DAY THREE - Wednesday March 28

DAY THREE - Wednesday March 28

Slept quite well.  Our first event was meeting with the Managing Director of the theatre.  Since we are both named Mikhail, we are calling him Michael East and I am Michael West.  We entered a conference room with, perhaps, the largest oval table I've ever seen in my life.  Michael East was a very gracious, jovial, welcoming man - and full of passion for theatre in general and HIS theatre in specific.  He gave us all huge books of the last 75 years of the theatre's history.  The theatre employs over 500 people year round, about 230 of them are performers.  They have 26 shows in repertory at one time.  He then offered to show us their new, smaller, performance space.  They had been trying to purchase the movie theatre next door for about 26 years and were finally able to.  They created a stunning 250 seat theatre of marble floors, gold trim and crystal chandeliers.  I think the splendor of the new space makes the mainstage need a face lift.

Here we are sitting in one of the banquet tables that take up the main floor of the new theatre.

Back row from Left: Me, Michael East (managing director), Boris (chief conductor), Kirill (artistic director).  Front Row from Left: Victor (our associate conductor), Elena (dramaturg), Patti (choreographer), Gregg (conductor).

Here we are lounging in the balcony - Gregg is holding the massive book they gave us.

Here are videos of both small and large theatre:

Small Theatre: (Part One)

Small Theatre: (Part Two)

Large Theatre (where we will be):

We then went to the "buffet" - which was the "2 meals a day included" portion of the program.  We expected a cafeteria - I guess similar to a small school lunch room - after all, they are serving (I assume) 500 people a day.  What we found, rather, was a little room - about 20' x 20' with a couple of women serving lots of white-ish, gelatinous things onto small plates.  There were noodles with pork, some barley thing, potatoes with pork and a bunch of other stuff I could not really recognize.   Nor would I able to order or ask what these items were without Gregg by my side. Luckily, the place where we went the first night we got here was a good alternative to the theatre's buffet - so that has become "the office."

At some point today, we went to a music rehearsal to meet some of our principals.  Luckily these were three talented folks - who sang beautifully - and who seemed to be good actors.  Apparently, I am to choose which of the actors are in the first cast (the first opening night) and which are in the second cast (the second opening night).  I don't know if these distinctions matter much beyond the first two days.  Luckily, I am finding my favorite performers to be the ones who seem to fit well together - for the most part.  I assume it's most important to have companies that go together - as opposed to determining which are "better" for the first cast and which are "not as good" for the second cast. I'm assuming they'll all be very good.
This is a vacation week for school children so there have been 11 AM shows every day.  The theatre is always full and the sets and costumes are delightful.  I have also peeked into the theatre during their evening shows (6:30 start time) and they, too, are entirely full.  The arts really seems to mean something to the Russian people as a whole. The demographic of the audience seems to be across the board as well - young, old, in-been - very impressive. In addition to this theatre (The Sverdlovsk Academic Theatre of Musical Comedy) there is an opera house, a philharmonic, a large dramatic theatre as well as several smaller dramatic theatres and a ballet theatre.

After lunch, we went to the electronics store across the street to activate our cell phones.  Noody in these stores speaks English so we had Katya (Company Manager type) and Gregg to help.  I, of course, had the most complicated situation with an iPhone that required a special kind of SIM card.  The standard cards are larger than those used by iPhones - of course. Thanks Apple! So for an extra 150 rubles (about 5 bucks) they will cut the card down.  Here's a picture to help illustrate:

The card at the top shows the cut out of the original size.  The bottom right shows the cut out made for the iPhone and the bottom left shows the actual cut-down card in the slot which goes into the iPhone.

So... all good, right?  No.  The phone did not recognize the SIM card.  But this is the same kind of SIM card that is used in Russian iPhones. The lady behind the counter said that these SIM cards must not work in American iPhones. That sounded fishy to me so I removed the slot and saw that the way she cut the card out - the metal of the SIM card was touching the metal of the little sliver frame.  So, that would short out the SIM card - of course rendering it unusable.  I thought to myself that there must be a way to fix that problem which, with my best McGuyver-ish ingenuity, you can see I succeeded in doing below.

See the little orange strip at the top of the card?  That is a piece of a Post-It that I used to insulate the metal of the SIM card from the metal of the frame.  Suddenly, I got one step further - the phone recognized the SIM card... but could not activate it. I had to update the settings with iTunes on my computer.  But I had three problems.  I needed the newest version of iTunes, my computer was misbehaving, and the internet was horribly slow.  It literally took about two days to download the new version of iTunes - it should have taken 10 minutes at the most! That was partly slow internet and partly screwed up computer.  Luckily, I brought a wireless router from home - so the theatre agreed to wire our rooms with ethernet cables so we could hook up our own routers.

Vladimir, the IT guy from the theatre, was also very helpful in figuring out why my computer kept crashing.  He kind of fixed things... for a while - but it was still behaving very strangely so I ended up reformatting my laptop and re-installing all of my programs.  Now things are working beautifully - HUGE thanks to Vlad.  To quote one of the final lines from our operetta, "Happy end!"

THANK G-D FOR FACETIME!  I chat with Janet and the kids 2 to 3 times a day.  It has and will make all the difference in the world. When I am waking up, I can be "with" them as they do their homework and brush their teeth before going to sleep. When I am going to sleep, I can see them right before they head out to school on a day that I have just finished!

DAYS ONE AND TWO - Monday March 26 and Tuesday March 27, 2012

DAYS ONE AND TWO - Monday March 26 and Tuesday March 27, 2012

It's time to start blogging! 

As most of you know (and all will soon), I am spending the next eight weeks in Russia directing an operetta in Yekaterinburg - the 4th largest city in Russia - in the Ural mountains.  I will attempt to share the experience as best I can.

Monday morning was one of teary (for me) goodbyes to my amazing wife and children: Janet, Phoebe and Nathaniel.  I got into a car with our choreographer, the delightful, Patty Colombo.  Here's a little video about her experience that morning!

Then we checked the weather in Yekaterinburg...


We got the the airport where we met Gregg Opelka - the conductor (who speaks fluent Russian - thank G-d) and he had his own story of his morning in Chicago.

JFK was quite relaxing and we boarded a plane to Moscow.  Here we are on the plane.

The flight to Moscow was very smooth and easy - and about nine hours long.  I watched a couple of movies, slept a bit, ate a bit and before we knew it, we were landing in Moscow.

We had a four hour layover before boarding the plane to Yekaterinburg.  I used Skype to call Janet, the kids, my parents and sisters.  Skype/Facetime is an amazing thing when traveling abroad and is a great part of what is making this trip/job possible. 

The second flight was not quite as smooth.  The landing was very bumpy and we were clearly flying through a snow storm.  All announcements were spoken first in Russian and then translated into English.  All... except for the announcement that came just after we started landing... and, suddenly, started climbing again.  This is where Patti grabbed my hand, rather terrified.  We had Gregg ask the guy across the aisle what the announcement said and we learned that it might be too dangerous to land in Yekaterinburg so we may be re-routed to Chelyabinsk about 100 miles away. Yikes!!!!!

When the plane finally touched down (with huge bumps and skids) we literally did not know what city we were in - Yekaterinburg or Chelyabinsk. Luckily we were in Yekaterinburg and all was going according to plan.

We were greeted at the airport by Katya - a very pleasant, energetic, smiling representative of the theatre (She seems to function as the company manager), and Victor, one of the conductors whom I had met in New York late last year.

They took us to the theatre - which is also our housing!  They have a three room mini-hotel that is in the same building as the theatre - literally continue off stage right, across one of the ballrooms/lobbies, and you will find the rooms where Patti and I are staying.  Gregg is staying in an apartment a few miles away.

Our rooms were large, VERY clean and pleasant.  Basically furnished with fridge and microwave - but very comfortable.  We each have a large sitting room as well as bedroom and bathroom.  It must have been about 11PM local time (about 2AM NY time) and we were taken out to a wonderful traditional Russian dinner by the spirited, jovial artistic director, Kirill.  I had also met him last year in New York.

None of these folks speak English beyond a few words so aside from Gregg getting us these jobs, and being a fine musician, composer and conductor, he has been beyond invaluable interpreting for us.

Here we are in the resturant. It is called the "pickle room" (russians love pickles - me too - they even introduced me to pickle-flavored potato chips for which I will be forever grateful.) Room is so-called because each of these famous paintings has a pickle in it. You can see it in the picture on the right if you look closely.

The dinner was served at a private dining club called Level 1707 - but Kirill told us the food was prepared by many "babushkas" or grandmothers - all very traditional Russian food.  Here's a picture of the food.  I have to admit, I didn't eat the pork-filled pasta-thingies so they made me a delicious breast of chicken with a side of potatoes.  Really tasty.

There was, of course, the requisite vodka served!

 We finished dinner at around 1:30AM which Kirill felt was the perfect time for a tour of the theatre facilities!

But not before Patti made a snow angel in the middle of the sidewalk - much to Kirill's enjoyment!

Apparently, when Patti was working with Ann Margaret, she made Patti promise to make a snow angel at every opportunity.  No one can say Patti is not a woman of her word!

At the end of the video, did you notice the "Violinist on the Roof" poster on the side of the theatre!  Yes, "Fiddler On The Roof."

We entered the theatre - it is now about 2AM - and we walked through many dark hallways and ended up on a completely empty stage.  It was the main theatre (they have just built a 2nd, smaller theatre - which will open later this month - more on that later.)  It was a venerable space - full of character, history and theatre spirits (and perhaps a few ghosts, no doubt).  I was shocked that the stage was completely empty because this is a theatre which employs over 500 people year round and rotates 26 shows at a time.  Kirill explained that after every show, they completely clear out the space to prepare for the next morning's load-in of whatever show is playing. Often, there is a kids' show in the morning and regular show in the evening.

We then viewed some of the rehearsal spaces as well as the ballet room where Patti and Kirill did a little warm up at the barre!

We parted ways, entered our rooms and settled in for a much-needed sleep.  Overall impressions were of hospitality, graciousness, kindness, warmth, generosity of spirit and long, deep traditions built upon 80 years as an operating theatre.

More to come!

This blog will be the place to follow my adventures directing Emerich Kalman's operetta "The Duchess of Chicago" in Yekaterinburg Russia.  How did I get this job you may ask?  Was it through my agent and my professional connections?  No.  My sister's husband's twin brother's wife's friend has conducted at this theatre before and he recommended me.  The only three Americans on the team are Gregg Opelka (conductor - mentioned above) and Patti Colombo (choreographer).  Gregg speaks Russian, Patti and I most assuredly do not.  As I mentioned, it will be quite an adventure.

I hope this will give those of you who may be interested a peek into the experience.

Much more to come...

Michael Unger