You almost make me feel guilty for laying it on thick, Little Hawk.

Did you know that the great Moscow Theatre director, Konstantin Sanislavski, nearly drove Chekov nuts?

Sanislavski wrote An Actor Prepares and perhaps other books on acting around the turn of the century. He influenced the likes of Sir Johnny Gielgud, Marlon Hampstercheeks Brando, and everyone out of the Actors Studio. But he pissed Chekov off something fierce.

Chehov wanted his plays presented simply, to allow audiences to use their imaginations, to dream along like they were listening to an early Dylan song, not some overproduced bunch of gypsies that wouldn't let you hear that the man couldn't carry a tune...

Sanislavski tried to build 'realistic' sets. Chekov complained that, the more Sanislavski painted the tree to look like a real tree, the more they said to themselves, 'You can't fool me, I know that's not a tree.'

I think I may have digressed a bit.