Well… I let this week
get away from me blog wise! Yeesh! So the seven and a half of you who read this,
go ahead and buckle up for another long one!
Tuesday was a strange
day because, in the midst of all these lasts, we had a first – our first stage
combat class. I would tell you our
teacher’s name, but it was the first thing he said to us and we hadn’t yet
adjusted to his accent, so none of us caught it. It’s maybe Vladislav or Slava or Stanislas…
or possibly Jim. Who knows. Whatever the case, he is a bear of a man who
took us through a master class. It might
be both a good and bad thing that we get to the end the month punching each
other. But either way, it sure is a fun
thing.
After combat we
grabbed lunch and headed back for acting…sort of. We did the group etudes (I had a little cameo
as one of our acting teachers. Once he
realized that I was being him he could hardly contain himself…and then
apparently he made fun of my accent.).
But after the etudes, the PhDs went off to meet with Sergei to talk
about teaching acting while the rest of the group continued working with
Ilja. Then we all came together at the
end of the class for more Chekhov etudes.
I think mine was pretty successful… so that was a nice way to sort of
end that part of the month for myself.
After class we headed
back to the Satirikon for a little-known play called Romeo and Juliet which
just opened this month. It was featuring
a lot of students from the MXAT, so it was cool to see them again. And the production was very interesting. First of all, it was set in a half pipe/skate
park/amusement park that may well have been on the moon… so that was a little
strange. But in general, it provided a
great setting for the onslaught of young and dumb that was to be the three
hours’ traffic of their stage. The
actors who played Romeo and Juliet were positively delightful – the energy of
their experiences of each other was so manic – it really made them feel like
crazy, hormone driven kids rather than the high-minded lovers that so many
productions try to transform them into.
They were positively acrobatic in their expression of love for each
other, and as one of the MFAs pointed out, Friar Lawrence had a hard time
keeping them from making out long enough to marry them. I really liked that interpretation. Now, I wasn’t as keen on the giant clown face
projections or the roller coaster on which Capulet came and went (and that
Mercutio rode into oblivion after his 4 hour death scene), but the death scene
at the end was well worth the price of admission. It was really lovely. And aside from the giant bolt of lightning
that struck to end the fighting over their bodies (it was all my row could do
not to laugh out loud at the clichéd moment), it had a really nice ending. I learned a lot about the play from this
production and really actually cared about these dumbass kids for one of the
first times ever.
Wednesday started out
with our final morning of Russian Folk Dance… but our translator didn’t show
up. So poor Irina was on her own with
our uncoordinated selves. I did manage
to translate some of her instructions to help with the flow of the class, so I
was feeling pretty useful from a language perspective if not from a getting my
feet to do what they’re told perspective.
Then it was off to singing for our final “recital” for each other. I always love this class, since we’re pretty
much separate for the whole month of singing, so it’s a cool chance to get to
see what everyone else has been working on.
After lunch we met up
for our final acting class, presented our etudes, talked about the month, and a
few people stood up and taught some exercises, which were mostly a lot of fun
and great for the ensemble. Then we did
our last few Chekhov etudes and headed out – half home, and half of us to the
Arbat where we grabbed Blinis for dinner (oh, Teremok, how I’ve missed you!)
and saw Uncle Vanya at the Vakhtangov Theatre.
It is a very artistic and important production that has won lots of
awards, but it’s not a very joyful production.
That’s one thing I find over here – even in the most dire of plays, you
still feel the joy of the performances.
Not in this one, quite so much though.
Still, there are some beautiful images in the show, and it caps off our
collection of all of the four major Chekhov plays. Go team!
Thursday morning
started off with our second and final stage combat class wherein we did a good
deal of punching and kicking each other in the face, with a few head butts
thrown in for good measure. Then we
gathered for our last theatre history lecture before a little reception to
celebrate the month. The afternoon was
pretty much ours, so several people went out touristing, though I went back to
the dorm with every intention of getting some work done. Of course, Moscow is in the midst of a heat
wave the last couple of days, so the walk home was unendurable, so I just took
a shower and fell asleep until it was time to get ready for the theatre. So the group met up and headed off to the Satirikon
for King Lear, but since I’ve seen it twice, I decided to go to the School of
Dramatic Arts for a production of Coriolanus.
And let me tell you who had a better night at the theatre: the rest of
my group did. This Coriolanus was
amazingly unskilled and choppy. All the
lightness and grace I’ve become so accustomed to in the actors here was utterly
lacking. There were some creative
moments of staging, but by and large it was a play about people yelling,
uncoordinated interpretive dance, and more doors than a French farce. Coriolanus flew around, hanging five stories up only by his arm - no harness. The body stockings flattered no one. The two minutes devoted to getting one of the conspirators into his scrubs was painful...and watching the two of them crawl out of the pit...well... I wasn't sure either was actually fit enough to make it. Oh... and there was the actress who looked like Samantha Bee... but seemed like Samantha Bee putting on the act of being in a really earnest but thoroughly sub-par production. And boy, did they abuse the elevator in the space. I was sitting there through the second act
begging them to kill Coriolanus already.
I’m glad I saw it so that I don’t have to wonder… but damn… it was
rough.
Then it was back to
the dorm for some sleep… in the hot hot hot hot dorms. I think Moscow is getting hot to try to make
it easier for us to leave this land of so little air conditioning.
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