gazettes

More of the Cock's Gazette, my newsletter to the A.R.T. community while in Moscow:

First, an excerpt from The Cock's Gazette 3-31-06:

Greetings from lovely Moscow!

Russia continues to ravage the apparently weak immunse systems of the class of 2007, but spirits remain high, much in the manner of soldiers bonding during an overseas conflict.

We've had three more awesome runs of Zoya's Apartment, two for sold-out crowds, and one for our beleaguered tech crew as they re-wrote the light cues for the show. We've noticed in our clinical study that 85% of the audience in Moscow for American grad student plays are women aged 18-25. An oddity, but you won't find me complaining.

Matt did the last performance with a fever- many thought it was one of his best shows. Maybe a new advanced acting technique? Henry has had a fever for the past three days, and went to the doctor today for pills. Kristen has been under the weather for a few days too with some sort of stomach virus. Several others have colds, including me.

This week we went on a delightful field trip to Leo Tolstoy's Moscow estate where everything is apparently 'just where he left it.' We walked around in funny slippers and learned that Tolstoy's hobbies were playing chess, composing music, and screwing his serfs. In all seriousness, the place was fascinating, and quite modest for an estate. In his later years Tolstoy devoutly believed in doing for himself, and that using servants only lead to moral corruption. Tomorrow we take a bus (four hours each way) to Yasni Palayani, his country estate, and the place in which he wrote War and Peace. We were assigned roles and scenes today from the novel, and now with the help of the dramaturgs, we will cobble together scripts.

And now, today's Cock's Gazette:

THE COCK'S GAZETTE 4-18-06

The weathered, beaten, bonded band of brothers and sisters that is the A.R.T. class of 2007 has finally made it over the 'Moscow hump.' With over half of our Russian adventure completed, we finally have the confidence to saunter up and down Tverskaya as if we own the place, unafraid of the Militsia with their white nightsticks, the gangs of skinheads that according to the Moscow times are wreaking havoc everywhere, and the stumbling drunks that we see even at nine A.M.

We are enjoying the ongoing rehearsals for War and Peace, although we feel a bit schizophrenic with two directors: Marina the calm, measured, steady director of few words, and Victor, the manic, overexcited director with more words than any man needs and a cell phone that rings every five minutes.

We still seem to be under some sort of injurious curse that sends us reliably to the hospital every week. This week it was poor Caroline who fell in the shower and bruised the big bone in her forearm. Jackie is still limping from her tendonitis-ridden ankle, but she is well enough to perform in Zoya. Katia had to make another trip to the hospital this week thanks to her infected sinus. We've had more colds and stomach viruses, but, at present, those seem to have faded away.

We continue to take a beating from the sadistic Bank of America- most of us have had our debit cards blocked as many as four times now, each time requiring us to call and have it unblocked, each time listening to the promises that 'it won't happen again.' A few, including myself, have voiced their plan to change banks upon return to the states. B of A might be the most convenient in Cambridge, but it's the worst choice for Russia.

Zoya proceeds apace with something like 5 shows left- we've had full houses every time, as well as lengthy curtain calls. We miss Sasha.

Some have asked about the fate of the cruel 'Coat Check Guy,' and all I can say is this: a very FBI/KGB-surveillance-looking large black and white photo of the man was given to Tolya. Tolya smiled grimly upon receipt and promised: "He weel be pah-nished." My hands are clean.

We had quite a bit of fun last week as Aaron's father insisted on providing him with a proper Passover seder. Two huge plastic crates were FedExed to Moscow. It took Aaron and our lovely angel Anya an entire day, many thousands of rubles, and many hundreds of American dollars in bribes to get the crates released and taken home. Still, there was no way we could have expected the kind of seder we had. Aaron and Brian's room was cleaned out, and in it set up two long tables, dressed in festive decoration. Almost our entire class was present, as well as many of the O'Neill students, Anya, Adam (our translator and a member of Studio Six), and several Russians. What followed were several hours filled with celebration, singing, eating, ritual, and lots of Hebrew and Yiddish. It was an amazing time, filled with laughter and tears, and lots of love. Unfortunately there was also sparse attendance at classes the next morning which got us in trouble with our teachers. (This is the only time this has happened Julia, I promise!)

Classmates can reliably be seen on the computer at the dorm perusing the webpage of the class of 2006. We think about them and hope their showcases have been awesome so far.

All our best from Russia,
Neil

sea of blue camo

it's sort of an odd feeling, saturday afternoon, sitting in this internet cafe surrounded by my classmates (shakespeare class canceled). we could be in the states. although the dance music that's being pumped in over our heads (and has the russians nearby bopping) features a female singer who, in English, is announcing 'motherfu&#er' and 'lick my a$$' in a nonstop loop.

theatre-going has been awesome since my coat check debacle at the satirikon. apparently, our complaints about the guy trickled down. tolya, our mentor here, is great friends with the head of the satirikon. the result is now, when we go, if they see we're american, they make us do our own coat-checking, way over on the side, at the empty coat check booth. pretty fun. can't tell if it feels like more discrimination or liberation!

i'm going there tonight to see shakespeare's Richard III, which several classmates have seen and said is really incredible.

normally saturday morning walks to class are great because the city empties out on the weekends as everybody goes to the country. but, this morning, in preparation for a protest organized by the communist party, we walked past 600+ police officers, military police, and soldiers. it was a sea of blue camo, and a little disconcerting. one troop of guys was much larger than the others. we're talking huge men. and they were following an older, grizzled general-type, complete with the big cigar hanging from his mouth. love it.

not much else to report- homesick, but still having a great time. missing everyone.

internet cafe

testing to see if this works

internet cafe

testing to see if this works