Lots of happenings today which started by leaving the dorm around 8ish and walking down to the MXAT (that’s the shorthand symbol for the Moscow Art Theatre) with Peter and Jeffery where we sat down and did some sketches of a Chekhov statue. Then we had our first History or Russian Film class that was for both the designers and actors. What a great class! Today we covered a lot of film terminology and the pre-revolution era of films. The high light for me was a stop-motion animation film by Vladislav Starewicz called The Cameraman’s Revenge. Vlady had a thing for insects but they tended to scurry away from the camera so he decided to use dead insects. The story involves a couple of insect couple with Mr. Beetle cheating on the Mrs. but the Mrs. is also cheating on the Mr. There is a grasshopper that Mr. Beetle throws out of a bar who just happens to be a cameraman (imagine a movie about a movie when movies had only been around for less than a decade) and he takes his revenge but film Mr. Beetles affair. The Mr. finds out about the Mrs. But ends up forgiving he and takes to a movie which just happens to be the grasshoppers film. There’s fights, fires, and various insects getting thrown through windows and movie screens…great film! Tim Burton even cited Valdy’s work as inspiration for films like The Nightmare Before Christmas.
We had a painting class in the afternoon that was pretty interesting. It reminded me very much about a studio drawing class I had in grad school by Anatoly Shapiro, a Russian born painter. The biggest difference being that Anatoly at spoke decent English and out teacher here was through an interpreter. I learned a little so hopefully the next class will be even better.
The highlight of the day was seeing Shakespeare’s Richard III at the Satiricon Theatre. WOW!!! What an awesome show. I admit I’m somewhat of a theatre snob when it comes to theater and this show just blew my socks off. It was an Avant-garde setting but it just fit the production. Richard was pretty deformed (for you folks that might not know a lot about Richard III, he is usually portrayed with some sort of a defect like a hunch back and odd limp to his walk) but the actor staged a very convincing performance (I found out later that he is also one of the teacher at the MXAT). The set was made up of lots little things (painted on cardboard mounted on wood) that were carried on and off the stage. They also did a lot with the lighting to create a variety of cast shadow images on the cyclorama upstage of the actors. They also did some interesting murder scenes. For instance, when Clearance is killed, they did it by throwing goblet after goblet of red wine on him and his white costume (I don’t think they used real wine). Then when the young princes are killed, it starts with them having a pillow fight that transforms into an execution when the murders show up and start beating the princes with the pillows and then they snuff them out holding the pillow over their faces. This was paralleled later at the end of the play when the ghosts of the princes come out and beat Richard to death with the pillows (and don’t worry, that’s not how the play really ends in the script, so support your local theater and go see it sometime). I didn’t even mind that it was all in Russian. I know the story because I saw it about 20 times when I ran lights for it during my first summer with the Michigan Shakespeare Festival and I think that helped me know a little better what was going on but the show was great none the less.
I’m posting a picture today of the entrance to Red Square. We haven’t been in yet but I took this while passing by on the way to someplace else. You should be able to see the famous ‘onion’ domes of St. Basil’s Church.
Until tomorrow…
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