Doppelganger Day

Steps: 14991
Miles: 4.73 (I don't think this is right though... I feel fairly certain that I covered far more distance)

Today was a big day for me.  Our morning theatre history class was canceled due to the instructor's illness (don't worry folks, Anatoly is fine, and will be back soon!), so pieces of the group headed down to Red Square while I headed to the Pushkin Theatre to secure tickets to Much Ado About Nothing and The Good Person of Sezuan.  I did very well at this particular theatre - negotiating ticket prices, explaining that I couldn't buy tickets to the classic she wanted me to see because we have class at that time, fending off a woman who was randomly trying to sell me an art book in the lobby... I was a machine.  Then I headed out to the Taganka Theatre to get tickets for tonight to Twelfth Night... and somehow managed to forget how to do basic multiplication.  I mean, to the point that I was doing really wrong long form multiplication in front of the box office woman.  Apparently my brain can handle EITHER Russian OR math... and in that moment, I chose Russian all the way.  Of course, the worst part of this is that I'll have to be back at that theatre later in the month for another show... and I know that woman is going to remember me.

Anyway, after all my very sweaty running around, I headed back to the theatre for our afternoon acting class.  So far I find all of his exercises very interesting, but I don't entirely see a through line yet. I'm looking forward to seeing where he takes them next.  Then it was a quick dinner before leading the group through the Metro for our first show of the month!  It was a bit of a risk, because neither JT nor I had seen this show before, the MXAT doesn't usually recommend stuff at the Taganka, and though I've seen some great stuff there... it is also where I saw the worst show I've seen in my four summers here (I say that with confidence that nothing could be worse than their Cripple of Inishmaan).  So I crossed my fingers and hoped that their first experience would be a good one.  And in general, it was!  This was not an earth-shattering production - mostly it was just a lot of fun.  There was great music, Maria was played in drag by a really sizable (and very funny) dude, Malvolio was great, we saw the most vuluptuous Olivia in recorded history, and the biggest monkey wrench was that the same actress played Viola and Sebastian, so there was a lot of goofy on stage/off stage body doubling in the final scene that was clearly the gag on which the entire show was based.  I assured the group that, as charming as this was, and as non-traditional as some of their decisions may have seemed... they just haven't seen anything yet.  This hardly contained the largest changes they were going to see to a script they know.  I really can't wait for them to see more.

But even more odd... today was definitely the day of doppelgangers. I saw Russian Alec Barbour standing at the top of the stairs at my Metro stop.  I saw Russian Amy Holtcamp strolling down Tverskaya.  In Twelfth Night I saw Russian Ryan Bradburn (Andrew Aguecheek) and Russian David Sterritt (Orsino).  And, I saw Russian Nathan Fillion.  Unless it turns out that Nathan Fillion is actually in Moscow right now... in which case... boy was that a missed opportunity!

Well, the night finished off with a little Metro 101 on the much-less-crowded-than-rush-hour Metro on our way home!  And now... there is a bed waiting for me to melt into it.  Here's hoping that sleeping through the night is in my future!  Спокойной ночи, interwebs!

Class Begins

Howdy, friends and family and whoever may accidentally stumble upon this blog!

First things first: I found my pedometer, so it's on!

Today we started out slowly with 11855 steps, which is about 3.74 miles. Woo!

Today we began our classes... and boy, were we off and running!  Our first class was singing, with the irrepressible Марина Смирнова.  She took a little time to get to know everyone's voices, and then passed out songs - this year she has focused largely on group numbers, so there are duets and trios, and a couple of solos.  It should be interesting.  Particularly interesting for me, since I had been planning on only observing the class this year, but instead, because there weren't enough people who could sing harmony, I got rolled into a very complicated trio from the musical Company.  For reference - we have to learn this song in pretty much no spare time at all...gulp.

From there, it was ballet, which I am actually observing.  Ренат didn't suddenly feel moved to drag me to the center of the floor to dance with the class or anything.  Though I did get a Привет (informal, familiar Russian greeting) from him in the hallway.  Yeah... he remembers me.  Which is definitely why he wouldn't pull me up to the center of the floor to dance with the class... but whatever.  At any rate, he seems to have more fun with our group each year, getting a bit more impish each time.  He actually seems to be having fun with us, which is nice, since we are definitely not in his league.

After that was our first day of lunch in the MXAT cafeteria, which is always a good time.  The people who dish up the food see us coming a mile away, and I'm sure they just roll their eyes, but they're always super nice about our pathetic pointing and "пожалуйста" ing (that's "please").  Then, we continued on to our first acting class.  Our usual teacher Сергей is out of town with his Russian students this week, so we had a new fellow today: Миша Милкыс (And no, folks from 2011, this is not our Misha).  This Misha is a youngish fellow who studied under Misha the elder, and he will be spending the week doing Michael Chekhov work with us.  The class felt a little haphazard today, but overall he planted some excellent seeds.  Now, I had originally planned on participating fully in the acting classes instead of observing as I have been in some of the others, but it became obvious pretty early that it would be a lot easier for the teachers to deal with an even number of students, which we have if I don't participate.  So I am observing this class too, which is a little bit of a bummer since this is a new teacher for me, and I haven't done much Chekhov work. But, I am definitely drinking in everything that all of our teachers are doing and saying, and I am taking this as my own personal little pedagogical master class.  So, giddy up, y'all!

After class we headed back to the dorm... and that was pretty much that.  There was a lot of activity on the street this evening - a couple in an argument, a guy playing a trumpet for about an hour or so, and I think even a couple of fireworks over the park.  Nothing fancy... but still just kind of cool.  I spent a lot of time online trying to hunt down shows for the group to see, which is proving a little tougher this summer.  Some of the funding has been cut here recently, which means performances are a little fewer and a little pricier.  But I persevere!  Of course, I let myself get way caught up in that, and stayed up too late, when my jet lagged self should really have been in bed a couple of hours ago.  So I bid the interwebs Спокойной ночи!

Четыре

The sweet card from Brian that I found in my luggage.
Yeah... he's kinda the best.

So... I have arrived in Moscow for the fourth time.  WHAT THE WHAT?!?!  It was a long travel day, but we got through it without any noteworthy events... which is sort of exactly how I like my travel days.  We started off in Detroit with many a tearful goodbye (I am so bad at leaving... which is strange, since I seem to do it so often), connected through Amsterdam with some fairly notable jetlag, and then finally made it to Moscow - all our luggage on hand to greet us!  We were met by our new contact Katya, who loaded us on a bus through Moscow traffic and over to the dorm.  Once here, we got everyone settled for a while before braving the mean streets to do some changing of currency and buying of groceries.  Then a bunch of us hopped over to Corner Burger for a delicious (if a bit pricey) first dinner in Russia.  The servers were super friendly and patient with our limited English... and I'm finding that I'm still able to navigate a lot of conversations with a healthy dose of nodding and gesturing... peppered with key Russian words for effect.  After dinner, we headed back to the dorm for a little orientation, which basically involved me leading the group in a few exercises to prep them for the days ahead, a little Q&A, and then we retreated to the dorms and are currently in the process of turning into exhausted little pumpkins.

Weddings

I'm not a girly girl.  I don't have the fantasy wedding I've dreamed of or whatever ridiculous rom com trope is floating around out there.  Truth be told, it turns out I don't know much about weddings at all... except that no, I cannot "wear that periwinkle chiffon dress anywhere."  Seriously.

So now that we're engaged, and people are starting to ask us questions we can't answer, I've been trying to do some catch up.  And based on the googling and pinteresting (that is a terrifying place, by the way) I've been doing, I have learned a few things about internet wedding (IW) information:

1) DIY means something very different to IW people than it does to me.  I'm thinking maybe I'll bake some cupcakes or do something funky with my bouquet.  These people want you to sculpt miniature birds out of clay, individually stamping each one with each guest's name.  These people want you to painstakingly fold thousands of origami flowers.  These people want you to do do screen printing and calligraphy.  These people assume you have tons of vintage, shabby chic (whatever the hell that means) buttons all over your house just waiting to be turned into boutonnieres for your army of groomsmen.  These people make their own wedding rings.  WHO ARE THESE PEOPLE!??!

2) Every IW website that tells you they have cool, interesting ideas for unique venues has the exact same ideas... and none of them are that unique.  Really?  Country clubs let you get married there?  Who knew?  People get married on hot air balloons?  Tell me more!  My parents' backyard?  Amazing!  Of all these websites I've visited, almost none of them has had a place I would genuinely call unique.  Maybe the one that suggested a library.  That was kinda cool.  But seriously... just because it's not in a church and/or hotel doesn't mean you're reinventing the wedding as we know it.

3) As far as I can tell, Pinterest is nothing but a black hole of shame, daring you to make your wedding into some a shabby chic, hipster masterpiece worthy of all the re-pinning in the world... and threatening to doom you to some weddingfail tumblr for all eternity should your nuptials be found wanting... and yes... they will be found wanting.

It's entirely possible that I'm overreacting here.  But this whole planning a wedding thing is pretty intimidating.  And we haven't even really started yet.

Gulp.

Happy

I spent part of this evening going through old letters from friends and family.  There were letters from family members sent to me at summer camp, notes from ex-boyfriends, notes from old friends about ex-boyfriends, totally mundane little exchanges... but all of them had to be sent through the mail with handwriting and stamps, rather than simply texted without a moment's thought.  I admit, I ended up throwing away a lot of them - some were just too unremarkable, some were even from people who I can't even remember.  But they all made me think about the countless people I've bumped up against in my life, and the amazing little marks they've all left on me, whether I knew it or not.

So, with all these people in my past and present, and with so many upcoming changes coming down the pipe to my future... I got to thinking some more.  I don't know if I'm lucky or if I've worked hard or if some higher power is conspiring to give me warm fuzzies, but I do know that I am happy.  I have the most amazing, loving, weird, hilarious, fun family on the planet.  And this weekend, when I brought home the caring, supportive, nerdy, brilliant man who has (for one reason or another) agreed with me that we should go ahead and spend our lives together, this band of fantastic people to whom I am related welcomed him with open arms and inside jokes aplenty.  Brian and I are moving forward - taking big new steps in our lives, and we're doing it with the support and love of the people who mean the most to me in the world.  I have amazing brothers (and sister-in-law) with gigantic brains and hearts, delicious little nieces with smiles that light up the planet, parents who believe in me even when I forget how to do that for myself, and who provide a model every day of what a marriage is supposed to look like, aunts and uncles and cousins who are a huge part of who I am, even though I don't see them as often as I would like... and I have this Giant Ginger who said, "Hey... I'm on board for this crazy ride!  Let's do this!"

These last few days at home have been a huge gift.  And I just hope that I can hold onto this feeling on those days when I'm feeling down or grouchy or defeated or lonely or a little less than upbeat.  Because this family I get to be a part of...(and the AWESOME wine and whisky that tends to go with it) has got to be about as good as it gets.

I'm being uncharacteristically mooshy right now... but hey... I'm surrounded by the love of amazing people.  I think a little mooshy is fully justified.

Conferences

I have now been to a fair number of academic conferences.  I've got quite the collection of acronyms going: ASTR, IFTR, MATC, CDC (not the one you're thinking)... and I have some thoughts.

1) Going to a conference alone is hard.  I am not super high on the social skill-o-meter, and just striking up conversations with strangers does not come naturally to me.  I know that the schmooze is part of life, but it's a part for which I've never developed any proficiency.  And I can't say that the little groups of people who probably haven't seen each other since the last conference don't always do much to reach out to newcomers. So often, these things can be pretty lonely affairs for me.  Bringing or meeting one or two conference buddies changes the experience in a big way.

2) There seem to be two kinds of conferences: the ones where everyone wants to make themselves look bigger, and the ones where everyone gets jazzed about how big everyone else is/could be.  It's hard to tell before you go to the conference what the particular culture of it will be, but once you get there, it's sort of unmistakable.  You can feel the vibe when people ask and answer questions - are they trying to show off? catch someone in a mistake? Or are they trying to follow out the work, expanding their own understanding or the writer's understanding or all of our understanding in the process?  Do you leave feeling dejected, or energized?  Of course, both kinds of people go to both kinds of conferences, but I do think there tends to be an overarching feel to any given conference - and I definitely prefer the latter.

3) Conference book discounts really are pretty good!

4) If at all possible, stay at the main conference hotel.  That usually means you can easily sneak away to your room if the conference is getting a little overwhelming (or boring... or whatever).

5) Don't feel like you have to be present for every single second of the conference.  Maybe you fly in the morning of the first day, missing the first session or two.  Maybe the last flight out on the last day is at 5:00, so you'll miss the last couple sessions.  Unless you're IN one of those sessions, or unless there's something specifically applicable to your research, it's okay to leave.  I know that kinda sucks, because the people presenting in those sessions deserve every bit as much attention as anyone else, but the fact is, people are going to stay, people are going to be there to hear their work, and sometimes those extra nights of hotel time are just too much of a price to pay.  Don't feel guilty about it.

5b) Just because a session is a plenary session for everyone doesn't mean that you're remotely interested in it.  It's okay to take a long lunch.  It's beautiful outside!

5c) Don't miss the keynote!  Even if you don't think you're interested in them, there's probably a reason they're a keynote... they're probably pretty bitchin'!

6) Business cards.  I don't have business cards - what with my not having a job.  I mean, I have my old actor ones with my headshot, but it would feel a little weird passing my headshot around academia, so I'm holding off.  But I'm constantly wishing I did have something to just hand to the few people I actually have the guts to talk to.  Maybe someone dug my paper - I should give him a card!  Maybe someone had a really great resource or tie in to my own research - I should give her a card!  Writing on their forearm in sharpie really doesn't have the professionalism that I'm going for.

7) Don't expect every conference to be awesome.  You're going to see great work, you're going to see mediocre work.  You're going to have great conversations, you're going to hide in the back corner.  Once in a while, you're going to have an amazing couple of days that really get your academic juices flowing, but more often than not, it's going to be hit and miss.  Just keep your eyes open so that you don't miss the hits.

8) Do make a point to see at least a little of the city you're in.  Some conferences are in crappy places, some are in awesome places... but if at all possible, try to be in the place a bit.  You can't really say you've been to Cleveland if you never left the hotel.

9) WATCH THE PEOPLE.  Academics are weird.  And theatre academics are even weirder.  Collect some of these characters for the future!  There was this one fascinating woman I kept encountering at this last conference - I am so going to use her as an improv character one of these days!

9b) While you're watching the people... also watch yourself.  Don't get caught trying to reproduce their voice or mannerisms right there... 

Bruce Lee

In the course of one month, I have presented three papers at two conferences (MATC and CDC)... and I have listened to two brilliant playwrights (Rajiv Joseph and David Henry Hwang) give their views on life, theatre, and, oddly enough, Bruce Lee.  Now, the Hwang connection is actually fairly logical, as this famous Chinese-American playwright just opened a play about Bruce Lee in New York about a month and a half ago, so it seems fair that Lee would be on his mind.  But Rajiv Joseph's connection was much more indirect - as he explained that much of what he knows about dramatic structure he learned from watching Ferris Bueller's Day Off and Lee's The Game of Death over and over as he was growing up.  These are two different writers, from different ethnic and cultural backgrounds, with different central messages to their talks... but somehow Bruce Lee managed to find his way into both talks.  It sort of got me thinking about what Bruce Lee stands for.  Hwang pointed out that, nowadays, he's more of an icon than a person in the collective unconscious (another term I heard in a presentation today).  Lee is strength and grace and - let's be honest - no small amount of cheese.  Inspiration can come from anywhere...and can lead pretty much anywhere!