliberates too long,
wavers, even waits for an ideal or true love,
such a one never marries,
Brr... it is cold!
Natalya Semyonovna is an outstanding...
housekeeper,
not bad looking, educated.
What more do I need?
A ringing has begun in my ears from this excitation.
Mmm. [sipping water]
It is out of the question that I not marry...
In the first place, I am already thirty-five years old,
an age, as they say, that is critical.
In the second place, I need a guided regular life.
I have heart disease, a perpetually racing pulse...
And now, my lips are quivering
and my right eye is fluttering.
- NATALYA: Oh! Oh, my God, it's you.
But Mama said, "Go in, a traveling salesman has come."
[laughs]
Good day, Ivan Vasilevich.
- IVAN: Good day, dear Natalya Semyonovna.
- NATALYA: Oh, please excuse the apron and house dress;
We are shelling peas for drying.
Why have you been away for so long?
Do you wish breakfast?
- IVAN: No, thank you, I have eaten already.
- NATALYA: Smoke?
Matches? No.
The weather is splendid.
Yesterday, there was such a rain
that the peasants were unable to accomplish anything.
How many haycocks did you mow?
Just imagine, I was so eager and apprehensive,
I had the entire meadow cut.
Now, I am not so pleased, for I fear the hay has molded.
It would have been far better to wait.
But what is this!
You appearing in tails?
What is happening?
Are you on your way to ball?
Where?
Incidentally, you have become quite attractive--
It's true.
Why are you in such dashing form?
- IVAN: See here, my dear Natalya Semyonovna.
The fact is that I have decided to ask you to--
hear me out--
of course, you will be astonished, even angry,
but I--
[whispering] It is dangerously cold in here!
- NATALYA: What is it?
Well?
- IVAN: I shall try to make it brief.
Dear Natalya Semyonovna,
it is quite true that I have had the honor
of knowing your family for a very long time--
from my childhood.
My late dear auntie and her spouse
from whom I, as you well know, inherited the land,
always bore the deepest respect
for your mother and your late father.
The Lomovs and the Chubukovs
always have been on the closest of terms,
one may even say we are almost like blood relations ourselves.
As you well know, my land closely joins yours and pray,
keep in mind that my little grassy meadow
borders your birch wood.
- NATALYA: I am sorry to interrupt but did you say,
"Your grassy meadow?"
[laughs] Indeed.
Is it actually yours?
- IVAN: Yes, mine.
- NATALYA: Oh, really!
The meadow is ours, not yours.
- IVAN: No, mine, dear Natalya Semyonovna.
- NATALYA: This is news to me.
From what perspective is it yours?
- IVAN: What do you mean, "from what perspective?"
I am speaking of the grassy meadow,
which runs between the birch wood and the dry marsh.
- NATALYA: Yes, exactly; it's ours.
- IVAN: No, you are mistaken, dear Natalya Semyonovna,
it is mine.
- NATALYA: Come to your senses, Ivan Vasilevich!
Since when is it yours?
- IVAN: What do you mean, "since when?"
As far back as I remember, the meadow has always been ours.
- NATALYA: Oh, forgive me, but that cannot be.
- IVAN: It's all on paper, dear Natalya Semyonovna;
the grassy meadow, it is true, at one time was in dispute
but now it is accepted by all that the meadow is mine.
Please pay attention:
the grandmother of my aunt gave this meadow,
free and clear,
to the peasants of the grandfather of your own father
while the peasants were making bricks for her.
These peasants of the grandfather of your own father
had the use of the meadow without rent
for a period of forty years,
considering the property as their own until that time--
- NATALYA: Your account is completely inaccurate.
My own grandfather and great grandfather reckoned that
their property reached back to the dry marsh,
meaning that the grassy meadow was ours.
- IVAN: I'll show you the papers,
dear Natalya Semyonovna.
- NATALYA: NO, no! You are simply teasing me.
We have owned the land for nearly 300 years
and suddenly you declare that the land is no longer ours!
I simply do not believe what I hear!
The grassy meadow is of no value to me;
it is only about 13 1/2 acres--
and is not worth more than 300 rubles--
but injustice distresses me.
Say what you will,
but I am simply unable to endure injustice.
- IVAN: Pay attention, I implore you!
The peasants of the grandfather of your own father,
as I had the honor to relate to you already,
made bricks for the grandmother of my auntie.
Auntie's grandmother wished to do them a kindness.
- NATALYA: Aunties, grandfathers, grandmothers--
The meadow is ours and that is that!
- IVAN: Mine! - NATALYA: Ours!
Even if you bicker for two days,
even if you put on 15 suits and tails,
the meadow is ours-- ours-- OURS!
- IVAN: Natalya Semyonovna, I don't need the meadow;
it is the principle.
If it is agreeable to you,
please, accept the meadow from me.
- NATALYA: I myself am able to give the meadow to you;
it's mine.
This is all very peculiar, Ivan Vasilevich.
Until now we considered you a neighbor...
a friend!
Last year, we gave you our threshing machine
and because of this,
our own grain was not prepared until November!
You treat us like, "whoa."
You offer me my very own land.
You spare me, but this is hardly neighborly.
In my opinion, it's rude!
- IVAN: According to you, I am a thief.
Madame, I've never filched another's land
and I shall never allow anyone to accuse me of that.
The grassy meadow is mine!
- NATALYA: Ours! - IVAN: Mine!
- NATALYA: Untrue!
I shall show you.
Today, I shall send my mowers into that meadow.
- IVAN: What?!
- NATALYA: Today, my mowers will be there.
- IVAN: And I will toss them out on their ears.
- NATALYA: Don't you dare!
- IVAN: The grassy meadow is mine!
Understand? Mine!
- NATALYA: Don't shout, please.
You may shout and snort from spite in your own home,
but here, you please conduct yourself with decency!
- IVAN: Madame, if I were not now experiencing
an excruciating and racing heart,
a dreadful beating in my temples,
I would address you quite otherwise!
The meadow is mine!
- NATALYA: Ours! - IVAN: Mine!
- SVETLANA: What's going on?
What are you two shouting about?
- NATALYA: Mama, please explain to this gentleman
to whom the grassy meadow belongs: to us or to him?
- SVETLANA: My dear little rooster, the meadow is ours.
- IVAN: My God, Svetlana Stepanovna,
how could it be yours?
At least, you might be reasonable.
The grandmother of my aunt gave the meadow temporarily
for the use of your grandfather's peasants.
The peasants used the land for 40 years
and used it as if it were theirs.
When circumstances changed...
- SVETLANA: Please, my dear jewel.
You forget that the peasants did not pay your grandmother
because at the time the meadow was in dispute,
along with other affairs.
But now, any dog knows that the meadow is really ours.
- IVAN: I will prove to you that the meadow is mine.
- SVETLANA: Oh, don't try to prove it, my pet!
- IVAN: No, I shall prove it.
- SVETLANA: I want nothing of yours,
but I do not intend to lose anything of mine.
What for?
If things have come to such a pass, my darling,
that you should sue for the meadow, et cetera,
I would sooner give it to the peasants than to you!
- IVAN: How do you have the right
to give away the property of another?
- SVETLANA: Really, young man, I am not accustomed
to having anyone address me in that tone, et cetera.
Young man, I am twice your age and I ask
you not to address me with such provocation, et cetera.
- IVAN: You call my land yours
and then expect me to remain composed
and address you in a civilized manner!
Good neighbors do not act thus, Svetlana Stepanovna!
In fact, you are not a neighbor, you are a thief! [pounds fist]
- SVETLANA: What!
What did you say?
- NATALYA: Mama, send the mowers to the meadow.
- SVETLANA: Sir, what did you say?
- NATALYA: The grassy meadow is ours;
I will not hand it over, I will not!
- IVAN: We shall see!
I'll prove in court that the meadow is mine.
- SVETLANA: Court?
Of course!
I know your type,
you who lie in wait for a legal suit, et cetera!
Oh, all your family were malicious litigators!
All of them!
- IVAN: Please do not abuse my family!
The Lomov family is honorable.
There was not one who found himself in court
for embezzlement like your dear uncle!
- SVETLANA: Indeed, all in the Lomov family were lunatics!
- NATALYA: Every one!
Every one! Every one!
- SVETLANA: Your grandfather was a notorious drunkard
and your younger auntie, Nastasya Michailovna,
ran off with an architect, et cetera.
- IVAN: But your mother was lop-sided!
[in a wincing voice] It has started in my side.
There is a throbbing in my head.
Gracious... Some water!
- SVETLANA: Your father was a gambler and a glutton.
- NATALYA: And your mean little auntie
was a unique scandalmonger.
- IVAN: My left leg is paralyzed.
and you are a schemer.
Oh, my heart! [groans]
And it is no secret that before the election you...
you... you bright...
in my eyes, stars!
- NATALYA: How vulgar!
Liar!
How disgusting!
- SVETLANA: You are a snide, two-faced, underhanded
individual!
You are, indeed! - IVAN: My heart...
Where do I go out?
Where is the door?!
Oh, I am failing--
dying, it seems!
My leg is paralyzed!
- SVETLANA: May your leg never be again in my house!
- NATALYA: Go to court!
We shall see!
- SVETLANA: Oh, the hell with it!
- NATALYA: Such a scoundrel!
And the Lomovs call themselves good neighbors!
- SVETLANA: Blackguard! Scarecrow!
- NATALYA: He appropriates another's land
and then dares to quarrel about it.
- SVETLANA: And this precious little goblin
has even dared to make a proposal, et cetera...
[laughs indignantly]
a proposal, indeed!
- NATALYA: What kind of proposal?
- SVETLANA: He, he, he, he came here
to offer a proposal of marriage to you.
- NATALYA: A proposal?
For me?
Why didn't you tell me earlier?
- SVETLANA: That's why he was dressed in tails.
Such a sausage.
A mollusk!
- NATALYA: For me? A proposal?
Ahh...
Bring him back!
BRING HIM BACK!
- SVETLANA: Bring whom back?
- NATALYA: Be quick!
[shrieking] Oh, I feel faint!
Bring him back, bring him back!
Bring him! [wailing]
- SVETLANA: Don't howl!
I'm going!
- NATALYA: Oh, what have we done?
She must bring him back.
She must bring him!
Bring him!
- SVETLANA: All right, he's coming.
Oh, God, what it is to have a grown daughter!
Oh, we have abused this man, shamed him, and driven him out.
- Well, speak with him!
- IVAN: Terrible pulse rate--
My leg is numb.
There is a throbbing in my side.
- NATALYA: Oh, forgive us!
Ivan Vasilevich, we became excited.
You know, now I do recall the grassy meadow is yours.
[laughs warmly]
- IVAN: My heart is racing--
my meadow--
both eyelids are twitching-
- NATALYA: Yes, your, your, your meadow.
Listen,
we were wrong.
- IVAN: It was the principle.
To me, the land means little, but the principle much.
- NATALYA: Yes, exactly.
[breathily] The principle.
Let's speak of other things.
- IVAN: Because I have proof.
The grandmother of my dear auntie--
- NATALYA: Yes, yes, ENOUGH, enough about that.
Ooh, I don't know how to begin.
Are you soon off to a hunt?
- IVAN: For black grouse, dear Natalya Semyonovna.
After harvest time.
Did you hear of my misfortune?
My Ugadai-- oh, you know him-- began to limp.
- NATALYA: Oh, what a pity!
What happened?
- IVAN: I don't know, perhaps a dislocation
or perhaps another dog bit him.
He is the best of dogs, to say nothing of his worth!
I paid Mironov 125 rubles for him.
- NATALYA: Oh, ho, ho! [laughing condescendingly]
You paid too much, Ivan Vasilevich.
- IVAN: I think he was very inexpensive.
The dog, as you well know, is marvelous.
- NATALYA: Mama paid 85 rubles for our Otkatai,
and Otkatai is superior by far to your Ugadai.
- IVAN: Otkatai superior to Ugadai?
- NATALYA: Yes. - IVAN: Hah!
Otkatai superior to Ugadai?
- NATALYA: Well, certainly, he is superior!
It's true, Otkatai is young.
He is not fully matured,
but in form, he is graceful and nimble.
There is no better dog, even at the Volchanetsok's estate.
- IVAN: I beg your pardon, Natalya Semyonovna,
you have evidently forgotten
that your Otkatai is slack jawed.
Such a dog is always impossible to train.
- NATALYA: Slack jawed? [forced laugh]
This is the first time I've heard of this!
- IVAN: I can assure you
that his lower jaw is shorter than his upper.
- NATALYA: Did you measure it?
- IVAN: I have.
He is suited for searching,
but for retrieving, that is another matter.
- NATALYA: In first place,
our Otkatai is a thoroughbred Borzoi;
as for your dull-hued, unclassifiable creature,
he is a decrepit and deformed as a nag.
- IVAN: Old, yes,
but I would not take five of your Otkatais for him.
Ugadai is a dog but your Otkatai is a...
a joke!
Such dogs as Otkatai abound everywhere.
Twenty-five rubles would be the highest price for one of these.
- NATALYA: Ivan Vasilevich,
some spirit of conflict has taken possession of you today.
You consider the grassy meadow yours;
you consider Ugadai superior to Otkatai.
I do not care for a person who ignores the truth.
You know very well that Otkatai is 100 times better
than your stupid Ugadai.
Why do you speak so falsely?
- IVAN: I see, Natalya Semyonovna,
you consider me blind and silly,
but you must admit that Otkatai is slack jawed.
- NATALYA: Untrue!
- IVAN: Slack jawed!
- NATALYA: UNTRUE!
- IVAN: Well, why are you shouting?
- NATALYA: Why do you utter such rubbish?!
It is disgusting.
It is high time your Ugadai was shot;
you dare speak about him in the same sentence as our Otkatai?
- IVAN: My pulse is racing!
- NATALYA: I have noticed that hunters who argue the most,
[whispers] understand the least.
- IVAN: I ask you to be silent.
My heart is about to burst.
Silence!
- NATALYA: I will not be silent
until you admit that
our Otkatai is 100 times better than your Ugadai!
- IVAN: One hundred times worse!
I wish he were dead!
My temples, my eyes, my shoulder.
- NATALYA: There is no need for your Ugadai to be shot
because he may as well already be dead!
- IVAN: Silence, I am experiencing heart attack!!
- NATALYA: [yelling] I shall not be silent!
- SVETLANA: What, again?
- NATALYA: Mama, please tell me candidly
and with a clear conscious,
which dog is superior, our Otkatai or his Ugadai?
- IVAN: Svetlana Stepanovna, I beg you, tell me one thing:
is your Otkatai slack jawed?
Yes or no?
- SVETLANA: What if it is so?
It's not important.
In the entire region there is not a better dog, et cetera.
- IVAN: Isn't my Ugadai superior?
Sincerely?
- SVETLANA: Don't be upset, my jewel.
Listen, your Ugadai has wonderful qualities.
He is a real hunter,
with strong slender legs and thin haunches, et cetera.
Yet, if you really wish to know, my charmer,
this dog has two significant shortcomings:
he is old and he has a short muzzle.
- IVAN: Pardon me, but my pulse is racing.
- NATALYA: Hah, racing pulse,
what type of hunter are you?
You should rest in a stove in the kitchen like a cockroach--
not hunt foxes.
Racing pulse!
- SVETLANA: Really, what type of hunter are you anyway?
With your racing pulse, you should sit at home
and not dangle in a saddle.
Let's stop this exchange!
You, in a word, are not a hunter!
- IVAN: You consider yourself a hunter?
You ride around just to curry favor with the Count
and to scheme.
Ahh, my heart!
Conniver!
- SVETLANA: What?
- IVAN: Conniver!
- SVETLANA: You whelp!
- IVAN: You withered rodent!
- SVETLANA: Silence, you wheezing little beetle.
- IVAN: Of course, it is well known that-- oh, my heart--
that your late--
that you used to beat your late husband.
Oh, my legs, oh, my temples.
- SVETLANA: You are your housekeeper's doormat.
- IVAN: My heart has ruptured!
My shoulder, it's, uh, it's numb.
In fact, where is my shoulder?
I'm dying.
A doctor!
A doctor!!
- NATALYA: Mama!
Mama, what's happened to him?
Oh, Mama, look!
Mama!
Ivan Vasilevich!
Oh, he's dead!
- SVETLANA: Who's dead? Good God!
He really is dead, et cetera.
I am lost!
Oh, I should put a bullet through my head!
[Svetlana cries]
Oh, why haven't I plunged a knife into myself?
Give me a knife!
Give me a small pistol!
[Svetlana weeps]
It seems he's coming out of it!
- IVAN: Flashes! Fog!
Where am I?
- SVETLANA: Marry, marry, marry quickly!
I give you my blessing, et cetera.
She is agreed, et cetera.
Only leave me in peace!
- IVAN: What?
Whom?
- SVETLANA: She is agreed!
Well, kiss and the, the hell with you.
- NATALYA: He lives, oh, he lives!
Yes, yes, I agree!
- SVETLANA: Kiss each other!
- IVAN: Ah! Whom?
Pardon me, but what is happening?
Ah, yes, I remember my heart and the flashes.
Oh, I am so happy.
My leg, it is paralyzed.
- NATALYA: I also am happy.
- SVETLANA: Oh, what a load off my shoulders.
- NATALYA: But, um listen, Ivan Vasilevich,
you must admit after all
that your Ugadai is worse than our Otkatai.
- IVAN: Better! - NATALYA: Worse.
- SVETLANA: The beginning of domestic tranquility and bliss!
- IVAN: Better! - NATALYA: Worse!
- IVAN: Better!! - NATALYA: Worse!!
- IVAN: Better!!! - NATALYA: Worse!!!
- SVETLANA: [shouts them down] Champagne! Champagne! Champagne!
[upbeat classical music]
[applause]
[laughter]
[applause and laughter]
- Oh, my God!
Oh, my God, I was crying, I was laughing so hard!
Oh, my God, you guys are amazing.
I wanna bring out, oh, thank you so much,
and D.D., I'm so sorry,
I didn't say your name at the top.
Oh, my God, you're amazing.
Thank you, it was just a complete joy.
Okay, we should bring out Aaron Posner, director.
Give him a round of applause. (people applauding)
C'mon, Aaron, come on out.
[cheering]
- Aaron: Do you hear me?
- We can hear you.
- Brenda: We can't see you though.
- Aaron: Oh, there I am. [cheering]
Hello.
- Hi, how was that to watch, Aaron?
- It was terrific.
Great job you guys, outstanding, excellent, excellent work.
- Amazing, you guys are amazing.
You all look so-- not that this is important--
but y'all look really beautiful, too.
[laughter]
We should take some questions from the audience,
but first, does anybody have anything they wanna say?
I love you all.
Okay, look yes, D.D., what?
- Daniel: I know you said it, but I wanna say it as an actor:
Thank you, thank you for being here,
and thank you for letting us entertain you.
Thank you.
- Tracy: Thank you, thank you, thank you.
- Brenda: It feels so good to make something,
doesn't it, you guys, right now?
Feels so good to make something?
- Yeah.
- You guys made something great.
Okay, so Carey Cannon, are you on?
Do you have questions for us to answer?
- Carey: I'm here, yeah, there's a bunch of questions
that have come in
while you all were working in our intermissions,
and they're kind of in a couple of categories.
So, I'd love to start with, it's about the mediums,
so Lyman and Deanna Welch say,
"How does it feel to read a play,
rather than acting in full costume on stage?"
- Brian, you're not on mute.
You're still on, your mic's muted, just so you know.
What's that feel like?
What's that feel like, Jim Ridge?
What's the biggest difference for you?
- Jim: Well, we do, we get to do the readings already,
in the recent history of APT doing the 'Winter Words.'
So, in many ways, this is similar,
in that we're really just trying to focus
on the words in the text.
We can't see anyone. [laughter]
That's weird.
- Brenda: Yeah, right, what else?
Brian, what's it like for you down there in your basement?
- Brian: I'm actually not in the basement.
- Brenda: Oh!
- Brian: But it feels strange
that, that quality
of speaking at the target which is here.
It's like we're in regular rehearsal with,
when it's just you and the director,
and it's maybe a funny piece,
and you're doing it alone
and there's no one else in the room.
You and the stage manager and the director,
and the director is telling you, this is gonna be funny.
Don't worry about it.
[people chuckling]
But you have no proof.
[people chuckling] You have no clue.
- Brenda: It was really funny.
I mean, I've watched it several times.
It was really funny.
Yeah, Colleen, what do you think?
- Colleen: Well, it's very different,
so at the very, you know, the very least it's very different.
But as, as Brian says, so your target is here,
but since we're reading,
so I would see Marcus's face about here,
but my text is here.
So it's kind of funny
and so I would be scrolling and looking,
scrolling and looking.
That's, it's a 21st Century skill for sure.
Like, you're really good at that,
but I'm not great at it yet.
- Brenda: Right, anybody else on that?
- Carey: I should report that Mark Timmerman says,
"It looks like the actors are off book and not reading.
Is that possible?"
Well done reading, friends.
- Brenda: How are you, explain those because,
we had a lot of conversations about this technically,
about how to get the script up,
because we're all such technical wizards, us folks--
I'll just speak for me.
How to get the script up on your screen?
I mean, explain what that is, like the script.
Some people have the script on the whole screen,
or is everybody's split screen, or what's going on?
- Brian: I don't have mine across all the way.
I've got mine about a third wide,
right in the middle.
And then I scrunch up the Zoom room
and put it over, down to my left.
So I can click either my mute or my video button.
And that, but then once I click on my script,
that's the prominent thing and I can just see,
over to my left, I can just see the screen a little bit.
So I know that when I can see this color wall,
over there, I know that I'm on, so.
- Brenda: Sarah Day, how's this journey been for you, Dame Day?
- Sarah: Well, it's been
an incredibly lovely learning curve.
[laughing]
I don't think it's quite a phobia of technology I have.
But it's, it's been fun,
it's been fun and frustrating,
in all the ways that are, like a toddler learning,
like taking first steps.
So it's felt good.
- Carey: Because we have,
I just want to segue into another question,
and it's sort of related.
"Is that what it's like to rehearse,
when you're not in the same space together?"
- Colleen: At first, that was really strange
and it's still certainly strange because of lag time,
[stilted speech] and--sometimes people's--video--is--like--this.
But, as you all know,
it's been such an isolated time,
and when we did get this grant, the PPP grant,
and started to work together,
it was such,
it was like a drink of cool, cool delicious water
to get to see all my family and my friends again.
I mean it's fun, and getting to work with Aaron,
I mean, we laughed so much these last few days.
It was so much fun, I just wanna be in all the rehearsals
whether or not I have a role,
because it's just such a relief to see our friends and talk.
- Right.
- You know, we get to work for sure.
You know, it's mostly work,
but we check in with each other and say, how's it going,
and get a chance to, you know, cover that ground.
- Aaron: Part of what's weird about the whole thing is that
the whole thing that we do anyway is so weird.
Like, like that, getting together in rooms
and pretending to be other people.
When I try and describe to people,
what a job of a director is, is like, oh, well,
you know, I hang out with people and say,
"Not wild about the way you're pretending right now.
I'd like you to pretend a little different, if you might."
And that that's an actual job,
and like adding the level
of disconnective technology
is just one more weird thing
that we're supposed to be able to do,
simultaneously while pretending to make up these words,
while pretending to be in Russia,
while pretending to, that we can actually like,
that we're just inventing this while not running into things.
So it's, it is so strange,
but when you think about how strange
what we do all the time is, it's not that much stranger.
- Tracy: You may have just noticed that I left because
my light on my face is so bright that
I can almost not look at myself on the screen.
It's just too much, and I turned the light off
and then you couldn't see me at all.
So one thing, so one thing we had to learn,
how to do this week, in addition to just do the job
that we do, which is to act, is that we had to learn
and learn all the technology,
we had to become our own set designer, lighting designer,
costume designer, makeup person. [laughs]
- Brenda: We miss those guys, don't we?
- Colleen: Yes.
- Brenda: We wish you were here.
- Tracy: All week, we were rehearsing
and my light was fine in the room--
We're all in our own homes, obviously.
And Marcus is downstairs and I'm upstairs in our house
and Jim is across town because they couldn't--
they have competing Internet situations.
So, but all week this light was fine in this room
and then all of a sudden yesterday,
I was like, "Oh, Tracy, it's too bright."
So, if you could see this room I have,
I have thumbtacked into my walls,
all around the windows, I have thumbtacked sheets
and, like, old curtains to cover the light
that was too bright and now it's too dark
and I turned a bright light on, and I'm blind.
So it's been quite a learning curve.
- Carey: Technical challenges.
We did we did have a couple of questions before
we run out of time about the selection of these plays.
Both when we, whether APT has produced these before?
There's also a question that I thought was funny,
I'm trying to find from Jim, saying for Aaron,
"Were there changes you made in the script to
adapt to this medium, is the "ish" an Aaron Posner-ism?"
"When did we produce these before?"
"If we have, did anybody play these roles before,
and what is APT's history with these Chekhov's?"
- Brenda: I know that we, I know that,--
Well, I don't know if Aaron added the "ishes."
We'll talk about that off camera, Aaron.
I'm just kidding! [laughs]
But Sarah Day, I want Sarah Day to take the question
about the history of these plays.
- Sarah: This set of plays was first produced by APT
with a translation by a man named John Wyatt in 1985,
and then they were done again
with a change of cast in 1986.
And I was, I'm the only one kind of leftover from
that sort of era and I was not in either of these before.
But Ted Swetz was in it and Randy Kim
and Anne Occhiogrosso and Steven Helmicki
and yeah, so, oh, Terry Kerr was in it.
- Brenda: Right, right.
- Sarah: Yeah.
- Brenda: Aaron, so we toss these to you.
I mean, this happened--
You guys all know, this happens--
Every day we get on Zoom and I'd be like, okay,
so today we're going to... and the actors are like,
"Okay, okay, okay, here we go."
And they were so willing
to do the daily change up of what was happening.
But we tossed these over to Aaron and you were writing
until two days before, you were writing something else
you had a deadline on.
Aaron's are very, very prolific writer,
very successful writer as well as
a wonderful director and friend, but he was busy.
So we handed them over to him and I don't know exactly
how much time,
or you said you were thinning them, is what you said to me.
- Aaron: Yeah, this was not an adaptation of these.
This is the energy, and the style,
and the tenor of the stories in this adaptation--
I mean, in this in this translation,
so they're both longer.
They are, they were, you know designed for a different time.
So similar to what one does,
I think often translators of Chekhov, or Shaw,
or earlier plays,
thins them out
and brings them into a different, slightly different,
more contemporary rhythm or energy.
All we did is we trimmed some.
So the rest, it's the Chekhov.
It's not a, it's not a re-imagining of it.
- Brenda: Right, right.
- Aaron: And nor did we really,
nor could we really adapt for this art form.
Like, we just had to try and make it work
as best we can, within this style.
I am sure, in various cities around the country
and around the world right now,
people are continuing to try all kinds of new things about
the full performance potential of Zoom and of other mediums.
I know of a couple people who are literally
trying to create new platforms for performance right now
to replace Zoom, and there'll be new generations of it.
But right now, we're like, when you have actors this strong,
and a theater where the text is the king,
then what we were doing here is saying,
let's explore this text with these people
and see what will reveal itself,
not, how clever can we be with the Zoom room?
- Brenda: Yeah, yes, please, D.D..
- Daniel: And going back to our first question about
'how is this different?'
Something that Aaron said,
well, actually, you as well, Brenda,
a couple of days ago,
that all the technical difficulties we were having
and trying to figure it out, what can we do this
and both of you said, none of this matters,
[Zoom beeps] none of this matters,
because what's most important
is that we're just going to be out there with them.
Because when I got to the company, we went through 9/11.
- Brenda: That's right.
- Daniel: It was a huge thing for our country.
And then, later on,
as a APT family, we lost Jen,
which was a huge moment for us.
This is another one of those huge country moments where,
like you and Aaron both said, it just doesn't matter.
Can we just get together and laugh
and tell some good stories?
Because that that's the biggest part.
A lot of times up on the hill we're, hey, we're doing this,
and today, we're just like,
oh, it's so good to see everybody.
Let's have a great time.
That's a big, that's a big part.
- Brenda: Yep, the moment,
the moment of connecting is so important
and I know that I felt really selfish at first
when we were just reading plays internally.
You guys were on,
and I would just go through the day of,
kind of crazy making,
and then I come in to those rehearsals
and I would just feel my heart drop
and my, my breath fall in and I would just forget,
and get absorbed with you all and I could see your faces
and I could feel your, your love,
and I could feel the connection and I was like, okay.
We gotta do this.
We gotta dothisfor the people that are, you know,
the best audience in the world
and now we can't feel them but I hope they are enjoying.
Marcus, you haven't said anything,
you look scared, are you okay?
- Marcus: No, I'm actually less scared than before I was doing.
[all laughing]
- Brenda: Carey, is there something else?
- Carey: We did have a kind of technical question.
There are a couple of people who are interested
in the backstage elements.
Both when you referenced, Brenda,
in your introduction about the taped intro,
and about what kind of production help we used.
What we learned along the way?
- Brenda: Well, along the way is about 10 days.
So, we have this incredible group,
I always say you could, you know, drop them anywhere,
they could organize it in about 15 minutes,
and always look like it's not a big deal,
which is the stage management troop.
And they're used to having months to prepare
for any kind of, you know, all the questions
that might come to them
and their job is to have the answers to those questions,
right?
And they, they were very, very brave,
to step in and have no answers to the questions
as we were learning these platforms back and forth.
The opening sequence of the video and all that,
that's the part that was taped earlier.
But the reading tonight for those of you that were,
and that I confused in my introduction,
the reading tonight was live and we just taped it.
And PBS Wisconsin is,
our friends are on here right now taping this
so they can take this,
and put it up on their website for others to watch.
So, and you guys are gonna be so excited to watch it.
I know you all, all you actors, who's gonna watch it?
Who's not gonna watch it?
- Colleen: We'll probably watch it with our kids.
Yeah, I'll cringe the entire time but, you know.
- Brenda: Oh, my God, you'll die,
how beautiful you look, you'll die.
D.D., do you just have stuff hanging around your camera?
Can you please show the audience
what you have happening in your house right there?
So we can see
how you were looking like you weren't reading, and stuff.
So he has...
- David: My dad, my dad used to do this.
A lot of actors have, would paste speeches on a chair
behind a chair or in a step,
and so I would do this and this was right above my camera.
And so I can look, I'm looking very wistfully.
I'm looking very wistfully and I look down here
and I'm looking down this, my lines are taped all over.
[laughing]
- Tracy: You're giving away all our tricks.
- Daniel: I thought a long time about projecting them
on the back wall of my basement
so I could just see the whole thing.
Like, I can be wide-eyed the whole time.
- Brian: Very Brando-esque.
- David: Oh, wait, look at Tracy's.
- Tracy: Yes, this is my dead husband,
but it's actually the monologue that I...
[laughter]
When I was talking to him, I was just reading.
- Colleen: I was impressed. - Brenda: I was, too!
- Aaron: I thought you guys were all off-book.
I was-- I am shocked.
- Brenda: Yeah, my phone blew up and I was like,
"I thought this was a reading."
I wanna say, hi, Ted, and Gina and Trinny
are watching right now.
[all cheering] [all blowing kisses]
- Carey: Sandoval has a question.
Trinny wants to know whose idea the accents were?
I know that Eva Breneman was responsible
for getting them sounding as good as they did,
but whose idea were those Russian accents?
- Brian: Someone in Russia had those, that idea.
- Tracy: Somebody started.
- Brenda: Somewhere, somewhere in Russia those accents were,
they were somewhere in Russia, it's a big country.
So D.D., was it your, did you bring that to the table?
- Daniel: Oh, I don't, Aaron?
- Tracy: Liar!
- Colleen: I think it was Aaron? Aaron?
- Aaron: Well let's be clear, no one did Russian accents
when they originally did these pieces except D.D..
Then D.D. didn't really want to, nor did anybody else.
But I sort of thought it would be fun.
[all laughing]
Now, you know, Chekhov wrote these pieces for fun.
This is not, this is not, maybe, his deepest work.
[all laughing]
Although, you know, he can't help but get a little depth
and a little truth in there.
And the accents just felt like
a more fun way to engage
with this material at this moment, in this.
So, yeah, but I think it is D.D.'s fault, is my point.
- Brenda: You had to play to that cigar though.
I mean, you had to meet that cigar where it was,
so you know, the accents helped to heighten it.
- Colleen: I expected a little cigarillo, cigarillo.
- Brenda: I know, but the cigar was better.
The cigar ended up being better, I think.
Now, we'll never know.
- Carey: The backstage costuming and props
and how much of that was invented in this space?
What was, what was the design process
for this different medium?
And how long did we rehearse all this, as asks, Mary?
- Brenda: Four days, four days rehearsal?
Four, five days, four days
and then we started running it, right.
We ran it yesterday a couple times.
- Colleen: Four days. - Brenda: Four days?
- Colleen: I mean, I think the design is mostly Aaron saying,
"I hate what's behind you, can you put a sheet up there?"
[laughter]
- Aaron: Although the costume design was very similar
to the way people costume yourself for rehearsals, yes?
I mean, this is the sort of like,
I'm going to live in more or less something that makes me,
that takes me into the world of the play,
without worrying about the details of the period exactly.
But something sort of, "ish."
- Brenda: "Ish," I think that we talked a lot about,
because we couldn't have design meetings clearly,
or designers.
I think we talked a lot about, this week,
what the line was with these things,
like how far and how far can you go
in making full choices and once you go to a certain,
in any respect, once you go too far and take it away
from being a reading so much,
then the expectations are,
the whole thing starts to morph.
And that was true in the costume world, too
when we talked, right?
- Aaron: The serious answer has something to do with integrity
and core integrity of APT in its focus
on text, and story, and actors.
And so how did we match, how could we match that
in this setting?
And not design too much,
and not worry too much about details that,
but yet, let the design be supportive.
Let it not get in our way,
but let's keep the focus where the focus belongs.
And that's what I think guided us
to the best of our ability.
- Brenda: Yeah, I think the authenticity of it,
like, authentically, everyone looks like they own these things
and have these things in their home.
Like we didn't run out and costume things.
Because we are in our homes,
and we're trying to tell stories from our home.
So it felt authentic in that respect as well.
- Carey: How much are you able to see and respond
to each other?
There was a risk that it looked like,
from one of the, Linda says,
"Did you see the other actors in the scene,
your facial expressions were superb,
and looked like
you're responding to each other's faces?
- Brian: There were, oh, D.D.?
- Aaron: You're muted, D.D..
[laughter]
- Daniel: I love spending time with my partners.
[all laughing]
- Brian: There were a few times when we figured out
the math of when someone new came in,
are they to my left, or are they to, down below me?
So there were a couple of times when,
like, Tracy and I exchanged some looks
where we glanced each other up and down
and then looked forward.
- Tracy: But it's funny because in our screen,
we were looking in the same direction.
So we had to rely on outside eyes to tell us, that's true.
- Brian: We never saw what that ended up looking like.
So we just trusted that, that's how it looked, so.
- Brenda: Marcus, could you see, could you see Colleen, Marcus?
- Marcus: Yeah.
- Brenda: You could see her, and yeah.
- Marcus: I just put them, I made the screen,
I kind of minimized the screen to the top of the screen
so it was closest to the camera.
So when I looked in, I would be looking at the,
I also tried to get a couple of the wafts in
from her cigar smoke.
- Brenda: Right, those simple things are really fun.
What else you got, Carey Cannon?
- Carey: I've got a lot of really lovely, lovely notes.
- Brenda: Read some of them, read some of them.
- Carey: Dale Smith, our Dale Smith, says,
"This was amazing!"
Hold on, I lost it.
"This medium so totally works with actors this strong.
Thank you."
Christine Nelson says, "This was fabulous.
"Thank you so much.
"Wondering, have you announced the dates
"for Public TV access?
"Wondering when's okay to tell people.
"It's going to get rave reviews.
Thanks again."
Nancy, our dear Nancy McDaniel says,
"Love you all guys, love you guys all so much.
"What a treat to see you all and hear these plays,
thank you."
Mike and Carey Wilkie says, "Very very well done.
"APT has launched itself brilliantly into a new medium.
Really, so wonderful to see you all again."
"We laughed and laughed," says Michael and Susan Shaw.
Really, lots of, I'm gonna try to find a way
to save this all, so you can see it,
since everybody was so nervous before it started.
"No questions, just bravo!" says Charles Cohen.
"We enjoyed this so much, thank you for doing this,"
says Dan and Lisa Iman.
- Brenda: That's fantastic.
- Carey: "Bravo, I expected a lot of you
but that was most impressive," says Mary Williams.
So, lots of lovely comments.
- Brenda: So, we'll be doing,
can I tell people what we're doing next?
We're gonna do a little Shakespeare next,
so there'll be many more actors on the screen,
and it will be a whole different experience,
because it'll have a lot more boxes up there sometimes.
And I think that the, you know, the whole play.
I have a lot of the directors that are doing
the other parts of the series are watching tonight
to learn, so Aaron, thank you.
- Carey: We are okay to announce the whole lineup,
it's okay to announce, Brenda, if you'd like to.
- Brenda: Oh, I can! Okay, awesome.
- Carey: Yes, you can, let them know the full lineup.
- So, next week, we're doing "As You Like It,"
a shortened version.
Everything will be around, you know,
between 90 minutes and two hours.
And then the next week, we're doing--
And that would be directed by John Langs.
And then we are doing a Shaw piece
because our audience loves Shaw
and our actors are so good at it.
And we'll be doing "Arms and the Man,"
and Bill Brown will be directing that.
And then we're doing, is it "Julius Caesar" next?
- Carey: Sure.
- Brenda: "Julius Ceasar," and Stephen Brown-Fried
is going to be directing that,
and that's going to be,
just the sheer volume of humans, and parts,
and there's a Foley artist involved in that.
So that's really exciting.
And then, we're doing a piece by Carlyle Brown
called "Are You Now or Have You Ever Been?"
with Gavin Lawrence playing Langston Hughes,
which is a beautiful piece full of poetry,
and D.D., David Daniel will be directing that,
giving Gavin all his tricks.
And then last but not least, a couple weeks ago,
a few weeks ago, Jimmy started,
got thinking about the plague,
and he wrote a play for the company.
Six actors, it's called, what's it called?
"Improbable Fiction." - "An Improbable Fiction."
And it's about Shakespearean characters
in search of an author,
six Shakespearean characters in search of an author,
and it's some of our favorite Shakespearean characters,
quarantined together,
or all, all in a bar together,
at the Boar's Head with Mistress Quickly with Sarah Day
and Brian Mani is in that and Tracy's in that.
So that's being directed by Tim Ocel,
and we're really excited that we're that
we're having something new out here as well.
So it's a lineup and these guys are working so hard.
But as you can see, they make it look really easy.
So one last question.
- Carey: We're mostly getting adulation at this point.
[all laughing]
"Bravo and thank you," from Gary, Gary Wigoda just came in.
I think we got to address everything that came in,
in terms of questions.
- Yeah, and I think, I will say that June 5th,
we are thinking is the launch of these,
right around the time
that we would all be walking up the hill
for opening night and we know that's not going to happen.
So we wanted to just say,
we want to just say, hello to everyone
and please spread the word.
And won't it feel so good when we can?
When we can walk up the hill and see each other in person?
For now, this will never take the place of it,
But for now, it's really good.
It's really good, to be together.
So thank you, thank you, everyone, for coming tonight.
Thank you all the actors.
Thank you, Aaron.
Thank you, Eva.
Thank you, staff.
We'll see you next week.
- Hang in there, stay safe.
- Stay safe, stay safe.
Bye, thank you, everybody.
♪ ♪
- Announcer: Funding for APT's "Out of the Woods"
is provided by
Boardman Clark Law Firm,
Arcadia Books,
Dane Arts,
Nancy A. McDaniel,
Natural Resources Foundation of Wisconsin,
Orange Tree Imports,
Wilson Creek Pottery,
Focus Fund for Wisconsin Programming,
and Friends of PBS Wisconsin.