The premiere of ‘Three Sisters’ in the Moscow Art Theatre took place 31 January 1901. Stanislavsky remembered that during the first rehearsals Chekhov was concerned about potential ‘overacting and showing provincial life in a grotesque manner, or portraying military persons as ordinary carpet knights’. Nemirovich-Danchenko wrote that Chekhov ‘most of all… insisted on being true to everyday life’.
According to Stanislavsky, Chekhov was ‘especially demanding’ to the ‘true flow of sound on the stage’, explained in detail how the alarm bell should sound in the 3rd act: ‘he wanted to give us an image-bearing idea of the rattling sound of a provincial bell. At any opportunity he approached somebody of us and tried to help us catch the spirit of a heart-breaking provincial alarm bell, using his hands, rhythm, gestures’.
The main part of the performance preparation took part while Chekhov was abroad due to the state of his health. Stanislavsky wrote to him that he was ‘falling in love’ with the play ‘more and more, after each rehearsal’, and that other actors “ got fascinated by the play as they understood it while on the stage’. After the draft dress rehearsal he wrote to Chekhov again: “Now I know for a fact that the play benefits much when staged, and unless we produce it to be a great success we deserve being flogged…”.
The actors involved in the performance also wrote letters to Chekhov. For example, below are the lines from Alexander Vishnevsky’s letter:
According to Stanislavsky, Chekhov was ‘especially demanding’ to the ‘true flow of sound on the stage’, explained in detail how the alarm bell should sound in the 3rd act: ‘he wanted to give us an image-bearing idea of the rattling sound of a provincial bell. At any opportunity he approached somebody of us and tried to help us catch the spirit of a heart-breaking provincial alarm bell, using his hands, rhythm, gestures’.
The main part of the performance preparation took part while Chekhov was abroad due to the state of his health. Stanislavsky wrote to him that he was ‘falling in love’ with the play ‘more and more, after each rehearsal’, and that other actors “ got fascinated by the play as they understood it while on the stage’. After the draft dress rehearsal he wrote to Chekhov again: “Now I know for a fact that the play benefits much when staged, and unless we produce it to be a great success we deserve being flogged…”.
The actors involved in the performance also wrote letters to Chekhov. For example, below are the lines from Alexander Vishnevsky’s letter:
