I still can never figure out why "The Cherry Orchard" is hailed as his masterpiece and put in all the Drama anthologies to represent his work. To me "Ivanov", "The Sea Gull" and "Uncle Vanya" are his great works. "The Sea Gull" however ranks on the top of my list as his best work. A tragic tale of the meaning of love and being an artist with comic tones and timeless characters. All of the emotions and situations are realistic to real life. The play is more personal and has more meaning than average Realism. The first time I saw "The Sea Gull" I fell in love with it so much I saw it the next day again. It's one of the rare four act plays that I can enjoy the whole performance and not be bored. Anyone who wants to see Chekhov's brilliance should read this play and the others I mentioned.

Inspired by a real-life incident of the death of a sea gull, this is hailed as the best written play by Chekov, The Sea Gull tells a poignant love story centered on literaray nonentity Konstantin's tragic quest for a burgeoning actress Nina. Swirling around the country estate are characters who reflect Konstantin's pain and suffering in their own harshly realistic ways. In this famed play, Chekov introduces a brand new form of literature as to emphasize characters other than plot. Instead of placing characters beneath a steady frame, Chekov lets his characters guide the subtle movement of the sad tale of devastated dreams and hopes. The dying sea gull symbolizes the emptiness of defeat and further stressing the beauty of life. The fullness of being simply alive comes beaming with power and touches life.

When I first read Mystery Play, I wanted to discuss it with everyone I knew! It's a smartly written American satire that encompasses all of America's "demise"...sex, politics, identity issues, or, well, just politics. =) Set at a cocktail party hosted by a senator's wife, the party goers, a Harvard professor, a sexy Hollywood actress, the senator's schizophrenic son(s), and of course, the senator and his flaky wife try to solve a series of murders that take place as a arrogant"Mystery Writer" controls and participates in the play's action simultaneously. And what would the "Mystery Play" be without the shady Butler? Anyone who likes a good satire should definitely check this one out! Its very clever!

Writing in the turbulent late 1960's, Jean Claude van Itallie traces the chaotic, violent state of modern man to Genesis and original sin in the play The Serpent. Abstract representations of political assassinations and banal, detached monologues diagnose America as a sick society weakened by war, turmoil, and essentially lonely individuals. The Garden of Eden, complete with the Serpent itself, is van Itallie's meeting place connecting the fall of modern society to the fall of Adam and Eve. Van Itallie suggests that society can heal when we "revisit" the Garden of Eden and recover our collective lost innocence through hope and connectedness with ourselves and with one another.

Van Itallie's work is precise and engaging. Overlapping dialogue, experimental bodily gestures, and fragmented plot structure accurately reflect the societal malaise to which van Itallie refers. His creative use of actors as inanimate objects, as the collective voice of God, and as the Serpent himself stunningly implicates man as a powerful force capable of goodness, evil, and the transcendence of both. His work is neither idealistic nor cynical. Van Itallie tells a new story through narratives familiar to us all; he touches the collective unconscious of the audience to force us into both personal and political consciousness. The Serpent is responsible, well-written, and relevant art.

Jean-Claude van Itallie has done us all a wonderful service by adapting his rich and meaningful play into a lovely book that is a feast for the eyes, ears, and mind. This book makes a perfect, accessible introduction to one of the core teachings of Tibetan Buddhism. Without being morbid, the text takes us on the journey of a soul facing death, and gives ageless advice on how to approach not only death, but also the little deaths we face in everyday life. The combination of poetic yet pragmatic text, with evocative photos and images, is achieved simply and elegantly. I would recommend this book to anyone, but especially to those learning about Buddhism or interested in Tibet, or to those who know of one who is facing death or loss. This book would be a treasured and memorable gift. Bravo to van Itallie for bringing these ageless teachings into the modern world with such elegance and spirit!

This is a collection of plays that Van Itallie developed while working with the Open Theatre in the mid-70s. They are great examples of how a playwright and a group of able actors can develop something of value through collaboration and improvisation. The plays are often satarical looks at American culture.They are also valuable because they employ several unconventional staging techniques, and present several interesting acting challenges. As a theatre professor, I have often encouraged my students to use scenes and monologues from these plays. They leave a lot of room for interpretation, and for inventive staging. Reading alone does not convey their full value. On the page they seem a little nostalgic, that their appeal is to remind us of a theatre era long past. But on stage they have the same vitality and theatrical appeal that made them successful 20 years ago. (I saw a recent production of The Fable at Virginia COmmonwealth University which was quite accessible, and still enjoyable.)

This past year, my high school drama group and I performed "Interview" from America Hurrah. It was an amazing experience. Since then, we have taken it upon ourselves to learn as much of Van Itallie's plays as we can handle-none of them are easy. I found this book, which not only displays several of Van Itallie's plays but includes a few of his ideas on what true theatre should be. His plays, collaborations, and acting experiences are all brought to life in this book. There's even a letter written by Itallie to an acting company who attempted to perform his plays but ended up butchering them.

The plays in this book were written during the sixties and seventies, but they are entirely relevant today in a new millennial society full of materialism and focus on objects. They include the entire, original AMERICA HURRAH: a trilogic take on society in love, work, and play. THE SERPENT, an examination of our sins: when the forbidden fruit is eaten, an entire bag of apples is toppled out on stage to be shared with the audience to revel in ecstasy with those on stage. A few more experimental plays finish out the book.

Van Itallie truly is a theatrical genius of improvisation and experimental open theatre. I urge anyone interested in the theatre to take a look of these revolutionary plays. Warning though: it's hard to stop reading them.

Jean Claude Van Itallie is a great playwright, hes been making good stuff for many many years. In theatre class I have had the privliage to preform many of his pieces and they are very humerous. Any who, if you like to write plays then get this book, he tells about how he does it.

I've been wrestling with playwriting for more than a decade. The last book I used was Playwriting in Process, which is excellent, but the exercises are too advanced for me. "Write a scene in which two people have a secret but no one talks about it," for example. If I knew how to write a scene I wouldn't need to do exercises!

The Playwright's Workbook, on the other hand, deals in the very basics. Van Itallie explains how each scene needs a "who," "what," and a "where." His writing voice is notable for its simplicity and warmth. For the first time in my life I'm getting the sense that I can actually write plays.

People in my line of work (that is, teachers and critics of literature) seem to be paying more attention to "The Sea Gull" these days, but my money is still on "The Cherry Orchard" as favorite Chekhov play. Dover's incomparably priced edition lacks a little in the readability of the translation, but it's still a nice version of a powerful piece of work.

For me, the real strength of "The Cherry Orchard" is its unwillingness to come down propagandistically on one side of any issue. The intellectual and eternal student Trophimof levels a critique against capitalism, but one must bear in mind that it is capitalism that engineers the upward rise of the erstwhile peasant (and now landowner) Lopakhin (and, in the context of this play's being labeled a "comedy," I think Chekhov codes this rise as a conditionally good thing). Trophimof in fact seems to be granted a great deal of authority by the play, as he complains about the lazy intelligentsia and the useless aristocracy, but, sure enough, not wanting to make things too simple or simplistic, Chekhov has Madame Ranevsky put him in his place. If this is a commentary on turn-of-the-century Russian society and politics (and I think we must read it as such), it is a very balanced, multi-perspectival and complex one.

Even the criticism of the play's upper classes--the focus on Gayef's irrational obsession with billiards or Pishtchik's naive assumption that, when he is in the deepest of financial troubles, something will always come along to bail him out--is delicately balanced against the workaholic insensitivity of Lopakhin, who leaves Varya Ranevsky stranded at the play's end and expecting a proposal of marriage from him that is hinted at but never comes. What Chekhov seems to be supporting is not, perhaps, Trophimof's over-intellectualized and propaganda-like insistence on work, or Lopakhin's materialistic actual obsession with work, but maybe a revaluation of the priorities that have led to social divisions and the problematic reactions to them.

One crucial translation hitch appears early on, as Gayef passionately addresses a cupboard and praises it for holding, for so many years, wisdom and knowledge and the keys to social betterment. All other translations I have consulted have rendered this "cupboard" as a "bookshelf," and, to be honest, that makes a lot more sense, in context. Other issues of readability (or the slight lack thereof) in this Dover edition are best seen in comparison to Hingley's imminently readable and enjoyable Oxford UP translation and edition, which, to my mind, remains the standard. This Dover edition's dialogue is occasionally stilted and impenetrable.

Still, though, for the price, this copy of "The Cherry Orchard" is unbeatable. It's an impressive and provocative play, and even more so when one is reminded of its original context. It's problematic, of course, to pin events to each other and argue for direct influence, but I have a hard time seeing the workers' uprisings in Russia during the winter of 1905-06 as completely unrelated from this play's release in 1904, which set many of these still vital issues into motion in a very productive way.

Anton chekhov's "the cherry orchard" is a captivating, but somewhat confusing tale of an aristocratic household that comes face to face with adversity. His impressionistic portrayal of characters delivers a power packed package of meaning that both appeals to and appalls every human heart. Through a subtle messages and powerful passages chekhov purveys his sentiments about a world that is tainted by a dark cloud of selfishness. Although the play itself is tragic-like the characters are not tragic. They seem to blindly stumble upon the pages of life accomplishing absolutely nothing. Through checkhov's genius they still remain human, with dreams and fears like the rest of us. It is through these characters that chekhov's beliefs are made known.

Anton Chekhov's play "The Cherry Orchard" has been published as part of the Dover Thrift Edition series (that's the version I read before writing this review). No translator is credited for this edition. According to the note at the start of the book, the play was initially presented by the Moscow Art Theatre in 1904.

The play takes place on the estate of Madame Ranevsky, the matriarch of an aristocratic Russian family that has fallen on financial hard times. She faces the possible loss of her family's magnificent cherry orchard.

The play is populated with interesting characters: Lopakhin, a wealthy neighbor whose father was the serf of Madame Ranevsky's father; Firs, an aged servant who longs for the "old days"; Trophimof, a student with lofty ideas; and more. There is a great deal of conflict among the characters.

"The Cherry Orchard" is about people dealing with very personal conflicts and crises while larger socioeconomic changes are going on around them. The orchard of the title is a memorable image that is well handled by Chekhov. The play contains some really effective dialogue, such as old Firs' reflection on the apparently lost art of making dried cherries. This is definitely one classic play that remains compelling.

An excellent reflection on American life and the lack of attention we give eachother.

A detailed look at the life and works of a playwright who seeks to reinvent and add life to drama, experimenting with a wide variety of dramatic structures and treatments. As a dramatist who often gets inspiration from the pulse of society and who sees theater as having a therapeutic effect on social problems, Van Italie is a fascinating figure. I'd like to find more about this writer/playwright. The book only whetted my appetite for more.