This week was JAM PACKED with amazing things, but sadly I can never write a blog long enough to go into the amount of detail needed to attain their full effect. So let's start with the big things that have happened that were mind altering.
First off, we all attended a production of King Lear at MXAT's Mainstage directed by the Movement Master Tadashi Suzuki. I've never seen Suzuki Movement incorporated into a show before, so i was interested and eager to see it's full effect. I have never seen such a beautiful piece of theater. Watching this show I was blown away by how much control each actor maintained over their bodies, voice and especially, their character. The show flowed seamlessly from one scene to the next and held my attention with a Darth Vader death grip. The show itself was only an hour and a half long, but I felt as though it went by so quickly, which left me wanting to see so much more! It was by far the best thing I've seen since being here, and one of the best things I've seen in my life.
This week we had an unusual performance in front of all the faculty and students of MXAT called Kapusnik. Hannah mentioned it a while back, so I'll refresh your memory a bit and save you some scrolling down. Kapusnik, translated it means Cabbage, started when Stanislavski and his wife would invite all of the MXAT company members over to their house and put on a little cabaret of sorts. After performing each performer would receive a little cabbage pastry type thing from Stanislavski. This tradition has lasted since then, but has grown to be an initiation of sorts for the incoming freshmen. Each class does a little skit spoofing teachers, their auditions, or other general things. So the Americans were asked to create a little sketch. For one reason or another I was put in charge of directing our Kapusnik. SIDE NOTE: Directors, I love you. You're job is hard. In general, Kapusnik was bad this year according to everyone who speaks Russian, however, they LOVED the Americans. It just goes to show that when you end a show with Don't Stop Believin' in 4 part harmony, everyone goes home happy.
Finally, and by far the coolest, our Russian Theatre History lecturer Anatoly Smeliansky, who is also the Head of the MXAT Theatre School...no big deal, was asked to sit in the Tsar's Box with the US Ambassador, the Ambassador's wife and the Secretary of State Hillary Clinton at the Bolshoi Theatre. That's how big of a deal MXAT is in Russia. When President Obama came to Russia to meet with Medvedev they created a committee to bring our nations closer together. The committee was made up of people from all kinds of cultural aspects and Smelianksy was the Theatre Arts representative fro Russia, while the US sent a bureaucrat.... ANYWAY, He told us that he spoke in great length about all 43 of the Americans that are currently studying at MXAT, which is one of the highest number of Americans studying abroad in Russia in the same field. After Smeliansky told us about the show and the Secretary, he smiled and said, "so I was sent here with a warm 'Hello' from Secretary Clinton."
Faithfully,
Justin
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