Fable
· Nina(in her 20s) is telling her mother, Marya Stepanova, in comedic detail how Sergey told her she is now the ingénue character in their up-coming production of The Three Sisters. After the story is finished Nina’s mother asks “Did he say anything about me?”
· Sergey is addressing the company and telling about the new show they will be doing, The Three Sisters.
· Back to Nina and her mother Marya. Marya is a seamstress and the Quick-Change Supervisor. She is the best in the business and is offended that during his talk with Nina he didn’t mention her once. She’ll just be “Nina’s mother.” Timofey(assistant to Sergey) makes his 1st appearance and warns them that they are about to quick change the actors coming off stage and tells Nina to go take a nap as Sergey instructed. Meanwhile Lena(in her 40s), Marya’a assistant enters and is preparing for the quick-change that both of them will be participating in.
· As soon as Nina exits Nikolai enters to be changed into his different costume and is bitchin’ about working with the yet to be mention prima donna Ludmilla. She has screwed up her simple line about snow being in the Caucasus and he fixes it with a changed line of his own that shows obvious distain toward her. He exits. Suddenly Lena remembers “The Bloodsucker”(Ludmilla) is about to come offstage for her quick change. Ludmilla(“of a certain age”) enters the quick change room griping about what Nikolai did and expresses her upset feelings about Nina being cast as the ingénue and younger sister in The Three Sisters while she is to play Olga the older, but not old enough, sister. When she exits we see that Marya has purposely not closed her dress all the way in the back and both her and Lena are relishing in the embarrassment and trouble to come.
· Lena tells about her daughter doing so well and that soon they may be able to afford their own apartment where each gets a room of their own, and she points out to Marya that she too will being doing better once Nina becomes a star.
· Boris(the box offices manager and Procurer) is working on making connections with a Fyodor and possibly up to no good, when in eventually walks the young stage electrician named Sasha complaining about the faulty lighting equipment, but is turned away in the end.
· Sergey and Ludmilla are in his office and she is complaining about Nina being too young to be the youngest sister in the show when really it’s all about how much older Nina makes her look. Timofey enters with the same old lighting equipment and starts fussing about it and Ludmilla misunderstands what he’s talking about.
· Sasha and Nina are in a bed together after just making love and as they lay there naked and in discussion Marya enters asking for money so she can invest it in Moscow Nights, Incorporated, which Sasha believes is against the Party(Communism) and probably a company about prostitution.
· The economy starts getting worse as Communism is possibly coming to an end and seats in the theatre are becoming less filled either because of this or because of they show they are doing “Brothers in the Snow”. Anna(another leading actress) tries also to persuade Sergey to change the casting of Ludmilla as Olga to someone else older in The Three Sisters but she uses their previous “relationship” and close friendship to do so.
· As Boris starts watching the theater workers more(for possible cut-backs) Sasha enters the quick-change room during a show and messing up a quick-change where Nikolai barely makes it back out in time. As Nikolai exits Sasha exposes his sudden entrance and alarm is due to the fact that Gorbachev(important political figure) is missing and Communism is more than likely coming to an instant and horribly dysfunctional end.
· In Act II Sergey has to start cutting shows out of their rep that are Communist driven and jumped right into working on The Three Sisters and Boris has fired Sasha as well as many others and is on his way to firing the much needed and loved Lena, who was just planning on getting her dream home with her distant daughter. After Nina returns from walking out Sasha, Boris gets the idea of using scantily clad photos of Nina to bring in the audiences after accidentally seeing her partially nude and Nina uses her new found sexuality to finally persuade Boris into changing the style of The Three Sisters into something a little more sing-y and dance-y, and as Marya witnesses this she finally tells Lena she’s been fired by Boris.
· Boris moves in and starts making changes to the point where job titles have changed and he has kicked Sergey up stairs and moved into his office. Then Boris starts changing the rehearsal process and tells Sergey that though he’s the director he’s changing the show into something a little more… American-style musical. Ludmilla and Anna are completely taken by surprise as Ludmilla is kicked out of the now two sister cast and Anna fears for them all when Sergey refuses to sacrifice his art and is replaced by Timofey, who has been following the orders of Boris. Nikolai doesn’t seem to mind the changes(except for the lack of other actors taking a toll on his performances) but the rest of the cast(or lack thereof) is shattered, all except Nina who seems to be getting her way.
· Lena makes a reappearance to visit Marya and reveals that though it was thought that her daughter was doing well and could support them in turns out that her daughter was actually prostituting and now needed somewhere to stay in the evenings. Marya welcomed to company and unpaid assistance of her old friend. By the way, Nina is the one who brought it up, because she felt persecuted by who mother who was telling Lena about Nina fooling around with Boris to get her way.
· Even though Marya was falling apart at the seams without the much needed help, she now had Ludmilla to assist her since Ludmilla has now been moved to the quick change room as a way of her keeping a job after being with that company for so long. Ludmilla ends up having to pay Lena to train her in the ways of wardrobe, which is only fair since she has a job and Lena doesn’t.
· The Three Sisters was turned into a two sister musical called O’ My Sister starring Nina, Anna, and Nikolai and with a completely changed ending. They end the play with the finale number of O’ My Sister that’s about getting on the Moscow train. A whole new destiny.
Plot Summary
Act I
Scene One - In the quick-change room of the theater Nina tells her mother, Marya, the entire story of how Sergey asked her to play Irina, one of the 3 sisters in Chekhov's play The Three Sisters.
Scene Two - Some where else Sergey, the artistic director, is explaining to the Company why he's decided for the next show to be The Three Sisters, and also the hope that Boris will help get soap for the Company soon.
Scene Three - Marya asks her if during his casting her as Irina and saying such great thing about Nina, if he said anything about her. She is offended that he doesn't mention anything about her and her great skill as the best quick-change supervisor in the business. Timofey, Sergey's assistant, enters to warn them of the approaching quick-change and instructs Nina to take the nap like Sergey told her to. As the warning bell goes off Lena, another seamstress and Marya's quick-change assistant, enters and expresses how happy she is for Nina as she and Marya are preparing for the quick-change. As Nina exits to get out of the way Nikolai, an actor, enters for his quick-change and is griping about how Ludmilla, the aged diva, just got her lines wrong and how he "corrected" it, and all this is happening while they are changing him. After they finish this speedy skill he exits quickly out of the room and back on stage and the ladies start to relax for a second until Lena reminds Marya of "The Bloodsucker". Ludmilla soon enters (fussing as usual) and complaining about Nikolai and questioning how Nina could have possibly gotten the role of Irina. Evetnually Ludmilla leaves to go back on stage with Marya "forgetting" to close the back of Ludmilla's skirt. Lena starts to talk about the good things might be coming for her and her daughter Katya who is away at the Institute. Sasha, a theatre electrician, enters looking for Nina so he can congratulate her, but it eventually turns into a dicussion about how they all make the same money in this "classless" society but he's not allowed in the Artist's Lounge. Nikolai enters again for a quick-change where he notices Sasha for the 1st time though Sasha's been there for seven years. Nikolai exits after his change, laughter is heard on stage and soon Ludmilla is seen at the door declaring her vengence on Marya for what she did with her costume.
Scene Four - Boris is on the phone with a Fyodor and discussing trading rubber windshield wipers, a Turkish rug, three issues of Hustler magazine, and Tatyana the redhead from Warsaw for other things. After his call is over Sasha enters complaining about the dangerous lighting equipment that almost killed and all Boris can say is "inflation is at sixty percent".
Scene Five - Ludmilla is in Sergey's office trying to be as charming as can be so she can sweet talk Sergey into to doing what she wants with the casting of The Three Sisters, worried that with her and Nina's age difference that it looks "abnormal" and he should cast someone else in Nina's role. Timofey soon enters with the same lighting equipment and argument that Sasha had, and he manages to insult Ludmilla's age so she leaves, and then Timofey expresses his concern of increased ticket prices to Sergey, who then reassures him they'll be fine. They still need new lights.
Scene Six - Sasha and Nina have just finished making love and are discussing it with each other when Marya enters and interrupts so she can ask Nina for her money so she can invest it in a company while Sasha disagree with her Capitalism. After Sasha gets dressed and leaves Marya warns Nina when things change even when you don't agree you go with it, speaking of course of the government. Timofey is heard on the P.A. system telling them there will be an Artists' Committee meeting in the Little Committee Room.
Scene Seven - In the Committee Room Sergey is addressing the issue of actors(Ludmilla) being insulted. Then Ludmilla stands and addresses the issue herself and speaks about how times have changed and how people like Marya used to be a real worker and should be kept in her proper place. Sergey then points that no one comes to the meetings either.
Scene Eight - In the Quick-Change Room Lena and Boris are talking about the things he has been trading to get things done and to get things for the theatre. The theatre for the first time in a while had a couple of empty seats, but he hasn't told Sergey. Boris says they need to have more sexy things on the front of the theatre to get attention. Marya eneters and joind in on the conversation of needed items and then Nina enters wearing what she thought something new and interesting since she is going to be a star. It is actually quite cheap and ugly, but Boris assures her not to worry, that she'll be taken care of now.
Scene Nine - In Sergey's office Anna his talking to him about the obvious age difference of Nina and Ludmilla and how no one, no matter how theatrical, is going to believe that they are sisters. It then comes up how they used to be lovers and that she stills cares about him as a good friend and she's only warning him that bad things are gonna happen.
Scene Ten - In the Rehearsal Room Timofey is just starting the rehearsal with the three ladies as Nikolai enters with Sergey close behind. Sergey points out that he is aware that there will be seats empty at that evening's performance of Brothers in the Snow. Then try to work on line This leads into the argument that Ludmilla shouldn't be a sister and of course Ludmilla argues that Nina shouldn't be the youngest sister, Sergey tries to comfort her, but Nina ends up running from the room in tears.
Scene Eleven - Marya and Lena are back in the Quick-Change Room while Boris is sitting around watching them and taking notes. They are be bothered by his judgmental when Nina burst into the room in tears. She goes to her mother and cries about Ludmilla hating her when Nikolai enters afterwards needing help with a costume change. Marya tries to cheer her up before her and Lena leave with Nikolai. Nina ask about Sasha and he's not there, luckily Boris was there to "comfort" her, but Nina was cautious. Here Boris tells of his struggle to take care of one of his boys who is very sick. Marya and Lena re-enters trying to get ready for Nikolai's quick-change that is just about to happen when Sasha rushes in with important news. Sasha get in the way and they change wrong person, then Nikolai comes in waiting to be changed. More confusion insues when Nikolai ends up in Sasha'a pants, but things eventually get back together so Sasha can breaks the news of a coup on the important politician Gorbachev. Leaving the end of this playing music by Tchaikovsky and the whole crew wondering what will happen next for all of Russia.
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