Buttons

Time to amass your button wealth

Lopahkin pulled me aside backstage. He noted that I had traded out his beautiful metal buttons for plastic ones. Lopakhin is the change-agent in Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard. The admirer of the aristocrats/increasingly wealthy merchant/son of a peasant/grandson of a serf would definitely care about what his buttons told you about who he is and where he belongs.

The original buttons were plain brushed nickel. They were pretty. I had switched them out because they reflected the light so much in that small Manhattan theater that the set designer - who had yet to build the set two days before tech - offered to switch out the buttons himself. But the ones that I chose were metal on the back, but the filigree part was plastic or some kind of resin. They looked fine from five feet away…but the actor was sure they made him feel cheap.

That is a good assortment of brass buttons from the time period. Knowing my taste I was probably trying for something as demure as that stag button in the middle. Keeping in mind the actor's feelings, I opted for something more like the one with the initials. A little brighter, a little lighter, but enough detail and texture to refract the stage lights. (These are British. Next time I do a Russian show I will treat you to a Russian button tour.)

So, on a hot August afternoon I hustled my 7 months pregnant body from Midtown to the Lower East Side and consulted the old Russian-American-button-seller. Too m…