TOCKA and the canadian alcoholic

tonight was a fun night in moscow- in the late afternoon i was in the early rehearsal stages of war and peace, which we'll be presenting here in may and at school in the fall. right now we're doing etudes, in which we riff imaginatively on the work. today, in several of my classmates' etudes, i got to die down a flight of steps, shoot a man in the back, wrestle a woman into a chair and throw an US Weekly at her, and dance at a ball.

afterwards, my classmates beef, merritt, and i met with a pair of russian film producers who want us to do some voice over work on a film that they're editing. it's just replacement work, filling in for messed up audio tracks, but exciting nonetheless. the film stars the director of the play we're doing in rep here, zoya's apartment, and has the working title of 'the canadian alcoholic.'

we left the meeting, grabbed sandwiches on the street, and inhaled them as we ran to the Bolshoi Theatre. with all the construction in moscow, we could see the theatre, but couldn't find the entrance. after accidentally going in the stage door, we finally made it inside as the bells were ringing. we had to check our coats, and the ladies wouldn't give me my number until i agreed to rent some binoculars, because we gave them such 'big bags' to store.

our seats were up in the second balcony, but since the show was about to start, and usher rushed us into the stage right box where there were several empty seats. as we sat, the lights went down in the house.

it was the opera Toska, in cyrillic it's TOCKA, and it was a grand spectacle. i was surprised that, in a city that loves the stage so much, there were 7 or 8 instances of cell phones ringing, and people took flash photos almost as many times. i loved the fact that the performers had a curtain call after each act, and that each intermission was about 25 minutes. instead of a concession stand, right outside our box they had a complete cafe, with a full bar and many little cakes, pastries, fancy candy, and sliced meats. you know how neil likes his sliced meats.

we have our work cut out for us this week, since the lighting cues all got deleted for zoya's apartment, we have to completely re-tech the show and set new lighting cues. the problem is our director is in canada directing an opera, so merritt and i are in charge of the tech. madness. will report on how it goes.

love from russia,
neil