The Seagull next day, Chekhov, who had taken refuge backstage for the last two acts, announced to Suvorin that he was finished with writing plays. When supporters assured him that later performances were more successful, Chekhov assumed they were just being kind. "The Seagull" impressed the playwright and friend of Chekhov Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko, however, who said Chekhov should have won the Griboyedov prize that year for "The Seagull" instead of himself. Nemirovich overcame Chekhov's refusal to allow the play to appear in Moscow and convinced Stanislavski to direct the play for their innovative and newly founded Moscow Art Theatre in 1898. Stanislavski
Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike Nielsen and Liesel Allen Yaeger. In September/October 2013, a separate production ran in the Phoenix Theatre, Indianapolis, produced by Bryan Fonseca. In 2014, the show ran at the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis, and in Tucson and Phoenix, Arizona. The show was produced in Seattle at the ACT Theatre from October 17 – November 16, 2014. Playwright Durang starred as Vanya alongside Marilu Henner as Masha in a production at the Bucks County Playhouse from July 17 to August 10, 2014. Although "Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike" is a comedy, it has some darker elements that pervade its themes.