UNCLE VANYA

By Anton Chekhov

Translation by Paul Schmidt

UNCLE VANYA portrays the visit of an elderly professor and his glamorous, much younger second wife, Yelena, to the rural estate that supports their urban lifestyle. Two friends—Vanya, brother of the professor's late first wife, who has long managed the estate, and Astrov, the local doctor—both fall under Yelena's spell, while bemoaning the ennui of their provincial existence. Sonya, the professor's daughter by his first wife, who has worked with Vanya to keep the estate going, suffers from her unrequited feelings for Astrov. Matters are brought to a crisis when the professor announces his intention to sell the estate, Vanya and Sonya's home, with a view to investing the proceeds to achieve a higher income for himself and his wife.

Production Notes:

More information about UNCLE VANYA is coming soon.

Check out this great Studio Theatre article on Paul Schmidt's masterful adaptations of Chekov HERE.

Adaptor

Paul Schmidt Actor, librettist, poet, translator, professor, and Russian scholar Paul Schmidt’s translation of Chekhov’s work have been praised as “the gold standard in Russian-English translation.”

Throughout his career, Schmidt worked in both the academy and professional theatre, translating the complete works of poets Arthur Rimbaud and Velemir Khlebnikov as well as translating works by Gogol, Brecht, and Marivaux for production. He worked extensively with American avant-garde directors, including Peter Sellars, JoAnne Akalaitis, Elizabeth LeCompte, and Robert Wilson. With Wilson and Tom Waits, he write the libretto for an opera adaptation of Lewis Carrol’s Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass.

He did his first work with Chekhov with LeCompte, when she asked him to translate Three Sisters for the Wooster Group's... [FULL BIO]