Director Becca Johnson-Spinos found the design concept to her Baylor Theatre production of Anton Chekhov’s “The Seagull” virtually on the pages of the play.

The Russian playwright’s masterwork counts two authors within its four central characters — the other two are actors — and in their long talks about their art, their drive to win fame through creating and the struggle between the old and new in expression, she found her metaphor.

“There’s an obsession with paper and ink and writing,” she explained. Generations accustomed to writing with machines, first the typewriter, then word processors and computers, have lost the physicality of writing, when a novel or play meant hours of handwriting and when a writer’s effort was defined by a bulky manuscript — with no backup copies.

“We wanted (the set) to look like the world in a writer’s head,” said the graduate student. So although a towering, two-level country home dominates the stage, surfaces and even costumes bear handwritten words and a papery feel.

At the same time, Johnson-Spinos recognizes the irony of the pen-and-ink motif. “It’s not a realistic world we’re setting for this very realistic play,” she said.

Chekhov’s 1895 work looks at the personal interplay between famous actress Arkadina (Amanda Capshaw), her playwriting son Constantin (Adam Garst), her boyfriend novelist Trigorin (Daniel Hubbard) and a young actress and neighbor Nina (Sarah Smith). The four, along with various friends and neighbors, are staying at a country estate owned by Arkadina’s brother Sorin (Stephen Hersack).

Young Russian playwright Constantin (Adam Garst) feels torn by unrequited love and his need to create new art in Anton Chekhov’s “The Seagull,” whose Baylor Theatre production opens Tuesday.
Duane A. Laverty/Waco Tribune-Herald

On one level, the talk is about art. At the same time, the characters are all looking for love and largely not finding it, Johnson-Spinos said. Constantin is in love with Nina, who is infatuated with Trigorin. Masha (Adria McCauley), the daughter of the estate manager, loves Constantin while schoolteacher Medvedenko (Andrew Dilday) is in love with her.

“The Seagull” signalled the considerable change that Chekhov would bring to the theater with dramatic action contained within characters’ dialogue and thoughts rather than onstage movement; meaning found within the ordinary rather than the heroic or exceptional; and a sense of realism that would permeate much of 20th century drama.

Its importance in theater’s evolution almost dissuaded the graduate student from choosing a favorite play as her master’s thesis project in directing. “I was terrified to direct it. It was a play I always loved, always in the back of my mind,” she explained. “But when you’re picking a play for your thesis, you want something you won’t screw up.”

“The Seagull” wouldn’t leave quietly, though, leading Johnson-Spinos to swallow hard and take up the challenge. Chekhov often proves maddeningly ambivalent when it comes to character or plot interpretation, she found. “There are a lot of choices to be made. That’s intimidating, but you just decide, ‘I’m going to make a choice and we’re going to go with it,” she said.

Contemporary audiences will find plenty with which to identify in his characters. “(The play) is filled with love, but it’s mostly unrequited,” she said. “The need to be loved, the need to be successful — that fuels all the characters.”

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