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
Uncle Vanya improved. "Uncle Vanya" became a permanent fixture in the Moscow Art Theatre. Other actors who have appeared in notable stage productions of "Uncle Vanya" include Franchot Tone, Cate Blanchett, Peter Dinklage, Jacki Weaver, Antony Sher, Ian McKellen, William Hurt, George C. Scott, Donald Sinden, Derek Jacobi, Michael Gambon, Tom Courtney, Trevor Eve and Laurence Olivier. The play was also adapted as the new stage-play "Dear Uncle" by the British playwright Alan Ayckbourn, who reset it in the 1930s Lake District—this adaptation premiered from July to September 2011 at the Stephen Joseph Theatre. <poem>Are you Uncle Vanya? I am. [Gunshot sounds]