Standout actors bring Chekhov classic to Zoom

Writer, actor and director Dave Sikula first got the idea to translate Anton Chekhov in 1984. He didn’t know any Russian, but a friend had just gone through a bad breakup, and he thought a translation of her favorite play, “The Three Sisters,” might cheer her up.

“I got a huge RussianEnglish dictionary at the Anaheim Public Library and went word by word,” he writes via email. “I could do a page a night, but, by the end (six weeks later), I could do two or three.”

Decades — and actual Russian classes — later, Sikula translated Chekhov’s other major plays, and he’s working on “Ivanov.” But the script that started it all, “The Three Sisters,” is now getting a free reading on Zoom with some glorious local acting talent. Leontyne MbeleMbong, Stacy Ross (both of whom recently slayed in “Bull in a China Shop” at the Aurora) and Juliana Lustenader play the title characters; the cast also features Don Wood, Norman Gee and Michael Barrett Austin, among others.

“The Three Sisters”:

3 p.m. Sunday, May 31. Free. bit.ly/three sistersreading

Lisa Keating