During their Obermann Interdisciplinary Research Grant (IDRG) in summer 2024, screenwriter Dean Bakopoulos (Cinematic Arts) and drama scholar Jennifer Buckley (English and Theatre Arts) wrote the pilot for a new historical TV series: Anton & Olga. 

The show, which Bakopoulos and Buckley plan to pitch to producers early next year, follows revolutionary playwright Anton Chekhov, actress Olga Knipper, and their colleagues at the newly-established Moscow Arts Theater (MAT) through personal, political, and artistic upheaval at the end of the nineteenth century. By exploring the creative clashes and collaborations that fueled Chekhov and the MAT, Bakopoulos and Buckley aim to reintroduce modern audiences to an important part of theatrical history. “So many of our ideas of what counts as ‘good acting’ come from them [the MAT],” explains Buckley, “especially from their co-founder, Konstantin Stanislavski, whose ‘system’ still gets taught today in acting programs. Our demands for nuance, subtlety, and emotional truth are all founded on their work.”

But at its heart, Anton & Olga is a love story. Drawn together by artistic, intellectual, and physical attraction, as well as shared grief and pain, Chekhov and Knipper became an unlikely and unconventional couple until their time together was tragically cut short when Chekhov died of tuberculosis. 

“For anyone who has found love in unlikely places and times—in particular, mature and accomplished people who might have stopped looking for a true partner—Anton and Olga's personal story will be very appealing,” says Buckley. 

During their two-week IDRG residency at the Obermann Center, Bakopoulos and Buckley drafted the pilot script for Anton & Olga and developed an outline for the rest of the miniseries. They plan to revise the pilot script and submit it to Bakopoulos' agent and manager this fall,  who will submit the script to directors and producers by January 2025. 

Through Anton & Olga, Bakopoulos and Buckley hope to bring the worlds of academic scholarship and creative writing together. If greenlit, Anton & Olga would be notable for being “among the very few mainstream historical television series helmed by a creative writer (Bakopoulos) and a humanities scholar (Buckley),” according to the team.