Acting Bootcamp

The first two and a half weeks at MXAT have been intense, to say the least. Our class days (which are Monday - Saturday) usually look something like this:

10-11:30... Morning class 1

11:30-1... Morning class 2

1-2... Lunch

2-3... Afternoon class

3-5:30... Acting

Morning classes include Ballet (twice a week), Stage Movement (twice a week), Russian (three times a week), Stage Combat (once a week), and Voice (once a week). We also have a 3-hour Russian Cinema class on Saturdays. In the afternoon, we either have Theatre History, Theatre Design, or an extended lunch break (I'm sure I don't have to add that the extra free time is always greatly appreciated.) Lastly, we have Acting, six days a week.  After class, if we’re not seeing a show, we go home.  In the evening, we are constantly rehearsing for Acting class. Think that's hectic? Well, it is, but not as insane as the actual MXAT students, who take classes twelve hours a day, all seven days a week!

Where to begin, where to begin...

So far, my favorite morning classes are Stage Movement, Voice, and Ballet.  Ballet is taught by Renat, a former member of a famous traveling dance company. So far, we've spent the time learning the different basic ballet fundamentals and sequences. Although I've never considered myself a skilled dancer, I have a lot of fun, and it’s a great mental exercise as well – ballet is all about focus. As for Voice, our teacher is a little old Russian lady named Marina who, I swear, speaks in her own kooky language most of the time. She's hilarious, and loves to flirt with all of the boys.  I think she's definitely taken a liking to me. In our first day of class, she had us sing a few bars of any song we wanted to, and then she tested our vocal ranges individually. I chose "Mr. Cellophane", because it's one of the only musical theatre songs I know. When singing in her class, I realized that I was actually really enjoying myself - more than I had in a long time while singing.  Stage Movement is definitely my favorite so far. Our teacher, Vlad, is a big Russian man with a huge beaming smile that makes you can't help but smile back. Vlad, along with several of our other teachers, are always stressing to us the importance of smiling. One of the stereotypes of Russians is that they don't smile, and one of the (many) stereotypes they have about Americans is that we never stop smiling. The teachers beg us to continue smiling, and to always have fun when working. We are doing what we love, and we have to relish it every step of the process. This reminds me of one of the major lessons Matthew taught us in Acting I and Collab - you can't only be focused on perfecting a final product. You have to fall in love with every twist and turn that comes along your way, however difficult a challenge they may be. Although I had understood it logically, it's now only really sinking into me here. If you don't have fun in the process, you're going to live most of your life unhappily. Back to Movement - while we're doing high jump after high jump, or some other extremely grueling exercise, Vlad always makes sure we're smiling and thinking with an upward energy.  You'd be surprised by not only the emotional effect, but also the physical difference that those thoughts bring. I've found it extremely inspiring, and has already changed the way I see our art.

Our days and lives here center around Acting class, co-taught by Sergei and Ilya.  They all follow the same format— in the first third of class, we present and critique our group études.  In the second third, we play theatre games that challenge our powers of concentration.  Then, we finish up the class with presentations and critiques of individual etudes.

So, what are études, you may ask?

Basically, they are short, wordless scenes that focus on an event. Any event. As long as it affects the characters in the étude.  For every class, we prepare a new group étude.  At first, the class was only split into two, so the groups were larger.  As we slowly figured out what the teachers actually wanted from us, our études got better and better, until Sergei decided to step it up and split us into smaller groups.  We pick the setting, the event, the characters, and their backstories.  There was about a week of serious struggle in trying to figure out what Sergei and Ilya wanted from us – we would spend three hours planning “the perfect event”, only to have it torn to shreds in critiques.  I’m glad to say that the skills we learned in Collab Freshman year really applied here, and we were soon able to figure out the true intention of the group études. Now, it takes us much less planning time to figure out what we’re going to do, and the études are going much better.

As for individual études, we began with two rounds of Objects. We each pick an object, embody it, find its character, decide an event that happens to the object, and create a short piece.  After that, we moved onto Animals.  We also had the pleasure of seeing a show that the 4^th year MXAT students put up, comprised of nothing but études. I was blown away by not only the precision they worked with, but how much fun and vivacity they brought to the performance. With the energy they all radiated, we were sure that we witnessed their opening night, but it turns out they had been putting on the exact same show for over two years.  We’ve seen some amazing theatre here so far, but I’d say that this was the most inspiring.

After we finish Animals, we will begin doing études dedicated to the Chekhov play we’ll be focusing on this semester, Three Sisters.  We’ve been told to read and reread the play so we can discover more about each of the characters, their dreams, their secrets, and so on.

The reason why we’ve been doing études instead of going straight to scenes is that, as Sergei says, the birth of the word is the result of a psycho-physical effect inside of us.  We need to learn how to get to the point of using words honestly and naturally before we move on to text.  Removing words from our work has been an extremely revelatory learning experience for me.  I’ve realized the importance of finding a feeling of ease, of seeking clarity in all that we do, and of DETAILS, DETAILS, DETAILS.

I wanted to fit 100000 more things to tell you all about, but there are literally not enough hours of the day here. So I’ll leave it at that. I know that I’ve already been changed forever as an actor here, and I can’t wait to see what more Moscow and MXAT has in store for us.