Written part of the Diploma Schriftliche Teil des künstlerischen Diploms A CHERRY ORCHARD EIN KIRSCHGARTEN $1D$ 6.5Ó-Â1( German translation by Lea Steinhilber Übersetzung von Lea Steinhilber Universität für angewandte Kunst Wien Bühnen- und Filmgestaltung Betreut von Univ.Prof. Mag.art. Bernhard Kleber Sommersemester 2016 Written part of the Diploma Schriftliche Teil des künstlerischen Diploms A CHERRY ORCHARD EIN KIRSCHGARTEN $1D$ S.5Ó-Â1( German translation by Lea Steinhilber Übersetzung von Lea Steinhilber Universität für angewandte Kunst Wien Bühnen- und Filmgestaltung Betreut von Univ.Prof. Mag.art. Bernhard Kleber Sommersemester 2016 TABLE OF CONTENTS PREFACE 5 THE AUTHOR AND THE PLAY Anton Chekhov 6 “The Cherry Orchard” 7 Historical context 8 CONCEPT Personal interpretation 10 A Zorld in transition֌ 12 The illusion of life 13 Relationship between us and our environment 14 The physical form of communication 16 In the end is the beginning 16 REALIZATION Visitor interaction 19 Soundscape 20 Location, material choice and light 21 BIBLIOGRAPHY Sources 58 Images 60 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 63 PREFACE The interactive installation “A Cherry Orchard” by Anda SkrÔMÃne based on Anton Chekhov֢s play “The Cherry Orchard” (1904) is the artistic part of the Diploma proMect The following text is an accompanying written work that analyzes selected themes of the play and their relevance in the creation of the installation 5 THE AUTHOR AND THE PLAY ANTON CHEKOV Anton Chekhov was born in the small town of Taganrog, Russia, in 1860 His father, a son of a serf, made a living as a merchant When Chekhov moved to 0oscow, he studied medicine, but in order to make enough money to live, he began to write short sketches for 0oscow periodicals It was in this haphazard way that he began his literary career By the time he was established as a doctor, he was also established as a popular writer Around the same moment that he began to achieve success, he contracted tuberculosis, which twenty years later would kill him Though death is, of course, the ultimate condition of everybody, throughout his life Chekhov was more acutely conscious of his mortality than most people and witnessed the surrounding dying culture through the eyes of a dying man Chekhov's vision was strongly rooted in his own personal experiences He created extraordinary human depths out of the banalities of everyday life He always insisted that that his plays be understood as descriptions of life, nothing more or less, as he states here: “Take my Cherry Orchard Is it my Cherry Orchard" With the exception of two or three parts nothing in it is mine I am describing life, ordinary life, and not bleak despondency”֓1 1 ֌0 agarshack,֌David:֌Chekhov the Dramatist,֌1 ew <ork,֌1960,֌p֌14 6 “THE CHERRY ORCHARD” “The Cherry Orchard” was Chekhov's last play, written as he was dying Its composition, a painstaking process, stretched over most of 1903 in a time of growing mass political and social unrest that led to the Revolution of 1905 Thus the play depicts life as it is a life that is unsatisfying and inexplicable, a life in which the only certainty is that of displacement “The Cherry Orchard” was not only Chekhov֢s last chance to portray his vision of life, it was also his fullest He was confronted with the maMor Tuestions of man's existence Why is life as it is" And how can people face or simply live such a life" He believed that we must seek for the signi௕cance of life The play, as the drama theorist Francis Fergusson pessimistically asserts, is “a theatrepoem of su௔ering and change”֓2 In essence֌“The Cherry Orchard”֌dramatizes a family's֌ impending sale of its ancestral estate to the son of one of֌ its former serfs֌The pivotal Tuestion is whether the sale֌ of the property can be avoided֌and the plot incidents are֌ concerned with the various e௔orts to save the orchard֌ In the end,֌the orchard,֌which is symbolic of the past,֌ is destroyed֌In varying degrees the characters ௕nd֌ themselves dispossessed of everything,֌which has meant֌ the most to them,֌and they are all in end,֌on the brink֌ of a new existence֌The former estate owner Ranevsky֌ is continuously seeking refuge from reality and since֌ all her memories are lost together with the orchard,֌she֌ ௖ees back to Paris accompanied by her opportunistic֌ 2 ֌Fergusson,֌Francis:֌The Idea of a Theater,֌Doubleday Anchor,֌1 ew <ork,֌ 1953,֌p֌175 7 manservant <asha֌Lopakhin,֌the son of a former serf,֌ buys the cherry orchard in which he sees a new potential֌ and thus breaks free from his humble past֌Gayev,֌the֌ sentimental and infantile brother of Ranevsky,֌attempts֌ to enter a world of responsibility and starts to work at a֌ bank֌Finally,֌Firs the manservant of the family,֌is unable֌ to adapt to change and is left behind in the estate as a֌ remnant of the old world together with the cherry orchard֌ HISTORICAL CONTEXT Fundamentally,֌it can be said that the world in which֌ Chekhov found himself was a world of transition֌ Due to his illness,֌he became even more aware of the֌ transitory state of life and this awareness was intensi௕ed֌ by his realization that his own condition was also the֌ condition of his country֌The loss of the cherry orchard֌ is illustrative of the situation of Russia at the beginning֌ of the֌20th century֌The political and social structure֌ of the country was in a ௖ux֌The (mancipation Act֌ of֌1861֌brought changes in the life of the upper classes֌ and slowly swept away their autonomous power֌In֌ very few years the whole feudalistic system would be֌ totally shattered,֌and a new life would replace the old֌ The play is re௖ective of the trends of the time and on a֌ more abstract level,֌“The Cherry Orchard”֌can be seen֌ as symbolic of the situation of mankind in general 8 9 CONCEPT PERSONAL INTERPRETATION Chekhov֢s observations of the transforming world and the signi௕cance of his characters֢ reactions toward it, as well as my own re௖ections, was ultimately the starting point for the concept of the interactive installation “A ֝ Cherry Orchard” The world as Chekov depicted it in a state of ௖ux, causing uncertainty (see chapter “A world in transition”), prompted me to re௖ect on the ongoing changes in my own existing surroundings and the e௔ect they exert, as well as the impact I can have on them Through “A Cherry Orchard”, I intend to grasp a moment on the brink of a transition and allow visitors to shape new versions of reality The established complex connection between us and our environment (see chapter “Relationship between us and our environment“) led to an interactive approach being introduced to the work, in order to witness ௕rst hand the direct imprint of human activity Visitors will experience a microcosm of a society in which one֢s environment is chie௖y determined by other people The installation works as a socially interactive machine, adaptable to 10 the desires of the individual Visitors become active participants as opposed to passive voyeurs (see chapter “Visitor interaction”) by exchanging the role of the passive spectator to that of an experimenter or investigator, who observes phenomena and searches for their causes The aim is not to instruct the visitors, but to produce awareness to the importance of individual actions and decisions The function of illusions in our lives and their capacity to shield us from the real was another signi௕cant notion that determined the outcome of the work (see chapter “The illusion of life”) By visualizing our ideal world, but not acting upon these aspirations, we get stranded in a state of daydreams I wished to break this selfdeceptive attitude by engaging visitors in a handson building experience The installation֢s design seeks to activate the visitors and create awareness to the transformation of theatre, not as audience, but as active participants in a process of selfdiscovery Upon arrival, visitors are greeted at the door leading to the installation room They are then provided with a brief introduction to the work and given earphones through which they will shortly thereafter hear recorded instructions Only two visitors at a time can access the installation room The provided audio instructions work as a control system, accommodating a ௖ow of changes They help to navigate through the installation and understand the system in which it functions in order to begin the transformation process In combination with the instructions, a soundscape of various prerecorded sounds (see chapter “Soundscapes”) allows for a dialogue to form between them and the space Visitors are confronted with speci௕c tasks and both participants are asked to 11 work synchronically in order to complete a cycle of transitions (ach action a visitor performs generates a direct reaction to it, as it is part of a greater chain of events A WORLD IN TRANSITION The world that Chekhov describes in “The Cherry Orchard” is one on the cusp of disappearance and in process of entering a new stage Bewildered by the sudden demise of their world, the feeling of instability and uncertainty about both the present and the future dominates the characters of the play The realization that the preceding socioeconomic order is crumbling and there is no security anywhere could be applied not only to Chekhov and his characters in Russia in the beginning of the 20th century, but a similarity can be drawn to the modern day political and social situation 0an emerging into the twentieth century found himself in a metaphysical setting: stranded somewhere between the old, predominantly rural world of faith and tradition and a new one of urbanization and industrialization