For a country that certainly has its fair share of issues, support for the arts is not one of them. Every single night of the week, the theaters are full - be it for theater, ballet, opera, you name it. If only we had this issue in the States! And the size and prestige of the theater does not matter, people come out in throngs every night to every theater space.
A brief summary of what I have seen so far, having been here just over a week:
The Pillowman - Martin McDonagh
MXAT Small Stage
Friday Night
First night in Moscow. The theater is about 70 degrees Fahrenheit, i.e. sleep inducing coupled with jet lag*. Visually interesting play, and it was translated into Russian by one of our professors! People were actually sitting on the side aisle steps during the show because there were not enough seats for everyone who wanted to see it. Still not sure how fire code works here....
Uncle Vanya - Anton Chekhov
Vakhtangov Theater
Sunday Night
Gorgeous and grotesque production of the father of Russian playwriting. Since this is a post about how packed the theaters are, let me elaborate. When Anatoly Smeliansky said they would fit us into the theater, he was not kidding: they add removable chairs to one side of the aisle, and have fold-down stools attached to the other side. The aisle is effectively a 6 inch bit of elbow room. Hopefully there is never an emergency of any kind...
Giselle
Libretto: Jules-Henri Vernoy de Saint-Georges and Théophile Gautier
Music: Adolphe Adam
Choreography: Jean Coralli and Jules Perrot
Stanislavski Ballet and Opera Theater
Monday Night
Large, two-tier theater, full on a Monday night. This was one of the times we could have benefitted from having a native Russian speaker with us. It became fairly evident that we did not have seats, and should just wait until right before the curtain went up to take whatever was open. Seeing as our Russian language skills were not quite that advanced, the directions were a bit difficult. Eventually we chose seats. Shortly after Act I began, Alexandra got bumped from her seat. During intermission, the same woman bumped Leslie from her seat. The constantly looking for a better seat, and in this case, taking advantage of American students who could not retort in any effective way, was comical and frustrating. The best part was when the same ladies followed us down to another row, which was worse because we had the lighting equipment to contend with for a view. This has been a very interesting and peculiar phenomena....
American Sojourns: Three Short Plays by Thornton Wilder
MXAT American Studio
Tuesday Night - Final Dress
Wednesday Night - OPENING!
The opening of our show that we brought from A.R.T.! We were not sure if we would be the only ones attending opening. The house was full of English language high school/college students. It made for an interesting audience - there was a lot of whispering as they seemed to be playing "telephone" down the rows so everyone could understand what was happening in the play. Looking forward to seeing how the audience and show evolve...
King Lear - William Shakespeare
Satirikon Theater
Thursday Night
Full disclosure: Was exhausted and somewhat dreading seeing a Shakespeare play, seeing as certain shows that could run in 2 hours (Pillowman) took the better part of 3.5 hours. The theater is gorgeous and modern, the guy at the coat check is an extremely cute version of Paul Dano, the ushers are helpful - although to take our added-into-the-aisle seats, they had to ask an old woman to move - so far so good. The girl behind me is sitting on the edge of her seat - literally - which means she is virtually on top of me; not my ideal scenario to have a stranger breathing down my neck. And then the show - King Lear is interesting, but not my favorite Shakespeare play, and the only other time I saw a staged version of it, in English, I fell asleep. What is it going to be like sitting through Shakespeare in Russian? Magical. It was quite possibly, if not the best, one of the best pieces of theater I have ever seen. More detailed review to come. Truly a remarkable piece of theatrical craftsmanship. EVERYBODY needs to come to Moscow and see this!
And thus concluded a full week of theater. Was not well enough to go to the theater last night with my classmates - sounds like I should see the show, but made the right decision in skipping it last night - and tonight is my first night this week without a scheduled performance to see. What am I going to do with myself? Cook dinner and read Crime and Punishment!
A brief summary of what I have seen so far, having been here just over a week:
The Pillowman - Martin McDonagh
MXAT Small Stage
Friday Night
First night in Moscow. The theater is about 70 degrees Fahrenheit, i.e. sleep inducing coupled with jet lag*. Visually interesting play, and it was translated into Russian by one of our professors! People were actually sitting on the side aisle steps during the show because there were not enough seats for everyone who wanted to see it. Still not sure how fire code works here....
*we found out during tech for our show that there is no way to adjust the thermostat in the theaters. It is on a grid that controls the entire district and can only be controlled for the whole area. Welcome to Russia...
Uncle Vanya - Anton Chekhov
Vakhtangov Theater
Sunday Night
Gorgeous and grotesque production of the father of Russian playwriting. Since this is a post about how packed the theaters are, let me elaborate. When Anatoly Smeliansky said they would fit us into the theater, he was not kidding: they add removable chairs to one side of the aisle, and have fold-down stools attached to the other side. The aisle is effectively a 6 inch bit of elbow room. Hopefully there is never an emergency of any kind...
Giselle
Libretto: Jules-Henri Vernoy de Saint-Georges and Théophile Gautier
Music: Adolphe Adam
Choreography: Jean Coralli and Jules Perrot
Stanislavski Ballet and Opera Theater
Monday Night
Large, two-tier theater, full on a Monday night. This was one of the times we could have benefitted from having a native Russian speaker with us. It became fairly evident that we did not have seats, and should just wait until right before the curtain went up to take whatever was open. Seeing as our Russian language skills were not quite that advanced, the directions were a bit difficult. Eventually we chose seats. Shortly after Act I began, Alexandra got bumped from her seat. During intermission, the same woman bumped Leslie from her seat. The constantly looking for a better seat, and in this case, taking advantage of American students who could not retort in any effective way, was comical and frustrating. The best part was when the same ladies followed us down to another row, which was worse because we had the lighting equipment to contend with for a view. This has been a very interesting and peculiar phenomena....
American Sojourns: Three Short Plays by Thornton Wilder
MXAT American Studio
Tuesday Night - Final Dress
Wednesday Night - OPENING!
The opening of our show that we brought from A.R.T.! We were not sure if we would be the only ones attending opening. The house was full of English language high school/college students. It made for an interesting audience - there was a lot of whispering as they seemed to be playing "telephone" down the rows so everyone could understand what was happening in the play. Looking forward to seeing how the audience and show evolve...
King Lear - William Shakespeare
Satirikon Theater
Thursday Night
Full disclosure: Was exhausted and somewhat dreading seeing a Shakespeare play, seeing as certain shows that could run in 2 hours (Pillowman) took the better part of 3.5 hours. The theater is gorgeous and modern, the guy at the coat check is an extremely cute version of Paul Dano, the ushers are helpful - although to take our added-into-the-aisle seats, they had to ask an old woman to move - so far so good. The girl behind me is sitting on the edge of her seat - literally - which means she is virtually on top of me; not my ideal scenario to have a stranger breathing down my neck. And then the show - King Lear is interesting, but not my favorite Shakespeare play, and the only other time I saw a staged version of it, in English, I fell asleep. What is it going to be like sitting through Shakespeare in Russian? Magical. It was quite possibly, if not the best, one of the best pieces of theater I have ever seen. More detailed review to come. Truly a remarkable piece of theatrical craftsmanship. EVERYBODY needs to come to Moscow and see this!
And thus concluded a full week of theater. Was not well enough to go to the theater last night with my classmates - sounds like I should see the show, but made the right decision in skipping it last night - and tonight is my first night this week without a scheduled performance to see. What am I going to do with myself? Cook dinner and read Crime and Punishment!
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