MXAT finals, take 1

So much done. So much to do!
Accomplished so far:Thursday-Stage Combat finalFriday-Movement finalSaturday-Russian Cinema final class
Stage Combat was entertaining. I got to beat up Adam (the girls were supposed to win all of the fights). It was technically perfect, but we had a small story line issue. (I clocked him because he grabbed my shoulders while I was jogging. Which you generally don't do when someone touches you. Generally, you look and see who it is.) But other than that, it went really well. There was a confusion with the timing of the class, whether it ended at 11:30 or at 1, but all was resolved when a frustrated Nastia came in and clarified that class ended at 11:30, and who's missing Voice class right now? So I ran into Voice, sang my solo, ran back and fought Adam, then went back and sang my duet with Adam. Luckily, the rooms are right next to one another, but it was still a little crazy for everyone. Pretty sure the fight was videotaped, so I'll post it (or a link or something) when I can, probably on Facebook.The class frustrated me quite a bit, but when choreographing my fight with Adam, I realized how much crazy stuff I've learned, in spite of my frustrations. Which I suppose is one of the things you're supposed to realize after a life-changing experience... And I'm sure that at one point or another, probably them minute I get on the plane, that's how I'll feel about the past three months.
Movement: Tiring. We had class with the other group and showed each other what we've done. Exercises first, then our massive Lion King etude. (All the little etudes pieced together into a continuous story line.) We ended with the Lioness Hunt from the Broadway soundtrack, which was pretty badass. I almost killed Todd (I abandoned him in order to kill Donovan, who was daddy elephant). A back tuck over his back and pinned him to the ground, thus killing him and dragging his carcass away to the heap of boys on the side of the room. It was a lot of fun. It's funny-thinking back to the beginning of the semester. In acting, doing our animal etudes, I chose a wolf. And creating a wolf's body was so difficult. My arms hated holding me up, and my core killed afterward. But now it feels normal to create wolves/lions/hyenas. Crazy? I think so. At the end of the class, Vlad told us that he had never seen a final performance like ours, ever, in the American Studio. So we were pretty happy to receive that compliment...
Saturday: Had our last Russian Cinema class, in which we discussed our final papers (a response/analysis of one of the films we watched), discussed the last movie we watched (War, a Russian documentary-style film about the Chechen War), and saw the movie Wedding, whic was depressing but strangely optimistic. And we had Acting.
Acting: This is it. We're down to the wire. It's Tuesday now, and we have our final dress tonight. It's remarkable how far Darren and I have come. For a long time, we were stuck in this corner, unable to figure out just what Ivanov and Sarah want, how they relate to one another, why they behave the way they do. How to speak for someone who hides what they want to say? Laughter through tears. It sounds like something a martyr does, but I think that normal people do it-sometimes out of hopelessness. What can you do but laugh at the impossibility of your situation, when you're dying of tuberculosis, your husband has depression and won't let you come with him and won't touch you and has an interest in a young girl who lives elsewhere? It's so preposterous that there's no alternative but laughter. But at the same time, you care so much about the man that's causing your misery that tears are inevitable, as well. What is it to feel this attached to the idea of a man as he was, the one who loved you? Darren and I have looked at all these things-his mostly from Ivanov's side, although he finds Sarah a more interesting character. We had a breakthrough the other night-we were sitting down in the studio, being frustrated because we both felt that we weren't getting much done and we had received a lot of notes that day, that we didn't know what to do with. So I suggested two exercises. 1) Play the scene at extremes. He plays the most radical version of Kolya that he can think of, and I'll play the extreme Sarah. And the scene turned into a melodrama. It was interesting-he discovered how difficult it could be to listen to me, to just tune me out instead. I realized that in order to keep fighting for him, I had to have some hope, and thus needed him to listen to me. So, as any good scene partners should do, we've developed a huge dependence on listening to your partner. Which is one of those #1 rules that everyone knows but doesn't always work with.And 2) We sat down and spoke the scene to each other. We get so intent on the fact that it's a "scene" sometimes that we forget that it's two people, husband and wife, having a conversation. And once we did this exercise, things clicked. We were reminded to talk to each other. Another of those rules that no one thinks about when they put it into practice.
Had a surprise rehearsal on Sunday from 2-6, which ate up our last free Sunday in Moscow. Which sucked, but at the same time, no one was upset. We like rehearsing, and we'd started running the showcase from beginning to end, and that's been a lot of fun. Darren and I have the first scene (no pressure?), which means I have a quick change from the black and whites I wear in our training portion of the show into my Sarah costume (a very pretty pale blue dress with black lace), and then I walk into my scene. Not much prep time, but it's working well thus far.
And then yesterday, Monday, we had Voice and Ballet, the last time we'll have these classes. Terrifying thought. I didn't do so well in Voice. We were there at 10, but the American Studio was, as usual, freezing. Which wasn't any good for our voices, and we remained cold for the whole run-through of our final on Thursday. My solo was okay, not great, and I sang at half-voice for one reason or another. That's just what came out? My mouth forgot about articulating, my throat forgot to go up instead of fall down, my lips forgot to smile... It was a frustrating 5 minutes of talking to Marina. But I'm glad she cares enough to spend extra time working with me. And Larissa loves our ballet class. We got out 20 minutes early (after starting 10 minutes late, due to Voice class running over). AND...After class, Larissa was speaking with Ariana, and told her that our group, after 3 months, knows as much ballet as her fourth-year Russian students. And I'm sure we're not as clean as they are, but the fact that we know as much? How ridiculous is that? So I'm super proud/happy for my group. Our final is on Wednesday morning, before our acting showcase.We took the time tonight to clean all of our dances (Ballet exercises, Russian, Tango, Tarantella). But we had to start at 9 and ran until 11... We planned to start at 7:30, but Oleg and Sasha kept us over by and hour and a half, doing notes for individual scenes from the run-through today.
Anatoly Smeliansky's birthday was yesterday, so we bought him roses. It was very cool to see how excited/pleased he was to receive a gift from the American students... and his office is gorgeous. Also ran into Preston Whiteway, the director of the NTI MATS program, who's here to see our finals. We had a small chat with him as we headed to Stage Design, where we had our final set presentations. I presented set design research/concepts for Ivanov, and our professor, Victor, applauded my ability to compose color palettes well, using dramaturgy as a guide. And my head inflated a little more than it has already. It's good to know that I haven't completely wasted these last few months, anyway.
And now, to sleep? A chill day tomorrow-meeting with Preston in the morning, then watching the NIU (Northern Illinois University) students perform their final, then starting Acting at around 5. Goodness knows how long we'll be there, but I'm excited anyway.
It's good to be so incredibly and remarkably invested in this, my work.
love to all y'all over therei'll be seeing you soonish (some of you, anyway)
lovemarpar