1. The Good Doctor

3. 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

4. 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

5. ―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.)

8. 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.

10. 5 Main Geographical Areas of Russia:
1. Northern European Plain
2. Ural Mountains
3. Western Siberian Plains
4. Central Siberian Plateau
5. Kemerovskaya Peninsula

12. 1. Northern European Plain

13. 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.

14. 2. Ural Mountains

15. 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.

16. 3. Western Siberian Plains

17. 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.

18. 4. Central Siberian Plateau

19. 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.

20. 5. Kemerovskaya Peninsula

21. 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.

23. 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

24. 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

25. 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

26. Set Designer Matt Mielke‘s
Production Concept for the
World of The Good Doctor

36. 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.

37. Director Alan Litsey‘s
Production Concept Visuals
for the The Good Doctor

39. 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.‖

40. 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, vaudevill
e comedy, and, even in one, their dark side.

41. 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

42. 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

43. 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.

44. The Works of Neil Simon
Plays Plays
• Come Blow Your Horn (1961) • I Ought to Be in Pictures (1980)
• Little Me (1962) • Fools (1981)
• Barefoot in the Park (1963) • Brighton Beach Memoirs (1983)
• The Odd Couple (1965) • Biloxi Blues (1985)
• Sweet Charity (1966) • The Female Odd Couple (1986)
• The Star-Spangled Girl (1966) • Broadway Bound (1986)
• Plaza Suite (1968) • Rumors (1988)
• Promises, Promises (1968) • Lost in Yonkers (1991)
• The Last of the Red Hot Lovers (1969) • Jake’s Women (1992)
• The Gingerbread Lady (1970) • The Goodbye Girl (1993)
• The Prisoner of Second Avenue (1971) • Laughter in the 23rd Floor (1993)
• The Sunshine Boys (1972) • London Suite (1995)
• The Good Doctor (1973) • Proposals (1997)
• God’s Favorite (1974) • The Dinner Party (2000)
• California Suite (1976) • 45 Seconds to Broadway (2001)
• They’re Playing Our Song (1979) • Rose’s Dilemma (2003)
• Oscar and Felix: A New Look at the Odd
Couple (2004)

45. The Works of Neil Simon
Screenplays Screenplays
• After the Fox, United Artists (UA), 1966. • Chapter Two (based on his play), Coumbia, 1979.
• Barefoot in the Park (based on his • Seems Like Old Times, Columbia, 1980.
play), Paramount, 1968. • (With Danny Simon) Only When I Laugh (also
• The Odd Couple (based on his known as It Hurts Only When I Laugh; based on his
play), Paramount, 1968. play (The Gingerbread Lady), Columbia, 1981.
• Sweet Charity, Universal, 1969. • I Ought to Be in Pictures (based on his
• The Out-of-Towners, Paramount, 1970. play), Twentieth Century-Fox, 1983.
• Plaza Suite (based on his play), Paramount, 1971. • Adapter (with Ed Weinberger and Stan Daniels), The
• Star-Spangled Girl (based on his Lonely Guy, Universal, 1984.
play), Paramount, 1971. • The Slugger's Wife, Columbia, 1985.
• The Heartbreak Kid, Twentieth Century-Fox, 1972. • Brighton Beach Memoirs (based on his
• Last of the Red Hot Lovers (based on his play), Universal, 1988.
play), Paramount, 1972. • The Marrying Man, Buena Vista, 1991.
• The Prisoner of Second Avenue (based on his • Neil Simon's "Lost in Yonkers" (based on his
play), Warner Bros., 1975. play), Columbia, 1993.
• The Sunshine Boys (based on his play), UA, 1975. • The Odd Couple II, 1998.
• Murder by Death, Columbia, 1976. • The Out-of-Towners (based on his play), (1970
• The Goodbye Girl, Warner Bros., 1977. screenplay) 1998.
• California Suite (based on his • The Heartbreak Kid, (1972 screenplay) 2007
play), Columbia, 1978.

46. The Works of Neil Simon
Television Series Television Movies
• (With Danny Simon) The Phil • Plaza Suite (based on his play), ABC,
Silvers Arrow Show, NBC, 1948. 1987.
• Your Show of Shows, NBC, 1950- • Neil Simon's "Broadway Bound" (based
54. on his play), ABC, 1992.
• The Sunshine Boys (based on his play),
• The Tallulah Bankhead Show, NBC, Hallmark Entertainment, 1995.
1951. • London Suite (based on his play), 1996.
• The Sid Caesar Show (also known • Jake's Women (based on his play), 1996.
as Caesar's Hour), NBC, 1956-57. • Laughter on the 23rd Floor (based on
• Sid Caesar Invites You, ABC, 1958. his play), 2001.
• (With Danny Simon and Mel • The Goodbye Girl, (1977 screenplay)
Brooks) The Phil Silvers Show (also 2004.
known as Sergeant Bilko), CBS,
1958-59.
• The Garry Moore Show, CBS, and
A Quiet War, 1976.

47. The Works of Neil Simon
Television Specials Radio Series
• The Trouble with People, NBC, 1972. • The Robert Q Lewis Show, CBS
• (with Danny Simon) Goodman Ace,
• Writer for:
• Love, Life, Liberty, and Lunch, 1976.
CBS.
• The Sunshine Boys (based on his play), Memoirs
1977.
• Barefoot in the Park (based on his play), • Rewrites: A Memoir. Simon &
1982. Schuster. Oct. 7, 1996.
• "Big Joe and Kansas," a segment of • The Play Goes On: A Memoir. Simon
Happy Endings, 1975.
& Schuster. July 1, 1997.
• Adapter of Material for:
• Best Foot Forward
• Dearest Enemy
• Connecticut Yankee

48. 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

49. Neil Simon‘s Awards and Honors
1956, 1957 • 1968
• Emmy Award Nomination for Best Writing in a Variety or Situation Comedy • Sam S. Shubert Foundation Award
• The Sid Carson Show •
• • 1968
• 1959 • Academy Award Nomination and Writers Guild Award for Best Screenplay Based on
• Emmy Award Nomination Material from Another Medium
• The Phil Silvers Show • The Odd Couple
• •
• 1963 • 1969
• Tony Award Nomination for Best Author of a Musical/ Best Musical Play • Tony Award Nomination for Best Musical
• Little Me • Promises, Promises
• •
• 1964 • 1970
• Tony Award Nomination for Best Play • Tony Award nomination for Best Play
• Barefoot in the Park • Last of the Red Hot Lovers
• •
• 1965 • 1972
• Tony Award Winner for Best Dramatic Author • Tony Award Nomination for Best Play
• The Odd Couple • The Prisoner on Second Avenue
• •
• 1966 • 1973
• Tony Award Nomination for Best Musical • Writers Guild Award and Tony Award Nomination for Best Play
• Sweet Charity • The Sunshine Boys
• •
• 1967 • 1974
• Writers Guild Award Nomination for Best Screenplay • Shared Tony Award Nomination for Best Score
• Barefoot in the Park • The Good Doctor
•
• 1967 • 1975
• Evening Standard Award • Academy Award Nomination for Best Screenplay Adapted from Other Material
• The Sunshine Boys

50. • 1968 • 1975
• Writers Guild Award
• Sam S. Shubert Foundation Award
•
• • 1977
• 1968 • Academy Award Nomination for Best Original Screenplay
• Academy Award Nomination and Writers Guild Award for Best • The Goodbye Girl
Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium •
• The Odd Couple • 1978
• Golden Globe Award for Best Screenplay
•
• The Goodbye Girl
• 1969 •
• Tony Award Nomination for Best Musical • 1978
• Promises, Promises • Academy Award Nomination for Best Screenplay Adapted from
Other Material
•
• California Suite
• 1970
• Tony Award nomination for Best Play • 1978
• Last of the Red Hot Lovers • Tony Award Nomination for Best Play
• • Chapter Two
•
• 1972
• 1979
• Tony Award Nomination for Best Play • Tony Award nomination for Best Book of a Musical
• The Prisoner on Second Avenue • They’re Playing Our Song
• •
• 1973 • 1979
• Laurel Award, Writers Guild of America
• Writers Guild Award and Tony Award Nomination for Best Play
•
• The Sunshine Boys • 1981
• • Honorary L.H.D. Degree from Hofstra University
• 1974 •
• Shared Tony Award Nomination for Best Score • 1983
• New York Drama Critics Circle Award for Best New Play
• The Good Doctor
• Brighton Beach Memories
• •
• 1975 • 1984
• Academy Award Nomination for Best Screenplay Adapted from • Honorary D.H.C. Degree from Williams College
Other Material •
• The Sunshine Boys • 1985
• Tony Award for Best Play
• 1975
• Biloxi Blues
• Tony Award for Over-All Contributions to the Theatre

51. • 1987
• Tony Award for Best Play
• Broadway Bound
•
• 1989
• Lifetime Creative Achievement Award, American Comedy Awards,
•
George Schlatter Production
• Like his canon, note the
• 1991
•
•
Pulitzer Prize for Drama
Lost in Yonkers
immediate, hyper frequency
•
• 1991
and esteem of Simon‘s
• Tony Award for Best Play
• Lost in Yonkers accolades, the best in the
•
•
•
1991
Drama Desk Award for outstanding new Play
business.
• 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

52. 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.‖

53. 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.‖

54. 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

55. Photographs of 19th Century
Russia for Visualization

56. Russian Peasants

57. Russian Peasants

58. Russian Peasants

59. Russian Peasants

60. Russian Peasants

63. • Empress Alexandra of
the Russian Royal
Family

64. Russian
School
Teacher
with
Pupils

65. Interior of Wealthy Russian Drawing Room

66. Upper-Class Russians

67. Typical Russian Architectural
Design on House Front

68. House with Carriage

69. Chekhov Family, 1874
From left to right: standing - Ivan, Anton, Nikolay, Aleksandr
and MitrofanEgorovich; sitting - Mikhail, Maria,
PavelEgorovich, Eugenia Yakovlevna, LudmilaPavlovna and her son
Gorgiy.

70. 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.‖

71. 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.

72. 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.

73. Chekhov‘s Biography Cont…
• 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
Chekhov, 1882 the time.

74. Chekhov‘s Biography Cont…
• 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, 1888

75. Chekhov‘s Biography Cont…
• Turning point for Chekhov when he began taking his
writing more seriously
• Esteemed Russian writer, DemitriGrigorovich, 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.‖

76. Chekhov‘s Biography Cont…
• 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
Chekhov, 1897 the disease, not having the chance
to even think about his literary
activities.‖

77. 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.‖

78. Chekhov‘s Biography Cont…
• 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 and Tolstoy, 1901

79. Chekhov‘s Biography Cont…
• 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 and Gorky, 1900

80. Chekhov‘s Biography Cont…
• ―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 room in Melikhovo

81. Chekhov‘s Biography Cont…
• 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
Anton and Olga, 1901 a few moments made you feel like
a new man.‖

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

83. Chekhov‘s Biography Cont…
• 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,
Chekhov‘s final photograph, 1904 turned onto his side, and died.‖

84. Chekhov‘s Writing Philosophy
Chekhov 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.

85. 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.

86. 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.‖

87. 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.‖

88. 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.‖

89. 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.‖

90. 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.‖

91. 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.‖

92. 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.‖

93. 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.‖

94. 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.‖

95. 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)

96. A Brief History of Comedy

97. 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
• DidiHopkins 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.‖

98. 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

99. 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.

100. Vaudeville Legacy: Buster Keaton
• Buster Keaton ―Nice to
Meet You‖ Scene from
Spite Marriage
– http://www.youtube.com/
watch?v=zNY1n3tYjcA
&feature=related

101. Vaudeville Legacy: Charlie Chaplin
• Charlie Chaplin ―Table
Ballet‖
– http://www.youtube.com/
watch?v=xoKbDNY0Zw
g

102. Vaudeville Legacy: Marx Brothers
• Marx Brothers Montage
– http://www.youtube.com/
watch?v=EH7lfGtDlj0

103. 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=u3hI
Mv0lklA&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=9b8o
EcFmQD0&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=4DD
Yz6zID7k&feature=related

104. 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=i91E0BOQxW
A&feature=related

105. 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

106. For a cornucopia of
more information, check out
The Good Doctor blog:
www.thegooddoctor
adramaturgy.blogspot.com