Flyer - CHEKHOV/TOLSTOY: LOVE STORIES

PRODUCING ARTISTIC DIRECTOR

IN PERSON: 410 WEST 42ND ST – 12-8 MON-SAT, 12-6 SUN FIRST PRIORITY CLUB MEMBERS CALL: 212.315.0231

Tue - Sat at 7:30 | Sat & Sun at 2:00 Also Wed 2:00: 2/5, 2/19, 3/4, 3/11 No 7:30 Performance: 2/5, 2/11, 2/18

Jan 23 - Jan 31 $45 Feb 1 - Feb 16 $55 Feb 17 - Mar 14 $65

Includes $2.25 restoration fee

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$4.75 PER TICKET SERVICE CHARGE

APPLIES TO ALL PHONE AND ONLINE ORDERS. CHEAPTIX: MINT IS NOW OFFERING TEN SEATS PER NIGHT FOR ONLY $35, ON THE SIDES IN THE FIRST TWO ROWS. ON TELECHARGE.COM, CHECK THE BOX “I WANT $35 SEATS”.

PERFORMANCES BEGIN JAN 23

ONLINE: TELECHARGE.COM PHONE: 212-239-6200

Theatre Row 410 West 42nd St, between 9th & 10th

ORDER YOUR TICKETS TODAY!

TheNew York Times

410 West 42nd St., between 9th & 10th MintTheater.org

Administrative Office 330 West 42nd St, Ste 1210 NY, NY 10036

Vinie Burrows Katie Firth Anna Lentz Sam Morales J. Paul Nicholas Malik Reed Alexander Sokovikov

JAN 23 THROUGH MAR 14

Roger Hanna COSTUMES Oana Botez LIGHTS Matthew Richards SOUND Jane Shaw PROPS Natalie Carney CASTING Stephanie Klapper, CSA PRODUCTION STAGE MANAGER Jeff Meyers ASST. STAGE MANAGER Andrea Jess Berkey ILLUSTRATION Stefano Imbert GRAPHICS hey jude design, inc.

PRESS David Gersten & Associates SETS

with

“The classiest resurrectionists in town, the Mint Theater Company specializes in reviving forgotten plays and playwrights.”

NON - PROFIT U . S . POSTAGE

PA I D

New York, NY Pe r m i t N o . 7 5 2 8

JONATHAN BANK

JAN 23 THROUGH MAR 14

Two short plays adapted from stories by two of the world’s greatest authors.

THEATRE ROW | 410 WEST 42 STREET | MINTTHEATER.ORG THIS PRODUCTION IS SUPPORTED IN PART BY: The New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature.

By public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.

12/10/19 4:47 PM

CHEKHOV, whatever his standing as a playwright, is quite probably the best short-story writer ever.

Mint Theater Company offers a Premiere Pairing of two short plays adapted from stories by two of the world’s greatest authors, Anton Chekhov and Leo Tolstoy. These dramatic adaptations come from Miles Malleson, author of Mint hits, Conflict and Yours Unfaithfully, both New York Times Critic’s Picks.

Chekhov’s An Artist’s Story tells the story of Nicov, a painter who encounters two very different women while on a visit to the country. The flirtatious Genya flatters the artist with questions about miracles and the eternal while her pragmatic sister Lidia ridicules the artist, questioning the necessity of landscapes in a world where people are poor and hungry. Together, they bring him to a new understanding of himself.

The first production of The Artist came in 1919, directed by Edith Craig and produced by the Pioneer Players: an independent theater society known for its productions of feminist and Russian drama. Malleson played the title role.

Tolstoy’s What Men Live By tells the story of a Russian peasant couple whose lives intersect with a mysterious stranger whose odd ways and brilliant smile bring them to a new understanding as well.

What Men Live By reflects Tolstoy’s dedication to living out a Christian pacifism based on personal conscience. In the midst of World War I, Malleson was inspired by Tolstoy’s empathetic vision. Infusing his adaptation with string quartet music composed for the production by Norman O’Neill, What Men Live By premiered as part of an all-female student program by London’s Academy of Dramatic Arts, providing audiences with “the pure milk of the Tolstoyan word on loving-kindness.” Audiences shell-shocked by the Great War welcomed this balm, just as theatergoers today will warm to Tolstoy’s mystical tale of love and redemption.

“What is extraordinary about Mr. Malleson is his ability to create characters who are capable of feeling several things at once, or who don’t really know what they’re feeling at all.” The New York Times

Chekhov saw that life is godless, random and absurd, that all history is the history of unintended consequences and that mediocrity is the one great demonic force. By abandoning the manipulated beginning-middle-and-end plot, by refusing to judge his characters, by not striving for a climax or seeking neat narrative resolution…His influence is massive and ineluctable: perhaps all short stories written after Chekhov are in his debt.

William Boyd, The Telegraph

Is Tolstoy the greatest writer of all time? I do think he is the greatest novelist who ever lived. Philip Hensher, The Guardian CHEKHOV’S stories are as wonderful (and necessary) now as when they first appeared. Raymond Carver

TOLSTOY remains a giant in the world of literature…

His pacificism, his advocacy of passive resistance to evil through non-violent means, has had incalculable influence on pacificist movements in general and on the philosophical and social views and programs of Mahatma Ghandi, Martin Luther King and Cesar Chavez. Alexander Fodor, A Quest for a Non-violent Russia

enrichMINT events

All events take place immediately after the performance and usually last about fifty minutes.

They are free and open to the public. Speakers and dates subject to change without notice.

DIRECTOR AND DESIGNERS - JANE SHAW, JONATHAN BANK AND TEAM SATURDAY, JANUARY 25, after the matinee: A peek into the design process with directors Jane Shaw, Jonathan Bank, and members of the creative team. This panel discussion will provide insight into the collaborative process.

“A MERE PAINTER OF PICTURES?” MILES MALLESON’S CHEKHOV & TOLSTOY ADAPTATIONS SUNDAY, JANUARY 26, after the matinee: MAYA CANTU, MINT RESIDENT DRAMATURG

Mint Resident Dramaturge, Maya Cantu, will discuss Malleson’s adaptations, and his political and religious affinities with Anton Chekhov and Leo Tolstoy. Dr. Cantu is an accomplished dramaturg, scholar, and teacher.

She is an alumnus of the Yale School of Drama, where she received her MFA and DFA in Dramaturgy and Dramatic Criticism.

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 1, after the matinee:

NADYA PETERSON, HUNTER COLLEGE

Dr. Peterson is Head of the Russian and Slavic Studies Program at Hunter College. Professor Peterson teaches advanced language courses, courses on translation, women’s literature, nineteenth and twentieth century Russian literature, as well as courses on Pushkin, Tolstoy, Chekhov and Dostoevsky both in Russian and in English. Dr. Peterson is also on the faculty of the Doctoral Program in Comparative Literature at the CUNY Graduate Center.

SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 2, after the matinee:

MAUDE MEISEL, PACE UNIVERSITY

Dr. Maude Meisel is a former Fulbright Scholar who holds a PhD from the Department of Slavic Languages at Columbia Unversity. She has taught courses in Russian, Humanities, and Drama at Columbia, Middlebury College, and SUNY Stony Brook. She is currently the Associate Director of the Challenge to Achievement program at Pace University.

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 6, after the evening performance: BORIS FISHMAN

Boris Fishman was born in Minsk, Belarus, and immigrated to the United States in 1988 at nine. Fishman received a degree in Russian literature from Princeton University, and recently wrote the introduction to the Restless Classics edition of Chekhov: Stories for Our Time, which begins, “Everything you know about Anton Chekhov is wrong.” Fishman is the acclaimed author of A Replacement Life, a 2014 New York Times Notable Book of the Year, and several other books. His writing has appeared in the New Yorker, the New York Times Magazine, the Wall Street Journal, and the Guardian, among other publications.

SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 9, after the matinee:

JEFFERSON GATTRALL, MONTCLAIR STATE UNIVERSITY Mint’s production will be the first-ever pairing of Malleson’s Russian gems, co-directed by Mint Artistic Director Jonathan Bank and longtime collaborator Jane Shaw. Jane has designed sound, and composed and arranged music for thirty Mint productions; she will be making her directorial debut.

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Jefferson J. A. Gatrall is Associate Professor of Russian and Director of Medical Humanities at Montclair State University. He is the author of The Real and the Sacred: Picturing Jesus in Nineteenth-Century Fiction (U of M Press, 2014) and the co-editor of Alter Icons: The Russian Icon and Modernity (PSU Press, 2010).

His publications include essays on Chekhov and medicine; Tolstoy, religion painting, and folk literature; the novels of Dostoevsky, Proust, Lew Wallace, Mikhail Lermontov, and Dmitry Merezhkovsky; the paintings of Vasily Polenov, Nikolai Ge, and Ivan Kramskoy.

12/10/19 4:47 PM