DAY FOUR- Thursday March 29
Our first event of the day was meeting our 6 translators. These are young women who are students at the university near the theatre. They have never interpreted before and they all seemed rather timid and it was clear there would be a large learning curve. None of them had ever worked in the theatre so there were lots of terms to explain and a bit of assertiveness training would be in order.
We then went to listen to a third candidate for our male lead - I mentioned that the show is double cast - well, apparently, the two leads will be TRIPLE cast! Yes, we get to rehearse everything three times instead of two! This guy was a student at the conservatory where the chief conductor (Boris) teaches. He was definitely less experienced than the others we had heard. But he had a very strong voice. Worse, he had this beautiful young woman singing beautifully in his face and he never, once, took his eyes off of his music - which was on his iPad. He clearly was a singer more than an actor - he definitely had potential - but needed more experience in an environment where there is focus on things other than voice. We later had a meeting about his involvement and it seems they want to get him started in the company. So there we are...
We then went on a tour of the technical side of the building - which is like it's own nation. There are the tech offices on the sixth floor, then there is the paint shop (large), the scenery shop (large - with wonderful ancient, rough floor boards and the smell of freshly cut wood - all metal and welding (which is most of our set) will be jobbed out elsewhere, the prop shop, the women's costume shop (where they build only the women's clothing), the men's costume shop (where they build only the men's clothing, and - most amzing - the cobbler shop. They literally build all the shoes here - from huge pieces of leather. It's cramped space with three workers and all these old fashioned machines that you see in old shoe repair shops from distant memory. But when you see dance shoes, or heels for women - even leather-soled - they are built here... from scratch. It was really cool. Oh, they also have their own dry cleaning plant in the building!
Again, this theatre employs over 500 people. Yet many of the methods seem a bit behind the times. As Gregg has said, in America, labor is expensive and technology is cheap. In Russia, it is the opposite, technology is expensive, labor is cheap.
We went to "the office" for lunch again:
Gregg and Patti
Patti and yours truly...
In the evening, we had front row seats to a performance of a show "Park" which takes Soviet era composers and sets their music to a loose story that is set in a city park through the ages. Again, the house was full. There were some great performances. Sound was loud - they unfortunately have these huge Madonna-in-a-video-type wireless microphones which are right in front of their mouths. In most American theatres - and certainly on Broadway, microphones all but disappear and are little elements that hook on the ear or peek out of a wig so they are very unobtrusive. These are like ping pong balls on everybody's cheeks. We are hoping to NOT have to use them on our show. NOTE FROM THE FUTURE: In looking back - it seems they use these microphones for the more musical-type shows and (appropriately) the rock musicals. Operetta tend to be amplified by area mics that hang down a various points above the stage.
The show was impressive, if a bit lengthy - about 2:45 with intermission. Again, some great performers - many of whom are in our show. Everything is double cast here so we saw only one set of performers in this particular show. Tomorrow and Saturday have two different "Fiddler On The Roof" casts. We're going on Saturday.
During intermission, I did find some delicious pizza with chicken in the theatre restaurant - not the Soviet-era throwback buffet for the company - the glitzy cafeteria for the general public. In fact, I think I enjoyed this pizza three days in a row. The girls behind the counter came to know me and had my plate of two slices ready every night by the time I reached the counter. They cleverly figured out they could tell me how much it costs by entering the digits on a calculator.
I had asked for a video projector for my first day presentation to the cast. Since I didn't find out until today that I would get it, I had lots of homework to do getting the Powerpoint presentation together for the first day. It consisted of a bit of background stuff but mostly set and costume drawings.
Big day tomorrow.
Our first event of the day was meeting our 6 translators. These are young women who are students at the university near the theatre. They have never interpreted before and they all seemed rather timid and it was clear there would be a large learning curve. None of them had ever worked in the theatre so there were lots of terms to explain and a bit of assertiveness training would be in order.
We then went to listen to a third candidate for our male lead - I mentioned that the show is double cast - well, apparently, the two leads will be TRIPLE cast! Yes, we get to rehearse everything three times instead of two! This guy was a student at the conservatory where the chief conductor (Boris) teaches. He was definitely less experienced than the others we had heard. But he had a very strong voice. Worse, he had this beautiful young woman singing beautifully in his face and he never, once, took his eyes off of his music - which was on his iPad. He clearly was a singer more than an actor - he definitely had potential - but needed more experience in an environment where there is focus on things other than voice. We later had a meeting about his involvement and it seems they want to get him started in the company. So there we are...
We then went on a tour of the technical side of the building - which is like it's own nation. There are the tech offices on the sixth floor, then there is the paint shop (large), the scenery shop (large - with wonderful ancient, rough floor boards and the smell of freshly cut wood - all metal and welding (which is most of our set) will be jobbed out elsewhere, the prop shop, the women's costume shop (where they build only the women's clothing), the men's costume shop (where they build only the men's clothing, and - most amzing - the cobbler shop. They literally build all the shoes here - from huge pieces of leather. It's cramped space with three workers and all these old fashioned machines that you see in old shoe repair shops from distant memory. But when you see dance shoes, or heels for women - even leather-soled - they are built here... from scratch. It was really cool. Oh, they also have their own dry cleaning plant in the building!
Again, this theatre employs over 500 people. Yet many of the methods seem a bit behind the times. As Gregg has said, in America, labor is expensive and technology is cheap. In Russia, it is the opposite, technology is expensive, labor is cheap.
We went to "the office" for lunch again:
In the evening, we had front row seats to a performance of a show "Park" which takes Soviet era composers and sets their music to a loose story that is set in a city park through the ages. Again, the house was full. There were some great performances. Sound was loud - they unfortunately have these huge Madonna-in-a-video-type wireless microphones which are right in front of their mouths. In most American theatres - and certainly on Broadway, microphones all but disappear and are little elements that hook on the ear or peek out of a wig so they are very unobtrusive. These are like ping pong balls on everybody's cheeks. We are hoping to NOT have to use them on our show. NOTE FROM THE FUTURE: In looking back - it seems they use these microphones for the more musical-type shows and (appropriately) the rock musicals. Operetta tend to be amplified by area mics that hang down a various points above the stage.
The show was impressive, if a bit lengthy - about 2:45 with intermission. Again, some great performers - many of whom are in our show. Everything is double cast here so we saw only one set of performers in this particular show. Tomorrow and Saturday have two different "Fiddler On The Roof" casts. We're going on Saturday.
During intermission, I did find some delicious pizza with chicken in the theatre restaurant - not the Soviet-era throwback buffet for the company - the glitzy cafeteria for the general public. In fact, I think I enjoyed this pizza three days in a row. The girls behind the counter came to know me and had my plate of two slices ready every night by the time I reached the counter. They cleverly figured out they could tell me how much it costs by entering the digits on a calculator.
I had asked for a video projector for my first day presentation to the cast. Since I didn't find out until today that I would get it, I had lots of homework to do getting the Powerpoint presentation together for the first day. It consisted of a bit of background stuff but mostly set and costume drawings.
Big day tomorrow.
Holy monkeys, the costume resources sound amazing!
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