In a play by this author, a bookcase is praised as “dear and honored” for serving a family for one hundred years. In another work (-5[1])by this author, a playwright abruptly ends his play about a spirit fighting Satan when his mother mocks the production. The aspiring (10[1])actress Nina leaves that suicidal (-5[1])playwright to become the mistress of this author’s semi-autobiographical character Boris Trigorin. The servant Firs lies down (10[1])to (10[2])die at the end of a play by this author, which is accompanied by the sound of axes chopping (10[1])the title estate down. For 10 (10[1])points, (10[1])name this Russian playwright (10[1])of The Seagull and The Cherry Orchard, who also names a literary principle about a gun firing. ■END■ (10[2])