For Immediate Release
August 26, 2010

Marina Brodskaya Translates Five Chekhov Plays For New Book

“Five Plays” provides English translation with missing passages of Chekhov classics.

Cañada College adjunct faculty member Marina Brodskaya will release a new book titled “Five Plays” on Oct. 27 which translates five historic plays from Russian playwright Anton Chekhov into the first complete English text of the plays.

The book includes new translations of Ivanov, The Seagull, Uncle Vanya, Three Sisters, and The Cherry Orchard. It features an opening by Tobias Wolff. Brodskaya’s translations restore passages entirely omitted by her predecessors.

“It all started very innocently with one play for a class I was co-teaching on Chekhov and Acting through Stanford Continuing Studies,” she said. “It took several years to complete all five plays and countless drafts. I tried to treat each line as a thread in a large tapestry, to align colors (sounds) to match the original.”

Brodskaya said the project was laborious, addicting and deeply gratifying. “I did have to take occasional breaks from it before plunging right back into it,” she said. “And I did have a few computer issues. I learned to 'Save' often.”

Brodskaya visited the Crimea this summer where Chekhov wrote Three Sisters and The Cherry Orchard. “I hope to take a group there next summer. I am very fortunate to have very patient family, friends, colleagues, and publisher. I couldn’t have done it without them.”

The book is available on Amazon.com. It has received glowing recommendations for its translastions.

“This is a contemporary American-English variant of world-famous plays cast at a perfect pitch, by a person who sees (as well as hears) words,” wrote Caryl Emerson of Princeton University on Amazon.com.

Monika Greenleaf, chair of the Slavic Languages Department at Stanford University, praised Brodskaya’s translations in her review on Amazon.com.

"Anyone who has taught Chekhov's plays or produced them theatrically, certainly anyone with knowledge of the original texts, must have been frustrated by the marked defects of previous translations,” she said. “Brodskaya's translation allows us to discover Chekhovian precision and the impact of his strategic word-choices, together with the light these shine on the fabric of modern drama and communication. It is deeply attuned to the spirit of Chekhov's language and his compassionate observation of humans caught in the net of their own habits and blind spots, striving to stop, cause, or foresee the huge change that has already engulfed them.”

Rosamun Bartlett, author of “Chekhov: Scenes From a Life” translator of “About Love and Other Stories” and founding director of the Anton Chekhov Foundation, said Brodskaya’s translations succeed in letting Chekhov speak for himself. “Her sensitivity to Chekhov's concise and delicate language allows the beauty of his writing to shine through in a way which is wonderfully redolent of the original Russian."

For more information, contact Robert Hood, Director of Marketing and Public Relations, at hoodr@smccd.edu or 306-3340