THE CHEKHOV DREAMS A play by John McKinney Copyright © 2014 by John McKinney 67 East 11St. Apt. #708 New York, NY 10003 (212) 598-9970
[email protected] ii CHARACTERS JEREMY Mid-30’s, affable, well-read, reclusive, a wounded soul. KATE Mid-30’s, beautiful, sophisticated, perceptive, deceased. CHRISSY Early 20’s, cute, upbeat, eager, passionate. EDDIE Late 30’s, jaded, decadent, addicted to just about everything. CHEKHOV Mid 40’s, wise, eccentric, crotchety, deceased. SETTING Time: The present. Place: New York City, various locations; A lake, various times and seasons. Author’s notes: This play was written as a dark romantic comedy, accent on the comedy. As such, the default tempo for the play should be brisk and lively, pausing or stopping only as necessary to reflect the deeper, more serious moments. Scene transitions should occur as smoothly as possible with a minimum of set and prop handling to ensure that the story keeps moving apace. In essence the play should avoid the trap of over-indulging in the darker currents of the story and becoming labored or ponderous. As this play explores two alternating states of mind – dreams and reality – it is intended that the design elements establish a distinctive motif for each. For example, there might be a magical, sparkling quality to the lighting to represent the water reflecting off of the lake in the dream scenes, while the real life apartment scenes might have a grittier, more somber feel especially as most of these scenes occur at night. Similarly, the dream scenes might be accompanied by a recurring ethereal theme, or “dreamscape,” which would shift in tone from light and magical to something more ominous, reflecting the main character’s psychological journey.