It's been a while since my last post, but things have gotten pretty hectic here. We've completely immersed ourselves into Three Sisters, exploring the story and its characters through use of group études. The first étude we were assigned was a piece centering around the general circumstances and emotional atmosphere of Act I - it's someone's Saint's Day (similar to a birthday), and exactly a year ago, their father died. On the first day we brought these in, all of the pieces were very somber and mournful, as you may expect. Afterwards, we were criticized for completely ignoring the celebratory aspect of the situation. The characters want to break the monotony of their lives; they don't want to be sad anymore. In theatre, it's much more interesting to watch people work against their sadness than to wallow in it. With that in mind, we went through several more rounds of études with the same prompt. The attempts to find happiness from darkness would get chaotic and surreal... we had food fights, strippers, belting rounds of Defying Gravity, and a great deal of alcohol in our pieces. Sergei, our acting teacher, told us: "Chekhov wrote about humans. We are humans. This is about US." The purpose of these études is to explore how we would behave in the situations that the Three Sisters characters are put in, as well as to give us a vehicle to explore every facet of the profound text that Chekhov gave us. After we finished the Saint's Day études, we moved onto other topics within the play to explore: What happened to the sisters' mother? What about Natasha's affair with Protopopov, who is only spoken of, never shown? How did Baron Tuzenbach actually die in the duel? What are Bobik and Sophie like, and how do they influence the rest of the characters? What about Vershinin's crazy wife? What is the relationship between Olga and Kulygin? There's so much that I can say about all the Chekhov that's been crammed into my brain the last few weeks, but I'll stop here. These études have continued to remind me vaguely of Collab 1&2 pieces, only we're putting up a new piece every day, six days a week. MXAT has done more than train me in the craft of acting and text analysis - it has taught me how to tell a story onstage in a clear and interesting way. Stanislavski used to ask his students, "So, what are you going to surprise me with today?" We've been strongly encouraged to fight against the banal, to think in new and outrageous ways, and to keep asking questions.
Our other classes have continued to get more and more intense as well. Ballet has been a struggle, as usual, but I can feel my body getting more precise in every Adagio, Rond de jambe, Fondu, Frappé, Grand Battement, etc. In Movement class, we've been working on partner acrobatics. Being a boy, I've generally been a base, which can get pretty scary for a guy of my stature. Luckily, nobody's gotten hurt yet, and I've been feeling and seeing noticeable results from our work. The secret to mastering Droznin (the movement technique we do) is not necessarily strength, but balance, coordination, and trust in your partner. As for individual acrobatics, I'm in the process of mastering a "Russian dumpling" (I'll post a picture of this at some point), a side-shoulder stand, as well as a headstand, which is something I never thought I could do in a million years. Now, I can, thanks to many nights of practicing in my dorm room at 1AM while listening to Ravel's Bolero.
We've also been seeing a great deal of Russian theatre in the past few weeks. Some highlights have included what is likely to be the weirdest production of Othello ever created, as well as a MXAT performance of Annie Baker's Circle Mirror Transformation. I really enjoyed CMT, especially after dissecting it in Text Analysis last year, but it brought about an interesting revelation for me: It's been said that Americans will never truly "get" Chekhov as well as Russians, because there are natural differences between the ways that we interact with one another versus the way Russians do. Even the best translations can't make up for the inevitable cultural and behavioral differences. For example, when observing Russians interacting, you almost never hear an "awkward pause"; Russians are much more straightforward and blunt in expressing themselves than Americans are. With the performance of Circle Mirror Transformation, I came to the conclusion that Annie Baker is like America's modern day Chekhov. Yes, that's quite a bold statement to make, but I stand behind it. Baker is comparable to Chekhov in that she keeps the most dramatic moments of the play offstage, but her writing style is distinctly American. While watching it, a lot of the audience members around me were getting visibly bored, taking out their phones (which actually happens A LOT here, surprisingly enough), and leaving during intermission. Many of them just don't get it.
As for my overall experience here, I'll state the obvious: It's not easy. We're being exhausted physically, mentally, and psychologically. I've experienced just about every emotion possible in the course of 24 hours, and once that day ends, the next begins. The language barrier is much more difficult to live with than I expected, and the teachers don't take 'no' for an answer. There is no time for fear and doubt. That said, I appreciate this challenge - this is just what I've needed at this point of my life and training. As Tina Benko said, "If acting was easy, everyone would do it."
Wednesday, October 30, 2013
Saturday, October 12, 2013
Surprises, Gorillas, and St. Petersburg
I’m
sitting in the cozy corner at Starbucks to write out this entry. It is 10:30 PM
here, but only 2:30 in the States. I realized I haven’t blogged or journaled in
over two weeks, and so much has happened that I’m afraid I won’t remember if I
don’t write it down. Because I’m horrible at keeping a personal journal, I’m
going to try to blend the two into this post, so forgive me if I get
long-winded. That said, I’d like to focus only on certain moments that I think
are worth sharing and remembering. Presently, I have a quarter sized blister on
each of my heels, so walking often feels like swimming in razor blades. This is
an excuse for new boot shopping, yes? Yes. Will tend to that later.
I’ll begin with my interactions with
the Russian students thus far - I am beginning to realize the differences and
similarities between us. They did not live through the Soviet Union, as their parents (and our teachers) did. They don’t seem to fully understand the older generations, and just from the aesthetic look between the two, they don’t seem to have anything in common. The younger generation here is very hip and trendy, and seem to be friendly and wanting to talk to us. While some people seem cold to the American tourists, many places are pampering us, giving us free food, and trying to create a warm environment. However, it is apparent that the topics of race and sexual orientation are still very much the subject of jokes here in Moscow. I see hardly any black people, and being gay is still dangerous. Ask me personally, and I’ll be glad to elaborate on what I've heard and seen around the city -- nothing frightening yet, knock on wood, but certainly different from what we’re used to in the States.
Classes. Classes are crazy. I’m surprising myself everyday, which is...surprising. A week ago, I couldn’t get myself off the ground in our shoulder stand for movement. This week, I got my feet off the floor. I’m not in the air yet, but I’m no longer looking like a hairball rolling around on my yoga mat. I’m learning to love the feeling of my thighs being sliced open by a meat cleaver. Stretching is easier and I’m doing stretches and lifts that I didn’t think I could do. Lifting people into the air with my legs, arm twists, and hamstring stretches. I hope to continue forward. I’m learning that I should not aim for large leaps or huge growth immediately, but if I can keep taking little steps forward, that is an achievement. Maybe next week I can extend my legs in the shoulder stand. We are learning new ways in which our bodies move, and getting ourselves acclimated to that movement. We were doing an exercise where we sit on the floor, legs extended and arms straight up in the air. Our teacher, Vlad, [a jolly but tough Russian man with red hair and a potbelly] commanded us in his heavy voice “SMILE!” as we held the position. He came around and adjusted our stretch. I felt him pull my arms up even higher and straighter, while his knee pushed up my back into an even more rigid line. “AHH!” he exclaimed while my face looked like I had just sucked on a lemon. He spoke while the translator told me what he was saying: “Zach, this is your line of beauty. Why are you not using it?”
In acting, we prepare etudes for every class (so, six a week). We are working on being present in every moment, being influenced by our given circumstance and atmosphere, and really reacting to what is happening. My stage combat teacher, Slav, told me that I was not working with my partner. “Don’t rush,” he said. “You have someone in front of you that you must deal with. You’re working by yourself, and that is not interesting.” We were warming up one day, and Slav looked me square in the eye and simply said “More. Active.” This little phrase was had such an impact on me. We have been working towards living organically and experiencing something in the specifics of the given circumstances and environment. How do we deal with what is in front of us, and not show the audience what we are doing? How do we BE onstage, and actually experience something instead of showing the audience how we feel about it, commenting on it? We were all to be animals for one exercise, and our teacher Sergey stressed the importance of having the animals eyes. He wanted us to not only be the animal, but a specific animal with a personality. I was a gorilla. He wanted to see not only how gorillas move, but how this specific gorilla moved. What made me different from all the other gorillas? Lights up, and there should be a gorilla on stage, not Zach playing a gorilla. Here, actors are not interested in showing or telling, but being. If something happens, you are reacting as the gorilla would act because you ARE the gorilla.
Today, we were to bring in an etude that will help us with diving into Three Sisters, the play we are focusing on this semester. The circumstances of the etude were as follows: it’s someone’s St. Day (or birthday), and it is the year anniversary of our father’s death. These are the same givens as the first scene in Three Sisters. We created a piece set in modern day, where we threw a surprise party for a sibling, and it ended with a full fledged re-staging of Defying Gravity from Wicked as a means of celebration. There were paper towel capes, fork brooms, and a crown hat. The combustion of celebration out of a year of sadness was infectious, and reminded us of the joy dad brought to all of our lives. This had nothing to do with the story line of Three Sisters, but the joy and celebration we found can be used to fill the text of the first scene of the play. Needless to say, Acting class is always a surprise. Yesterday, the power went off during our etude, but the class didn’t stop. Our teacher asked everyone to take out their phones and turn on the flashlight setting. We finished the scene lit by the rest of the class holding up their phones. It was inspiring.
The mentality of the Russian theatre majors here is incredible. One of my new Russian friends wants to be a director. She is a producing student currently. She said that maybe in the future she will go to school for directing, but she is glad that she is getting a first education, because she thinks knowing the classic Russian literature is important. When her friend said that she would like to be a director but didn’t have the talent, my friend replied “I don’t think I have the talent either, but I’m still going to try.” This made an impression on me. Another student, outside of MXAT, saw someone doing a performance piece on the roof of the theatre. The first thing she said to me was “What does he want?” This mentality struck me - she didn’t ask what he was doing, or why he was up there, but “What does he want?”
This week I learned something very valuable. I often feel that if I’m not working long hours on something, than I am not doing enough work. I am not working hard enough, or long enough of tough enough. If I’m not stressing and laboring doing hard work, then I’m not working. This, I have learned to be untrue. It’s not how long you work, it’s not how hard you work, but it’s how smartly you work. Spending five hours on a project may be necessary to iron out specific details, but in working individually, if time is used effectively and smartly, and I’m putting my energy and focus in the right places, it doesn’t matter how long or short I am working. Time is no longer a factor, it’s how that time is spent. Five hours or five minutes, as long as it’s the most efficient use of that time possible. I want to really try to implement this in the coming weeks. Hopefully I can, and am not just philosophizing.
We are continuing to be exposed to many different kinds of theatre, some of which I’ve enjoyed, and some I’ve really disagreed with. A show we saw last night (still in the development phase) was a reading of one man’s memoir about his wife’s cancer. The director didn’t want the actors to play characters, but rather read directly from the memoir and influence the writing with their own point of view. The reading was four hours, and really rubbed me the wrong way. It was very heady and didn’t cut to the core of the story or the characters in it. I got lost and eventually stopped paying attention. It was not theatrical, and I believe they have a lot of work to do if they want to make what is essentially an audio book a theatrical event for a room full of people.
Earlier this week, I sat down at a table in the cafeteria that had someone else’s book bag. I figured if it was a stranger’s, I would move if they wanted me too. An older lady walked to the table, and sat down. She motioned for me to stay when I was about to give her the table back. We began talking, not understanding a word the other was saying. I was able to introduce myself in my poor Russian (although ordering in the cafeteria is getting easier, and I feel less like an idiot), and learned that her name was Anna. Then she asked if I spoke French. I don’t. She seemed to understad my English, but only responded in French or Russian. She looked at me several times when we were not really able to understand each other and said “it’s interesting,” the only English phrase she spoke. I was able to make out from her words and our quasi-conversation that she was a guest teacher from the LeCoque school in Paris, and was teaching at MXT for a couple months. We finished our lunch together, with the help of some of my peers translating her French. She tried to teach me some words, and we were both excited when we knew the same vocabulary. She wished us a good trip, then went about her day.
We learned this week that November 11th is the 70th anniversary of the Moscow Art Theatre School. In celebration, the theatre is hosting a gala event. The American students have been asked to perform a song. This means that our group will be performing on the mainstage of Moscow Art Theatre in a jubilee that will be televised to the entirety of Russia. Gulp. More of that to come...
We had stage design class earlier this week with the lighting designer of the Bolshoi Ballet (Seeing Swan Lake there didn’t happen, since my laundry cycle messed up half way through...stupid...luckily we saw another production of Swan Lake at the Stanislavsky Opera and Ballet Center). She told us of a video mapping show that was being performed on the facade of the Bolshoi that evening. We went to the spectacle and had a wonderful time watching the front of that massive building be transformed into islands, train stations, and starry skies. Also, I made it to the Krispy Kreme last night. It was magical, and tasted just like it does at home :)
Now, I guess I should talk a little about St. Petersburg. We went last weekend. We toured the Hermitage and the Winter Palace of Catherine the Great. Later, we travelled to the Tsar’s Village in the town of Puskin to see Pavlovsk and the Palace of Elizabeth I and Catherine the Great. It was absolutely stunning. I’ll try to post some pictures below. We travelled on an overnight train there, and on a high velocity train back. Is it ironic/cruel that I read Three Sisters on the train ride back to Moscow? Hopefully I won’t be punished too badly for that...
Impressions of St. Pete - It is a beautiful open city. Many more colors than Moscow. The people I did not find to be friendly. I got looks and frustrations from wait staff and security guards. Oh well. Aesthetically the city is gorgeous. Maybe it was because we saw leaves. Maybe it was because the sun was out. That is a rarity here. I didn’t realize how much my mood was affected by the sun. I’m always happier when the sun shines. I’m nostalgic for school and New York, and I miss my friends and family. The current challenge is to invest my focus and energy here, and not get caught up in the romanticism of where I’m not. The challenge, as our teachers say, is to mobilize our will. As Vlad tells us: we need to mobilize our will to be lighter, easier, higher, and funnier. The sky is more interesting than the ground. It is better to fly.
Check back next week...hoping to keep track of everything in the coming days.
‘Til then,
Z
Monday, October 7, 2013
Pictures of the first few weeks
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 4th 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.
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