When Anton Chekhov's play The Seagull premiered at the Moscow Arts Theater in December of 1898, the way people lived was much different from the way we live today. As Charles Richter, our director, made clear at one of the initial rehearsals, he didn't expect his actors to understand a lot of the emotions their characters were portraying because he figured they had never experienced the same situations before. Although this may be partly true, the cast still handles the complex network of themes and sentiments that this play explores. Among these are unrequited love, fame, the act of writing, and even acting itself.

At our first read through, Co-director Tim Averill went out on a limb and created a scene from late 19^th century Russia right here at Muhlenberg College. When the cast first walked into the room on the windy, snowy night, the only light came from candles set on the table. There were also place settings at each spot, and period artifacts as well. The cast was asked to find the object that represented their character, and sit at that spot. This was difficult for many of them, but eventually they all found their places, and the read-through commenced. We got to sample tea with jam in place of sugar, and see a real samovar—the equivalent to today's electric teakettle, minus the electricity. Overall, it was a great way to introduce the cast to the mood and setting of the play. I think that from that moment on, we were all excited and eager to start working.

From there, we spent a few weeks doing read-throughs of each section of the play. Every night turned into a discussion about something, whether it were "new forms" of theater being created today, the weather in Moscow, late 18^th century doctors, or the way actresses in that time spent all their money on clothing, to the point that they had none left for bare essentials.

After about 3 weeks of that, we moved on to blocking rehearsals, but the discussion didn't stop there. Tim and Charlie always had something to say. Tim offered us a rich knowledge of the time period and, along with Charlie's acting notes, they were a powerful team.

Although the set is still being built and the lines are not yet word for word, the cast has been making great leaps from that first read-through when we weren't really sure what we were getting ourselves into. None of the women knew how painful a corset could be, but every night they put them on and experience what a late 18^th century woman must have felt. Charlie may not have predicted that the actors would come to grips with their characters this quickly, but they have. From an ASM's point of view, the show is looking great, and I can't wait to see how it turns out.