Most people who know me or who have ever worked with me know that Anton Chekhov's writing has been a foundation for my life in the theatre; as an actress first and then soon after as a director. This playwright and his plays were first introduced to me by Nikos Psacharopoulos in my sophomore year of college at Yale in 1977. After one class with Nikos he pushed me to change the course of my career and study to become a director, something I had never considered. And I never looked back. And his belief in my ability to understand the meaning of the play and communicate this to actors gave me my life in the theatre.
Nikos was considered one of the greatest directors of Chekhov in the world. Years after my time with Nikos I worked with Earle Gister at the Yale School of Drama and his 5 questions technique, developed through the study of Chekhov, became the way I direct and teach to this day. And at the core of all of it was Chekhov's writing.
Chekhov invented a new style of theatre we have come to call Realism. He wrote about ordinary people living and struggling with life in the early 1900s in Russia. Nikos and Earle both said that Chekhov wrote about "how hard it is to live and what we do to go on living." And while I teach and talk about the techniques passed down to us first from Stanislavski (Chekhov's director) and then articulated by these other great artists and teachers, today I am thinking and writing about the struggle to live and to find meaning in one's life, which is at the core of all of Chekhov's work.
The struggle to live and to find meaning in one's life is at the core of all Chekhov's work
The first major play he wrote and produced later with the Moscow Art Theatre directed by Stanislavski was The Seagull. This play is his one play truly dedicated to the life of an artist. The central characters are Trigorin, a famous writer, Arkadina, a famous actress and her son Treplev, a writer, and the love of Treplev's life, Nina, an actress. In one of the last scenes in the play. Nina, who has come home to the lake she grew up on after a few years away, comes to see Treplev, who has become a well-known and successful writer. Their last scene together is one of the most famous as well as challenging scenes in all of Chekhov. While Treplev has gained great recognition as a writer, he is deeply unhappy as he has loved Nina all his life and feels completely lost without her. As happens with so many characters in Chekhov love is what gives their life meaning, and it is often unreciprocated.
In this final culminating meeting between Nina and Treplev, Nina describes her life on stage as an actress:
"I'm a real actress now and I act with joy and excitement: I get intoxicated on stage and feel beautiful. But now, while I'm here, I walk everywhere, I walk and I think: I think and I feel that with every passing day my mental strength grows... Now I know, Kostya, that for our work—it doesn't matter whether it's acting or writing—the important thing is not fame or glory, not what I dreamed about, but the ability to endure… and have faith. Know how to bear your cross and have faith. I have faith and it doesn't hurt as much, and when I think about my calling, I'm not afraid of life."
"the important thing is not fame or glory, not what I dreamed about, but the ability to endure… and have faith."
These words have saved me so many times when I was lost or confused about being a theatre artist. It isn't about Fame or Glory what so many dream of. Fame and fortune is fleeting. It comes and goes. Some of the greatest artists never achieve notoriety or big financial success. Also Nina doesn't even mention "talent". The true definition of being an artist for her is about the Ability to endure and have faith. She also uses the word calling. A true artist is born with this calling. And to survive and even thrive in art an artist must have great strength and also a deep faith that this is what they have to do and are meant to do. Everything will work out. I work with so many young people today and I see how hard it is to choose a life in the theatre. But I also see that for a true artist there is no other path that is possible. And you will never be happy if you ignore this calling.
Now after about a half century in theatre I also go through my moments of doubt and fear. Should I change my path? How will we pay the rent this month? And this deep faith and strength that Chekhov himself embodied represents all I believe in and have experienced myself.
Once only once did I really contemplate another path. Before I came to Denver in 1991 I had just gotten married in Bogota and I was with my husband in NYC trying to decide what we should do and where we should go. We wanted a family and we were ready and I was worried mostly about money. I called my father. He had gone to Yale Divinity School and became a Presbyterian minister and then changed careers and went to Columbia Medical School. He practiced medicine in NYC for 50 years. I would now call him a true healer and for me he was also an amazing father. I called him and said I was thinking of changing careers as he had done and maybe wanted to pursue medicine. (I quote him at the beginning of almost every new class) I will never forget what he said to me:
"Jennifer, theatre is your calling. You are an artist and have been all your life. Theatre isn't a career or just a job. It isn't a choice. And we need doctors to heal our bodies but we need artists to heal our souls."
we need doctors to heal our bodies but we need artists to heal our souls.
I will never forget his words to me that day. I began to apply for positions and was offered a job at the DCPA here in Denver and never looked back ever again. And in my darkest of hours, in my own life struggles, the one thing I will never regret and I will always be forever grateful for is my life in the theatre. The faith and endurance handed down to me by my father and mother gave me a life in the theatre.
A life in the theatre has given me meaning, purpose, beauty, life-long friendships and perhaps most importantly my greatest gift of all: my three children.
Today the life of an artist is even harder than ever before, NEVER GIVE UP. If this is your calling, all it takes is ENDURANCE and FAITH.
to be continued......
-Jennifer McCray Rincón