Next Theatre Company

Chekhov’s Cherry Orchard, Gorky’s Summerfolk

This 6-week class is offered downtown at the University of Chicago Gleacher Center.

Teacher Recertification CPDUs: 15

In the final moments of Anton Chekhov’s Cherry Orchard, the family orchard is sold and chopped down to make way for a subdivision of vacation homes. What happens when Russia’s emerging class of professionals – lawyers, doctors, engineers and the like – rent those homes for the summer? That’s exactly what Maxim Gorky (1868–1936) imagined when he wrote Summerfolk (1904), an examination of Russia’s shifting class attitudes before the Revolution. This class will study both plays in English translation.

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