Opening salvo

I fly to New York on Friday! For the first day of class (Monday the 9th) we're to prepare a Chekhov monologue for our scene study teacher Sam Schacht. I'll be doing a Astrov piece from Act 1 of Uncle Vanya, since that's the Chekhov play I know the best (and like the best, thanks to Louis Malle's film). If all goes well posting should pick up considerably here, though I plan to focus heavily on what goes on in the classes.