off we go

Dear you,

I chose to go to Moscow for a semester on something very close to a whim.

20 of us went to Moscow in January to "study" at the Moscow Art Theatre School-something like a miniature version of the training that Russian theatre students undergo.

MXAT students are in their first class by 9 am, have an hour lunch break, end their last class at 6 pm, go home to the dorms, prepare whatever work they were assigned for that night to present for the next day, sleep, wake up, and do it all again. Six days a week, Sunday being their day off.

We sort of did that. We also drank enough vodka to fill a swimming pool, and smoked enough cigarettes to make the Surgeon General cringe. It was a lot of fun. Although I did give up smoking when I made it back to America-my lungs couldn't take much more.

A while after we got back, I actually have no idea when, it occurred to me that we missed out on a lot of training. We did a lot of sight-seeing, little field trips, spent New Year's in the Red Square, saw several shows. We worked hard and remember the little quirks about the teachers and the ballet lifts we were subjected to and the warm up games we played and the Russian movies we watched and the principles behind etudes. One of the most enjoyable experiences I've had- but I wonder what it's like to be a MXAT student full-time. To work non-stop because you have to or you'll be expelled.

Work ethic is not a joke over there, and it's not a choice. You work or you go.

I work a lot. What's it like to be surrounded by people who a) expect that of you and b) work just as much, too? Just how astronomically different is a Russian theatre education from an American one? I'm going to find out. Something between a curious experiment and the desire for an experience way beyond my understanding in a place that isn't New York City.

The Eugene O'Neill National Theater Institute is the only American institution that provides a semester-long study experience at the Moscow Art Theatre School. I found the application, interviewed, and before I knew it, was asked to learn the Cyrillic alphabet, buy a floor-length rehearsal skirt and ballet attire, and read 14 books-both plays and acting theory.

On September 19th, I'm flying from home in Nashville, Tennessee to Connecticut, to meet the 30 other crazy souls who have decided to take this leap across the Atlantic (and Europe) together.

On September 21st, we leave for Moscow.

I'm excited.

I'm terrified.

I'll attempt to write regularly, both to let people know what life there is like and as a personal documentation of what I experience.

It won't be written in dry schedule format, but it won't be a diary, either.

Let's say... it'll be a candid telling of what I think about what I'm doing.

Off we go,

Marissa