DAY ELEVEN - Thursday April 5
Grisha (Gregg) called this morning to say HE was now sick. We were supposed to do music for the next two or three days. Suddenly, I'm staging! So I crammed a bit for the Prologue (which is really Act One - Scene One), then went upstairs. Victor, the associate conductor, worked on ensemble music for about an hour and a half in the small rehearsal room. Then we moved to the bolshoi room (bolshoi simply means, "big". As in Big Ballet (the Bolshoi) - in Moscow) to start staging. I had the whole chorus there - but I probably should have done the first pass with principals only. We staged half the scene, then switched principal casts. Then it was time for the lunch break (2PM-6PM! - yes, four hours for lunch/dinner). I was told that because there was a bolshoi spectacle tonight in the theatre (a big show), I would not have several principals so, since Grisha was still sick, we cancelled rehearsal and I would go to see the bolshoi spectacle: "The Silicon Lady."
Patti and I went to Sbarro for lunch and then we had to put the little girls through the same public humiliation through which we put the boys yesterday. We selected our nine favorites - three casts of three - in front of all the girls, including the ones that were being rejected. Maybe that's how they grow a strong Russian constitution. I can understand this kind of brutality at an open Broadway dance call - as Patti said she had experienced many a time - but these were little girls who were all hoping to be in our show. First, the ones who did not sing as strongly (as determined by the ballet master) were told to sit down. Then we marched the rest of the girls (they will play little princes who have a marching number) and had to turn away three of them.
After that - to the room to watch the IT guys "fix" my internet. Apparently the router I bought from home was knocking out their whole network. So they installed one of theirs and now everything but the iPad works. Which is not good because that's my link to home - with Facetime. They are working on it as I type. I'll be sure to keep you updated.
So, tonight, I go to see "The Silicon Lady." You'll get my review shortly!
Well... "Silicon Girl". It is a show, according to the brochure (as translated by tonight's translator), about how living in the virtual world inhibits growth in the real world. But with the language barrier, I couldn't quite tell that. Simply because the plot revolved around a young high school couple who were having an online romance and did not know they were classmates in their school. The real conflict was that the divorced father of the boy starts dating the same girl - so there was no virtual reality going on in the central conflict. And when the boy would dream of being with the girl there were fantasy sequences, but, again, they did not seem to be in a virtual world which impacted how we view the real world. I think the dramaturgical aesthetic here is quite different from ours. This show has been in the repertory for about 5 years and is apparently sold out for each performance - so it's doing something right. What does this American know.
There were some very interesting directorial touches and in spite of some curious choreography and staging - everything was very well executed. And there were some amazing voices out of these young kids. It seems some of the performers in this show are from outside the company. It succeeds in representing the youth of this city. The energy was amazing - as was the acting. There's some real talent here.
Production-wise, there might be a different standard here to how the transitions of a show flow - i.e. stage hands just walk out onstage to move something with no effort to hide them. There was a pretty fantastic vocal jazz group who accompanied some of the action and performed from one of the side boxes. Since they kept parting the curtain to get in place and to exit, my focus was often distractedly drawn up there. I even caught a guy (in this singing group) texting and showing a text to a fellow singer DURING one of the numbers they were performing in!
The power and emotion of the lead girl's voice at the end gave me a few goosebumps - so all-in-all, I enjoyed the performance. A few of the performers were in my show - so it was fun to see them in this very different setting.
Tomorrow, if Gregg shows up - as he says he will - we will start detailing the music so I'll have a few days to prepare for when I start staging again.
I miss my family.
Grisha (Gregg) called this morning to say HE was now sick. We were supposed to do music for the next two or three days. Suddenly, I'm staging! So I crammed a bit for the Prologue (which is really Act One - Scene One), then went upstairs. Victor, the associate conductor, worked on ensemble music for about an hour and a half in the small rehearsal room. Then we moved to the bolshoi room (bolshoi simply means, "big". As in Big Ballet (the Bolshoi) - in Moscow) to start staging. I had the whole chorus there - but I probably should have done the first pass with principals only. We staged half the scene, then switched principal casts. Then it was time for the lunch break (2PM-6PM! - yes, four hours for lunch/dinner). I was told that because there was a bolshoi spectacle tonight in the theatre (a big show), I would not have several principals so, since Grisha was still sick, we cancelled rehearsal and I would go to see the bolshoi spectacle: "The Silicon Lady."
Patti and I went to Sbarro for lunch and then we had to put the little girls through the same public humiliation through which we put the boys yesterday. We selected our nine favorites - three casts of three - in front of all the girls, including the ones that were being rejected. Maybe that's how they grow a strong Russian constitution. I can understand this kind of brutality at an open Broadway dance call - as Patti said she had experienced many a time - but these were little girls who were all hoping to be in our show. First, the ones who did not sing as strongly (as determined by the ballet master) were told to sit down. Then we marched the rest of the girls (they will play little princes who have a marching number) and had to turn away three of them.
After that - to the room to watch the IT guys "fix" my internet. Apparently the router I bought from home was knocking out their whole network. So they installed one of theirs and now everything but the iPad works. Which is not good because that's my link to home - with Facetime. They are working on it as I type. I'll be sure to keep you updated.
So, tonight, I go to see "The Silicon Lady." You'll get my review shortly!
Well... "Silicon Girl". It is a show, according to the brochure (as translated by tonight's translator), about how living in the virtual world inhibits growth in the real world. But with the language barrier, I couldn't quite tell that. Simply because the plot revolved around a young high school couple who were having an online romance and did not know they were classmates in their school. The real conflict was that the divorced father of the boy starts dating the same girl - so there was no virtual reality going on in the central conflict. And when the boy would dream of being with the girl there were fantasy sequences, but, again, they did not seem to be in a virtual world which impacted how we view the real world. I think the dramaturgical aesthetic here is quite different from ours. This show has been in the repertory for about 5 years and is apparently sold out for each performance - so it's doing something right. What does this American know.
There were some very interesting directorial touches and in spite of some curious choreography and staging - everything was very well executed. And there were some amazing voices out of these young kids. It seems some of the performers in this show are from outside the company. It succeeds in representing the youth of this city. The energy was amazing - as was the acting. There's some real talent here.
Production-wise, there might be a different standard here to how the transitions of a show flow - i.e. stage hands just walk out onstage to move something with no effort to hide them. There was a pretty fantastic vocal jazz group who accompanied some of the action and performed from one of the side boxes. Since they kept parting the curtain to get in place and to exit, my focus was often distractedly drawn up there. I even caught a guy (in this singing group) texting and showing a text to a fellow singer DURING one of the numbers they were performing in!
The power and emotion of the lead girl's voice at the end gave me a few goosebumps - so all-in-all, I enjoyed the performance. A few of the performers were in my show - so it was fun to see them in this very different setting.
Tomorrow, if Gregg shows up - as he says he will - we will start detailing the music so I'll have a few days to prepare for when I start staging again.
I miss my family.
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