Chekhov’s Masha’s Masha

Checkhov’s Masha’s Masha, 2015, HD video, color, sound, 2min 57sec

Chekhov’s Masha’s Masha is a performance-for-the-camera. I translate and read a short monologue by a character named Masha, in Anton Chekhov’s play “The Seagull.” The play is about actors, writers, theater, the torments of the creative process. It is a play imported from Russia it feels to be by extension about Russia. There are many different versions of “The Seagull” but this meta play is rarely staged as its subtitle suggests, as a comedy. I take up Masha’s monologue as a found text, interpreting it as a Russian, an American, an actress, a director, and a Masha.