{"id":658152,"date":"2026-03-15T20:45:12","date_gmt":"2026-03-15T20:45:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/658152\/"},"modified":"2026-03-15T20:45:12","modified_gmt":"2026-03-15T20:45:12","slug":"philadelphia-actor-enjoys-exploring-chekhov","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/658152\/","title":{"rendered":"Philadelphia actor enjoys exploring Chekhov"},"content":{"rendered":"

Justin Jain is one restless soul.<\/p>\n

He can\u2019t keep from multitasking even when he\u2019s concentrating on one of his numerous vocations. The urge to create just takes over. At any given time, Jain can work in local theater as an actor, writer, director, dancer, or combination of all the above. He is also working on adegree in ceramics, a craft he has worked in for years.<\/p>\n

Lately, his sights have been set on the Russian playwright Anton Chekhov, who was a doctor as well as a writer. By his own admission, an obsessive writer,.<\/p>\n

Over the next two weeks, Jain will give six performances of his adaptation of Chekhov\u2019s \u201cThe Dangers of Tobacco,\u201d alternating with two other pieces by other local performers for Theatre Exile\u2019s Philly GRIT program at the South Philadelphia theater through March 29.<\/p>\n

\u2018Adaptation\u2019 doesn\u2019t totally connote what Jain is doing. It\u2019s more about personalizing Chekhov\u2019s rambling one-act in which a smoker, is forced by his wife to lecture on the harm of tobacco but drifts hilariously into all kinds of revealing digressions, including complaints about his wife.<\/p>\n

Jain wanders into aspects of his own life, focusing on being a queer first-generation Filipino-American who is pan-artistic and engaged ina life that is different from most people\u2019s, let alone his family\u2019s and his ancestors\u2019.<\/p>\n

Jain\u2019s familiarity and interest in Chekhov developed this decade when he appeared in \u201cMinor Character,\u201d Yury Urnov\u2019s kickily kaleidoscopic look at \u201cUncle Vanya,\u201d and Dmitry\u2019 Krymov\u2019s emotive adaptation of \u201cThe Cherry Orchard,\u201d both as a member of the WilmaTheater\u2019s resident company, The HotHouse.<\/p>\n

These productions \u201cmethodically exploded\u201d Chekhov and Jain\u2019s idea of him, Jain said as he discussed his own takeoff on the Russianmaster.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d always enjoyed Chekhov, but I was encouraged to do more research about him and to explain his place in the contemporary theater,\u201d he said. \u201c\u2018Why Chekhov?\u2019 \u2018Why now?\u2019 were my questions.<\/p>\n

As most actors would, I read everything I could about Chekhov, including all of his plays. I found a wealth of texture and detail. It was exciting for me. In 16 years, I\u2019d been in six different Chekhov plays with six different directors. They were enlightening, but in reading the plays, I saw not much happens, but Chekhov and his characters know and express so much about life They are so profoundly human. I learned a lot about life, and my life, as I went from play to play.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn \u2018The Dangers of Tobacco,\u2019 I saw an opportunity. Something clicked. I saw how to experiment in a direct way. It spoke to where I was as artist, Just as Nyukhin, the man forced by a wife to lecture on tobacco went off into tangents about his life, I could do the same with mine.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d been thinking for a long time about doing a solo show about identity, being the child of immigrants, and being a minority. \u2018The Dangers of Tobacco\u2019 showed me a format for how I could achieve that.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe lecture in Chekhov\u2019s play disentangles. The lecturer starts talking about one thing and suddenly is digressing from his stated topic and talking about life. \u2018The Dangers of Tobacco\u2019 provided a great model for what I could do. It provided the skeleton for it. The lecturer talked about his domestic problems and things that interested him, only occasionally returning to the subject of tobacco. I could interrupt my purported lecture in a similar way. Interjecting \u2018Oh, you know what?\u2019 can take me anywhere I want to go.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chekhov and Jain share credit for the piece Jain will do for Philly GRIT on March 19-29 (details and tickets at theatreexile.org<\/a>). You can hear Jain\u2019s liveliness and enthusiasm as he talks about his show.<\/p>\n

Jain is from Florida. He was a kid that loved performing and crafting. Art classes were his favorite, and he studied ballet. Dancing brought him to Philadelphia. Performing and creating led him to the bygone University of the Arts.<\/p>\n

\u201cI came originally to study dance, but when I got here, I saw all of the choices available to me. I had done some community theater in high school and enjoyed it. At UArts, I could have majored in acting or dance or even art, ceramics for instance. I opted for acting. I could still take classes in my other interests, but acting seemed new and more encompassing, The theater includes dance and design. So that\u2019s where I headed. I could do all I wanted while concentrating on that.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe visual arts were always a part of my life. Remember my favorite class was art class. I began making and selling ceramics. Now I\u2019m in an MFA program at the Art Institute of Chicago for ceramics.<\/p>\n

\u201cI started out as a functional potter who worked at the wheel making tableware. I slowly shifted away from that and work now primarily in sculpture. I have been rendering lots of figures lately, as well as abstract design.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wending back to \u201cThe Dangers of Tobacco,\u201d Jain says the work is cathartic. It gives him a chance to communicate who he is and what he\u2019s experienced.<\/p>\n

\u201cFresh ideas come daily. It seems like my thoughts and memories are open-ended, but it feels good to express myself,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\"PhiladelphiaPhiladelphia 76ers public address announcer Matt Cord is retiring from that job. (AP Photo\/Chris Szagola)
\nSixers announcer retires<\/p>\n

This season will be the last Matt Cord intones \u201cMaxey for two!\u201d or any other basketball lingo as the announcer for Philadelphia 76ers home games. Cord has been the voice of the Sixers for 28 years, which means he\u2019s been the team\u2019s only full-time court announcer in this century.<\/p>\n

Cord continues to be the host of WMMR (93.3 FM)\u2019s midday show. Cord stepped into that slot after the death of his friend Pierre Robert in late October.<\/p>\n

\"Stars,Stars, from left, Tim Roth, Cillian Murphy, Rebecca Ferguson and Barry Keoghan attend the premiere of \u201cPeaky Blinders: The Immortal Man.\u201d (Photo by Andy Kropa\/Invision\/AP)
\n\u2018Peaky Blinders\u2019 movie<\/p>\n

Good news for \u201cPeaky Blinders\u201d fans. The strong vintage crime series has spawned a feature film, \u201cPeaky Blinders: TheImmortal Man,\u201d that streams beginning March 20 on Netflix.<\/p>\n

Recent award recipient Cillian Murphy (\u201cOppenheimer\u201d) returns as Tommy Shelby, who leads a street gang in Birmingham, England, after World War I. Another who has been garnering awards, Stephen Graham (\u201cAdolescence\u201d), joins him along with Barry Keoghan, Tim Roth, and Rebecca Ferguson.<\/p>\n

Six seasons of \u201cPeaky Blinders\u201d took viewers from the aftermath of World War I to the early 1930s. The movie takes the story to World War II. The plot involves the Nazis using Jewish concentration camp inmates to counterfeit British currency in an attempt to stagger England\u2019s economy. A Luftwaffe bombing of Birmingham also figures into the plot at a time when Thomas Shelby is in relativeseclusion attempting to write a novel.<\/p>\n

The movie is expected to lead to a new six-episode season of \u201cPeaky Blinders\u201d set in the \u201950s.<\/p>\n

\"MichelleMichelle Pfeiffer and Kurt Russell star in \u201cThe Madison,\u201d a \u201cYellowstone\u201d spinoff. (Photo by Evan Agostini\/Invision\/AP)
\nAnother \u2018Yellowstone\u2019 spinoff<\/p>\n

\u201cYellowstone\u201d can match \u201cLaw & Order\u201d or \u201cNCIS\u201d for television mitosis. It keeps splitting off into new series, either in a different time period from the original Taylor Sheridan opus starring Kevin Costner or in a different locale that was somehow close enough tobe affected by or related to Costner\u2019s Dutton Ranch.\u201d<\/p>\n

First came \u201c1883.\u201dThen came \u201c1923. In February \u201cMarshals\u201d began on Paramount+. This week brings \u201cThe Madison\u201d with Michelle Pfeiffer and Kurt Russell as a New York couple who moves to Montana\u2019s Madison Valley following a disruption in their city life. Italso streams on Paramount+.<\/p>\n

Another series, \u201cDutton Ranch,\u201d is set to premiere this year with \u201cYellowstone\u201d characters Rip Wheeler and Beth Dutton, played by Cole Houser and Kelly Reilly, moving to Texas to start their own dynasty.\u00a0 Annette Bening and Ed Harris will join the cast.<\/p>\n

Who knows? Maybe \u201cYellowstone\u201d series will have one night to themselves like the \u201cChicago\u201d shows do on NBC.<\/p>\n

Pianist returns<\/p>\n

Last week I had the pleasure and excitement of hearing pianist Haochen Zhang play two Robert Schumann pieces in a recital in the Montgomery County suburbs.<\/p>\n

Schumann figures prominently in three concerts Zhang performs this weekend with the Philadelphia Orchestra Friday through Sunday, but Zhang will be favoring a different composer this time. He will be the featured soloist for Rachmaninoff\u2019s \u201cRhapsody on a Theme of Paganini,\u201d a piece Rachmaninoff himself debuted with the orchestra in 1934. Marin Alsop conducts.<\/p>\n

What I enjoyed about Zhang\u2019s playing, especially after hearing the orchestra perform Mahler\u2019s 2nd Symphony on March 6, was how he balances dramatic intensity with softer, subdued passages. Playing Schumann\u2019s \u201cPiano Sonata No. 1,\u201d Zhang\u2019s attack reminded me ofthe boldness of the angry cellos that begin the Mahler opus. His range and sensitivity in that piece and Schumann\u2019s more lyrical \u201cFantasie in C Major\u201d made it clear how the Curtis graduate won the 2009 Van Cliburn International Piano Competition.<\/p>\n

In addition to the Rachmaninoff, Alsop leads the Orchestra in Schumann\u2019s \u201cSymphony No, 2 in C Major.\u201d<\/p>\n

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