Only in Moscow

Only In Moscow/Only in Russia is my new saying. These are the two sayings I've been saying a lot lately. I know I obviously wasn't around for a lot of the important Russian history that has happened within the past 20 years or so, but it's still prevlent in society. People not smiling back, walking straight forward minding their own, trying to survive. It's so interesting. And the drivers here are absolutely insane!!! Hopefully I don't get hit one of these days! All of the women wear heels every day...even stillettos (sp?). Men generally wear black/dark dress shoes and never shorts. Interesting.

What I love about the performances I have seen so far is that they incorporate every aspect of art - dance, music, singing, acting, lighting, sound, sets, everything. Every artistic aspect is blended beautifully. The curtain calls consist of much more than a simple bow like in America. They are choreographed and it's like a finale. The actors come back out and do a dance or a pose and then do many bows. The audience claps sporadically but eventually it all turns into a clap in unison. The company continues with their bows. The house lights come up during the bows to establish and reiterate the relationship between the actors and the audience. Some patrons bring flowers up to the stage and hand them to a specific actor during the bow also. It's all so amazing, beautiful, and respectful.

Today we had our Michael Chekhov class and our acting class. So much is learned within each class and each one deals with different exercises. In the Chekhov class today we focused on working the imagination, increasing attention and awareness to your surroundings and fellow ensemble, and the idea of playing. For kids it's so easy to imagine and play, but as we get older, we forget those things. In order to be a successful actor, one must play, imagine, and have fun. We did improvisations etudes in acting. Ours today took place a funeral home where the person in the casket pops in the casketpops up (not alive, still dead). We needed to create an atmosphere (aka sincerity, empathy, sympathy, etc) and then have an event that changes the atmosphere (in our situtation the body popping up created an air of hysteria, freaking out) but having distinct characters. Specificity and detail is extremely important in order to make a story clear and understandable to the audience. I'm really loving everything we're doing here.

Tomorrow Christyna and I are going to get pizza because we're craving it ha ha. There's supposedly this really good restaurant near the theatre because we have 2 hours between class and a show at the same theatre. I'm kind of excited. :) Full day tomorrow: Singing, Acting, Movement, then a show. Then, Marianna, the head of the American Studio (where we are studying) wants to take us out to a club. So we'll be going to a club tomorrow night also. Get a feel for the Rusian nightlife. OH, I saw a sign for an American Bar and Grill...I'm going there before I leave here to see what their take on American culture is. ha.

Anyway, I'm off to bed. Long today tomorrow and it's really late. Love you all. Night.l