6 Weeks In

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."