Drama in progress ever: Chekhov remembered

posted by: Ravi Kumar
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Produced by Larisa Akhmylovskaia 

Drama ProjectIn 2008 I, Larisa Akhmylovskaia, initiated the International Movie-Script Translation Project focused on “”, amazing Russian screen comedy based on Chekhov’s short story.

The author depicts the meeting of two playrights: an expert and a beginner...

The absurd story was first published in 1887. During Chekhov's lifetime it was translated into Bulgarian, Hungarian, Norwegian, Polish, Romanian, Serbo-Croatian, and Check languages.

The Russian TV short comedy appeared in 1960. Later Spanish director Francisco Abad presented his version: El Drama (ТВ), 1969.

The English text of the incredible screenplay was developing for about a year in my dialogues with Russian translator Andriana Barysh & American poet Carol Levin.

Thanks to Daria A Gainutdinova, Lluís Baixauli Olmos, Maria Zryutina, Huong Nguyen, Balasaheb.M. Ladgaonkar by 2012 we had "Drama" in five languages: French, Spanish, Vietnamese, and Marathi.

The Project was successfully presented at the International Theatre Translators’Conference initiated by Professor Nobuyuki Nakamoto in Tokyo, at Kai Theatre in July-August, 2010.

In 2011 the International Vladivostok Bennale participants from many countries could enjoy the laboratory rehearsal of “Drama” at the Youth Theatre of Vladivostok, with Irina Tarasyuk as Murashkina, and Adison Salakhutdinov, as Pavel Vassilievich.

There were more Festival presentations, official Conference discussions and informal talks regarding the Project with colleagues in Russia, Japan, Korea, Poland, Iran, Ukraine, and Italy.

 "DRAMA" Project was introduced in the book "Translator. Status. Training. Perspective" devoted to the gained experience as cultural liaisons, 2012.

Now it is planned to publish these five versions again. Translators are invited to join the enthusiastic team of explorers.

Drama in progress ever!

The working title of the International Translation Project:

"DRAMA. The screenplay of the TV short comedy based on the short story by Anton Chekhov.

Participants of the Project & Chronology: 

1. Translation from Russian into English, 2008:
Larisa Akhmylovskaia, Ph.D of Arts, Professor, Far Eastern Institute of Arts, Russia;
Andriana Barysh, Translator, Japan;
English version editor: Carol Levin, poet, UA. Carol is the editor of the drama translations, my co-author.
2. Translation from Russian into French, 2009:
Daria A. Gainutdinova, Senior lecturer, Far Eastern Federal University Russia
3. Translation from English into Spanish, 2010:Lluís Baixauli Olmos, University of Louisville, Department of Classical and Modern Languages, PhD in Translation and Interpreting Studies, Spain.
4. Translation from English into Vietnamese, 2011:Vietnamese version editor: Huong Nguyen, Hanoi University, Vietnam.
5. Translation from English into Marathi, 2011:
Prof. Dr. Balasaheb.M. Ladgaonkar, Y.C.Warana Mahavidylaya, Wrananagar, India
 
Information about the movie:
 
Encyclopedia article by R.F. Hingley devoted to A.P. Chekhov:
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Anton-Chekhov
“Drama” short story by Chekhov in Russian: https://ilibrary.ru/text/1181/p.1/index.html