He has such a tired face. Nervous. Interesting.

[sovay]

And tonight, for the end of my birthday week, derspatchel took me to the Apollinaire Theatre Company's Uncle Vanya, where Ron Lacey was a magnificent Astrov and I remembered again that nothing good ever happens to characters named Sonya in Russian literature, but since I have to finish my Arisia signup tonight, this is not a review. That said: I am for once mentioning a play before the night before it closes, meaning it might be possible for other people to get tickets. If you live in the Boston area, you should!

(Their Vanya is the same actor I saw as Angelo in the Publick Theatre's Measure for Measure in 1999—Diego Arciniegas—and with no disrespect to anyone in the Anarchist Society of Shakespeareans, I still remember him. He's a good Vanya. I just wish I'd been faster covering my ears in Act III. This is still not a review.)

Comments

[ap-aelfwine.livejournal.com]

...I remembered again that nothing good ever happens to characters named Sonya in Russian literature...

Ah, that's too bad. If it's any consolation, folk named Andrew never get anything good in Scots ballads.

I'm glad there were magnificent and good actors. I'm sorry you weren't faster covering your ears, and I hope your hearing's not still affected. I hope all goes well with your Arisia signup.

[sovay]

I'm sorry you weren't faster covering your ears, and I hope your hearing's not still affected. I hope all goes well with your Arisia signup.

I think it all worked out.

[snowy-owlet.livejournal.com]

I do love me some Chekhov - it's good to hear of well-done productions.

Have you seen Vanya on 42nd Street (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0111590/)? It's on of my favorites.

In 1989, I attended Norwich University's Russian School (like Middlebury's total immersion language program, except only for Russian), and I was cast as Marina (the nurse) in our Russian-language production of Vanya. Acting in a foreign language will give one brain cramps.

Also, three days before we opened, the director decided that it should be more like a comedy than a tragedy.

He was not a very good director.

[sovay]

Have you seen Vanya on 42nd Street? It's on of my favorites.

Never! Talk to me about it.

Acting in a foreign language will give one brain cramps.

I didn't realize you acted in your native language, let alone in Russian. The only Chekhov I'd previously seen rather than read was a production of Three Sisters my freshman year at Brandeis, about which I mostly remember that the actor playing Chebutykin was awesome and I have no idea who he was, because the Brandeis Theater Company's "Past Productions" page doesn't go back that far.

(. . . Oh. He's the same actor who wowed me the next year as Bill Walker in Major Barbara: Timothy Carter. And through the magic of the internet, I can now see that he was part of Gotham Radio Theatre's Around the World in Eighty Days in June. WTF radio theater is a thing now? My brain.)

Sorry, I think this conversation has been derailed.

[snowy-owlet.livejournal.com]

Hee!

I gave up acting in a big flouncy snit when I was 24. Goodness, what a drama llama I was in those days. I might actually be better at it now, but there's no way I could keep actors' hours.

Vanya on 42nd St. is - oh, it's Julianne Moore and Wallace Shawn, and a luminous Madhur Jaffrey in the background. They're rehearsing Vanya in a drippy old room, so you get pulled into and pushed out of the text. It's plain and profound, like really good soup.

[sovay]

I might actually be better at it now, but there's no way I could keep actors' hours.

Do you do anything like community theater?

It's plain and profound, like really good soup.

I like that simile and it inclines me to watch the movie.

[snowy-owlet.livejournal.com]

Do you do anything like community theater?

Nope, I just caper for the general amusement of those around me.

[gwynnega]

nothing good ever happens to characters named Sonya in Russian literature

True enough. Which reminds me, have you seen this version of Crime and Punishment? It is terrific.

[sovay]

Which reminds me, have you seen this version of Crime and Punishment? It is terrific.

Never! And I have no excuse. I've been staring at that icon of yours for years.

[ajodasso.livejournal.com]

I had all but forgot that I sent Arisia's programming committee an email slightly earlier in the year expressing interest in participation for 2013; is this the same thing as signing up? If not, I've clearly missed the proper sign-up, wherever it was. Drat.

[sovay]

I had all but forgot that I sent Arisia's programming committee an email slightly earlier in the year expressing interest in participation for 2013; is this the same thing as signing up?

If you didn't then receive an invitation to their online signup, no. Bah. Will you still be attending?

[ajodasso.livejournal.com]

Right *sigh* I'd spoken to the relevant individuals and had been told to send an email to programming (not long after Arisia 2012, in fact), so that's exactly what I did. I'm never sure whether it's all just absent-mindedness/everything's-too-hectic on the part of the parties who give me instructions, or if I'll just never get the hang of what's required for people to take my interest in getting involved seriously.

(...sorry. Needed to vent, I think, after all the trouble I went to as far as expressing interest and, you know, generally doing what I was told to do *headdesk*)

[sovay]

(...sorry. Needed to vent, I think, after all the trouble I went to as far as expressing interest and, you know, generally doing what I was told to do *headdesk*)

No worries: that sucks. It may still be worth e-mailing programming and asking whether you should be looking now at becoming a program participant for Arisia 2014, just to make the point.