Three sisters

Three sisters

Week one

We opened the script and started to read it all as a group. To get a general feel of the play our teacher told us major events of the play and we got introduced to the main characters. The three sisters of the play are (in order) Olga, the oldest 28, Masha 23, and Irina. As a grouped we gathered some of the themes of the play are Politics, Relationships, Class, Dissatisfaction, Family and conflict.

We all read through the first scene and went over it a few times and we talked about potential blocking. So we got up and put this into action. As a group we discussed characterization, using gestures or tones of voice. So, when i look at a line from Irina in act two 'We move back in June, until then there's February March, April May almost half a year'. I used my voice to sound as distraught as possible and used my fingers to count the months and stress how dissatisfied with my current situation and given circumstance.

Rehearsals and practicing given circumstances

I analysed the given circumstances of this scene like how my teacher advised in class. I was given the role of Irina in act 2. This scene is set in the same living room in prozorov home as the previous scene, however it is fast forwarded to two years later and it is now 8'o clock in the evening. Natasha enters the scene carrying a candle joining the scene with her husband Andrey. Old man ferapont brings some papers he requires for ferapont to sign. Masha and Vershinin enter the scene having an intimate conversation eachothers spouse and at the end confess their love for one another. This is then when Irina and Tuzenbach enter the scene and Tuzenbach confesses his love for Irina, begging her to marry him, however she is too tired and uninterested from work to talk about it. Masha turns to Masha to rant about Andre and his gambling problem and also complains about how she wishes she was in Moscow. 

With the given circumstances of this scene to help me project certain emotions of my character.For example when i enter the prozorov home and finally get to sit down I notice that Masha and Vershinin are there and I swiftly change conversation and engage with them instead. At first with my line 'Home Finally. Thank God', i acted like i was surprised and happy just to see that my sister was there and I was enthusiastic to start conversation with her. However, now i realise that the line shows a sense of relief from Irina as she is happy to have someone else in the room apart from Tuzenbach that she is not interested in, in the slightest. He keeps bothering her even though she shows him no attention, i show this by when say my line 'Home .. Thank God' I shift my chair to the side, towards Masha and Vershinin, roll my eyes and flick my hair to show i want nothing to do with him. My teacher said this works much more effectively.

Context 

I did some outside research and discovered the play was written in 1900 by Russian author Anton Chekhov. It was first performed in 1901 at the Moscow Art Theatre. The Russian Revolution also took place during the 1900's. One one hand , this had a positive impact on society as this disrupted the czarist rule meaning workers and peasants finally had some say. Russia also had free education for children. However, the negative impact it had was that the spread of communism around the world caused the 2nd World War. Also, when the revolution ended, people were not allowed to celebrate any religion as religious leaders were murdered and churches turned to ruins. This could be a reason as to why the sisters were so discontent with their lives, as they had no source of faith coming from anywhere, they were hopeless.

This play is still relevant in modern society as it still touches on relevant topics, such as relationships, family and the feeling of dissatisfaction. People can relate to these themes as they are still used in plenty of modern day Production. Dissatisfaction is also a relevant because people will always suffer from being discontent, whether it be not earning the money that you desire, not succeeding in your dream career that you thought you would be, or even not having the dream body you would love to possess. Everybody can relate because everybody suffers from the feeling of dissatisfaction in one way or the other.

Evaluation of performance

Overall I think the performance went exceptionally well as everyone was on time for their cues, everyone transitioned perfectly well into other scenes and also had excellent voice projection. I think My scene went very well as I used the given circumstance that my character was in and try to portray emotions through this. Through my body language and gesture of tone. For example, when i came on with Tuzenbach talking me i avoided eye contact to show my uninterested attitude towards in him and also walked in a smug way almost to show how much better i view myself than him.

Unfortunately, my classmate playing Olga for act 3 was ill so i had to fill in for her; reading in with a script.