Moscow is indescribable. The city, the culture, the language, the art, the history, all so rich and fascinating. It has been a whirlwind of a week with my horizons expanding and my life slowly changing before my eyes. I am so thankful for this amazing opportunity to study in such a unparalleled setting. Not a day goes by that I don't wake up and thank god for placing me at exactly the right place at the exact right time in my life. I can ask for anything more.
The training is rigorous, physical, brutal and eye opening. Our classes range from mentally stimulating lectures in Russian Theatre History, Russian Language and Russian Cinema History to physically brutal classes like Ballet, Russian Movement and Stage Combat. But most interesting and invigorating is our Acting Class. I am lucky enough to be studying with Sergei Zemstov, the Dean of the Acting School at MXAT, an amazing honor and privilege. MXAT focuses primarily on Stanislavki's System, and why shouldn't they? I mean he did establish the theatre with Nimerovich-Danchenko, so his way of doing things would probably be a nice way of doing things.
Moscow is beautiful, Charlotte. Around each corner is something wonderfully historic and strikingly beautiful. However, in the same way, everything is strangely tragic. The old communist relics that once stood for the people now give an erie atmosphere to some of the most beautiful parts of Moscow. Take St. Basil's for example. Red Square is breathtaking with it's vast and serene design, but with St. Basil's on one end and Lenin's Tomb guarding the Kremlin wall on the other, the clash between Tsarist Russia, Communist Russia and the now present Post-Communtistic Russian Federation is strikingly off-putting. This city is full of some many pretty things that once stood for something so ugly and vile, that the beauty is tainted in a way.
MXAT itself is amazing. With it's signature Seagull and famed font welcoming us everyday to Kamergersky St., it is beginning to feel like home. I can't tell you how much I love this place already, Charlotte. Mostly of that love is thanks to the 29 wonderful scholastic adventurers. Initially we were all shy and timid around each other, but sharing a fridge together does wonders in terms of ice breaking. All 30 of us "O'Neills" as the Russians calls us are really beginning to gel as a collective group, which at this stage of the process is a wonderful, necessary thing. Besides the four of us on this blog, who i know you all think are great little actors, the rest of the MXAT Americans are fantastically talented. From all different kinds of academic institutions, we come together to create this unstoppable force of artistic beauty that is unlike any other I've experienced.
One thing that I've found very refreshing about the MXAT life we've been leading, is that actors here are treated as artists. I feel as though in the States (how "study abroad" of me) actors are seen as a lower class artist, merely a spare part in the process that can be changed on whim. However, in the theater community here in Moscow, everyone from designers to actors to stagehands to directors are all treated as equal artists with equal artistic opinions. That's something that I find amazingly refreshing and inspiring to here.
Forever Yours,
Justin
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