Trolls and Mosquitos

Number of Steps: 13660 (4.31 mi)

This morning we had singing with Marina, which was fun, as always.  She’s such a character!  And, aside from the last few bars, I made some real progress on my song, which always feels good.  After that we had ballet…which did NOT go well today.  The combinations he gave us were much more complicated, and he spent even less time explaining them than usual.  There was one combination that was extremely difficult, and he never explained it, and then he’d make us do it despite the fact that we looked completely confused… and then he’d mock and chastise us for doing it wrong.  If I screw up because I screw up, that’s on me.  But if I screw up because you refuse to teach me, then we have an issue.  I was grouchy all through the rest of class (and so was he… he really doesn’t like teaching this class…it oozes out of his elegant and beautifully sculpted pores how much he dislikes us) and then all through lunch, and I was really worried it was going to carry over into acting class, but luckily I was able to shake it as we practiced our etude – which today involved a high school house party interrupted by parents.  It was a good time.  All in all, our teamwork was really on in class today – we were very ensemble-minded today.  I’m very proud of the work we did today.  And my work as a mosquito was quite moving, let me tell you!  I have never had that many people that glad to see me pretend to be killed.  Of course, this particular etude was very close to my heart, since I’ve been having these epic battles with mosquitos the last few nights.  One will buzz in my ear as I’m trying to sleep, so then I turn on the lights to try to find it.  If I can’t, then with the lights still on, I lie down… a decoy for the mosquito.  When it inevitably comes to buzz in my ear, I stalk it until I am able to swat that little bastard down.  This has, for the last few nights, been a process that takes me to about 2:00 in the morning.  Here’s hoping I have exorcised the demons through my etude today.

At any rate, after class we headed to the Lenkom theatre for a performance of Пер Гюнт (Peer Gynt)…now I know what you’re thinking (if you happen to be someone who knows a little something about Peer Gynt): “aren’t you still at the theatre?”  Yeah… Peer Gynt is notoriously long and cumbersome, which is why no one ever does it.  But this production clocked in at a brisk and lively 2 hours and 15 minutes long!  The set was very dynamic – moving all over the place, changing all the time.  The choreography was amazing!  There was a fight sequence done with a bunch of long planks of wood that was breathtaking…and the battle with the trolls… DAMN!  And there were these crazy people in red tubes… it was really pretty remarkable.  The physical control these actors have is staggering.  And, as an added bonus, it featured Russian Traysie Amick and Russian Matthew Merritt.  (I forgot to note earlier that the production of Marriage that I saw here on Sunday also featured this same Russian Traysie Amick, as well as Russian Robert Linder.  So all the doppelgangers work at this theatre!)  I am delighted that watching Peer Gynt was not only painless, but downright pleasurable!  I would venture to state that not many people can say that!