classes... etc

Hi.

Haven’t spoken in a few days (?). Russia is still fantastic. I feel as though I’ve know these people for a month, but it’s only been a few days-not even a week. We’ve been split into two different groups for the majority of our classes: acting, movement, singing, ballet, stage combat, language. Everyone takes design, theatre history, and film and cinema history together. We have a 35 minute hike to school from the dorms, and can take the Metro if we want but it’s not worth the money yet because we can just walk. But obviously, we’ll use the Metro when the weather gets too cold. But yeah. Classes. Thus far:

Stage Combat, Movement, Costume Design, Language: Not taken yet.

Ballet: Misunderstanding. We were supposed to have it today, but didn’t. Check in on Thursday for opinion on this class.

Singing: Um. Awesome. This lady is a) scary accurate and b) hilarious. She knows exactly what’s going on inside when she hears you sing scales and arpeggios. Watching her work with people was incredible: serious changes happened to people’s voices in the space of 5 minutes. Cool.

Acting: Phenomenal. A lot of coordination exercises, ensemble exercises. Stand up in unison, feel the energy in the room and switch with your partners in the semicircle one at a time, count 1 to 20 without looking at each other and if you mess up you start from the beginning again (same with the alphabet), machine gun clapping in a semicircle, individual etudes personalizing objects, group etudes including improvisation, etc etc etc. My group works well together; I’m the “starista,” which is kind of like the leader of the group (shocked?), and I’m sort of the organizer for group meetings and such; I get to speak to the professors and to the head of the school, Anatoly Smeliansky- I’m the go-between. Which is incredible, because Smelianksy’s one of the most reputed people in theatre today and I get to hang out and call him Tolia. (Not actually, but I mean kinda.)

Anyway. Acting. The teachers for our group are Oleg and Sasha, and they’re both hilarious. Oleg speaks English well, but he has a few funny catch phrases like “It is possible to do this” instead of “Let’s try this.” It’s funnier when you’re with him in person. And Sasha is not so good at English. But he gets by with a lot of charades and impressions and asking us about vocabulary. Over all, the class in incredibly entertaining, and I can’t wait to begin scene work. Trying to remind myself that it’s only been a few days and that I can’t be too impatient.

Theatre History: Taught by Anatoly Smelianksy, author of “Russian Theatre after Stalin.” He’s an older man... late fifties? Mid sixties? No idea. Incredibly knowledgeable, loves to teach us about the theatre. Confirms everything I thought about establishing a theatre company-that it requires 90% administration and business. Or at least 70%. His lectures are remarkably engaging (as is everything here, to be fair), and I make it a point to sit up front. Considering talking to him about attending at the end of my time here. But who knows.

Theatre of Russian Cinema: Ridiculous. Galina knows more than any other human being about cinema and can evaluate scene compositions and talk about depth of field and angle and sight lines and staging pictures at more length than any person I’ve ever met. And she love loves what she does, which makes it a thousand times more interesting.

That’s the abbreviated version of my class impressions. In love with all of my classes and wish that I had more time. Refusing to count down. Ignoring the date. Being here is like stepping into some sort of vacuum.

You’re here, and only here. You don’t have a cell phone, so there’s no obligation to keep in touch or keep in sight or check in with people or respond to texts. You’re in class so much that checking your email doesn’t happen much, and when you get an email you don’t have to respond right away because you’re in Russia and people know that and give you a break. And you can deactivate your Facebook because who the fuck cares about what’s going on halfway around the world when you can live here, now.

So when I’m at the dorms, I spend my free time hanging out in the kitchen or in a dorm room, talking and snacking and drinking and smoking and talking. When we’re not at the dorms and have free time (which is hardly ever), we go out and do wonderful things and explore Moscow and get lost and see shows and museums and get lost again. Such marvelous experiences with such marvelous people.

A word to the cautious: DON’T BE. Don’t look for the American things. Don’t be careful. You’re in Moscow. Live here! Don’t just drink a lot of vodka and smoke a lot of really cheap cigarettes in the stairwell. Get out of the dorms! Go see things! And not just the things that are planned for you; make your own plans.

Other than all of my school stuff, things I’m doing: finishing up my directing proposal, writing the book for a musical being produced in Atlanta, getting far too little sleep because socializing is wayyy too entertaining and I’m in love with these people.

I’ll include more hints, tips on living here later on. Tired. Waking up early tomorrow; russian language and movement and acting tomorrow.

Love love love

M