Dear Mr. Harvey Fancy Paws,
I am le tired. It has been a difficult week in acting class. One of our teachers scares me quite a bit and things have gotten progressively more….abusive? A strong word, but I think it fits. Trying to explain to non-artists what this sort of thing feels like is impossible. I suck right now, once I was a good actress but I am no longer.
It snowed this week. It’s so pretty…so cold, but it makes my heart so warm. I was falling asleep on the window ledge in the American studio green room, looking out at the other roof tops during a break, feeling glad about my life. My near sleep brain became very poetic and I thanked whatever powers that be for the “ocean of steely gray sky against dilapidated red brick and tin.” The swirling snow outside makes it feel more like Christmas than Halloween.
Any way. This week I saw the play “Damon” directed by Demitri Krimov. The space was like a lighthouse; long and cylindrical, and the audience all sat in boxes. We didn’t get seats, so we were literally crouched on the catwalk at the very top of the space looking down at the heads of the actors. The show was extremely interesting, even from a bird’s eye view. The stage was covered in layers and layers of paper which the actors painted on, ripped up, and molded into other shapes. Example: the actors cam out with long brushes on sticks and buckets of paint, and they painted large naked figures on the stage representing Adam and Eve. Then one of the actors dipped his fingers in some paint and gave Eve a beautiful seductive mouth…he then picked up a bull-whip (cue snake sound effects) and began to move the whip as if it were a snake. He poked a small hole in Eve’s paper mouth and threaded the whip through it. Then all at once, he yanked the whip and ripped down the full length of Eve’s paper body. He began to wildly swing the whip, thrashing the paper and destroying both Adam and Eve completely. Meanwhile, epic orchestra music is wailing in the background and the entire stage is a blur of flying paper. Then the storm ends and the actors rush out to wad the paper into a giant ball. Confetti starts sprinkling down towards the stage, and suddenly there is a paper snowball fight happening… and so on and so on. It was a beautiful spectacle, very intelligently done.
On Friday we toured the Moscow Art Theater itself. It’s the most impressive theater I’ve ever seen. They have everything you could ever desire in a space; when they go on tour, they have to redesign their shows because there really are no theaters that share all the capabilities of the Moscow Art Theater. There is something so special about an empty stage. The air is still pregnant from last night’s catharsis. Almost all theaters share a similar smell; it’s the combination of dust, paint, cut wood, heat, and bodies. There are the irregular bricks painted black to match the black floor – the random bits of graffiti and stray flecks of paint; the forgotten pieces of glitter and confetti pushed into the corners by the brooms. Little things with a whole other reality attached to them. It makes me want to cry when I think about it.
That night I was supposed to see Medea, but the director did not appreciate Americans in the audience. The Angel who guided us there was sneaking us inside in groups of between 1 and 5 people under strict instruction not to speak English. A bunch of us ended up just going home since it wasn’t really working out to get everyone a seat. Honestly, I think it’s very telling about the director; a director should be confident enough in his work to trust that his vision will ring true to the audience even without understanding the language.
That same day we were struck with the swine flu crisis; a first year Russian student was diagnosed with Swine flue, prompting everyone to pretty much go crazy. The funny thing is, they don’t just quarantine people who are sick, they totally separate us to the best of their ability based on nationality. Thus was our Halloween party sort of ruined, since none of the Russians were allowed to attend.
Before the party last night, I saw Richard III. Oh. My. God. Imagine if Tim Burton was like way better than he actually is and he decided to come up with the design concept for that play; then imagine the best acting you’ve ever seen on that same stage. That was my night. Reikin is an extremely famous actor and teacher. He played Richard; he’s probably the best actor I’ve ever seen. The end. The sound design was great too….I loved that they played “Goodnight Baby” while they killed people on stage. I love that they jumped around on giant marshmallow parachute mattress for a whole chunk of the play. It’s really difficult to describe these things in word…I’m struggling to find the right thing to say, so I’m going to move on to other topics. Yeah, Halloween was nothing too special. I actually had more fun after the party was over.
Today I am going too see Swan Lake at the Bolshoi. Um. I can’t even begin to tell you how excited I am.
Love, love, love –
Hannah
I am le tired. It has been a difficult week in acting class. One of our teachers scares me quite a bit and things have gotten progressively more….abusive? A strong word, but I think it fits. Trying to explain to non-artists what this sort of thing feels like is impossible. I suck right now, once I was a good actress but I am no longer.
It snowed this week. It’s so pretty…so cold, but it makes my heart so warm. I was falling asleep on the window ledge in the American studio green room, looking out at the other roof tops during a break, feeling glad about my life. My near sleep brain became very poetic and I thanked whatever powers that be for the “ocean of steely gray sky against dilapidated red brick and tin.” The swirling snow outside makes it feel more like Christmas than Halloween.
Any way. This week I saw the play “Damon” directed by Demitri Krimov. The space was like a lighthouse; long and cylindrical, and the audience all sat in boxes. We didn’t get seats, so we were literally crouched on the catwalk at the very top of the space looking down at the heads of the actors. The show was extremely interesting, even from a bird’s eye view. The stage was covered in layers and layers of paper which the actors painted on, ripped up, and molded into other shapes. Example: the actors cam out with long brushes on sticks and buckets of paint, and they painted large naked figures on the stage representing Adam and Eve. Then one of the actors dipped his fingers in some paint and gave Eve a beautiful seductive mouth…he then picked up a bull-whip (cue snake sound effects) and began to move the whip as if it were a snake. He poked a small hole in Eve’s paper mouth and threaded the whip through it. Then all at once, he yanked the whip and ripped down the full length of Eve’s paper body. He began to wildly swing the whip, thrashing the paper and destroying both Adam and Eve completely. Meanwhile, epic orchestra music is wailing in the background and the entire stage is a blur of flying paper. Then the storm ends and the actors rush out to wad the paper into a giant ball. Confetti starts sprinkling down towards the stage, and suddenly there is a paper snowball fight happening… and so on and so on. It was a beautiful spectacle, very intelligently done.
On Friday we toured the Moscow Art Theater itself. It’s the most impressive theater I’ve ever seen. They have everything you could ever desire in a space; when they go on tour, they have to redesign their shows because there really are no theaters that share all the capabilities of the Moscow Art Theater. There is something so special about an empty stage. The air is still pregnant from last night’s catharsis. Almost all theaters share a similar smell; it’s the combination of dust, paint, cut wood, heat, and bodies. There are the irregular bricks painted black to match the black floor – the random bits of graffiti and stray flecks of paint; the forgotten pieces of glitter and confetti pushed into the corners by the brooms. Little things with a whole other reality attached to them. It makes me want to cry when I think about it.
That night I was supposed to see Medea, but the director did not appreciate Americans in the audience. The Angel who guided us there was sneaking us inside in groups of between 1 and 5 people under strict instruction not to speak English. A bunch of us ended up just going home since it wasn’t really working out to get everyone a seat. Honestly, I think it’s very telling about the director; a director should be confident enough in his work to trust that his vision will ring true to the audience even without understanding the language.
That same day we were struck with the swine flu crisis; a first year Russian student was diagnosed with Swine flue, prompting everyone to pretty much go crazy. The funny thing is, they don’t just quarantine people who are sick, they totally separate us to the best of their ability based on nationality. Thus was our Halloween party sort of ruined, since none of the Russians were allowed to attend.
Before the party last night, I saw Richard III. Oh. My. God. Imagine if Tim Burton was like way better than he actually is and he decided to come up with the design concept for that play; then imagine the best acting you’ve ever seen on that same stage. That was my night. Reikin is an extremely famous actor and teacher. He played Richard; he’s probably the best actor I’ve ever seen. The end. The sound design was great too….I loved that they played “Goodnight Baby” while they killed people on stage. I love that they jumped around on giant marshmallow parachute mattress for a whole chunk of the play. It’s really difficult to describe these things in word…I’m struggling to find the right thing to say, so I’m going to move on to other topics. Yeah, Halloween was nothing too special. I actually had more fun after the party was over.
Today I am going too see Swan Lake at the Bolshoi. Um. I can’t even begin to tell you how excited I am.
Love, love, love –
Hannah
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