August with Anton!: An Entirely Self-Indulgent Personal Challenge
I don’t read.
No, really, I don’t. Not much, at least. And it’s not because I lack the time, nor do I have some moral objection to reading. I just don’t bother. Hell, I barely read even when it was an assignment in school—which in retrospect I realize all my teachers knew.
I think a part of it is because I found satisfaction from works that seemed more readily accessible and exciting to me. Film, television, stage, and of course, fanfiction. By my measure, most of the theater I’ve written in the past several years has purely been prompted by something I watched rather than something I read. And if there was a play I was vaguely interested in checking out, I was more likely to seek a production of it before ever reading the thing myself, and it was thus that production that would inspire creative pursuits.
It was one of those productions that’s inspired this particular reading exercise. A few weeks ago I went to see Elevator Repair Service’s Seagull, which of course is ERS’s adaptation of the Chekhov play. Seagull lends itself more than most adaptations to familiarity with the text, as it often jokes about and knowingly diverges from what’s written. Yet a confession: I’ve never read nor seen a production of The Seagull. In fact, my familiarity with Chekhov overall is pretty superficial. I know he exists, I know he wrote some famous plays, and I know he had a lot to say about Russian society. But the only Chekhov play I’ve read is Three Sisters, and I merely read the SparkNotes page on The Seagull before watching the ERS show. Yet I had an absolute blast seeing this production, having the faintest knowledge of what ERS was iterating on to appreciate how they interpreted scenes.
In fact, it made me a tad annoyed with myself that I didn’t have much familiarity with Chekhov before watching it.
Well, such lack of familiarity shall stand no longer! For I, Kenjiro Lee have presented myself with a challenge. A challenge that will push the limits of my patience, that shall offer experiences I have never before experienced. For I present to thee…
August with Anton!
A challenge orchestrated by yours truly, wherein I shall attempt to read all the plays of Anton Chekhov within the month of August!
Well, not all of his plays necessarily. See, Chekhov wrote 16 plays, 17 if you count The Night Before the Trial (which is sometimes considered unfinished), but Paul Schmidt only translates 12 of them in his The Plays of Anton Chekhov. His logic for this is that he is only translating the plays that Chekhov developed and saw to a full production, whereas the rest were never published, never performed, written as jokes, or redrafted into something else (i.e. The Wood Demon became Uncle Vanya). More power to me, I suppose, because that means I have to read fewer plays. But if I manage to read all of Paul Schmidt’s translations and still have some time at the end of the month, I may go and seek out translations of the remaining plays.
“But why?” you ask. “But why, Kenjiro, are you subjecting yourself to the most lamentable task of forcing yourself to read the complete works of a long-dead white male writer?” Well, it’s for a few reasons.
Reason 1: There’s a part of me who feels I tend not to form my own opinions on these texts, due to my aforementioned reluctance to actually read them. I know some people who hate Chekhov with a burning passion. As their friend I’m inclined to respect their opinion, but as my own individual person I don’t see how I can do that without having my own opinion on the topic. I’ve only ever read one Chekhov play and seen one production of a Chekhov play (and calling ERS’s Seagull a production of The Seagull is a bit generous), so it’s time to have my own opinion.
Reason 2: This is may be a controversial thought, but I worry that younger writers like myself are too quick to brush off the works of the writers who came before us. As an Asian-American writer, I want to think of myself as part of a lineage of writers inspired by David Henry Hwang or Young Jean Lee or many others, but the fact is I’m operating within a popular medium that was shaped a long time ago by people who, whether I like it or not, were white men. Just because I’m not casually interested in dealing with them these days doesn’t mean they didn’t exist, it was often their plays that taught me how the medium could work.
Reason 3: The old wisdom that reading more plays is helpful for one’s own playwriting practice. Since reading in general doesn’t come naturally to me, I think the best approach is to make a project out of it, and hopefully learn things for my own plays that I’m currently having trouble writing. Which leads me to the fourth and final reason…
Reason 4: Reading plays is another way for me to put off writing plays.
So, where does that leave us? Well, starting today, August 1, I will begin my task. I’m not doing any particular spacing out of time—it may take me a few days to read one play, and I’m fine with that. I may also finish all the plays before the month is over. But regardless, every Monday I’ll check back in with reflections on what I read the previous week, and any further thoughts on my journey.
How do I feel right now? Surprisingly neutral. This may end up being a complete waste of time. Or maybe I’ll learn something new that I’ve never considered before.. But regardless, it’s a task I’ve never attempted before, and one I’m excited to try. So without further ado… let’s read some Chekhov.
