DAY SIXTEEN - Tuesday April 10
I woke up at 4AM and couldn't get back to sleep so I called Janet and the kids at my parents' house in Chicago. We had a nice little chat, I did a little online drawing game with Phoebe and then was able to sleep for a few hours more.
Gregg came over early to help me try and get my cell phone working with the internet when I'm not in a WiFi zone. We took a nice long walk to the MTS office (think Sprint but Russian) but it turns out that the ability for Americanski iPhones to work with cellular data here is not quite ready yet. But it should be within days. Supposedly. So we just had a nice walk. We stopped at a swanky (not as swanky as in the states) Bang & Olufsen store and looked at overpriced, stunningly designed electronics. They had a boom box for iPads and iPhones for $1300 (it's $1,000 in US). They asked us if we'd like to see their 3-D TV setup. So we obliged, put some glasses on and watched fish literally swimming into the middle of the room. We asked how much the system costs. 4 million rubles! About $130,000. We bought neither item and walked back to the theatre.
Patti did not sleep at all (this has been going on for a few days now) last night (can anyone say - or ship - Lunesta) so she as not able to join Kirill, Gregg and me at the Actors' House - a very interesting place. I suppose it is a club for actors - with performance space and restaurant. I guess kind of like a guild organization.
Kirill's wife works there. A very open, warm, sweet woman with an expansive smile - and she is a perfect match to Kirill.
Here she is with Grisha
The way it works is a performing artist pays 1/10th of their monthly salary per year to become a member. Like a country club... for actors - but instead of golf and tennis, you get rehearsal and performance spaces. They can eat in the restaurant and use the rooms for rehearsals, readings, etc. There's also a 150 seat theatre. Pictures below. One could imagine many a Chekhov play happening here.
The grand stairway - with pictures of well-known Yekaterinburg actors.
One of the ballroom chandeliers - and gorgeous ceilings.
This cracked me up. This is a smoking chamber. It has a vacuum fan that sucks the smoke into a large filter mechanism. If you look closely you can see the smoke drifting by the light into the air intake.
One of the performers had left some matzoh - from which I benefitted.
The Green Room - so-called because of green walls.
One of two very tuneful parakeets.
Probably the grand dining room at one time. The big porcelain thing in the corner is a Dutch Heater. It is said that if you touch one while making a wish, the wish will come true. I made two wishes on two separate heaters!
The upstairs ballroom - outside the theatre.
The auditorium.
The stage.
Dressing rooms.
These beautiful handmade dressing tables were being thrown out by the dramatic theatre. The Actors' House saved them.
At lunch, I asked Kirill's wife (another Tatiana) some questions about her organization and the lifestyles of performers in Ekaterinburg. She said that her organization does not get one kopek from the government. In fact, they almost got evicted because the government wanted the building (once a pre-revolutionary private home) for the president of Russia when he was in town. After many law suits and the government luckily deciding it was too small, the Actors' Home is able to stay as is - and will do so, rent free, for the next 49 years. Then they will have to fight again, I suppose. She said that actors make between 10,000 rubles ($340) and 30,000 rubles ($1,000) a month! A nice (?) 2 bedroom apartment rents for about 5,000 rubles ($170). Can that all be correct?
Anyway, a nice walk home with more sights to see...
Outside the Actors' House - me in front of the City Hall building. Notice the great old soviet emblems between columns at top of building and the great golden star high above.
Center is a very pretty church - there are many, many churches around here - all with those gleaming, golden roofs. To the left is a TV tower that was built as the pride of Ekaterinburg - but during construction they discovered water at the foundation and it began to lean. They stopped construction and now nobody knows what to do with it now.
Pretty bronze gazebo.
This 58-story high rise was completed last year and is the northern-most "skyscraper" (latitudinally - is that a word?) in the world. Stokholm held the title before this building.
Back home to finish watching our classic movie from last night (thanks to iTunes since there ain't no TV here). Then we all went our separate ways and I'm doing some staging homework.
Back to work tomorrow - Patti doing prologue choreography on stage with me doing scene work upstairs.
I woke up at 4AM and couldn't get back to sleep so I called Janet and the kids at my parents' house in Chicago. We had a nice little chat, I did a little online drawing game with Phoebe and then was able to sleep for a few hours more.
Gregg came over early to help me try and get my cell phone working with the internet when I'm not in a WiFi zone. We took a nice long walk to the MTS office (think Sprint but Russian) but it turns out that the ability for Americanski iPhones to work with cellular data here is not quite ready yet. But it should be within days. Supposedly. So we just had a nice walk. We stopped at a swanky (not as swanky as in the states) Bang & Olufsen store and looked at overpriced, stunningly designed electronics. They had a boom box for iPads and iPhones for $1300 (it's $1,000 in US). They asked us if we'd like to see their 3-D TV setup. So we obliged, put some glasses on and watched fish literally swimming into the middle of the room. We asked how much the system costs. 4 million rubles! About $130,000. We bought neither item and walked back to the theatre.
Patti did not sleep at all (this has been going on for a few days now) last night (can anyone say - or ship - Lunesta) so she as not able to join Kirill, Gregg and me at the Actors' House - a very interesting place. I suppose it is a club for actors - with performance space and restaurant. I guess kind of like a guild organization.
Kirill's wife works there. A very open, warm, sweet woman with an expansive smile - and she is a perfect match to Kirill.
Here she is with Grisha
The way it works is a performing artist pays 1/10th of their monthly salary per year to become a member. Like a country club... for actors - but instead of golf and tennis, you get rehearsal and performance spaces. They can eat in the restaurant and use the rooms for rehearsals, readings, etc. There's also a 150 seat theatre. Pictures below. One could imagine many a Chekhov play happening here.
A beautiful doorway.
At lunch, I asked Kirill's wife (another Tatiana) some questions about her organization and the lifestyles of performers in Ekaterinburg. She said that her organization does not get one kopek from the government. In fact, they almost got evicted because the government wanted the building (once a pre-revolutionary private home) for the president of Russia when he was in town. After many law suits and the government luckily deciding it was too small, the Actors' Home is able to stay as is - and will do so, rent free, for the next 49 years. Then they will have to fight again, I suppose. She said that actors make between 10,000 rubles ($340) and 30,000 rubles ($1,000) a month! A nice (?) 2 bedroom apartment rents for about 5,000 rubles ($170). Can that all be correct?
Anyway, a nice walk home with more sights to see...
Back home to finish watching our classic movie from last night (thanks to iTunes since there ain't no TV here). Then we all went our separate ways and I'm doing some staging homework.
Back to work tomorrow - Patti doing prologue choreography on stage with me doing scene work upstairs.
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