in russia we wear dance belts

The Cock's Gazette 3-13-06

it's been an eventful couple of days since the last Gazette.

on saturday we took a class trip to the dance store to buy ballet gear. we were made to believe that if we weren't dressed properly- i.e., in FULL ballet regalia, the teacher would explode. the look on the clerks' faces as 15 or so of us filed into the tiny little shop was priceless. the attempt at conversation in russian was equally hilarious- we didn't know the russian for important words such as 'unitard' or... 'dance belt.' it turns out our AWESOME ballet teacher doesn't much care what we wear, which is pretty funny. attached find a pic of adel, matt, and myself modeling our purchases at the dorm. matt actually believed that we were supposed to show up like that to class. fantastic.

i was under house arrest on saturday night and all day sunday because i gave my laundry to the babushkas with my documents still in the back pocket of my jeans. they didn't survive. they were not pleased with me in the mxat office, but i now have new copies.

it was fine that i was quarantined because we were to have war and peace read by today. many people were finished today, and all made a valiant effort. there was a mass listening party to the abridged version of the audio book for seven hours last night- people trickled in as we got to the parts that they had read up to so far.

and today was our first day of classes! we did some serious facial calisthenics with masha the voice teacher, some sweet moves in ballet, tolya described leo tolstoy as '100 pounds of pure literature' in drama history, and we did introductory etudes about ourselves in acting class as we prepare to take on war and peace. afterwards we went and saw object work on the same stage that we've been doing zoya's apartment, and it was really great. the last half hour was particularly incredible as it forsaked the usual object work (ladders, suitcases) and took on a broader subject: the lion king. they fully did a thirty minute dance interpretation of the lion king. wow.

brian's knee is healing nicely, as is jorge\'s- but today jackie twisted her ankle. we continue to be a limping group. but we remain in high spirits.

everyone is in awe of the concept of the 11 understudy performance of R&J, and wish we could have seen it. we miss you and the second years.

love from muskva,
neil


After seeing this picture I feel I havetruly lived.

best to all
Robert

Robert Woodruff
Artistic Director
American Repertory Theatre


THE COCK'S GAZETTE 3-17-06

happy st. patty's day from sunny russia!

believe it or not, spring has sprung in moscow, and even though we still wear our hats and gloves, the sun's shining and there is that unmistakable scent of love in the air.

there continues to be no shortage of drama on this side of the world.

jackie's ankle got worse and worse, sending her on trips to the hospital for three days in a row. two nights ago we had a show, and she was unable to go on. the class came together beautifully, and we worked out how to do the show without her. it was pretty lucky that her role is doubled with cheryl, so we were just missing a model. but it turns out that more snags were headed our way- they brought out the costumes and props only an hour before curtain, and it was then that we found props missing, as well as adel's tuxedo pants, and all of our socks. we found some pants for adel just a few minutes before the show started.

that would have been enough, but this night was truly a test! about twenty minutes into the show, the light board operator accidentally wiped all the cues for the show from the light board. we had several unplanned blackouts, including a whole dance done in the dark, and for the rest of the show he just winged it, throwing up light willy nilly wherever there seemed to be something going on. big fun!

jackie is going to be fine, by the way, turns out it was just a bad sprain, and each day she is limping less and less.

unfortunately, we traded her at the hospital for katia, who has a completely ridiculous sinus infection with a neverending fever. she will spend the night there tonight. four other classmates have colds- we are truly bedraggled.

adel and i were the first ones stopped by the militsia, on our way to droznin's class yesterday morning. we did a great job of acting like loud stupid americans if i do say so myself. i handed them the letter from MXAT and adel waved his MXAT ID around. they looked confused for a while until adel suggested we call anatoly smeliansky. they waved us on. they didn't even look at adel's passport!

the first batch of mail came today and it reminded me of camp. everyone rabidly opening their mail, and me standing there with none. i guess i didn't have email at camp, though.

send us news from cambridge. we all miss you.

much love,
neil

and love to all my blog-reading friends! send me emails, i will respond!! as you can see in the picture above, i will stand at the windowsill in my dance belt and compose them for you!!