The audience’s reaction to the show has been different each and every night. Some have been deathly silent with seemingly no reaction. Others have laughed and awed, even shaking their head in opposition or affirmation when we directly addressed them. Despite the mixed vocal reaction members of the audience that I have spoken to have thoroughly  enjoyed the show. They have expressed confusion during our pre-show opening and doubling up. I guess upon witnessing it, the show resembles a circus in the beginning, but morphs into this beautiful cohesive story that the audience understands and appreciates, even if only seeing it multiple times. During our Friday talk-back members of the audience who chose to stay really expressed their thoughts about doubling the roles, linking the choice to enhancing the character’s motivations, relationships, and arcs.

While no one has verbally displayed negative feelings towards the production to me, I imagine there are members of the audience that are bored and confused and still don’t understand the world of Chekhov. I encourage those people to continue to see his plays because there is a piece of you in those characters. Before taking a directing class focused solely on Chekhov’s plays I thought Chekhov was stuffy, boring, and completely irrelevant to my experiences. This is partly due to a production of The Cherry Orchard in London that I thought was particularly mundane and uninteresting. However, after reading, watching, and performing all of his major plays I have found a love for his work that will last forever. Audience members attending any show, but especially matinee performances, be open-minded, receptive, and giving to your experience. Thank you for attending shows because you keep us actors employed (if we got paid for this!) 🙂