These Sandals are Made for Walking

Number of Steps: 25180 (7.95 mi)

So yeah… my feet are tired.

Today we had the day off of classes because five of our twelve are in St. Petersburg for the weekend.  So those of us who were left behind slept in.  Huzzah!  Then, a little before 2:00 we ventured out of the dorm toward Alexander Gardens outside the Kremlin.  We had designs on going back to Red Square as well, but it was totally blocked off since they’re setting up for the Russia Day festivities on Tuesday, so we stuck to the gardens for a while, wandering through the fountains and seeing the sights (like two dudes charging money to have people take pictures holding giant lizards or snakes, or overly aggressive mascots).   From there we wandered into the ГУМ (pronounced “Goom”), which is a giant mall, in search of ice cream.  We didn’t find what we were looking for, so we headed over to Охотный Ряд (a large underground mall) where we found some pretty bitchin’, albeit overpriced gelato.  After that I led the group over to Стару Арбат (Old Arbat), which is a big long pedestrian street of shops and kitsch and artists and such.  This was a place I had been to last year, but I had always taken the metro, so I was very pleased with myself for successfully leading us there by foot.  I’m feeling so Muscovite these days.  Anyway, we had an afternoon snack at a restaurant that used to be a bus, two of the girls danced with some street performers, our one African-American student was mobbed by two probably drunk Russian men (and yes, the two of these men were effusive enough to be considered a mob) who wanted her to come with them to dance somewhere. 

Once we got home I met with JT for a little bit to give him the skinny on the next few days, and then we pretty much settled in for the night (well, I did anyway…but I’m old and walked 8 miles today and I even may have gotten a bit of a sunburn on my shoulders...so settle in I shall!).  I skyped with my family for a few minutes, but the connection wasn’t very good, so it mostly consisted of us putting the back of our open hands on our foreheads (our nonsensical signal that we can’t hear the other person) or listening to my niece demand drawings of Mickey Mouse or Tinkerbell.  I love skyping with my niece.  Tomorrow… I am going to make myself do some actual reading.  I have got to get some studying done this month or I am going to be in trouble!

I'm so Russian

Number of Steps: 11167 (3.45 mi)

So, a lot of stuff happened today, but the thing I am most proud of has nothing to do with theatre.  While I was sitting on the steps of the MXAT American Studio reading before we went to the theatre tonight, not one, but TWO Russians asked me for directions, and I successfully understood them and provided them with the information they needed.  AND, when our singing teacher stopped us in the courtyard to tell us something, I was able to understand what she wanted us to do.  (And one of our translators popped in at the end of the conversation and confirmed that I was correct.)  Yeah, Russia… I got this!

So, aside from my ever-increasing levels of Russian aptitude, today was a day much like Wednesday.  We started out with singing.  We all sang through our songs, and that was pretty much that.  I love singing… I really miss it.  I need to give myself the gift of voice lessons when I get back to Detroit – I will feel better if my voice is in shape.

After singing was another day of ballet, and weirdly enough, after ballet class, I was less sore than I was than when I went in.  In fact, I might say I was the least sore I’ve been since our first movement class on Tuesday.  So go ballet!  I mean, I still suck at it, but at least it seems to be good for me on some level.

The afternoon brought us back to acting class, which was another good day for teamwork.  It turns out that, collectively, we are relatively good spellers.  We had one spelling game that came down to a clash of the titans between me and Vanessa – the other grad student on the trip.  It was great fun – especially since I did end up winning in the end, but really only on a technicality.  I think the two of us could have done that all day.  And yes… I am bragging about the spelling and ball throwing ability of two graduate students.  But trust me, it is really way cooler than it sounds.

This evening five of our group headed off to St. Petersburg for the weekend, while the rest of us headed to our first show at the MXAT: Зойкина Квартира (Zoyka’s Apartment), which is a play by Mikhail Bulgakov about which I know pretty much nothing.  So we walked into this one totally blind.  It was pretty trippy and difficult to follow, but it was visually and vocally stunning, and I think we figured out most of the major plot points and even maybe some of the more subtle ones, as we discussed it.  It would be impossible to explain this play, but it involved a lot of sex and drugs, dancing and singing, piano playing and paranoia, and a set that was basically a giant rotating cube.  It was unreal.  And there were these people with giant black globes as heads – I decided they were intended to look like those security camera bubbles, to signify that there are these people who are always watching.  Oh… and the costumes and the dancing were kind of the big hit for me.  The costumes were just plain GORGEOUS, and the physical dexterity of these performers is just beyond beyond.  It was a weird evening of theatre, but it was pretty damn cool.

Since half the group is in St. Petersburg, we don’t have class tomorrow… a two-day weekend is a rarity in the Month in Moscow program.  And then we’re going to have Tuesday off for Russia Day… so we’ve got a lot of free time coming, and I’m feeling a little crippled by it.  What to do, what to do!

The View from Above

Number of Steps: 12281

This morning was much like any other morning (though I was awakened by a student 2 minutes before my alarm went off…so she could check the time…which was not my favorite thing, but still, I’m good...I shook it off).  Class this morning was a three hour Russian film history lecture that we shared with the other two groups who are here.  The professor – Галина (Galina) – is as awesome and passionate and scary knowledgeable as she was last year.  She took us through a brief history of Russian politics and then talked us through about the first 3 decades of Russian cinema up to the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917.  We finished the class by watching a few clips, and the one that was by far the biggest hit (this year and last year) was The Cameraman’s Revenge.  Do yourself a favor and click on that link.  It is so very worth the 13 minutes.  It’s done by a guy who is known for being the first Russian animator… it’s basically stop motion that he did with dried bugs.  He was clearly a genius, but he was probably also a super weird dude.

After lunch, we had another day of acting class wherein we did not kill anyone… so it was a big change from yesterday.  But it was a good day for teamwork.  Today I was an iphone that got dropped in a toilet by a toddler.  So that was a good time. 

Classes came to an end and we had an hour before meeting up with our escort to the show for tonight: Демон: вид сверху  (Demon: The View from Above).  This is an amazing piece of visual/performance art that I was lucky enough to see last year too with just a few other grad students…but this year the whole group got to go!  It’s performed in the round in a theatre with three levels of seating, all of which have a railing in front of the row of seats so that you can lean out to look down at the stage in the middle – which, for most of the performance, is lowered below the actual level of the stage by about 2 meters (see what I did there?).  The stage is made up of layers and layers of butcher paper and plastic, and as the show goes on, the performers paint, sculpt, and generally create their way through the entire span of human history in general, and the entire life of one girl in particular…with almost no words.  It’s so damn beautiful and moving and funny and engaging, you hardly know what to do with yourself!  I consider myself all kinds of lucky that I have seen this piece twice!  WOOHOO!

After the show I guided both the Wayne State and the Butler groups back through the metro (turns out I still remember how to do that!) to the dorm and we settled in for the night.  Vanessa (the MFA student on this trip) and I were going to try to catch another show that started at 9:30, but Demon started a little late, and we had to get the rest of the group back, and we weren’t even sure we would be able to get tickets, so sadly, we had to miss it.  But hey… you can’t make it to everything!

PS - you know what's going to make it super easy to sleep tonight?  The insane amount of jackhammering happening on the road below my window.  Yeeeeeehah.

Sing Out, Луиз!*

Number of Steps: 10926

Well… I am sore as hell… let me just get that out of the way.

This morning we tromped down to school for a slightly earlier morning than we’ve had yet for our first singing class with the incomparable Марина (Marina).  I love this woman.  She speaks almost no English, but still manages to communicate so much about singing it’s really amazing.  And boy does she remember me from last year.  I ran into her yesterday, at which point she gave me a big smile and a flurry of happy Russian, and this was only compounded today in class when I got up to sing.  I wasn’t great, but I wasn’t bad, and she noted that I had gotten more confident since last year.  Yeah – she REALLY remembers me from last year.  Then she asked me if I wanted an easy song or a difficult song, so of course I answered a difficult song.  So she gave me “Your Daddy’s Son” from Ragtime.  This is a song I could never actually use anywhere, but it definitely is tough.  Two students sang it last year, and I’m sure I’ll have a good time working on it this year!  It was also a lot of fun hearing everyone else sing.  We really have a good group of voices this year, so I really think this class is going to be a hoot!

After our awesome hour with Marina, we headed over to ballet with Рэнад (Renad), who is some sort of sculpted god.  Seriously, this guy is the very picture of elegance and grace.  And though last year he seemed a little shocked to be dealing with non-dancers, this year he knew what he was getting into, and he really did a great job working us into the basics.  That said… he also beat the living hell out of us.  The adagio sequence nearly killed me.   

After dance class it was another hurried lunch of buckwheat and veggies before meeting to go over our beginning of class etude.  Yesterday we were told to up the stakes, so today we killed a groom at his own reception.  Boom.  This was, of course, a little over the top.  But still, it was a lot of fun.  Then we played a pretty intense game of Mafia – but the added element was that we had to choose a time and place and then create characters for ourselves within those circumstances.  It was a lot of fun, and turned out to be a pretty fascinating acting exercise.  After that we did our first round of object etudes.  I was a G2 pen.  It went alright, but it wasn’t nearly detailed enough.  Ah well.  Better luck next time… if I ever come up with another idea.  Argh!

There was no show to see tonight, so I headed straight back to the dorm and met with JT about possible shows for the group to see for the rest of the month.  It was a lot of fun going through all these theatres, getting an idea of what might be ahead of us.  

*Луиз = Louise

Much Ado About EVERYTHING

Number of Steps: 14673 (and is it possible that they were all stairs?  It sure feels like it.)

I wrote “5 June” in my journal tonight and it just didn’t look right.  How can it only be June 5^th?  We’ve already done so much!  Today was a big one – it started out with our first movement class with my good pal Владимир Ϲажын (Vladimir Sazhin) who proceeded to beat us all to within an inch of our lives!  I tell ya, I’ve never loved someone this much who caused me this much physical anguish!  He’s so damn delightful that you’ll agree when he tells you to do insane things with your body.  And yes, I can still put my feet behind my head, it turns out.

After movement we slogged our way downstairs to the cafeteria for lunch (buckwheat, by the way, still delicious) and then back upstairs to wait for our assistant acting teaching Иля (Ilja – who is a big hit with all the young ladies) to take us over to watch the first year students’ final presentation.  This ended up being a misfire because the tiny room was way too crowded for us, so we ended up having acting class after all.  The first half was extremely successful, but the last exercise was not so much.  We didn’t really follow the directions or each other, so it was kind of an endless churning mess.  But we can’t get ‘em all right…yet.

On our way to our first show!  (Justin knows that Russians love jazz hands)

At any rate, after class we grabbed crepes for dinner and hung out for a bit before I led our group to the Пушкина им. театр (Pushkin Theatre) for our first show of the month: Много Шума из Ничего (Much Ado About Nothing).  I should let you know that, though the landmarks I was given were a block off, I got us there by using another map and by asking directions from some friendly Russian passersby... so go me!  And I successfully retrieved our tickets from the box office!  So DOUBLE go me!)  And let me just tell you… this was the right play for our first outing.  It was great to have a show we were all familiar with so that we could appreciate what they did with it.  I can’t describe everything, obviously, but it was so alive and honest and touching and FUNNY (yes, even in Russian)… it was really magical.  The soundscape of the play was provided by a band that seems to be called Группа W/ (The W Band)… and man, I have a new favorite band.  For some reason, all the songs were in English, so they really worked for us.  Here’s a linkhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OtAGtlsC-Xk to a video that was clearly made as some sort of promotion for this show: it’s the song that plays during the masquerade ball… which was AMAZING!   A particular standout for me in this production was Leonato, who was so tender and genuine that he brought me to tears during the wedding that wasn’t.  When Hero collapsed he picked up her limp body and held it in a sort of clumsy way as he wandered about looking totally lost, trying to understand what was happening.  And as they melted together into the floor, the way he clutched at her became more and more violent until he had to be pulled away.  I couldn’t help but sob!   And of course, all the women involved were beautiful skinny Russians who just worked the hell out of their sexy little costumes (as you’ll see in the video), but damn, they were incredible.  And the ending was so intensely satisfying… the stage rotated as they danced at the REAL wedding and we got to see everyone’s ending – down to Borrachio proposing to Margaret and Don John watching from a catwalk high against the back wall of the theatre.  No character was left unresolved.  And the song that played underneath it was so gorgeous I could listen to it over and over.  I was in tears again by the time they came forward for their epic curtain call.  (Curtain calls are different here in Russia… they are a real event in and of themselves!) 

Me outside the Pushkin Theatre with the show poster for one helluva show!

At any rate, it is way too late, and I have an earlier morning tomorrow, so I bid you (my 7 blog readers) good night!  I’m planning on some good dreams tonight (followed by some seriously stiff joints and muscles in the morning!)!

We've Got Class

Number of Steps: 10808

Today was our first day of classes, but it didn’t start until 11:30, so the morning was still pretty leisurely relatively speaking.  We strolled down to school and met up with the other two groups in the courtyard where we waited to be escorted inside.  This first class is sort of special, since it is our formal introduction to the MXAT school (even though the other groups have been here a few days longer than we), so it’s held in the lobby of the main theatre, which is also a gallery of some of the greats of MXAT past.  I think it may have been the moment that I walked back into that lobby that I finally got really excited about the fact that I’m back here.  The lobby is so beautiful in general, and the photos on the wall hold images of some of the greatest artists of the 20^th century – all of whom are part of the same artistic family – and it is humbling and breath-taking and moving to be in that space.  Once we were all seated, we received a lecture from the head of the American studio, Anatoly Smeliansky, about the founding of the MXAT, and let me tell you, as a future professor, I hope I can learn even a fraction of his passion for history!  When he lectures about these people, it’s as if he actually knows them.  History is about real people, not merely memorizing facts.  And as he reminded us, “Theatre is not a museum.  It is a struggle.”  Theatre is not a place we go to memorialize what came before us as some immutable monolith – it’s the problems we solve every day! 

So after our awesome lecture, we made a mad dash to the cafeteria.  Though our group is smaller than last year’s, the fact that there are three groups here this year means that there are about 40 dumb Americans trying to point and gesture their way through the cafeteria line at lunch.  So I managed to get in, get food, and get gone pretty quickly so I could take one of the students over to the Megafon store to get my phone activated and to get a sim card for her.  The hipster salesman at the front of the store rolled his eyes with all the skinny-jean contempt he could muster when I asked ever so sweetly, “Говорите ли вы по-английски?”  But he did begrudgingly direct me to another man who was extremely helpful.  He got me and the student set up and on our way with 20 minutes to spare before class. 

So we headed upstairs for acting class…which was a hoot.  Our teacher Серге́й remembered me from last year, which was an affirming feeling, and he teased me here and there about the fact that I had survived last year and that I had come again.  After chatting with him about our first impressions of Moscow, he threw us to the lions by asking us each to do a monologue for him.  Now, this was not something that happened last year, and I haven’t really been doing any auditioning per se for several years now, so I was lucky to be able to pull an old piece out of my bum for this one.  It wasn’t great, but it wasn’t awful, so whatcha gonna do?  From there we started some of the ensemble and concentration exercises that we all love so much.  This group is already really impressing me.  First, the size really does make a difference.  We don’t have to switch back and forth between halves of the class, we all just get to work for the whole time, which is very cool.  And this group really seems to want to learn together, which is something you just can’t manufacture.

After class JT and I went on an expedition to look for the Афиша – which is a book of all the theatre being performed in Moscow in the month of June.  This, it turns out, is not easy to find.   They always sell it in the lobby of the Moscow Art Theatre during shows, but it almost seems impossible to find them if you’re not already at the theatre.  But boy did we try!  We looked all over the place!  We did stop at a kiosk that had a poster of a schedule for the first two weeks, so we stuck around there for a while.  I wrote down the website off of the poster, however, and when I got back to the dorm I spent a while surfing through (dear google translate: I love you!) to find plays that I thought might interest people.  I certainly have some ideas of what I’d like to see, but if last year is any indication, it’s kinda hard to go wrong.

In the evening we had a quick meeting to talk about some things, which was interspersed with one of the craziest (and awesome-est) damn stories I have ever heard.  Suffice it to say – there are a few girls in this group who are just magnets for fascinating people.  I have got to spend more time with them… hopefully I can catch the periphery of some of their adventures!

Buses and Potlucks

Number of Steps: 5349 (it was a bus tour… so it stayed pretty low today…I think)

So… things are starting to begin or beginning to start or whatever here in Mother Russia.  Last night we met downstairs in the rehearsal room to do a little orientation on ballet and classroom etiquette.  Let me tell you, 12 people is a much more manageable population than 20 (last year’s group).  I really think there’s going to be some good work from this group.  From there, we FINALLY got our internet access for the dorms (JT had accidentally been hoarding our login info), so I walked everyone through how to access that and we promptly sat around in a circle staring at our respective computer screens before making the decision to go out to The Темпл Вар for a while.  We did well with the ordering vodka portion of the evening, but the menu was a little difficult to manage, so the bartender teased us about ordering French fries… but after the fries had been ordered, he magically produced English menus.  Now that we know such marvelous things exist, we’ll definitely have to go back some time.  We called it a pretty early night as we ran back through the rain to the dorm about two blocks away.  The lady working the front door had been adamant about our bringing umbrellas – even giving us her umbrella – and she was definitely right to do so.  My den mother came out big time as I tsk-tsk-ed at all these adorable 20-year-old girls in their cute, going-out-in-Moscow outfits that they shouldn’t be wearing open-toed shoes in the rain.  I, of course, was severely underdressed, as I stuck with the jeans and sneakers part of life…but I’m the little old lady in the group, so I’m going for comfort, not for cute factor.  Still, it was a very fun first outing.

This morning I allowed myself the enormous pleasure of sleeping in until a little after 9:00 – that ended up giving me almost nine hours of sleep, which was delicious!  I continue to cautiously celebrate the group’s general lack of jetlag.  Go team!

At 1:00 we piled on a tour bus with the groups from Northern Illinois and Butler who are also here this month.  It was the same tour I took last year with the same tour guide, which actually ended up being kind of nice.  I didn’t feel the need to take every photo ever, I just allowed myself to listen to our guide and to really look at things.  Of course, the weather hasn’t been as warm this year as it was last year, and today has been pretty windy and overcast, so the tour involved a lot of shivering as well as a lot of running for shelter from the rain.  It seemed as if the skies opened up every time we got off the bus.  But still, it was a really good tour of the city.  We saw Red Square (St. Basil’s is still there… I think it missed me), Christ the Savior Cathedral, and the outlook at Sparrow Hill, while also driving by as many sites as humanly possible.  As for the other groups, there was the occasional crossover conversation, but more often than not, everyone seemed to stick with his or her own group.  I’m sure the fraternizing will increase as the month goes on.

The MIM Class of 2012 - note the foreboding skies...and the smiles!

Back on the home front, everyone enjoyed some much needed downtime before our Sunday night potluck.  I myself succumbed to a little jetlag (the only jetlag I am permitting on this trip, damnit!) and took a quick nap.

Things we learned at tonight’s potluck:

• Шашлык (Shishke-bab) flavored chips… not my favorite
• A package of pasta doesn’t feed as many people as you might think
• Jet lag has finally arrived in a big way for a couple of our group members - one of whom fell asleep sitting up during our potluck meeting
• So far this group is WAY more ambitious in the kitchen than last year’s
• We’ve only been here two days, and a lot of people have had opportunities to really try to interact with some Russians – good job gang!

After the potluck we cleaned up and a few of us ventured into the hallway to look for the gym where we were stopped by a shirtless Russian student named Дима who was quite taken with some of the young ladies in the group.  We spoke in broken English and Russian for a little while as he tried to get the group to come watch a movie in his room with him.  A couple of his buddies happened along and tried to translate for him as well.  Ah… those Russian boys do love those cute young coeds… I, on the other hand, retreated from the smoke-filled stairway (Russians smoke in the stairways of buildings, so spending 30 minutes in a stairway means I now smell like I was just in a bar in the 1990s) and headed back to my room for a little bit o’ skype before bed.  Tomorrow… it begins in earnest.

On a side note, it’s definitely true what they say about teaching being the best way to learn something.  The more questions I’m asked about Moscow, the more I feel like I’m learning and retaining about Moscow.  And the more I think I should probably just come here every year…right?

Things I must admit:

• Despite my 18 years of being a vegetarian, cooking bacon smells awesome – ahhh… dorm living.
• I’m super glad that I don’t need coffee…it keeps this trip a lot cheaper.
• I have no idea what to do about bringing back family souvenirs this year… since I kinda did the Russian kitsch thing to death last year.  I’ll have to get creative…