Every Hour/Chekhov in 8

from the letters of Anton Chekhov

by pete danelski

Over nine years Anton Chekhov watched his brother succumb to TB, lived in a penal colony, found a humiliating start as a playwright—All in the shadow of his own fatal disease. Personal correspondences from these years open a window into Chekhov’s own positive life view and its inextricable relationship with death and creativity, ultimately asking how each factor into an artist’s life.

Part verbatim play, part experiment, Every Hour/Chekhov in 8 uses Chekhov’s words to displace his identity and ideas. The play enlarges the artistic conversation and explodes the context in which the 20th century framed “creative genius.”

Every Hour/Chekhov in 8 received developmental support as part of the 2019 Artist Residency Program of the Drama League of New York. (Gabriel Stelian-Shanks, Executive Director; Travis LeMont Ballenger, Associate Producer).