chekhov THE SEA GULL

listened to podcast interviewing fiona Shaw n she spoke of this play n I've been wanting to learn about playwrights and theatre more again anyway. then straight after work went to library took me a while to find a copy but I found it. originally looked in the plays section but was im the russian lit section .

a lot of talk aboit translations and translators.. never really heard/ seen it with others. maybe bc its a play? has a lot more to do with actions n idioms in the gesture sense . if that makes sense. 

noticed this in the beginning of the preface and this guardian article on fiona Shaw thimg

https://amp.theguardian.com/stage/2003/aug/13/theatre.edinburghfestival2003

Reading the Sea Gull & realised / thought about how you can relate to not many people around you /feel so far away, but then read something either just one line/sentence or a piece of work of something from hundreds of years ago and know exactly what they're on about. Strangely comforting?? relating to dead people and theyre so far away in a timeline sense as they are very gone forever but then its as if theyre right next to you?? Eg:

Pg4 "and nine this morning I awoke feeling as if my brain stuck to my skull"
When I read this line I thought it was so funny becasue yes! i know that Exact feeling, Bizzare!!!!!!!

" I am in morning for my life" "IN MORNING" not just morning !? !

At the bit where the play is being performed outside & waiting for the moon to be in the right position -- interestin/cool..
The use of smells intentionally eg Sulphur. thinking the other week about why dont galleries do smell stuff n now thinking about theates too. Galleyry spaces & curation.. How was a play 10+ years ago or however long doing stuf flike hat:??? ridgidity of galleries and spaces and arts and theatres in general. have whole world??? Theatres as distinct places and plays and performances stick to certain spaces that we keep aside for those things?? 

Doing play outside also reminded me of school in art when you'd have little papers with square windows to hold up and draw from , . imagined the scene as if it had a legit box/frame for the stage seperating the real world and performace?? ?idk if that makes sense// how to describe.

Fiona Shaw interview she was talkinbg about taking advange of the pauses and making them as Chekov as possible, but cant get that via the test so should nwatch a film of it or something. She said theyd do the pauses for 2 minutes and drag them on rather than half arsing it for the sake of it/rushing the pauise??? 

44:25

we borrowed chekhov and made chokhov very english

Theres a pause in the middle of Act one, where theyre all looking out at the forest in a chokhovian way and theyre all thinking about their lives - which are falling apart adn hteres a pause. And in chekhov we always have a pause in england of about 5 seconds, because people get embarrased and start coughing and gettting upset. But because he was such a detovee of the russian way of doing things, we had a pause of about 2 and a half minutes. And we would sit there, looking out at the audience, looking at the forest, and the audience bagan to titter and then they went silent, then would laugh again, then silent. and then laugh again, and then they began to cry, becasu ethey began to get sucked into that pause. That was really, again not about what was going on on the stage, but going on in your mind. Becketts very good at this too. And they began to cry and it was the most astonishing experience. And we were all relived when somebody said ' i was at the opera last night' or whatever the line was. But i think Chekhov was a genius at understanding the epic moment

Pg 17-18
-- about just a church choir, not a concert singer
how if youre not doing art 'professionally' its 'just' a hobby, but WTF does that even mean?? seems to suggest a lack Legitimacy and Value.
that photographer woman who was just a nanny and then her photos were discovered and we call her a photographer. labels and titles people bestow onto others?

- What is good art? what is legitimate etc.
thinking of how all people i liked/'idolise' in terms of writers and artists have values that we appreciate them for that are different to the ones we're told we should strivew towards (eg money and success and fame, yet idolise dead people for the more spiritual and internal values they had and the lives they led...)

Pg 18
DORN - liked the play 'I want to say all the nice things I can to him'
>> one person can like something. Reminds me of at a party at graces someone said they liked my installation of the door thing i did and I thought that was nice. .. 
Art belongs to Alleyways idea i had. Was going to make a zine of it. but it is basically the idea that work will find who it neeeds or who needs it in time and thats out of ones own control..
For those that need it the work will levitate to ?? I dont mean it that dramatically but i feel it kinda works like that?
Pg18.still .. 'it made a deep impression on me'

REalising I love poetic lines that are thrown into stuff. Eg:
'I ever I had felt the elevation of spirit that comes to artists in their creative moments, I believe I should have despised this body and all its usages, and tried to soar above all earthly things.'
INTUITION, something bigger than oneself, channeled into my tiny tiny body from the universE?????

FORLON, throw one self onto the floor type shit, slaps u in the face type shit, boots some life into u type of shit if u get me. Some bigger than u force ?????

scan of my notes from above::

Another thing!!! think it was on Wiki but saw about how this play has many similar plot routes as Hamlet and at one point hamlet is quoted by konstantien and the actress/his mother/.

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Finished reading this play in 6days which is not bad. Overall, really liked it. 

Also took a pic of these pages bc i liked this whole monologue: