DAY FOURTEEN - Sunday April 8
What I wouldn't give for a hole punch!
It's not like there is a Staples or Office Depot - or Office Max around the corner! I have my script bag and I like my script in my script bag - and that requires a three-ring binder. But their paper is a different size here AND they don't seem to have three-ring binders so they have absolutely no use for a three-hole punch. They have two hole punches (like you see on legal documents sometimes).
Luckily, Patti's husband is sending her an iPad and has graciously agreed to include a three-hole punch as well! Now I need to find a paper cutter so the pages can cut the pages down to fit in the binder!
And now, a word about my collaborators. I love them. Gregg - who has been ABSOLUTELY, INSANELY indispensable: first, in getting us into this adventure in the first place. Second, as a link to all Russian speaking people (that is, everyone but Patti and me!) - at restaurants, at the cell phone store, on the streets and, most importantly - with people at the theatre. Thirdly, as a conductor. His instincts on tempi are right in line with ours and he has been very flexible in the rehearsal room and has the respect of, and for, the performers so that exchange is always totally professional and efficient.
Patti is a blast. She is not only funny, zany and keeps me laughing, her choreography is full of surprises, challenges and, best of all, story. We speak the same language, we find the same things funny (and frustrating) and are basically on the same page with everything that happens in the room.
She and I have never worked together before (same with Gregg) and aside from a great pre-production week during which we knew we worked well together, we had our first collaborative session with the performers today. We staged a duet with the principals - but keep in mind that we have three sets of romantic leads! In NY, you'd have one set and understudies who would be watching and writing down ever single move. Here - we have three leads who will all perform the roles so, basically, we have to rehearse everything three times!
We would start staging with one couple, then at a good transition moment, put in the second group, review and continue building on them, and then the same with the third group. At one point, Luda (one of our Mary's - title character) set up chairs and benches in the same configuration upstage of where we were staging and started shadowing the scene. Smart girl. And talented. Her scene partner joined. Then the third set did the same thing upstage of the second set. I decided to rotate ranks and move the downstage group upstage and move the two upstage groups downstage and that's how we finished the number. I don't know if that is standard practice for them but judging from how impressed Elena (the dramaturg) was with what Luda had started - it seemed like a new innovation. Here's a picture of all three ranks working the scene with us.
Downstage (on the right), Kisenia and Vova, next Luda and Dima, upstage Sveta and Volodya.
Notice the three ranks of performers all donig the same number, the ballet mistress writing blocking down, the interpreter following us around!
As you can see, these performers have great voices. And there doesn't seem to be any competition. We all chat about the characters together and they help answer each others' questions and help remind each other of staging they may have forgotten. It's really an interesting process - and so different from back home.
We told them that we did not need them to carbon copy each other - that there could be three different Marys and three different Sandors (the character of the Prince - pronounced SHANdor). Slight adjustments in staging were fine as well. They should make it their own.
Keep in mind that these performers have between 10 and 15 (20 for some) roles in their heads. And many of these are lead roles!!!! Remember, there are about 26 shows playing in rotating repertory in a single season here. I don't know how they do it. And Luda (and probably others) performs opera roles in a theatre in Chelyabinsk - 100 miles away. Many of these performers (not the young folks we've got in our leads but some of our character men) have been with the company for 20 or 30 years. Most seem to have families and this consistency of employment for performing artists is far more rare in America. I remember long ago, right out of college, I worked as an apprentice at the Cleveland Play House in the very last days of their repertory company. They did not rotate their shows as they do here (or as opera companies do in the states, as well as very few regional theatres like the Asolo in Sarasota) but they did have a repertory company who were on staff year round. A very expensive proposition that died out shortly after I was there. Again, VERY few true rep company exist in America any more. But the concept is very exciting for many reasons, not the least of which is the audience getting to see the same performres in different roles night after night.
I think England and Canada still operate more rep companies than we do. In fact, I first decided I wanted to go into the theatre watching the repertory system at the Statford Festival in Canada. I still remember seeing people like Maggie Smith, Tom Kneebone, William Hutt, Nicholas Pennell, etc. perform a myriad of roles in a single season - in a single weekend! And to see how the theatres transformed from one world to the next between a matinee and evening performance thrilled me.
Back to the show...
At a certain point, I must decide which performers will work together in our first and second performances - that means who will open the show and who will play the second night (also considered an opening but, apparently, not quite as revered). Most roles are double cast - not triple cast - only the two leads are triple cast. So I'm not sure how the third set work into the batting order - but we will only be here for the first two openings. Do the math. One set of leads will rehearse the show but will not perform it until at least NEXT SEASON.
The assistant director - Ivgeny (who will re-set the show with cast changes and will run the brush-up rehearsals) notates the actors' movements in scenes and the ballet mistress takes down all musical staging. Back home, the stage manager usually does this type of thing. As well as scheduling. As all stage managers I've worked with can tell you, I HATE scheduling - but here, that's my job.
Gregg and I then had a scheduling meeting with Elena so we could all be on the same page as to who is called for what scenes. We all have different page numbers because Patti, Gregg and I are working from a document that I created which Gregg (thankfully) made possible with the Russian on the left side and the English on the right. Here's an example:
But the actors have only Russian so they have different page numbers and some of the supporting players only have their scenes - so it can get confusing deciding whom to call to what rehearsal.
In the evening, I finished staging the Prologue (except for choreography). It was a very useful rehearsal but some of the older character gents seemed a bit frustrated for having to sit around and not do much. But they are in the scene - and that's how their roles were written.
After rehearsal, Kisenia, Vova and Luda (three of the six romantic leads) stuck around the ask a few questions about their characters. They were mostly Kisenia's and Vova's questions. I had trouble understanding exactly what they were asking. I think they were asking for their character's motivation - which I had explained to a certain extent during table work. But their characters' goals change over the course of a given scene. Mary enters wanting to win the bet she's made with her millionaire friends to buy the "most un-obtainable item in Europe." So she's basically shopping on a grand scale. But once she gets to the restaurant, and learns that some of the patrons are royalty - so she wants to dance her very American Charleston dance with this very UN-American prince. She sends
her assistant to ask the
Prince's assistant (actually the Prince, himself, in disguise as his own assistant) if the Prince will dance with her. Mary's assistant (Bondy) returns to tell her that the Prince (by way of his assistant - who is actually himself - confused yet?) refuses to dance the Charleston. The Prince only likes the waltz. This challenge sets her off to prove that the Charleston is better than the Waltz. So her want changes - she wants to prove America is on top (as represented by the Charleston). Then she sees how cute the Prince's assistant is (actually the Prince, remember) - so her want changes again.
Luda, wisely, pointed out that Mary's character is looking for love - and that is correct. The overall goal (super-objective) is to find love. But she doesn't really understand the depth of that at the beginning of the show - that is something she learns (as does the Prince) over the course of the show.
Anyway, I don't know if I every fully understood Kisenia's questions. Luda said she had no questions and that if they came up in rehearsal, she has asked them. I think Kisenia was looking for more dialogue with me in rehearsal if a question of motivation came up during the course of a scene. We have barely had time to stage what we've done in the time we have - what with having to do everything THREE times! So now that the blocking for a scene is done, we'll be able to stop for questions when we next work the scene. It was a definite case of language barrier and something being lost in translation. It was almost as if she was asking what attitude she should play and I told he her Mary would have Kissenia's attitude and Luda's would have Luda's and Sveta's would have Sveta's. I wanted individuality. Maybe they're used to someone telling them not only where to move but what to feel. I like to see an actor's instincts and then shape the nuances of the character with them. Maybe it's a simple case of some of us working from the inside out and others from the outside in. Olivier was definitely an outside-in performer - starting with a walk or costume or make-up -- and it certainly worked for him!
There's this great story during the shooting of "Marathon Man" with Dustin Hoffman. Hoffman was acting up a storm preparing for a scene and getting into character with great agitation and Olivier turned to him and said, "Try acting, my dear boy. It's much easier."
Then again, George Burns (I think it was Burns) once said, "The most important thing about acting is being truthful. If you can fake that, you've got it made."
Tomorrow we are on the bare stage putting the ballet company, chorus and principals together in the Prologue. Should be interesting. Stay tuned!
