Download STUDY GUIDE SPIEL PLAYERS presents THE RAVEN by EDGAR

Hamalainen
STUDY GUIDE
SPIEL PLAYERS presents
THE RAVEN by EDGAR ALLAN POE
and
LADY WITH A LAP DOG by ANTON CHEKHOV
March 2014
1
Hamalainen
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. Introduction...page 3
2. Edgar Allan Poe and The Raven...page 4
3. Anton Chekhov...page 5
4. The Moscow Art Theatre...page 5
5. Lady With a Lap Dog...page 6
6. Characters...page 6
7. Synopsis...page 7
8. Questions and Activities...page 9
9. Glossary...page 9
10. Resources...page 10
2
Hamalainen
INTRODUCTION
Poe's The Raven &
Chekhov's Lady With a Lap Dog
A Spiel Players production at Market Hall (March 6th, 7th, 8th 2014)
Original adaptation of Chekhov's Lady With a Lap Dog by Lisa Hamalainen
Directors: Beau Dixon for The Raven, Kate Story for Lady With a Lap Dog
Live music by: Justin Hiscox and Saskia Tomkins
Stage Manager: Patricia Thorne
Production Assistant: Owen Macklin
Set and Costume Designer: Irina Lipkin
Lighting Designer: Rob McInnis
Sound Designer: Justin Hiscox
Cast: Beau Dixon, Lisa Hamalainen, Kate Story, Rob Winslow
About the show: Robert Winslow performs Edgar Allan Poe's iconic poem The Raven.
Lady With a Lap Dog, a brilliant new translation of a Chekhov classic, stars 4th Line Theatre's very
own Robert Winslow, and theatre veterans Beau Dixon, Lisa Hamalainen, and Kate Story. This original
stage adaptation tells the story of Anna and Gurov, caught up in an illicit love affair. Struggling to find
their place in the world, their private desires conflict with their public responsibilities; in the end they
discover sincerity, profound compassion, and their own human dignity. This new translation brings out
a fresh, contemporary side to the piece while honouring the romantic and poetic quality of Chekhov's
original text from 1899. It is set to live music by Justin Hiscox and Saskia Tomkins.
About Spiel Players:
We write. We create music. We put on plays.
Mission
Our mission is two-tiered: to generate text, movement and music which celebrate Toronto's diverse
cultures, and to work with musicians, creating original music and soundscape as we are deeply
interested in the relationship between musician and actor.
Company Overview
Spiel Players was created by Lisa Hamalainen and Heidi Lynch, who are both graduates of The
University of Windsor's BFA Acting program. Spiel Players is an artist-founded, emerging theatre
company creating original cross-disciplinary work and new Canadian translations of classics.
Definition of SPIEL from Merriam-Webster Dictionary
intransitive verb
1
: to play music
2
: to talk volubly or extravagantly
transitive verb
: to utter, express, or describe volubly or extravagantly
— spiel·er noun
3
Hamalainen
Origin of SPIEL
German spielen to play, from Old High German spilōn; akin to Old English spilian to revel
EDGAR ALLAN POE and THE RAVEN
Edgar Poe (January 19, 1809 – October 7, 1849) was an American author, poet, editor, and literary
critic. He is best known for his tales of mystery and the macabre. He was one of the earliest American
practitioners of the short story, and is considered the inventor of the detective fiction genre. He is also
credited with contributing to the emerging genre of science fiction. He is considered part of the
Romantic Movement.
Edgar Poe was born in Boston in 1809 to actors David Poe Jr and Elizabeth Arnold Hopkins. His
father abandoned the family in 1810, and his mother died a year later, leading to Edgar being brought
up by foster parents John and Frances Valentine Allan, of Richmond, Virginia. Poe stayed with them
well into young adulthood, although was never formally adopted. Poe attended the University of
Virginia for one semester, but had to leave due to lack of money. Apparently there was tension between
John Allan and Edgar about debts, some due to gambling, and the cost of secondary education for the
young man. Poe then enlisted in the Army in 1827 under an assumed name. During this time his
publishing career began with a collection of poems, “Tamerlane and Other Poems,” credited only to “a
Bostonian”. In 1829, Frances Allan passed away, and Poe and Allan reconnected temporarily. They
parted ways once Edgar declared his decision to dedicate his life to his poetry and writing. He began to
work as effective editor at the Southern Literary Messenger and established himself writing journalism,
stories and poems. His worked required him to move around to several cities, including Baltimore,
Philadelphia, and New York City. In Baltimore in 1835, he married Virginia Clemm, his 13 year old
cousin. Poe had his greatest success in 1845 when “The Raven” and a new collection of his “Tales”
were published to widespread acclaim. His wife, Virginia, died of tuberculosis two years after its
publication. This led to depression and alcoholism. On October 7, 1849, at age 40, Poe died in
Baltimore; the cause of his death is unknown and mysterious. Suggestions include alcohol, brain
congestion, cholera, drugs, heart disease, rabies, suicide, tuberculosis, and other agents that are
controversial and disputed.
The Raven is a narrative poem. It was first published in January 1845. The poem is noted for its
musicality, stylized language, and supernatural atmosphere. It tells of a raven's mysterious visit to a
distraught lover, and follows the man's slow fall into madness. The lover is lamenting the loss of his
love, Lenore.
Poe wanted to create a poem that would appeal to both critical and popular tastes. He borrows the
rhythm and meter of Elizabeth Barrett's poem “Lady Geraldine's Courtship”, and uses internal rhyme as
well as alliteration throughout. The Raven remains one of the most famous poems ever written.
4
Hamalainen
ANTON CHEKHOV
Anton Pavlovich Chekhov, son to a former serf, was born in 1860 in Taganrog, a port on the Sea of
Azov. He attended the Taganrog Gymnasium, where he received a classical education, and then moved
to Moscow in 1879, where he entered the medical faculty of the university, graduating in 1884. He
supported his family throughout his university years by writing humourous stories and sketches for
magazines. His first collection of stories – Motley Stories, were published in 1886 and a year later his
second volume – In the Twilight was released, earning him the Pushkin Prize in literature. His first
full-length play – Ivanov, was produced in Moscow in 1887. Chekhov lived for five years on his small
country estate near Moscow, where he practised medicine and wrote many of his best stories, but when
his health began to fail him he moved to the Crimea. After 1900, Chekhov spent the rest of his life
living in Yalta, where he met Tolstoy and Gorky. He wrote his best-known plays in the last years of his
life – The Seagull, produced by Stanislavski in 1898 at the newly founded Moscow Art Theatre, Uncle
Vanya (1900), Three Sisters (1901) and The Cherry Orchard (1903), which Chekhov wrote for
Stanislavski and the Moscow Art Theatre. In 1901 Chekhov married Olga Knipper, one of the Art
Theatre's leading actresses. He died of consumption in 1904.
THE MOSCOW ART THEATRE
The Moscow Art Theatre (Московский Художественный академический театр, МХАТ;
Moskovskiy Hudojestvenny Akademicheskiy Teatr, МHАТ) is a theatre company in Moscow that
Russian theatre practitioner Constantin Stanislavski, together with the playwright and director Vladimir
Nemirovich-Danchenko founded in 1898. It was conceived as a venue for naturalistic theatre, in
contrast to the melodramas that were Russia's dominant form of theatre at the time. The theatre, the
first to regularly put on shows implementing Stanislavski's system proved hugely influential in the
acting world and in the development of modern American theatre.
Historical Context:
– On June 22nd 1897, Stanislavski and Nemirovich-Danchenko met at the Slavyanski Bazaar
restaurant in the centre of Moscow to talk about the future of theatre and acting. They agreed to
form a new kind of company dedicated to establishing theatre once more as a serious art form –
a revolutionary theatre.
– Stanislavski insisted on a public company, financed by shareholders.
– Production Plan – Stanislavski began to use this with great details, then later rejected it's strict
use.
– The new theatre opened on October 14th 1898 with a production of Tsar Fyodor Ioannovich by
Aleksey Tolstoy.
– Anton Chekhov's The Seagull opened on December 17th 1898. Nemirovich had to convince
Stanislavski of it's great lyrical qualities, atmosphere, great characters. The production had
great success and the new theatre was born!
– The Art Theatre became known as the House of Chekhov, and a seagull was chosen as the
theatre's emblem.
– In 1898 Stanislavski worked with designer Viktor Simov – scene design became an art in itself.
– Chekhov wrote Three Sisters (1901), and The Cherry Orchard (1904) for the company. The
5
Hamalainen
–
–
–
–
–
productions were not well received at first, but the theatre company was at fault – they were
failing to understand Chekhov – they were missing the element of Comedy.
1901 – Stanislavki played Doctor Stockman in a version of Henrik Ibsen's An Enemy of the
People. He discovered the character's “through line of action” - the idea or goal that drives a
character/actor, as well as an “inner image” of his character and then the “outer image”. He was
working from the internal to the external, and vice-versa. This was the turning point for his
acting technique theories.
The production of An Enemy of the People became a major political event. In the period
leading up to the First Revolution in 1905, the Art Theatre became a focus for liberal opposition
to the Tsarist regime. Maksim Gorky (a popular rebel and a former political prisoner) wrote
especially for the theatre.
1902, October. The Art Theatre moved to it's new home on Kamergerski Lane, in the centre of
Moscow. Gorky's plays were staged – “Philistines” and “The Lower Depths” (depicting the
life of the homeless – confronting Moscow audiences with a world they had never seen before
on stage).
Symbolist Movement came in – moving away from naturalism. Stanislavki worked with
Meyerhold as he experimented with symbolist drama. They opened a Theatre Studio to explore
this work.
October 1905 in Russian – strikes, demonstrations, mutinies in army and navy, fighting in the
streets. All theatre performances were prohibited. Stanislavki closed the studio.
Fundamentals of Stanislavki's teachings:
– “Love the art in yourself, not yourself in the art.”
– The art of the actor is the art of internal and external Action.
– Feelings that seem true in the Given Circumstances
– The Subconscious through the conscious
– The goal of the art: the creation of the spiritual life of the role.
LADY WITH A LAP DOG
(In Russian: Дама с собачкой, Dama s sobachkoy)
Chekhov wrote Lady With a Lap Dog in 1899 while he was living in Yalta in his “White Dacha.” He
had moved to Yalta on his doctor's advice to take advantage of the warmer climate owing to his
advancing tuberculosis. The story was first published in the December 1899 issue of the magazine
Russkaya Mysl (Russian Thought) with the subtitle "A Story" ("Rasskaz"). Since then it has been
published in numerous collections, and is considered one of Chekhov's best-known stories.
This original stage adaptation of Anton Chekhov's famous short story, tells the tale of Anna and Gurov,
caught up in an illicit love affair. Struggling to find their place in the world, their private desires
conflict with their public responsibilities; in the end they discover sincerity, profound compassion, and
their own human dignity.
6
Hamalainen
CHARACTERS
Narrator
Dmitrii Dmitrich Gurov – 40s. From Moscow. Married with a daughter and two sons. A banker.
Trained as an opera singer, wanted a career in the arts but had to give it up.
Anna Sergeyevna – a young woman from a provincial town near St.Petersburg. Married to Von
Diderets. Just a student not long ago. She goes on vacation for the first time alone, and is called “the
Lady with the Lap Dog” at the resort in Yalta.
Wife – Gurov's wife. “Tall, with dark eyebrows, direct, important, strict, and as she calls herself – an
intellectual.”
Von Diderets – Anna's husband. She describes him as “a lackey.” His name is German – from his
German grandfather.
Bartender
Concierge
Old Woman
SYNOPSIS
The play can be broken down into four acts: Act I – the initial meeting in Yalta, Act II the
consummation of the affair and the remaining time in Yalta, Act III Gurov's return to Moscow and his
visit to Anna's town, and Act IV Anna's visits to Moscow.
Act I
Dmitri Dmitrich Gurov, a banker from Moscow, is married and has a daughter and two sons. Unhappy
in his marriage, he is frequently unfaithful. While vacationing in Yalta, he sees a young lady walking
along the seafront with her small dog, and endeavours to make her acquaintance. While sitting at the
resort cafe, Dmitri offers her dog a bone, the ice is broken and they begin to chat. Gurov learns that the
lady, Anna Sergeyevna, is also vacationing – alone, without her husband. The husband remains at
home in an unnamed provincial town.
A week passes, during which Gurov had invited Anna to join him for a drink or for ice-cream, but she
had been distant and declined. One evening, Gurov spots Anna on the pier watching the steamer pull
into the harbour. A crowd of vacationers welcome guests as they come off the boat, and then Anna is
left there all alone, sniffing her flowers, with no guest (no husband) to greet. Gurov approaches her
7
Hamalainen
and asks her to join him, to drive somewhere or to do something fun. Suddenly he kisses her and the
affair has begun.
Act II
In Anna's hotel room, she wrestles with her feelings about their affair, and her worries about how
Gurov perceives her. Gurov finds her tone and perspective to be naive and he doesn't quite understand
her.
They spend most of their time together walking and taking drives to nearby Oreanda. One evening,
while sitting on a bench at a lookout on a mountain top, Anna confronts Gurov, asking him to confess
that he doesn't love her, suggesting he thinks of her as mere entertainment. She then tells Gurov she
will be returning home to her husband. He has sent a letter, asking her to come home, informing her
that something is wrong with his eyes. Gurov sees Anna off at the station. The train leaves and Gurov
stands on the platform alone, reflecting on his affairs, on his time with Anna, and how that chapter in
his life just ended so quickly – he's moved and feels slight remorse.
Act III
Returning to Moscow and his daily routine, Gurov expects to soon forget young Anna but finds he is
haunted by her memory. He can't think of anything but her and finds his daily Moscow life to be
uninteresting, uneventful, repetitive, wingless, worthless, “trivial nonsense.” He decides he must go and
find Anna. He sets off, telling his wife he's going to St.Petersburg to take care of some business.
Learning the location of the family’s residence from a hotel concierge, Gurov finds her house, only to
realize that it would be ruin everything if he were to intrude. In despair, he reasons that Anna has
probably forgotten him and found someone else, and so he heads back to his hotel for a long nap.
Later, a poster for a show catches his eye – The Geisha is to be performed for the first time at the local
theatre. Reasoning that Anna and her husband may attend opening night, he goes to the theatre. Gurov
takes a seat and eagerly searches for Anna's eyes. The couple enters. When the husband goes out for a
smoke during the first interval, Gurov approaches Anna, who is bewildered and runs away from him.
After following her through the theatre, he confronts her and she confides that she has been thinking of
him constantly. Frightened that they will be caught, she begs him to leave and promises to come to see
him in Moscow.
Act IV
Anna makes an excuse for her visits to Moscow, telling her husband she is seeing a specialist of
women's health, which he "believes and yet does not believe". Gurov and Anna meet at the Slaviansky
Bazaar hotel. Gurov realizes that for the first time in his life he has actually fallen in love, and wonders
how they can continue. While they talk of finding a plan, the story ends without a resolution.
8
Hamalainen
QUESTIONS AND ACTIVITIES
1) Poetry Reading – Divide the class into groups. Each group selects their favourite Poe poem for
a staged reading.
2) Alliteration – finding alliteration in The Raven. Search through the text to find all examples.
3) Design – draw a set design or costume piece inspired by The Raven or Lady With a Lap Dog.
How would you stage The Raven or Lady With a Lap Dog? Or how would you dress a
character?
4) The year is 1898. Divide your class into groups and give each group a topic. (Some sample
topics are: Russian Politics, Russian Theatre, Russian Ballet, Russian Music, Russian Cuisine,
Economics, Architecture, Fashion). Ask your students to do some research about Russia at this
time; have each group present the information they found.
5) Have your class create collages with images and events that happened that year and post them
in class as a reference point for the historical surroundings of the play.
6) Discuss the importance of live music and soundscape throughout the play – How does it affect
the atmosphere of the play? How does it make us feel? How does it inspire the story, the
actors, the characters? Why have live music?
7) The Raven is a narrative poem and Lady With a Lap Dog is originally a short story – ask the
students – are these pieces effective for the stage, for live performance? What was it like seeing
a poem performed, or a short story brought to life by actors and design elements? How would
you adapt a story into a play? Are there stories out there that you'd like to see on the stage?
GLOSSARY
Action – Constantin Stanislavki developed acting technique and approaches to acting, often refereed to
as the Stanislavki System, however, he never intended to lay down rules or develop a strict system – his
theories and approaches were ever evolving, and he believed the art of theatre and acting should
forever evolve. One focus of his teachings, however, is Action – for actors to be specific in their work
they should play the action – not the emotion – it is a method of physical actions in which emotions are
produced through the use of actions.
Constantin Stanislavski – 1863-1938. Russian actor and theatre director who founded the Moscow Art
Theatre with his colleague Nemirovich-Danchenko.
Gorky – 1868-1936, a Russian and Soviet writer, a founder of the Socialist realism literary method and
a political activist. Twice exiled from Russian, put under house arrest, and possibly murdered for his
political activism. Speculation has long surrounded the circumstances of his death.
Macabre – In works of art macabre is the quality of having a grim or ghastly atmosphere. Macabre
works emphasize the details and symbols of death.
9
Hamalainen
Meyerhold – 1874-1940, a Russian and Soviet theatre director, actor and theatrical producer. His
provocative experiments dealing with physical being and symbolism in an unconventional theatre
setting made him a force in modern international theatre.
Moscow Art Theatre – a theatre company in Moscow that Russian theatre practitioner Constantin
Stanislavski, together with the playwright and director Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko founded in
1898.
Nemirovich-Danchenko – 1858 – 1943. Russian theatre director, writer, pedagogue, playwright,
producer and theatre organizer. Founded the Moscow Art Theatre with his colleague Constantin
Stanislavski in 1898.
Slavianski Bazaar – "Slavic Bazaar" - a hotel and restaurant, located in Moscow on St. Nicholas Street,
landmark of old Moscow.
Tolstoy – 1828-1910, a Russian writer who primarily wrote novels and short stories. Tolstoy was a
master of realistic fiction and is widely considered one of the world's greatest novelists. He is best
known for two long novels, War and Peace (1869) and Anna Karenina (1877).
White Dacha – Anton Chekhov's home in Yalta, where he wrote some of his greatest work. It is now a
museum.
RESOURCES and SUGGESTED READING
An Actor Prepares – Constantin Stanislavsky, published by Routledge
Anton Chekhov – A Life in Letters, published by Penguin Classics
Stanislavsky For Beginners by David Allan, published by Writers and Readers
Tales & Poems of Edgar Allan Poe, Complete and Unabridged, published by Collector's Library
Other resources: A Month in Moscow, summer program at The Moscow Art Theatre School, 2005,
historical lectures given by Anatoly Smelianksi – Artistic Director of the Moscow Art Theatre
http://www.mxat.ru/english/
10