This program will explore the Russian short story writer and playwright Anton Chekhov and other European dramatists, such as Heinrich Ibsen, who together are credited with the development of modern drama. We will analyze not only their fictional and dramatic works but also their lives and times, from which they drew their major characters and dramatic situations. We will also study the Stanislavsky Method as well as other aspects of modern acting techniques. During the fall quarter, we will experience Chekhov and Stanislavsky through scene work and culminate those studies in auditions for a full production of Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard, which we will perform at the end of winter quarter. During the winter quarter, we will study carefully filmed live performances of plays by Chekhov, Ibsen, Shaw, Brecht, and other dramatists associated with the birth of modern drama. In the winter quarter, we will also continue to read, critique, and discuss commentaries—current and past—on the plays of Chekhov and of the other late nineteenth-century and twentieth-century dramatists and determine the many reasons for the enduring legacy and influence of all these makers of modern drama.

Embedded in the program, during the fall quarter, will be a 4-credit segment entitled “Anton Chekhov: Life, Times and Work.” Students enrolled in the program will participate in these seminars and lectures alongside students from the 16-credit program “Russia and the Forging of Empires”. Credit equivalencies will be in cultural history, literature, and drama.