I actually hadn’t read Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard in quite a long time - so long, in fact, that I had hardly any memory of what it was about. I had a couple ideas while searching for a scene from a play to select. I first considered the most recent play I had read for my music class, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf by Edward Albee. This realistic play, paints a dramaticized portrait of a torn, volatile marriage. It’s dramatic, exciting, tense, and an incredible piece of literature and performance. However, I rejected this idea upon further thought - how could I, a 20 year old student, attempt to portray a drunken, middle-aged woman or man? I suppose that’s what acting is about. The infeasibility of playing a role so utterly different from myself also became an issue when I considered several of the plays I’ve read recently, such as Topdog/Underdog by Suzan-Lori Parks and Disgraced by Ayad Akhtar. These reads, while fantastic, realistic, and heart-wrenching, centered around racial and social issues that I could not begin to comprehend or accurately portray. We talked extensively in class about what kinds of bodies are allowed to play certain roles. As a minority, especially in theater, I believe it’s important to consider these things while selecting roles.
For this reason, I was actually quite intrigued when Kami requested a scene partner for The Cherry Orchard. I immediately accepted. First, because I needed a scene partner. But I also accepted because this Chekhov play was so unknown to me, that I couldn’t begin to fall into a spiral of doubt and fear regarding whether or not I could feasibly play the character. Kami presented a list of scenes from which I could choose for us to record. After reading through the selections, I settled on one in which I could see a clear relationship between the characters, and a clear motive. I’m fascinated by the idea of exploring an isolated scene from a play without knowing the outer context. I’m excited to see what information and emotion I can pull from this single scene and character without worrying about the overall context of the show and world that I live in. To prepare for this scene, Kami and I read through the scene twice, blocked it, and watched a video recording of the scene online. Thanks, Kami, for inviting me to do this scene with you!
Please see Kami's blog for our scene together.
Hi Julia,
This is an interesting discussion vis a vis realism. If we were to pick a different genre of theatrical presentation --- if for instance, a show was a presentational biblical story or a Brechtian epic, or a Butoh dance, would there still be a question of whether one could play another character who is raced or sexed differently or who is another ethnicity or nationality? In those cases, one might use costume or gesture to "evoke" a character but not fully inhabit them -- not fully embody them. So realism pushes the question of embodiment. But again, what you are also pointing to is the history of performance, where it was assumed that actors if they were virtu…