DAY FORTY TWO - Sunday May 6
Note to all travelers abroad - Russia, and I'm sure many other countries, do not have unlimited data on cellular phones. And in America, when you are in a WiFi zone, the cellular data network automatically shuts off. Not here. I had no idea that I had programs running in the background and that I was drawing internet minutes for three days straight. I lost about $75 in cellular phone charges because of this ignorance!
Worked with the 6 kids today - and Prince Sandor on the Little Princes number. We had two teams of three girls and three boys (all playing princes - cousins to Prince Sandor). It was a fantastic session. They were all adorable, well rehearsed, very serious about their work and completely delightful.
But at first they weren't smiling enough - or having enough fun. I told them if they did a good job, I would throw candy to them at the end of the number - which will actually happen onstage. To keep them laughing, while they were doing the number, I started exaggerating my enjoyment of a single piece of candy - then I ate the wrapper - they were hysterical. It was so much fun. Here are pictures of our two teams of kids and our three sets of newsboys.
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Lunch at our new favorite place - the one I found last week, Ratatouille with Misha, Grisha, Pisha and Disha (David - Patti's husband).
Here's the happy, reunited, couple.
Patti has the night off to be with her hubby. I'm working scenes with Mary, Sandor and Mary's Father - Lloyd.
Rehearsal had a bit of fireworks tonight. Some of the actors who play the same roles started suggesting to the other actor/s playing the same roles how to do certain things. I have had a few firm words for people giving what seemed like direction to other performers but this is slightly different because sometimes its a blocking correction but sometimes, as in today, it got into how to play the scene. I have encouraged them to each have their own characters and not to feel beholden to imitating each other. This can become a problem if blocking is drastically different - but slight variations are fine with me. Not with some of the actors, however. But tonight things got even more heated because first these two older character gents - playing the same role - got into an argument about the attitude of a scene - that one is not playing it like the other. I actually thought they were both interpreting it in unique ways - but not so drastically different that it would throw anybody off. But they get very protective over how they do something and expect the other person to do it the same way. But if two people feel that way - there's conflict, right. So these two guys blew up at each other - Gugu, my translator, couldn't translate fast enough - so I missed much of the content. I quieted them down and asked (half-joking) if I had to send one of them out of the room.
Then one of the young leads got upset with a comment from the assistant director (I think the A.D. was suggesting something I had asked for earlier in the rehearsal process) but the actor didn't want to hear it from anyone but me. So I reminded him I had first asked for it and all was fine.
It ended up being a very productive rehearsal because we pushed the scenes forward in terms of complexity and nuance - but it was not without it's raised voices. Not mine, by the way.
Have you ever heard of dill pickle flavored potato chips? They love dill here. They put pickles on pizza even. Lays makes a dill potato chip which I am enjoying right now. Sounds gross, tastes great! NOTE FROM THE FUTURE: Pickle potato chips have made it to America!
Wednesday is a big holiday here and apparently there is a rehearsal of the parade tonight. Tanks rolling down the streets - as in hundreds and hundreds of tanks with thousands of soldiers! I'll try to catch some footage for y'all.
Well, I did get to the parade rehearsal. And it was COLD! 37 degrees, for about an hour - but my hour was nothing compared to the soldiers standing there for hours and hours and the other soldiers hanging out in the tanks and other vehicles.
I walked as far as civilians were allowed to go - so I didn't see any band or marching formations which sounded like they were coming from a few blocks beyond our limit.
I did see a bunch of soldiers practicing synchronized firing of 6 or 7 canons over the lake. Their precision was actually amazing - as you can see from the video. I actually missed the firing - unfortunately - I just caught the tail end of it - but the sound LITERALLY nearly knocked me off the wall I was standing on! I think you can still get a sense of the sound - but I missed the huge flash of light that emanated from them.
Here are some pictures:
A soldier applying lip stick
And here's some video:
Note to all travelers abroad - Russia, and I'm sure many other countries, do not have unlimited data on cellular phones. And in America, when you are in a WiFi zone, the cellular data network automatically shuts off. Not here. I had no idea that I had programs running in the background and that I was drawing internet minutes for three days straight. I lost about $75 in cellular phone charges because of this ignorance!
Worked with the 6 kids today - and Prince Sandor on the Little Princes number. We had two teams of three girls and three boys (all playing princes - cousins to Prince Sandor). It was a fantastic session. They were all adorable, well rehearsed, very serious about their work and completely delightful.
But at first they weren't smiling enough - or having enough fun. I told them if they did a good job, I would throw candy to them at the end of the number - which will actually happen onstage. To keep them laughing, while they were doing the number, I started exaggerating my enjoyment of a single piece of candy - then I ate the wrapper - they were hysterical. It was so much fun. Here are pictures of our two teams of kids and our three sets of newsboys.
.JPG)
.JPG)
Lunch at our new favorite place - the one I found last week, Ratatouille with Misha, Grisha, Pisha and Disha (David - Patti's husband).
Here's the happy, reunited, couple.
Patti has the night off to be with her hubby. I'm working scenes with Mary, Sandor and Mary's Father - Lloyd.
Rehearsal had a bit of fireworks tonight. Some of the actors who play the same roles started suggesting to the other actor/s playing the same roles how to do certain things. I have had a few firm words for people giving what seemed like direction to other performers but this is slightly different because sometimes its a blocking correction but sometimes, as in today, it got into how to play the scene. I have encouraged them to each have their own characters and not to feel beholden to imitating each other. This can become a problem if blocking is drastically different - but slight variations are fine with me. Not with some of the actors, however. But tonight things got even more heated because first these two older character gents - playing the same role - got into an argument about the attitude of a scene - that one is not playing it like the other. I actually thought they were both interpreting it in unique ways - but not so drastically different that it would throw anybody off. But they get very protective over how they do something and expect the other person to do it the same way. But if two people feel that way - there's conflict, right. So these two guys blew up at each other - Gugu, my translator, couldn't translate fast enough - so I missed much of the content. I quieted them down and asked (half-joking) if I had to send one of them out of the room.
Then one of the young leads got upset with a comment from the assistant director (I think the A.D. was suggesting something I had asked for earlier in the rehearsal process) but the actor didn't want to hear it from anyone but me. So I reminded him I had first asked for it and all was fine.
It ended up being a very productive rehearsal because we pushed the scenes forward in terms of complexity and nuance - but it was not without it's raised voices. Not mine, by the way.
Have you ever heard of dill pickle flavored potato chips? They love dill here. They put pickles on pizza even. Lays makes a dill potato chip which I am enjoying right now. Sounds gross, tastes great! NOTE FROM THE FUTURE: Pickle potato chips have made it to America!
Wednesday is a big holiday here and apparently there is a rehearsal of the parade tonight. Tanks rolling down the streets - as in hundreds and hundreds of tanks with thousands of soldiers! I'll try to catch some footage for y'all.
Well, I did get to the parade rehearsal. And it was COLD! 37 degrees, for about an hour - but my hour was nothing compared to the soldiers standing there for hours and hours and the other soldiers hanging out in the tanks and other vehicles.
I walked as far as civilians were allowed to go - so I didn't see any band or marching formations which sounded like they were coming from a few blocks beyond our limit.
I did see a bunch of soldiers practicing synchronized firing of 6 or 7 canons over the lake. Their precision was actually amazing - as you can see from the video. I actually missed the firing - unfortunately - I just caught the tail end of it - but the sound LITERALLY nearly knocked me off the wall I was standing on! I think you can still get a sense of the sound - but I missed the huge flash of light that emanated from them.
Here are some pictures:
And here's some video:
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