The Good Doctor

Russia• Largest country in globe (2x size of

the USA)• Spreads over 2 continents, Europe

and Asia• Stretches over 11 time zones• 1/8th of the earth’s land surface• World’s longest boarder, bordering

15 countries• World’s largest forested region,

Taiga• Lake Baykal: world’s largest

freshwater lake and world’s deepest lake, contains 20% of the world’s freshwater

• About 10% is swampland

In order to get a visual of Russia and its people and in order to read an excerpt of national ideology, watch this video of the Russian National Anthem with Pictures of Russia and its People– http

://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rKyAkdsSnCw&feature=related

“Russia is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma.” — Winston Churchill(Reason why I am not going over Russian history. View sources on blog.)

Russia’s Population• One of the world’s most diverse

societies with 160 ethnic groups. • Three-quarters of Russians live in

cities.• Majority of population lives West

of the Ural Mountains in European Russia.

• Two largest cities are the capital Moscow with a 10 million+ population and St. Petersburg with a 4 million+ population.

• Roughly 80% of the population is ethnic Russian. The remaining 20% is a mix of other ethnic groups with the Tatars and Ukrainians composing the largest minorities.

5 Main Geographical Areas of Russia:

1. Northern European Plain 2. Ural Mountains3. Western Siberian Plains4. Central Siberian Plateau5. Kemerovskaya Peninsula

1. Northern European Plain

1. Northern European Plain

• Located in the western-most part of Russia, this area is the most inhabited area of Russia, being the most livable, a fertile land of rolling hills.

• Located in the humid continental climate region, experiencing four seasons year-round.

• In Moscow and St. Petersburg the first snow usually falls in late November and stays until early April.

2. Ural Mountains

2. Ural Mountains

•Mountain range dividing Europe and Asia. Due to millions of years of erosion, the mountains are relatively low-lying with wide gaps, preventing the mountains from acting as a natural barrier against invasion.•Transgresses climate regions of, moving from south to north, desert, semiarid, humid continental, subarctic, and tundra.

3. Western Siberian Plains

3. Western Siberian Plains

•Severely harsh winters. •The land is depressed, so the when the snow from the harsh winters melts, it continue to sit, creating marshes, swamps, rivers, and lakes.•Located in the humid continental and subarctic climate region.

4. Central Siberian Plateau

4. Central Siberian Plateau

•Very high elevation with some of the harshest living conditions in the world.•During certain parts of the year, some areas get colder than Antarctica. •Antarctica is the coldest area on earth year-round, but Antarctica does not get colder than Siberia.•Located in the tundra and subarctic climate region.

5. Kemerovskaya Peninsula

5. Kemerovskaya Peninsula

•Lies on the earth’s largest tectonic plate, on the Pacific Ring of Fire of very active volcanoes, creating over 100 volcanoes on this peninsula.• Incredibly cold winters.•Climate similar to Alaska.•Located in the subarctic climate region. •Evergreen vegetation, no deciduous vegetation.

The Good Doctor

• Title: The Good Doctor•  • Playwright: Neil Simon•  • First Published: 1974•  • Original Language: English•  • Characters: 2 Male; 3 Female•  • Genre: Comedy•  • Structure: 2 Acts•  • Setting: Russia Early 1900s

The Good Doctor

• Theatre: Eugene O’Neil Theatre, NYC, USA

• Preview: November 19, 1973

• Total Previews: 8 • Opening: November 27,

1973• Closing: May 25, 1974• Total Performances: 206

Image of Original Broadway Cast

The Good Doctor

1974 Tony Awards, The Good Doctor • 1974 Tony Award® Best Original Score 

Nominee• Incidental Music by Reter Link; 

Additional Lyrics by Neil Simon

• 1974 Tony Award® Best Featured Actor in a Play Nominee: René Auberjonois

• 1974 Tony Award® Best Featured Actress in a Play Winner: Frances Sternhagen

• 1974 Tony Award® Best Lighting Design Nominee: Lighting Design by Tharon Musser

Set Designer Matt Mielke’s Production Concept for the World of The Good Doctor

The play occurs inside the Writer’s head with chaotic ideas popping in and out. Back Wall: Picture Gallery-Each picture represents a story in the Writer’s mind.-Each picture is of a different time, story, place, people, idea.-Some paintings will be covered in fabric to suggest future stories.

Set Designer Matt Mielke’s Production Concept for the World of The Good Doctor

Director Alan Litsey’s Production Concept Visuals

for the The Good Doctor

Artist: Mark Kazav

•Born in former USSR in 1960.•Kazav and his family left the USSR in the 1990’s as a result of political disorder and war, migrating to Canada where Kazav began to gain artistic recognition.•Kazav “produces works with bountiful texture as part of a ‘wet-in-wet’ technique that captures the essence of subject rather than the intricacies.”

Director Alan Litsey is using Kazav’s paintings as concept visuals for The Good Doctor, stating that Kazav’s expressionistic work represents the inner life of the characters, their passions, obsessions, playfulness, chaotic nature, vibrancy, quirks, eccentricities, vaudeville comedy, and, even in one, their dark side. 

Neil Simon• World’s most successful playwright.• Prolific output, writing more than

fifty plays and screenplays• Has won Tony Awards, Emmys, a

Golden Globe and a Pulitzer Prize for his work

• Has never won an Academy Award but has been nominated on four occasions for Best Screenplay

• Has received more Academy and Tony nominations than any other writer

• The only playwright to have four Broadway productions running simultaneously

• His plays have been produced in dozens of languages and have been acclaimed successes from Beijing to Moscow

Neil Simon

• Born in the Bronx on July 4, 1927

• Full Name: Marvin Neil Simon

• Grew up in Manhattan• For a short time

attended NYU and the University of Denver

Neil Simon

• 1940s he worked as a newspaper editor and then as a radio scriptwriter, learning conciseness.

• 1950s wrote for Your Show of Shows, a landmark live television comedy series, working with some of the best comedic writers of the day, including Woody Allen. Simon attributes this collaboration as the experience most influential to his writing.

• 1960s began concentrating on writing plays for Broadway.

The Works of Neil Simon

Plays• Come Blow Your Horn (1961)• Little Me (1962)• Barefoot in the Park (1963)• The Odd Couple (1965)• Sweet Charity (1966)• The Star-Spangled Girl (1966)• Plaza Suite (1968)• Promises, Promises (1968)• The Last of the Red Hot Lovers (1969)• The Gingerbread Lady (1970)• The Prisoner of Second Avenue (1971)• The Sunshine Boys (1972)

• The Good Doctor (1973)• God’s Favorite (1974)• California Suite (1976)• They’re Playing Our Song (1979)

Plays• I Ought to Be in Pictures (1980)• Fools (1981)• Brighton Beach Memoirs (1983)• Biloxi Blues (1985)• The Female Odd Couple (1986)• Broadway Bound (1986)• Rumors (1988)• Lost in Yonkers (1991)• Jake’s Women (1992)• The Goodbye Girl (1993)• Laughter in the 23rd Floor (1993)• London Suite (1995)• Proposals (1997)• The Dinner Party (2000)• 45 Seconds to Broadway (2001)• Rose’s Dilemma (2003)• Oscar and Felix: A New Look at the Odd Couple

(2004)

The Works of Neil SimonScreenplays• After the Fox, United Artists (UA), 1966.• Barefoot in the Park (based on his play), Paramount,

1968.• The Odd Couple (based on his play), Paramount,

1968.• Sweet Charity, Universal, 1969.• The Out-of-Towners, Paramount, 1970.• Plaza Suite (based on his play), Paramount, 1971.• Star-Spangled Girl (based on his play), Paramount,

1971.• The Heartbreak Kid, Twentieth Century-Fox, 1972.• Last of the Red Hot Lovers (based on his play),

Paramount, 1972.• The Prisoner of Second Avenue (based on his play),

Warner Bros., 1975.• The Sunshine Boys (based on his play), UA, 1975.• Murder by Death, Columbia, 1976.• The Goodbye Girl, Warner Bros., 1977.• California Suite (based on his play), Columbia, 1978.

Screenplays• Chapter Two (based on his play), Coumbia, 1979.• Seems Like Old Times, Columbia, 1980. • (With Danny Simon) Only When I Laugh (also

known as It Hurts Only When I Laugh; based on his play (The Gingerbread Lady), Columbia, 1981.

• I Ought to Be in Pictures (based on his play), Twentieth Century-Fox, 1983.

• Adapter (with Ed Weinberger and Stan Daniels), The Lonely Guy, Universal, 1984.

• The Slugger's Wife, Columbia, 1985.• Brighton Beach Memoirs (based on his play),

Universal, 1988.• The Marrying Man, Buena Vista, 1991.• Neil Simon's "Lost in Yonkers" (based on his play),

Columbia, 1993.• The Odd Couple II, 1998.• The Out-of-Towners (based on his play), (1970

screenplay) 1998.• The Heartbreak Kid, (1972 screenplay) 2007

The Works of Neil Simon

Television Series• (With Danny Simon) The Phil Silvers

Arrow Show, NBC, 1948.• Your Show of Shows, NBC, 1950-54.• The Tallulah Bankhead Show, NBC,

1951.• The Sid Caesar Show (also known as

Caesar's Hour), NBC, 1956-57.• Sid Caesar Invites You, ABC, 1958.• (With Danny Simon and Mel Brooks)

The Phil Silvers Show (also known as Sergeant Bilko), CBS, 1958-59.

• The Garry Moore Show, CBS, and A Quiet War, 1976.

Television Movies• Plaza Suite (based on his play), ABC,

1987.• Neil Simon's "Broadway Bound" (based

on his play), ABC, 1992.• The Sunshine Boys (based on his play),

Hallmark Entertainment, 1995.• London Suite (based on his play), 1996.• Jake's Women (based on his play),

1996.• Laughter on the 23rd Floor (based on

his play), 2001.• The Goodbye Girl, (1977 screenplay)

2004.

The Works of Neil Simon

Television Specials• The Trouble with People, NBC, 1972.

• Writer for:• Love, Life, Liberty, and Lunch, 1976.• The Sunshine Boys (based on his play),

1977.• Barefoot in the Park (based on his play),

1982.• "Big Joe and Kansas," a segment of Happy

Endings, 1975.

• Adapter of Material for:• Best Foot Forward• Dearest Enemy• Connecticut Yankee

Radio Series• The Robert Q Lewis Show, CBS• (with Danny Simon) Goodman Ace,

CBS.

Memoirs 

• Rewrites: A Memoir. Simon & Schuster. Oct. 7, 1996.

• The Play Goes On: A Memoir. Simon & Schuster. July 1, 1997.

Neil Simon’s Prolificacy

• Note the immediate, hyper frequency of Simon’s prolificacy

• Example:– The Prisoner of Second Avenue (1971)– The Sunshine Boys (1972)– The Good Doctor (1973)

• Usually no more than three years between works being, not written, but produced

Neil Simon’s Awards and Honors

  1956, 1957 • Emmy Award Nomination for Best Writing in a Variety or Situation Comedy• The Sid Carson Show•  • 1959• Emmy Award Nomination• The Phil Silvers Show•  • 1963• Tony Award Nomination for Best Author of a Musical/ Best Musical Play• Little Me•  • 1964• Tony Award Nomination for Best Play• Barefoot in the Park•  • 1965• Tony Award Winner for Best Dramatic Author• The Odd Couple•  • 1966• Tony Award Nomination for Best Musical• Sweet Charity•  • 1967• Writers Guild Award Nomination for Best Screenplay• Barefoot in the Park

• 1967• Evening Standard Award

• 1968• Sam S. Shubert Foundation Award•  • 1968• Academy Award Nomination and Writers Guild Award for Best Screenplay Based

on Material from Another Medium• The Odd Couple•  • 1969• Tony Award Nomination for Best Musical• Promises, Promises•  • 1970• Tony Award nomination for Best Play• Last of the Red Hot Lovers•  • 1972• Tony Award Nomination for Best Play• The Prisoner on Second Avenue•  • 1973• Writers Guild Award and Tony Award Nomination for Best Play• The Sunshine Boys•  • 1974• Shared Tony Award Nomination for Best Score• The Good Doctor•  • 1975• Academy Award Nomination for Best Screenplay Adapted from Other Material• The Sunshine Boys

• 1968

• Sam S. Shubert Foundation Award•  • 1968• Academy Award Nomination and Writers Guild Award for Best

Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium• The Odd Couple•  • 1969• Tony Award Nomination for Best Musical• Promises, Promises•  • 1970• Tony Award nomination for Best Play• Last of the Red Hot Lovers•  • 1972• Tony Award Nomination for Best Play• The Prisoner on Second Avenue•  • 1973• Writers Guild Award and Tony Award Nomination for Best Play• The Sunshine Boys•  • 1974• Shared Tony Award Nomination for Best Score• The Good Doctor•  • 1975• Academy Award Nomination for Best Screenplay Adapted from

Other Material• The Sunshine Boys• 1975• Tony Award for Over-All Contributions to the Theatre

• 1975

• Writers Guild Award•  • 1977• Academy Award Nomination for Best Original Screenplay• The Goodbye Girl•  • 1978• Golden Globe Award for Best Screenplay• The Goodbye Girl•  • 1978• Academy Award Nomination for Best Screenplay Adapted from Other Material• California Suite

• 1978• Tony Award Nomination for Best Play• Chapter Two•  • 1979• Tony Award nomination for Best Book of a Musical• They’re Playing Our Song•  • 1979• Laurel Award, Writers Guild of America•  • 1981• Honorary L.H.D. Degree from Hofstra University•  • 1983• New York Drama Critics Circle Award for Best New Play• Brighton Beach Memories•  • 1984• Honorary D.H.C. Degree from Williams College•  • 1985• Tony Award for Best Play• Biloxi Blues

• 1987• Tony Award for Best Play• Broadway Bound•  • 1989• Lifetime Creative Achievement Award, American Comedy Awards,

George Schlatter Production•  • 1991• Pulitzer Prize for Drama• Lost in Yonkers•  • 1991• Tony Award for Best Play• Lost in Yonkers•  • 1991• Drama Desk Award for outstanding new Play• Lost in Yonkers•  • 1995• Kennedy Center Honoree•  • 1996• Peggy V. Helmerich Distinguished Author Award•  • 1996• UCLA Medal•  • 1997• William Inge Theater Festival Award for Distinguished Achievement

in the American Theater•  • 2006• Mark Twain Prize for American Humor

• Like his canon, note the immediate, hyper frequency and esteem of Simon’s accolades, the best in the business.

Neil Simon’s Humor

• Simon created humor from the lives and troubles of everyday people.

• Of Simon, actor Jack Lemmon said, “Neil has the ability to write characters — even the leading characters that we’re supposed to root for — that are absolutely flawed. They have foibles. They have faults. But, they are human beings. They are not all bad or all good; they are people we know.”

Neil Simon

• Paul Reiser said, “When I was a kid growing up in New York, there were only a few things you could count on with any confidence. You knew the Yankees would be playing in the Bronx; you knew the Daily News would be saying nasty things about Mayor Lindsey; and there was always going to be a Neil Simon play on Broadway. Just always. It was a staple of life.”

Video Examples of Neil Simon’s Comedy

• Brighton Beach Memoirs – “Ketchup”• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3XieVHX5

BOU&feature=related

• The Prisoner of Second Avenue—“We’ve been robbed”

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aU-hlsa72JY&feature=related

Photographs of 19th Century Russia for Visualization

Russian P

easants

Russian P

easants

Russian P

easants

Russian P

easants

Russian P

easants

• • Empress Alexandra of the Russian Royal Family

Russian School Teacher with Pupils

Interior of Wealthy Russian Drawing Room

Upper-Class Russians

Typical Russian Architectural Design on House Front

House with Carriage

Chekhov Family, 1874

From left to right: standing - Ivan, Anton, Nikolay, Aleksandr and Mitrofan Egorovich; sitting - Mikhail, Maria, Pavel Egorovich, Eugenia Yakovlevna, Ludmila Pavlovna and her son Gorgiy.

Chekhov’s Biography

• Born January 17, 1860 in Taganrog, Russia, a small town in Southern Russia.

• Family: Father, Mother, three brothers Ivan, Nikolay, Aleksandr, and sister Masha

• The son of a former serf, his Father habitually beat his children and his wife.

• Anton’s older brother also beat him.

• “In a letter in 1892, Chekhov described his childhood as ‘suffering.’ • Yet, also wrote, “My father and mother are the only people in the world of

whom I cannot say enough. Their endless love for their children is beyond any praise and outweighs any failings which are the result of a hard life.”

Chekhov’s Biography Cont…

• His father was an artist who played violin, conducted the church choir, and painted.

• Chekhov attributed his and his sibling’s talent to his father but their common sense and heart from their mother.

• All of the children were artistically talented.• Chekhov’s self-discipline set him apart.

Chekhov’s Biography Cont…

• His father owned a grocery store, which his children, particularly Anton would run.

• In 1874 he grocery bankrupted, and the family moved to Moscow.

• Age 14, Anton stayed behind, living alone for five years to complete his schooling.

• He became breadwinner, tutoring and publishing stories in order to send money to his family who were living hand to mouth in Moscow.

Chekhov’s Biography Cont…

Chekhov, 1882

• 1878 Chekhov, age 19, completed school.

• 1879 enrolled in Moscow University to study medicine.

• Published humorous short stories, writing every spare moment, often starting and finishing a story in one evening

• 1882 began writing for one of the leading publishers of the time.

Chekhov’s Biography Cont…

Chekhov, 1888

• 1884 self-diagnosed Tuberculosis, not telling his family, friends, or colleagues

• 1884 graduated from Moscow University and began working as a doctor on the outskirts of Moscow

• Continued to publish short stories, which he called “little things”

• 1886 began, on invitation, to write for one of the most prominent newspapers in St. Petersburg, garnering popular attention for his work

Chekhov’s Biography Cont…

• Turning point for Chekhov when he began taking his writing more seriously

• Esteemed Russian writer, Demitri Grigorovich, after reading Chekhov’s short story “The Huntsman,” wrote to Chekhov, “You have real talent, a talent which places you in the front rank among writers in the new generation.’ He went on to advise Chekhov to slow down and write less and concentrate on literary quality.”

• Chekhov responded, “Your letter struck me like a thunder bolt. If I have a gift, then it should be respected, but I confess that up til now, I have shown no respect for it, simply writing my stories for the fun of it, trying not to get too close to feeling that really matter to me, unconsciously attempting to put them to one side.”

Chekhov’s Biography Cont…

Chekhov, 1897

• March 1897, Chekhov underwent a major hemorrhage of the lungs. Doctors diagnosed him with tuberculosis on and ruled a change in his lifestyle

• 1898 Chekhov’s Father died

• The last decade of his life he spent in Melikhovo, 50 miles south of Moscow, his Golden Age, when he wrote the majority of his most famous work.

• “As a doctor he looked after nearly 1,000 patients, many of them peasants who he did not charge. He built a school and a road. When the cholera epidemic started, he was in the forefront of the battle against the disease, not having the chance to even think about his literary activities.”

Chekhov’s Biography Cont…

His sister, who was immensely devoted to him and served as his assistant in his medical clinic, remembers him as, “Chekhov got up very early, had a cup of coffee, and then settled down to work. Often he wouldn’t sit at his table but use the windowsill when he wrote, constantly glancing out across the park. He didn’t eat or sleep very much and was particular about everything being neat and tidy.”

Chekhov’s Biography Cont…

Chekhov and Tolstoy, 1901

• Chekhov became friends with the most famous Russian writers of the day, including Goncharov, Tolstoy, and Gorky.

• Tolstoy stated, “Chekhov is always sincere. It is thanks to him that a whole new style of playwriting has been born.”

Chekhov’s Biography Cont…

Chekhov and Gorky, 1900

• Gorky wrote, “[Chekhov is] an amazingly nice man, but a very lonely one. Few people really understand him. He has plenty of admirers, but producers unmercifully cut his plays. A lonely man invariably feels like he’s living in a desert, and those are not just empty words.”

• Gorky also wrote, “Anton Chekhov is a man to be remembered, and when you do so, you are reminded of happiness and the reason for living.”

Chekhov’s Biography Cont…

Chekhov’s room in Melikhovo

• “Everyone who came to Melikhovo was fascinated by his hospitality, the friendliness of his home, the conversation sparkling with wit, the sheer exuberance of his personality, his natural grace and self-reserve, and his keen sense of humor”

Chekhov’s Biography Cont…

Anton and Olga, 1901

• 1901 marries Olga Knipper, an actress in the Moscow Arts Theatre (MAT)

• MAT produces his four revolutionary plays that ushered into theatre a new style of naturalism: The Seagull, Uncle Vanya, Three Sisters, and The Cherry Orchard.

• Olga wrote about him, “People who didn’t know him just like him and were desperate to meet him. When I asked them why they had been so keen to see him, they said that just to sit beside him for a few moments made you feel like a new man.”

Chekhov reading The Seagull to members of the Moscow Arts Theatre, including Stanislavsky and Olga Knipper

Chekhov’s Biography Cont…

Chekhov’s final photograph, 1904

• Died July 2, 1904, age 44• His wife Olga Knipper

illustrates his the final moments: “On the night of July 2, 1904, he woke up unable to breath properly. The doctor told me to give him a glass of champagne. Chekhov took a sip of his drink and said in German, ‘I’m dying,’ and he smiled, charmingly, just as he always did and said something about not having had champagne for a long time. Then he finished his drink, turned onto his side, and died.”

Chekhov’s Writing PhilosophyChekhov developed his concept of the dispassionate, non-judgmental author and outlined his ideas in a letter to his brother Aleksandr:

1. Absence of lengthy verbiage of political-social-economic nature;

2. Total objectivity;

3. Truthful descriptions of persons and objects;

4. Extreme brevity;

5. Audacity and originally; avoid the stereotype;

6. Compassion.

This writing style was a complete departure from that of the theatre of his day.

Chekhov on Medicine

• “Medicine is my lawful wife, but literature is my mistress. When one of them bores me, I sleep with the other.”

• “Doctors are just the same as lawyers; the only difference is that lawyers merely rob you, whereas doctors rob you and kill you too.”

• “It seems to me that as a doctor I have described the sicknesses of the soul correctly.”

• Critics describe Chekhov’s writing as possessing a “bedside manner,” a mixture of compassion and necessary distance.

Chekhov on Writing

• “They say all kinds of things about me. Lots of silly things. Above all, I am a man. I love nature and literature. I love pretty women. I hate routine and despotism. To lie in the hay and fish for perch is a much greater satisfaction than good reviews or loud applause.”

• “You speak of fame, of happiness, an enlightened, interesting life. For me, all those words are like so much jam, which I never eat. Night and day I have only one obsession: I have to write. I have to write. I have to, I have to.”

• “A writer is not a confectioner, a cosmetic dealer, or an entertainer. He is a man who has signed a contract with his conscious and his sense of duty.”

Chekhov on Writing Cont…• “The Novel,” he wrote, “is a lawful wife, but the Stage is a noisy, flashy,

and insolent mistress.”

• “All I wanted was to say honestly to people: ‘Have a look at yourselves and see how bad and dreary your lives are!’ The important thing is that people should realize that, for when they do, they will most certainly create another and better life for themselves. I will not live to see it, but I know that it will be quite different, quite unlike our present life. And so long as this different life does not exist, I shall go on saying to people again and again: ‘Please, understand that your life is bad and dreary!’”

• “It is time for writers to admit that nothing in this world makes sense. Only fools and charlatans think they know and understand everything.”

Chekhov on Writing Cont…• “Literature is accepted as an art because it depicts life as it actually is. Its

aim is the truth, unconditional and honest….To a chemist there is nothing impure on earth. The writer should be just as objective as the chemist; he should liberate himself from everyday subjectivity and acknowledge that manure piles play a highly respectable role in the landscape and that evil passions are every bit as much a part of life as good ones.”

• “The more objective you are, the stronger will be the impression you make.”

• “Sometimes I feel totally discouraged. Whom and what do I write for? My audiences? I don’t see them and believe in them less than in spirits. They are uneducated, ill-mannered. Even the finest are unscrupulous and insincere with us. Writing for money? I never have any and am so unused to it, that I don’t miss it. Writing for praise? Praise exasperates me. The Literary Society, students, girls, adored my “Attack of the Nerves”. But the description of virgin snow was only noticed by Grigorovich.”

Chekhov on Writing Cont…"The demand is made that the hero and heroine should be dramatically effective. But after all, in real life people don't spend every minute shooting each other, hanging themselves and making confessions of love. They don't spend all their time saying clever things. They're more occupied with eating, drinking, flirting and talking stupidities - and these are the things which ought to be shown on the stage. A play should be written in which people arrive, go away, have dinner, talk about the weather and play cards. Life must be exactly as it is. And people as they are - not on stilts.... Let everything on the stage be just as complicated, and at the same time just as simple as it is in life. People eat their dinner, just eat their dinner, and all the time their happiness is being established or their lives are being broken up.”

Chekhov = Cheetah

• “About a month before he died, the desperately ill Chekhov visited Moscow zoo. Chekhov loved animals. Apart from his dachshunds and the livestock on his estate he also had as pets two mongooses and, in Yalta, a tame crane. Conceivably, during that visit to Moscow zoo, Chekhov might have seen a cheetah in its cage. Donald Rayfield, Chekhov's best and definitive biographer, speculates that Chekhov's sexuality was like that of the cheetah. The male cheetah can only mate with a stranger. When the male cheetah mates with a female cheetah familiar to him he is - bizarrely - impotent. It's a fanciful image but one worth contemplating: the dying Chekhov staring at a cheetah in its cage.

• Perhaps this explains this rare man's extraordinary life and the view of the human condition that he refined in his incomparable stories. Perhaps it explains his enigmatic, beguiling personality: his convivial aloofness; his love of idleness; his immense generosity; his hard heart. For this artist to avoid impotence only strangers would do; it only worked with strangers. Anton Chekhov was a cheetah.”

Similarities Between Chekhov and Simon’s Writing

1. Always writing. Two of history’s most prolific writers. Dedicated and severely self-disciplined.

 – Chekhov wrote one-act plays, multi-length plays, and hundreds of

short stories• Chekhov wrote, “You speak of fame, of happiness, an enlightened,

interesting life. For me, all those words are like so much jam, which I never eat. Night and day I have only one obsession: I have to write. I have to write. I have to, I have to.”

– Neil Simon…you saw the list.• When Simon told an actor that he was stuck on a play he was writing, the

actor asked, “Whoa what do you mean you’re stuck? You’re Neil Simon. Doesn’t it just come.” To which Simon replied, “No. Everybody thinks that, but no, it doesn’t just come. It’s always hard and it’s never easy.”

Similarities Continued

2. Critics claim they created new styles of theatre.

– Tolstoy stated about Chekhov, “It is thanks to him that a whole new style of playwriting has been born.”

– Simon’s three plays The Seagull, Three Sisters, and The Cherry Orchard are accredited with ushering in a new style of theatre, naturalism.

– Simon created American comedy about the common American.

3. Audiences claim that each wrote people as they really were.

– “Tolstoy wrote people as they ought to be. Chekhov wrote people as they are.”

– Richard Dreyfus, actor, claimed, “He [Neil Simon] gets us right.”

Similarities Continued

4. Wrote comedies of the common person’s human nature. Also, wrote comedies in troubled times as though saying, “Life in all its strife and ordinariness is funny. People are funny. Laugh.”

 – Rosey Hay, Professor of Acting at The Ira Brind School of Theatre

Arts, stated, “I believe what Chekhov meant by a comedy was that human behavior is funny of foible and folly and idiocy and ridiculous things that happen. It’s not exactly a farce with people running in and out, and it’s very much a comedy in terms of human nature.”

– Theatre director Michael Blakemore stated, “I don’t think it’s a mistake that he called his plays comedies. The vision was essentially array and amused you of human weakness. The surface of the plays are actually rather bright and animated and energized.”

Similarities Continued

– Steve Martin stated, “Neil, you have taken the stuff of life— marriage, divorce, love, death—and written about it so hilariously, that it took years for anyone to notice that you captured an entire time in 20th century American life.”

– Simon created humor from the lives and troubles of everyday people. Of Simon, actor Jack Lemmon said, “Neil has the ability to write characters — even the leading characters that we’re supposed to root for — that are absolutely flawed. They have foibles. They have faults. But, they are human beings. They are not all bad or all good; they are people we know.”

Neil Simon Collaborating with Anton Chekhov

The Good Doctor, of course, is not a play at all. There are sketches, vaudeville scenes, if you will, written with my non-consenting collaborator, Anton Chekhov. Not the Chekhov of The Sea Gull and The Three Sisters, but the young man who wrote humorous articles for the newspapers to pay his way through medical school. It was a pastiche for me, an enjoyable interlude before getting on to bigger things. It was, to digress for a moment, a joyous experience for me. I met my wife doing this one. Some of the scenes worked; others didn't. The marriage, I'm glad to say, did.– Neil Simon, Los Angeles, Nov. 7th, 1977 (McGovern, 1979)

A Brief History of Comedy

Commedia Dell’Arte • Began in Northern Italy in the 15th

century.• Improvisational comedy troupes

that toured Europe in the 16th and 17th century.

• Use of mime• Extremely physical comedy• Wore masks to communicate the

archetypal stock characters• Didi Hopkins stated, “When

you’ve got all these characters together big and bold with their desires, their needs, their energies, their shapes, their ways of walking, it’s like a fireworks display. It’s an exaggerated mirror of society.”

Commedia Dell’Arte

• Example of Commedia Dell’Arte. A Montage of the Yale Repertory Theatre’s 2010 Production of A Servant of Two Masters.– http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=10JbRd-VxzQ

&feature=related

Vaudeville

• In America, Vaudeville began in the 1880s.

• Popular in the U.S. in the late 19th and early 20th century.

• Live variety show. • Nothing separated

audience from performer.

Vaudeville Legacy: Buster Keaton

• Buster Keaton “Nice to Meet You” Scene from Spite Marriage– http

://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zNY1n3tYjcA&feature=related

Vaudeville Legacy: Charlie Chaplin

• Charlie Chaplin “Table Ballet”– http

://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xoKbDNY0Zwg

Vaudeville Legacy: Marx Brothers

• Marx Brothers Montage– http

://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EH7lfGtDlj0

Vaudeville Legacy: Abbott & Costello• Abbot & Costello Perform “It’s Payday”

– Comedy style similar to “The Mistress” scene in The Good Doctor [0:28 to end]

– http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u3hIMv0lklA&feature=related

• Abbott & Costello at Their Best [0:40 to 3:06]– Comedy style similar to “A Quiet War”

scene in The Good Doctor and to Chekhov’s One-Act Play “The Proposal”

– http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9b8oEcFmQD0&feature=related

• Abbott & Costello “Dentist Scene” from The Noose Hangs High [2:00 to 3:27]– Comedy style similar to the “Surgery”

scene in The Good Doctor– http

://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4DDYz6zID7k&feature=related

Vaudeville Legacy: Leslie Nielsen The Naked Gun

• The Naked Gun Excerpts – [Dock Scene 1:26 to

2:29] Comedy style similar to “The Drowned Man” scene in The Good Doctor

– http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i91E0BOQxWA&feature=related

Vaudeville Legacy: Seinfeld

• With disconnected episodes of life’s everyday absurdity, Seinfeld represents Vaudeville, Chekhov, and Simon.

• Seinfeld “The Soup Nazi”– http

://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M2lfZg-apSA

For a cornucopia of more information, check out

The Good Doctor blog: www.thegooddoctoradramaturgy.blogspot.com