Day One!

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So first day was pretty packed. We had an orientation meeting and then headed off to the Moscow Art Theatre where all of our classes are held. The walk down Tverskaya Street was kind of amazing. It is like walking in NYC but on steroids. The street is like three times as wide as anything in NYC and though the Big Apple has Moscow beat on skyscrapers, the Russian buildings are these huge squat buildings with an enormous amount of square footage which create a much more imposing presence. The street is so bustling and it is fun just watching all that is happening. It's also a great place to window shop.

At the school, we had our first class with Anatoly Smeliansky who has to be the smartest person in Russia. Our class was in the hall of photographs, where every important person who has ever had a part in the Moscow Art Theatre (MXT) has their photograph hung with pictures from their life as it relates to the theatre. Anatoly told some really amazing anecdotes about various pictures. Like the famous picture of Chehkov reading The Seagull to the actors was a fake, staged picture, who knew! Anatoly had a great sense of humor and was just a joy to listen to. After that we had our first acting class with Sergei, which was mostly introductions and getting to know you. We did do some coordinated clapping exercises. Then our homework was to create a world where and event happens, and and object that an event happens too.

For lunch I had a Blyni, which is a crepe that you can have stuffed with anything, and I chose a greek style with herbs and a goat style cream cheese which was pretty good, and only $3. I had to borrow a $100 roubles from a classmate and then afterwords hit the atm. I asked for $5,000 roubles ($160) and it gave it to me in one single note, that wasn't going to do. Merchants in Russia have this problem with giving change. So it took another 20-30 minutes to find a place that would give me change for my fat note.

That evening we saw our first show, which was called Black Square, and is the final showcase of sorts for the 4th year class at the MXT school. It was very dynamic, with lot of etudes (impovisations) of different things from animals, to skydiving, to parodies of famous singers. It was pretty impressive, and I kept thinking that if these are the students, I can't wait to see the professionals.

I walked home and then went to a nearby park to journal my days experiences. All in all it was a pretty great day. Enjoy the pictures that document a few of those things.

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Comments

[Gena]

Hey!
Looks like you are on your way to a summer of mind-boggling learning! Look forward to hearing all about it!