The Final Countdown

Our last full Monday in Moscow!  Already!  Finally!  Time moves so strangely here, this whole final week is so full of mixed feelings of “How can I ever leave?!” and “It’s really time to go.”  Today had those moments in spades. 

I woke up exhausted after our excitement with urgent care last night, and headed down for singing.  We had a substitute translator… and let me tell you, translating for Marina is not the easiest gig for a translator.  Poor Boris looked like a deer in headlights.  Most of the time I understand Marina and don’t need translating, so he sort of dropped out as we were working my song (I managed to go first), and once I was done, I headed out to pick up a prescription for Susie (ah… clever pseudonym) and brought it back to her at the dorm (she had decided to stay off the leg for most of today).  Then I headed back down to the MXAT where there was a lot of grouchiness about a weird situation that is definitely not blogworthy, but is absolutely frustration worthy.  I guess I’ll just say I wish people would stop trying to draw lines in the sand between theatrical disciplines.

Then it was time for acting class, which had its ups and its downs.  We did some really good work, and some really frustrating work.  We got some really good instructions, and some really opaque instructions.  Then we participated in this weird staged photo shoot for a brochure or something, and did a few Chekhov etudes before calling it a day.  At that point I turned over the tickets for tonight’s show (the ballet Giselle at the Stanislavsky/Nemirovich-Danchenko Music Theatre) to one of my PhD cohorts, gave her directions to the theatre, and booked it back to the dorm to see if Susie was up for making the trek to the ballet.  She met me in the kitchen all dressed and ready to go, so I escorted her down to the theatre, met up with the group, and left them there.  This was a show for which I was only able to get 13 reasonably priced tickets, so one person took a bullet and bought a more expensive ticket, and one student and I opted out of the show altogether.  Now, this is a beautiful theatre, and the show is performed by one of the best ballet companies in Russia... which is to say one of the best ballet companies in the world... but I have to admit, while there are a lot of ways that I like to be told a story, it turns out that ballet is not really one of them.  So I was pretty much fine with bowing out of this one in favor of a night to myself.

I had all these grand plans about working on my paper and my script… but I ended up taking a shower, making a sandwich, having ice cream and beer (my Moscow comfort foods) and taking a nap.  I continue to feel like I’m in a very deep hole, and I’m not sure when I’m going to manage to find a way out… but it had better be soon!

When I Say Adventures in Russia...

...I mean it.

This picture would be much better if I were holding a beer.

Well… today turned out to be more of an adventure than I usually go for.  It started out pretty slowly, with some skyping (oh my gosh… as I type this, I am starting to realize that this morning feels like it was about a week ago) and then the group met up to head out for a leisurely cruise down the Moscow River.  This is always one of our favorite activities of the month, but there was a slight pall cast over the day by the fact that we managed to get the one boat in the fleet that didn’t have a concessions stand – which meant no beer or ice cream!  And the boat had this crazy sulfur smell that was a little much.  But other than that, we had a lovely time, it was very relaxing, and I highly recommend it!

After that the group split up to go to different destinations around Moscow.  I went with some folks to the Arbat street – a cute little pedestrian street with shops and artists and whatnot.  I did end up getting my beer and ice cream there… so I didn’t have to suffer too long.

See... I look good with a beer.

The evening was another low impact one with only four graduate students strolling down to a theatre to see a really delightful production of Женитьба (Marriage).  The energy was wonderful in the show, and there were some truly genius bits.  The theatre where this was performed, however, is a shared space that different companies rent for their productions, and I’m not sure what was up with their lights, but they were extremely clunky.  Still, even with the not-so-great lighting design, it was a super fun evening of theatre.

After the show we hurried back to the dorm for the weekly potluck… and this is where things got interesting.  I stopped into the grocery store to buy snacks to contribute to the potluck and heard that one of the students (we’re going to call her Susie, because she hasn’t had the chance to tell her parents yet, and the remote chance that they might google her name and Moscow and find this entry before she has a chance to tell them the story leads me to create this super original pseudonym) had fallen on the stairs and hurt her knee, but no one seemed to be making a big deal of it.  Fine.  Then I got to the dorm, and it turns out there was, indeed, sort of something about which to be making a big deal.  Susie had gashed her knee pretty substantially.  So, we found a first aid kit to do some preliminary cleaning, but pretty much decided that she needed to go to a doctor.  So, I got directions from JT (who has a pretty nasty cold of his own), bandaged up her knee, then David (one of the MFA actors on the trip) created a makeshift splint out of ace bandages, pot handles and a loofa handle, and we trundled her out the door.  Now, it was about 11:30 by the time we left the dorm, but we opted to take the metro rather than try to figure out how to call a cab and such… so David carried our injured little bird up and down all the stairs on his back, and supported her as she walked on the flat surfaces, while I managed to guide us to the clinic.  Now let me tell you a few things about this clinic: first, the journey to this place involves a LOT of sketchy side streets; and second, it might well be the best doctor’s office ever.  NEVER – even with an appointment – have I been seen that quickly by a doctor.  And I’m including when I was brought to the ER strapped to a board with a head wound (I was left to wait there, strapped down, for what seemed like 40 minutes…but that was a long time ago… I’m totally over it…totally).  I mean, as soon as the paperwork was filled out, we were in the elevator and with the doctor (a delightful young man named Andrei).  He irrigated and disinfected the wound – and had a great bedside manner as he went along, as all this was clearly fairly painful for Susie.  And he finally ended up giving her that liquid bandage stuff and a prescription for antibiotics before sending us on our way.  I think he wanted to give her stitches, but ended up opting for the liquid stitches after he felt bad about hurting her while he rinsed the wound.  Once the worst of the pain was past and it was clear that Susie was going to be okay, the fact that I had been staring at an open wound for the last couple of hours suddenly caught up to me and I got super hot and dizzy and felt like there was a distinct possibility that I wasn’t going to be conscious much longer… so I chugged some water and sat down while Andrei finished up the appointment.  (Andrei was amused with me because I understood his accent and even some of his Russian better than the other two.  Seriously – super nice guy.  We were really glad to have him.)  And he let us take his picture.  So Andrei is totally two thumbs up in my book.

The front desk got us signed out and called us a cab (the metro doesn’t run after 1:00am) and we made it back to the dorm around 1:30 (half an hour after the dorm is supposed to lock for the night… which would have left us out in the cold Moscow world until it opens again at 6:00am… but the babushka was kind enough to stay up late to make sure we could get in.  Then, once we got home, David and I sat in the kitchen trying to wind down from the excitement; laughing our asses off at completely in appropriate jokes seemed to be the right way to do that.

But here’s the moral of the story: this is my third time on this trip, and I’ve repeated a lot of experiences.  But tonight reminded me that there are always new experiences to be had.

That said… if the next experience could involve less blood and more chocolate or money being thrown in my direction, that would be awesome.

Another Stanislavsky Saturday

Oh, Saturday.  It was a big day of much Russia-ness.  We started out the day with another session of Russian dance – our teacher is delightful, but boy howdy, I have never felt more uncoordinated in my life... and I frequently feel uncoordinated.  Then, at the end of class we were whisked off to Stanislavksy’s apartment for a quick tour.  The museum there has been expanded since my last visit, so it was cool to see some of their new display pieces.  

On the tiny stage in Stanislavsky's apartment where he ran performances from his opera studio

Then we hurried back for a quick lunch and some acting class – featuring probably the best group etude we’ve done in the last three summers.  David (one of the MFA actors) was a mime, and we were a bunch of annoying tourists who were harassing him, which led him to fight back as only a mime can.  There were lassos and boxes and boats and bullets and wind and defibrillators… it was pretty damn epic.  Then we played a game that I’m pretty sure was just burning up time rather than really building our acting skills, but it was still a fun afternoon.

Then came the big event for the day – a trip out to the Фоменко (Fomenko) Theatre for a production of Три Сестры (Three Sisters).  I was nervous about it because I hadn’t seen this production before, the tickets were sort of expensive by Russian standards (about $40) and it was going to be a long show, but it ended up being really wonderful.  The actors were energetic and delightful, the story was so clear, the set was dynamic and picturesque, and the conceit of the play was really cool too.  The production was played realistically and was, by and large, a straightforward production… except for the fact that Chekhov was on stage with the characters.  He sometimes stayed off to the side, sometimes ordered them to pause, sometimes described things to the audience, sometimes fell victim to the frustration of the characters… it was a really cool device. I really wish I could have understood more of what he was saying, since obviously he was not always speaking lines from the script.  There was a moment, for example, when he mentioned Stanislavsky, and I believe he was probably speaking from a letter from Chekhov to Stanislavsky.  It really was a wonderful way to give insight into the structure of the play.  And when, at the end of act two, Irina stood center stage crying out for Moscow and beating Chekhov with the pages of the script, it was a perfect little capsule of the play.  And oh boy… the last act was so gorgeous!  The pieces of the set that served to make the very open space interior were flown out to reveal a sort of open garden lane with autumn leaves strewn about… and man was it pretty!  And the scene between Irina and Tuzenbach before the duel was so truthful and raw and painful – because we could see their friendship and we could see that she just couldn’t lie to him about loving him because of their friendship – and they really could have had a fairly happy life together… it was so sad and wonderful!  I really enjoyed this one.  Of all the “straightforward” productions I’ve seen here, I think this one is my favorite. 

Then it was back to the dorm for a little ice cream and BED.  Ah… sleep.

A Night Off!

This morning began with a trip to Starbucks, because sometimes it doesn’t matter how interesting a class is – if the lights are off, I’m going to be asleep.  So after sucking down a venti  Mocha Frappuccino for which I paid what must be the price of a small child in some countries, I was ready for film history.  And today we watched the fantastic, but oh-so-Soviet film The Cranes are Flying.  The cinematography and the acting are so damn good… and the ending is so damn Soviet!  And overall, it’s a really great learning experience to watch it.

We had a quick lunch today and then headed off to acting class in which our group etudes were again a lot of fun.  Where yesterday we had the apocalypse and statues coming to life and critiquing art students, today we had a newly painted wall that is magically sticky if people touch it in the wrong place, and a wine that makes everyone only able to sing (in this case it was Bohemian Rhapsody and Always Look on the Bright Side of Life).  It started off class with a really fun energy.  And then getting to rhapsodize to Sergei about Master and Margarita also got our juices going, so much of our warming up was really good today.  Our Chekhov etudes are still hovering in this “good idea, incomplete execution” place, but hopefully we’re fumbling in the right direction.

Then, after class, something magical happened: I went back to the dorm.  We had a few tickets to the MXAT’s production of Marriage, which I have already seen, so I opted to let other people take the tickets, and I just went the hell home.  I stopped at a couple stores on the way back to the dorm, I got groceries – including a couple beers.  It was downright civilized! 

I had every intention of spending the evening working on my conference paper (the level of writer’s block I’m dealing with on this thing is EPIC), but I managed to be distracted by conversations with people both here and back home… so I didn’t get much done, but I did get caught up on my journal… and I did get some much needed mellow.  I have Monday night off too... but I'm going to make myself work on something other than my paper... because I really do deserve to do that.  I have been dying to work on my script for Dead Man's Cell Phone, which I'll be directing in September.  I feel like working on my prep work while I'm soaking in all these awesome Russia juices would be very good for me!  So Monday... I've got a date with Sarah Ruhl (and, let's be honest... probably another beer). 

The Master, Margarita, and ME!

This morning started out with our last movement class… always such a sad day!  We did so much today and pushed ourselves even farther in the work than we have.  I’m really proud of the progress this group has made together in that class (and in all of our work – but it might be most tangible in that class I guess.  The class was concluded with us presenting Vladimir with a framed photo of us, and then subjecting him to an endless stream of pictures.From there, it was time for another installment of theatre history with Anatoly.  Today he sort of just let us fire questions at him about the documentary we had watched, but unfortunately, sometimes our questions are not worded super clearly, and the language gap is palpable as he assumes we entirely misunderstood the documentary, and then gallops off down some random – albeit fascinating – road.At lunch I did my very last run-around-getting-tickets day.  And it was a good one.  This time I was getting tickets for Женитьба (Marriage) at a separate theatre run by ОлегТабаков (Oleg Tabakov) – who is also the artistic director of the MXAT.  The thing is, his box office is sort of off the beaten path, and his shows are performed at different theatres all over town, which complicates matters even further.  Now, I had been emailing and talking on the phone (in Russian, remember?) with a delightful woman in the box office for a few days, but I had never been to this theatre, so I got a little lost on the way there, but eventually found where I was going – and Гелена (Helena) was probably the single most delightful box office person I have dealt with in all my time in Moscow… and possibly in all my time going to the theatre period.  She was super friendly and super helpful, she even came out of the box office and around to the lobby to mark the location of the theatre on the map in my guidebook.  And when we finished our conversation, we both were so proud of ourselves and each other for our success that we had a sort of shared moment of celebration in which I think we may actually have cheered for each other.  I love this woman… so much so that I’m planning on writing a letter to the theatre about her epic awesomeness!Acting class proved to be more successful than yesterday in a lot of ways.  Our group etudes were really fun and right up the alley of what Sergei was looking for.  Our group training went pretty well (except for the un-awesome moment when, during a game that I hate which involves everyone running around and flailing at each other in order to get a tennis ball, a group of about four people all fell on me, bruising and floor burning me into next Tuesday), and we were on track.  Our Seagull etudes were interesting – not nearly as detailed as they should be, but all asking cool questions about the play.  So we’ve got that going for us.Then, after an uneventful dinner break, we met up to see The Master and Margarita at the MXAT.  I saw the previews of this show two years ago when I had just read the novel for the first time… and was totally blown away.  Seeing the show today… it was even more astounding.  The production is wildly technologically advanced, using every bell and whistle available on one of the most advanced stages in the world.  Every element is so carefully constructed and choreographed… there is live video, recorded video, sets that move in every possible direction… from the Metro to the moon to an asylum and even The Last Supper… everything everything everything is just a feast for the senses… and it all builds the narrative too!  Imagine that!So, with some of the bitchin’-est stage pictures we will probably ever see dancing through my head… I will now attempt to think of a brilliant etude for tomorrow…and maybe I’ll get some sleep too.  Maybe…

Playing Catch-Up

Well… the internet has been entirely unreliable, and I have been completely exhausted, so I am WAY behind in the whole blogging thing.  There are so many things that have happened since our big adventure with all the Russian visitors! So buckle up... this is a long one!

Sunday we were planning on taking a boat ride on the Moscow River, but the forecast called for heavy thunderstorms all day, so we decided to take the day off instead.  This left time for morning skyping, late morning writing and early afternoon PhD meeting.  Then in the evening, we headed down to the MXAT to watch the fourth year students perform Мы Карамазовы (We Karamazov), an evening of etudes based on The Brothers Karamazov.  I haven’t read the book, but I have read a Wikipedia synopsis, so I had a very general framework from which to approach the piece, and it was super cool.  It was in a tiny, intimate little space that was actually a reproduction of their main studio classroom, and it was just over an hour of some really interesting, creative, funny and moving studies on the characters and situations in this famous novel.  At the end, as the actor playing Алеша went around from person to person asking forgiveness, I couldn’t stop crying – it was a palpable moment of their realization that their time together was coming to an end, and it was so moving!  It was a really gorgeous, personal moment that we got to share.  Way cool.

Monday we were back to class, but only half of us had singing, so I – surprise surprise – went around to get tickets for shows. I am so close to being done doing that… I really can’t wait.  Acting class was interesting on Monday, as we had to perform our etudes of each other.  By and large they were fun, but not super advanced etudes.  Mostly we would fixate on one trait or one specific event, rather than really living the inner life of the person.  But there were some good laughs at any rate.

Monday night brought be back to my Russian boyfriend, Константин Хабенский (Konstantin Khabensky) in the MXAT’s performance of Трехгрошовая Опера (Threepenny Opera).  I have seen this show three times now, and it never disappoints.  I will say, however, that since my last visit, the actress who played Mrs. Peacham was killed in a car accident, and though the new actress was lovely, she really couldn’t hold a candle to her predecessor. 

Tuesday was our penultimate day of movement class, which is always the hardest goodbye for us.  First of all, Vladimir is a ball of amazing Russian sunshine.  Second, this is the training that is the most different from what we tend to get in the US – it’s the sort of thing that we’re less likely to encounter again.  And he pushed us pretty hard today – particularly in the partner work we’re doing – lots of balance and lifts and standing on people and stuff.  It’s not work that I’m super comfortable with, but it’s pretty fun to take pictures of… which is what I’m mostly doing, since most of the work takes place in groups of three… with 16 people, I’m the odd man out.  That’s fine though… that’s the job. <shrug>

Tuesday afternoon was an abbreviated acting class in which we finished our etudes of each other and launched into our etudes about The Seagull.  It is always so amazing listening to Sergey talk about Chekhov plays…the way he understands them is so deep and personal and applicable and amazing.  I learn so much from these discussions!  Then we ended class a bit early so that we could watch a series of documentaries on the last 20 or so years of Stanislavsky’s life by the one and only Anatoly Smeliansky (the dean of the MXAT theatre school and our theatre history teacher, in case you’re having a hard time keeping track of the absurd number of incredible people over here)!   Then, it was a super quick dinner for us before taking our seats for On Kamergersky Lane – a show of etudes that the fourth years students have been working on for two years.  This was their final performance of their MXAT student careers.  And it was amazing!  There was a panda, an encounter between a cat and an iguana, a body building fantasy, a heartbreaking clown act, a series of etudes built around famous paintings, raucous musical numbers (including one featuring the Beatles… until Yoko showed up and ruined everything).  I can’t even begin to outline all the great, creative and energetic work they presented, but it was so much fun to watch.  Our one big moment of “wow… we are not in Kansas anymore” came when they did a recreation of the final song from the movie Sister Act… with one of the actresses in blackface.  Now, blackface does not have the historical baggage here that it does at home… but boy howdy… you could feel the air get sucked out of the first row where we were sitting.  It was really uncomfortable.  Still, aside from that, it was an utterly phenomenal evening – one that I hope the Wayne State showcases can learn from!

And all this brings us to today!  Phew!  Today started out with our new dance teacher, Irina, who is this beautiful, delicate Russian flower of a woman, and she took us through the paces big time in our new Russian Folk Dance class.  It’s a completely different way to think about moving your body after all the ballet of the last two weeks, and it’s a very cool opportunity.  We covered a lot of ground today… and I’m pretty sure I remember none of it.  But it’s still pretty damn cool!

Next up was singing, during which Marina is trying desperately to get me to keep my nostrils open.  It’s such a great time.  I really do miss voice lessons.

Our acting class was sort of a rough one today.  We were told to get more fantastical with our etudes, which really didn’t work out super well, and we were all tired and crabby and had a very hard time focusing today.  And we discovered that our translator (along with some of the people in our group) does not know how to spell beggar.  That led to a particularly frustrating moment.  Still, even after all that, our Chekhov etudes were very interesting today.  There was a lot of stylized dancy stuff, which Sergey is now trying to steer us away from, but it was pretty cool to watch today anyway.  And though it didn’t really have an ending, I did feel pretty good about my Polina etude… so go me!

After acting class we headed back to the Tanganka theatre one last time to see – of all things – Калека с Инишмана (The Cripple of Inishmaan).  This was a tough one to get through for a couple of reasons.  First, it’s such a text-driven show, not speaking the language really mattered for this one.  Second, they didn’t really seem all that interested in the comedy of the piece and really seemed to focus in more on the melodrama and the tragedy of it.  But our biggest issue was this: Cripple Billy was played as mentally handicapped in addition to his very extreme physical handicap.  It was really unsettling in terms of the action of the play, and also in terms of watching a guy playing at mental disability all evening.  Maybe as Americans we’re too culturally sensitive or whatever, but the fact is, mental disability is not borne out by the script, and I found his portrayal downright disrespectful.  I’m glad we saw it, because I was definitely curious about how they would handle such a regional script.  And they had a very cool lighting and fog effect at the beginning of each act that made the fog and the footlights look like the white caps of waves on the ocean.  Plus, it’s nice to get a reminder each summer that Russian theatre is not the Utopia we make it out to be – they can make mistakes too.  But most of all, I’m also glad that it was only 200 rubles.

Up All Night

Today served up some weirdness.  My cold hit me really hard this morning in the middle of ballet class when, as I found myself fumbling through barre combinations and sweating harder than I ever remember sweating, I started to feel the room close in around me.  So, I decided to sit down and watch the rest of class – which was an interesting experience.  Then, at the end of the class, Renat announced that it would be our last class together, and that we would be doing Russian folk dance with someone else for the rest of the month.  This was a complete surprise, and though I had no way of knowing this would be our last day with him, I felt terrible that we had nothing to give him.  So, we forced him to take some photos with us, and we scuttled on our merry way.  I ate something so that I could try to convince myself to function again, and then I went hunting for some extra tickets to Giselle…unsuccessfully for the moment… but we shall see.

Acting class was a lot of fun today.  We did some good work, played some charades (in a fairly brilliant etude, if I do say so myself), discovered who among us can and cannot spell, and learned that some of us are particularly bad at Tag.  Our etudes today were partner etudes and they were intended to be situations in which it made emotional sense for us to be silent.  I was very proud of the etude Annie and I came up with – it was mucho fun.

Now – I’m going to sidetrack from describing my day to note that, as a foreign relations endeavor, these acting classes, and other classes like them, seem to be painting a strange picture of American life.  They are fascinated by all the etudes that inevitably pop up about cow tipping.  We had an etude the other day in which kids dared each other to stand on the porch of the scary old man’s house.  And today, I’m pretty sure that one of the etudes gave our teacher the impression that it’s an American pastime to race to see who can eat the most apples the fastest.  So yeah… Russian theatre teachers have got to think that America is the weirdest place ever.

At any rate, after class the group split up for the night – half going to see Синее Чудовище (Blue Monster) at the Satirikon, and the other half of us going to see Смерть Жирафа (Death of Giraffe) – another piece by Dmitry Krymov.  I was in the Giraffe portion of the group, so I let the eight little birds fly on their own to the Satirikon – a big step for me!  And the rest of us headed off for a very strange, but still amazing evening at the theatre.  It’s almost impossible to describe, but even as little of the text as we understood, it was so much fun.  And the two Russian ladies sitting next to me were so nice – it was really delightful!

Once the group reunited, there was much revelry, and as the Russian students are currently celebrating their end of classes, it was a late, loud, multi-cultural night.*  There was a very strange moment when, at 1:00 in the morning, a brief firework show erupted from the park across the street.  It looked like a wedding party or something.  So… that was an unexpected treat. 

But now that the Russians and Americans have retreated to their respective territories, it is time for me to quietly post my blog and hit the hay… I’ve got a couple of skype dates in the morning!

*Another note – there are these lovely women who run the dorm here, and they are referred to as the бабушки (BAbooshki) – which means grandmothers or old ladies.  No one would call them this to their faces, of course, but it’s just the affectionate nickname the students use to refer to them.  So, while the Russians were hanging out in the hall, and I was trying to keep order (no... you can't smoke there... stuff like that), my darling undergrads – who have a limited Russian vocabulary – explained to the Russians that I am their бабушка (BAbooshka).  I was the target of a lot of “she’s older than dirt” type comments tonight.  They weren’t intended to be so, and these students are delightful kids… but boy… did I feel like an old lady tonight!