Bolero

**We're having internet issues in the dorms, so I'm a little behind.  Here's me trying to catch up with the crappy internet at Starbucks**

Today started out with another rousing class of movement, with Mr. Russian Sunshine – Vladimir!  I still think he’s taking it kind of easy on us compared to past years, but it’s still plenty hard.  My claim to fame remains intact though: Russian Dumpling (both feet behind my head) – 4 years and counting!  That’s one point for the little old lady!

After class I headed off in search of tickets for The Cherry Orchard for next week – and met with no resistance.  So that’s all taken care of. 

Acting class involved what Ilja called “a very American etude” which involved interrupting a wedding.  It was a little bit hilarious.   And then the individual etudes involved a penguin, a beaver, a pigeon, a raccoon, a scorpion, a kangaroo, a bear, and a turtle… it was quite the menagerie

After class and a quick dinner, we headed over to the Meyerhold center to watch the fourth year students perform their expressive movement piece titled Mp3 Ravel.  It was an hour and a half of dance-type movement set to variations of Bolero.  All of the movement was very sultry, passionate and sexually charged.  The endurance and attention of the students was really impressive (though a lot of the choreography involved sexual violence, which isn’t my favorite… but whatcha gonna do?)  Now… the music got more than a little repetitive (one of our administrator’s friends remarked that he’s worried that the next time he has sex, he will hear Bolero in his head), and it was probably a little longer than it needed to be, but the stamina and commitment and strength of the students was really impressive, and the Wayne State students really made great connections between the work they saw, and the work they are doing in class.  We’re getting the seeds that, after the intensive work the students here do, can blossom into so much more!  It was very cool.

15642 Steps
4.94 Miles

Good People Got No Reason

Today turned out to be a fairly interesting day actually.  First off, I didn't go to stage combat with the group today.  Instead I stayed at the dorm, worked a bit on my dissertation, and then went in search of tickets for a show for next week.  These tickets are for a theatre I've never been to before (it's very new), and a show that is premiering next week... so it's all very hip and fresh and whatnot.  And despite the fact that this theatre is in a completely unfamiliar part of town for me, I still managed to find it... and I only walked the wrong direction for about two blocks.  So I definitely count that as a win.  Once I did get there, I was just over the moon for the Gogol Center.  It has a coffee shop and bookstore in the lobby, so it's really meant for people to feel comfortable spending time there any time, not just when there's a performance.  And the atmosphere is just great - it feels really creative and exciting.  I think that next Friday I might try taking my computer over there to do some writing.  I feel like that's a place where the juices might flow a little easier.

After that little excursion I headed back for acting class, which involved some good challenges for the group, followed by etudes as a pillow, a garbage disposal, a shower, a typewriter, a jack-in-the-box, an umbrella, a rat, a peacock, and a barn owl.  It was quite a day!

Then, after a quick dinner, we headed off to the Pushkin Theatre to see Добрый Человек из Сезуана (The Good Person of Szechwan), directed by my good pal Yuri Butusov (of Othello and King Lear fame so far this month).  And as much as Othello was a bit of a muddy mess (albeit a fascinating one), Good Person was a master work.  It was so clear and alive and the imagery was absolutely breathtaking.  There were moments when rice would rain down from the flies... and the way it bounced and played off of the light brought tears to my eyes.  And near the end, as everything is falling apart around Shen Te, an avalanche of cigarette boxes accompanied the rice... completely covering the floor and threatening to bury her.  I know that my jaw was literally hanging open when that happened.  And oh, the lead actress!  She was unbelievable!  The trick with this play is that she must play the good-hearted prostitute Shen Te, as well as her cruel male alter-ego Shui Ta... and holy moly... she was phenomenal.  Her transformations were so thoughtful and purposeful.  Oh - and in a particularly Brechtian element, some of the songs were sung in German with Russian supertitles over the stage.  Now, you know what language I don't speak?  Russian.  And you know what language I REALLY don't speak?  German.  So that was interesting.  But the effect of the two languages playing against each other was really cool.  I could go on and on and on about this production...and I'm sure I will in my personal journal.  It was brilliant.

Once we got home, I hopped in the shower (which is directly across the hall from my room).  When I emerged, I was met by one of the students standing in the hall with a jar of peanut butter in her hand, and then three other students came bolting out of my room giggling.  It seems they had decided to "deconstruct" my room - which basically meant that my chair was upside down and my cabinets were open.  I had to put the ringleader in a time-out in the hallway, but I think he's learned his lesson now.  Really - it was a pretty hilarious way to end the day.


17033 Steps
5.38 Miles

Russia Day

Okay... first things first: Let's get real about how sore I am after movement yesterday.  By the Hammer of Thor, my muscles are grouchy!

Moving on...

Today was probably the least eventful Russia Day of the four I've experienced...and they're rarely all that interesting to begin with.  Class was cancelled, and the ladies in the dorm wouldn't do our linen laundry, and most of us ended up napping for most of the day.  It was pretty chill.  I probably never would have even left the dorm if we hadn't had a show to see - and what a show.

I've seen the Satirikon Theatre's production of King Lear twice before.  Last year I skipped it to go watch a terrible production of Coriolanus.  But this year, I was back!  This show opened in 2006, but the place was packed.  And, for the first time, we got to do third bell seating.  In Moscow, they open up the doors to students and pensioners after the third bell, and then it's just every man for himself.  Elbows flying, people climbing over each other to get to that empty seat in the middle of the row (and the Satirikon is not big on leg room), chairs in the aisles... it was quite an experience.  But, as nuts as it was, they allowed time for it.  They didn't set us free in there at 6:59 and then just start at 7:00.  They waited until the ushers had managed to seat everyone.  Me - I was sitting in a chair in the eighth row of the house left aisle, which actually ended up being a great seat.  At intermission I was able to shift over to a real chair, and honestly, I think the view was actually a little better from my aisle perch (though my butt was happier, so I think it all came out even).  The show itself is much stronger than Othello.  It is more polished, has a clear through line in its interest in father/child relationships, and the images that he chooses to tell the story are much more effective.  Butusov can be brilliant, but he can also suffer from a lack of self-editing.  When he's on... he's on.  And in Lear, I would say that he is ON.

On this trip, I have found myself paying a lot of attention to the lighting in the shows we're seeing.  I suppose it's just a manifestation of missing the Giant Ginger so much.  I keep trying to look for the things that would be exciting for him.  And I do think that Lear has a particularly effective lighting design.  There are a lot of steep angles and small areas - revealing only what is needed at any given moment.  And the music!  Oh!  Music is so much a part of all of the shows we have seen so far this month.  And (soapbox) with the stupid Tony Awards dropping sound design as a category, I found myself extremely aware of what the sound was doing to me tonight.  Without that music, it would have been a different, and much less visceral show.  I mean... just... wow.  And Russian theatres are not afraid to TURN IT UP.  You feel the music in your bones.  One of the things we talked about at our potluck the other night was that US theatre sees a script as a sort of finished product, with the actors, directors, and designers putting in their two cents worth to make the pop up book of that product come to life (obviously, I'm way over simplifying here), but Russian theatre sees the script as a place to start.  It is as alive and flexible as any other part of the production.  And it's pretty exciting to see the ways they shape the stories they want to tell out of the stories that we think we already know.

4680 Steps
1.48 Miles

Desire

Me and my good buddy Vladimir from last summer

Wednesday morning was a welcome late start, since the other group had movement first this morning.  But once we got started, we were off like a shot!  Today was our first class with the incomparable Vladimir - our ball of Russian sunshine in human form.  Though I have been observing in our other classes, I decided to participate in movement, partly because it matters less how easily we can divide up in to pairs, and partly because it is so unique, I really feel the need to just DO it.  It would drive me nuts to just sit there watching it.  As class began, Vladimir saw me, his face lit up, and he gave me a big high five... because we're old buddies like that.  Ah yeah.  He took it a little easy on us today... but it was still extremely tough.  And we still have miles to go!  And it was still awesome.

Acting class was also pretty great today, since it was the first time that our usual master teacher Sergei was able to join us.  Sergei is currently in the process of auditioning his new class of students, so he's a little busy. (Here in Russia, acting schools are very few and very selective.  And students don't work with a bunch of different acting teachers, they are recruited by one or two main teachers, and they work with their company and their teachers for the entire four years of their study.  It's a very different approach to actor training.)  But it was wonderful to have him in class today.  First, I got another bright Russian smile when Sergei saw me, and a big hug.  Even our translator Irina greeted me with a hug and a "привет."  And though I've mostly been sitting in the back of the classroom, quietly observing, Sergei insisted that I scoot up and sit with him.  We even chatted a little bit in Russian (mostly about the fact that my Russian isn't great, but it gets better each year).  We also talked about the students.  And then, while folks were doing their object etudes, Irina translated something for him and he quickly told her that he knew that word... I chuckled, and he chuckled that I understood him.  It was just a really fun feeling of camaraderie.  And watching Sergei talk about students' etudes is fascinating.  He has such easy insight into the performances.  He can see stories and details and possibilities in a way that completely opens up the bounds of your imagination... and he's just talking about a lamp or a stapler or an umbrella.  His student Ilja is also wonderful, don't get me wrong, but Sergei is magic!

After dinner on our own (I'm doing a lot of granola bars and fruit for dinners - keeping it cheap), we met up with our awesome administrator Katya to head to a production of Трамвай <<Желание>> (Streetcar Named Desire).  This was actually a final student production by the class who graduated last year, but they decided to re-mount it for a night at a theatre center that allows people to rent out the space.  It was interesting to see it again after last year - since I hadn't particularly liked it.  I would say that I liked it more this year because I was able to allow it to be what it was: a student studio piece.  It wasn't attempting to be THE Streetcar, it was its own thing with its own purposes for them as a group of actors.  Though I still don't particularly think their Blanche really GOT the neuroses.  Other than that, I let a lot of their "inaccuracies" go - they didn't need to FEEL like a Tennessee Williams play.  They didn't have to be in the right time and place with the slow Southern tempo.  They were creating the essence of moments, rather than the definitive Streetcar.  Interestingly, the Moscow Art Theatre is opening a new production of Streetcar later this month, which I suspect will be much more "authentic," as they had a dramaturg who taught them what life is like in New Orleans.  But for this - a student show - I was much more able this year to let it be what it was.  And it was cool to see in the program that they all listed the theatres where they are now working.  Way to go, MXAT grads!

After the show, most of the group went out, but I stayed in the dorm (as den mothers are wont to do), and zonked out.

10657 Steps
3.36 Miles

Lucky Pots

Today was sort of a light day, which felt good... and will feel good in retrospect as we head into the next week... which is going to be jam packed.  We started out with our first theatre history lecture with the delightful President of the MXAT Theatre School, Anatoly Smeliansky.  Seriously... magical theatre history elf!  I love this man!  And he always does his first lecture in the portrait gallery in the lobby of the MXAT... which is just gorgeous and magnificent.  He refers to it as the Pantheon of Russian Theatre.  And as he meandered through historical anecdotes, we all hung on his every word.  (Except, unfortunately, my phone, which somehow paused itself from recording 6 seconds in... so I didn't capture the lecture.  Boo.)

After that was a quick lunch during which I popped over to the administrative office to check on tickets for the students for Swan Lake next week.  While I was there, I chatted with the delightful Larissa and Lena in the office - a little Russian, a lot of English - and they invited me to have lunch with them next week!  I feel so special!

Then the group met to work on their first group etude, which is always a fun process to watch.  The etude itself actually ended up going pretty well, though it could definitely have been sped up a bit.  Still... an excellent first effort!  Go team!  And then came the first round of object etudes, which brought us a flip phone, a straw, a fan, a fire extinguisher, a carpet, a recording device, a flower, a lighter, and a balloon - all of which were super interesting.

After class everyone went their separate ways, since we didn't have a show.  I took a couple of minutes to chat with a young woman who had been observing our class.  It turns out (I think) that she is a student from Brasil who has been studying here since April.  So, if that information is correct, then I'm very proud of the two of us for muddling through it, since clearly neither of us spoke great Russian.

Then around 9:00 the group came back together for our potluck.  It was a lovely time, the group was super talkative and insightful about the time they're spending here, and there was lots of yummy food (largely carbs and cheese based... so... you know... I was happy), and then we scattered for the night.  All things considered, it was a quiet day, but a good day!  And now, we have a show every night until at least the 17th.

11071 Steps
3.49 Miles

Inspecting...

This morning started off with a very encouraging email from my dissertation chair... so that was really an excellent way to wake up.  This puppy might actually get written after all, damnit!  Add to that a cool, gray, rainy day, and I was feeling pretty good.

On the classroom front, we had a teensy scheduling snafu... in that both our group and the group from Butler had the same schedule.  Oops.  So we decided to go ahead and switch to ballet first with singing second.  And I'll just say it: ballet did not go great today.  I think Renat was frustrated.  Hopefully the gang will knock it out of the park next time around.

Singing, on the other hand, seemed to go very well.  We got through everyone, people sound good, they're learning their songs and generally being awesome.  Marina seemed in generally good spirits... which just makes everyone happy.

After lunch, it was time for our usual acting teachers to emerge!  Sergei and Ilja have been traveling with their students (who are about to graduate), and just returned.  In fact, I'm pretty sure I know exactly when the students got back from their tour, because around 2:00 in the morning, there was a great ruckus outside that involved a lot of yelling about the greatness of MXAT's school, and, for some reason, how much they love America.  So, I think there may have been a touch of celebrating at the end of said tour.  Anyway, my guess is, with the late return, Sergei decided to take the day to himself, leaving the class in Ilja's capable hands.  Since I'm observing rather than participating this year, and since I've known him for several years now, Ilja was super warm in greeting me, which was fun.  I felt all growed up!  Ilja got them started fast, and the group progressed through a lot of exercises today, which is very good.  Since we have a little less time with them than usual due to that first week, I'm glad that it looks like this group is catching on to the training quickly.  That means that they'll have the opportunity to go interesting places.  And speaking of interesting, they start their object etudes tomorrow... which is always great fun!  I can't wait to see them!

After dinner, we gathered again at the MXAT student stage to watch the fourth year (graduating) students do something called ГогольРевизор.  Basically it was a show composed of etudes about Gogol's play The Inspector General.  Since this class is now down to their final performances as MXAT students, the place was PACKED.  While we were waiting to get in, I ran into our film history teacher (who is not teaching us this summer).  Galina actually was the one who grabbed me, asked me about my life... it was so cool!  Look at me with all my cool Russian friends!  Anyway, once we got into the theatre we were slammed in there with people sitting on the floor on pillows, people standing 6 deep in the aisles... it was nuts.  It was almost 2 1/2 hours without an intermission, and I stood through the whole thing because I was way in the back back row.  But let me tell you... it was fantastic!  It was so energetic and wild and creative and fun...and, as a bonus, there was a little audience participation.  First, it was set up as a bar, so one of the actresses was taking (and delivering) drink orders before the show.  Then, there was a great bit where one of the women started getting all amorous any time she heard "Unchained Melody."  The music played and she grabbed one of her cast members and started to kiss him - but when it stopped, she released him.  Then it played again and she grabbed a guy in the audience and planted one on him - but it still could have been a plant or a friend or something.  Then... she grabbed first Luke and then Carl from our group and gave them each a good smoochin'... while the rest of us cheered from the back row!  The final moment of the show ended up being a Russian theatre inside joke... THAT I TOTALLY GOT!  They finished up their evening with a little riff on an element from Butusov's (the director whose Othello we saw last night) famous production of The Seagull that I'm in love with. I felt so in the know in that moment.  I'm ready for my citizenship now!

The rest of the evening was pretty chill. I am still feeling a little worked up from seeing awesome theatre.  But something tells me, once I finally hit the pillow... I'll be gone.

Doppelganger update: So, we've had more than a few.  First, there was Russian Megan Barbour in the Starbucks (Sydney caught a sly picture... it's uncanny).  Apparently there was a Russian Jen...I didn't see her, but I am forming an elaborate plan to take over her life so that I can be in Russia any time I want (I'm sure her friends and family won't find it weird that her conversation is suddenly limited to purchasing theatre tickets).  Russian Brent Griffith played Kochkariev in the production of Marriage that we saw the other night.  And in the performance of etudes surrounding Inspector General tonight, we saw Russian Joseph Gordon Levitt, Russian Brad Smith, and Russian Doug Lubaway.  Oh... and Russian Becky Pierce was in the audience.

Seriously... if we do this right... we could all just live here and no one would be the wiser!

12534 Steps
3.96 Miles

Othello

Sundays are technically our days off in that we do not have classes.  But if we're being honest about it, Sundays aren't exactly off in any real sense of the word.  Today I started out with some early morning Starbucks skype time with my parents, and then with Brian (our cat Burr's butt made a few cameos... Burr loves his butt).  Then we loaded up our group with the group from Butler University and headed out for a bus tour around Moscow.  We went to Novodevichy Convent and Cemetery (the cemetery is a trip we usually save for the end of the month... so I actually felt like this trip sort of took the wind out of the sails of the one at the end... but since there was another group with us, we sort of had to let that go.  It'll still be special when we go later.  It'll just be different.  Then we went to the highest point in Moscow - Sparrow Hill - which gives a beautiful panoramic view of the city.  From there we drove by Victory Park, stopped along the river for a few photos, and finally ended up in Red Square (which was a little less scenic than usual since they are in full setup mode for upcoming Russia Day festivities).

Once back at the dorm, we had a little time for dinner (a little less than we thought... but I'll get to that), and we met up to head to the Satirikon for a new production of Othello directed by Yuri Butusov... on whom I may or may not have a ginormous intellectual and artistic crush.  We left a little early for the customary 7:00 Russian curtain time, but when we arrived at 6:15, we discovered that, though no one had informed us, the curtain for this particular show was 6:00.  Very embarrassing.  And I sat stewing through the entire first act, kicking myself (though it wasn't my fault - or really anyone's - it's just an honest mistake... and several Russians came in after us, so we clearly weren't the only ones to make it... but still...).  It was almost hard to pay attention, I was so caught up in being mad at myself.  Still... the production was fascinating.  This is the fifth show I have seen by this director (we'll see one I've seen before on Thursday, and one more I haven't on Friday), so I sort of know to expect the wildly unexpected... and this was definitely that.  It was a little more opaque than most of his other works, but still a complete feast for the senses.  Othello himself was played by a white actor who regularly painted his face and/or hands black (not brown... black).  It's important to note that this was not black face per se... and it's also important to note that Russia does not have the same relationship with race that we do... so with those qualifiers, it actually ended up providing some pretty amazing images.  Most of the time he just appeared as himself - it was only at key moments when his face or his arm(s) would be painted.  When he was talking about wooing Desdemona with tales of battle, the three women playing Desdemona for that moment surrounded him, hanging on his every word, and when the one would would become Desdemona for the rest of the performance chose to kiss him, the black rubbed off onto her face.  When she later appeared nude wrapped in a black curtain, beckoning him to bed, it was only his hand that was black as it intertwined with hers.  It was very interesting that the color became not about something that was inherently different about him, but something that the society put on him.  And finally, when he killed her, he painted her face black like his... and the play closed on a seemingly endless tableau of the two sullied lovers seated side by side, and the symmetrical bodies of Emilia and Iago (yeah... in this version Iago dies) at their feet.  Nobody won in this Othello.

Of course, there was much more beyond that.  There was a grass covered bed on which Desdemona fantasized about marrying Cassio by mistake.  There was a moment when, section by section, the entire floor was turned over to reveal the darkness on the underside of the wood.  There were butterflies that no one could catch - like that perfect image of love - they remained always out of reach.  There was stunning work with two-way mirrors.  Roderigo was basically Eminem... and he had the clothes and theme music to prove it.  There was a long scene when Othello searched through huge boxes in complete silence, only to discover a little toy dog that sang "If You're Happy and You Know It" and clapped its little paws.  Maybe it was the innocence that he had so loved about Desdemona?  I don't claim to understand or even to remember everything I saw.  And though I think the production overall was a little less skilled in storytelling than were his other pieces, it was full of candy for the eyes and the soul.  And, while I was watching, I couldn't stop getting ideas for a production of Hamlet that I have suddenly decided that I need to direct.  So... who wants to give me a theatre and about 4-5 months of rehearsal?

14161 Steps
4.47 Miles