Olga Knipper Olga Knipper Olga Leonardovna Knipper-Chekhova (; – 22 March 1959) was a Russian and Soviet stage actress. She was married to Anton Chekhov. Knipper was among the 39 original members of the Moscow Art Theatre when it was formed by Constantin Stanislavski in 1898. She played Arkadina in "The Seagull" (1898), played Elena in the Moscow premiere of "Uncle Vanya" (1899), and was the first to play Masha in "Three Sisters" (1901) and Madame Ranevskaya in "The Cherry Orchard" (1904). Knipper married Anton Chekhov, the author of these plays, in 1901. Knipper-Chekhova played Ranevskaya again in 1943, when the theatre
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.