News

Authors:

Peter Chai, Graduate School of Political Science
Mana Tsunetsugu, School of International Liberal Studies
Sakuya Nakamura, School of Culture, Media and Society

The SILS ART PROJECT 2024 gave students and faculty members of various cultural and academic backgrounds an invaluable chance to perform the English adaptation of Anton Chekhov‘s classic play Three Sisters  at the Ono Memorial Auditorium on 14 October 2024. This project was an inter-collegiate effort, and the actors came from several academic departments at Waseda University and also the University of Tokyo, Sophia University, Rikkyo University, and Showa Women’s University. With over 60 people in the audience, we did our best to showcase our teamwork and tell the intriguing story of disenchantment of the sisters who dream of leaving the countryside to start a new life.

An open audition to find actors to perform the play was held, and 11 students and 1 faculty member were selected. The actors have diverse backgrounds and come from a number of countries including Japan, Korea, China, and Russia. Rehearsals were held regularly online and offline from August. Through practicing the lines and movements, the actors were able to familiarize themselves with the historical background of 1900s in Russia, as this is the setting of the play.

During the rehearsals, we enjoyed reading and analyzing the lines and discussing how to convey the characters’ emotions and personalities to the audience. For some of us, it was our first time performing on stage, but because a few of our fellow performers already had acting experience from the circles and student clubs they belong to, they shared some tips on how to talk and move on stage, and their presence made us feel reassured and less nervous during the actual performance. We developed friendships and an understanding that acting out a play is about teamwork. The line from the play: “Happiness is only real when shared,” became more than just words on a page as we experienced it in real life. We also realized that it is a challenging task to bring a classic to a contemporary and foreign setting because it requires careful modifications and translations.

We found that Anton Chekhov creates characters with diverse personalities and crafts conversations with contrasting perspectives, which naturally catches the audience’s attention. He also moves the play along with comedy that turns into tragedy and then, tragedy that changes into comedy, constantly creating and destroying harmony. This gives the audience room to imagine what could happen next. Chekhov skilfully shows how contrasting people’s values can be, and he raises open questions for the audience to think about the multifaceted nature of “humanity” through the mouths of the different characters.

It was a unique experience for us to bring this classic play from Russia in the 1900s to Waseda today during the Waseda Culture and Art Week celebration. Despite different backgrounds, our shared passion for literature brought us together. This experience not only allowed us to practice teamwork and perform together onstage, but we also gained a deeper understanding of Chekhov’s style and skill which, in turn, made us consider how a classic work of art such as the Three Sisters can resonate with “human nature” and speak to empathy, ensuring its continued relevance across space and time.