Russia - 2017

[Mark]

This was a crazy trip. Theatre Movement Bazaar took Track 3 to St. Petersburg and Moscow. I had been to Moscow in 1989 and needless to say…it was vastly, overwhelmingly different.

To give you some sense of the ride I took, I’ll intersperse a couple of posts I put on FB about it. That way you’ll get a taste of it closer to the moment.

The first batch of pictures comes from the trip to and from our first stop:

St. Petersburg

From my FB post June 17, 2017:

I sit on the high speed train to Moscow trying to comprehend what’s happened over the last week…and what lies ahead in the next few days.

We arrived in St. Petersburg after almost 24 clock hours of travel to a tv crew that was doucumenting our arrival in St. Petersburg. They interviewed Tina and then Dylan and me. After informing us that Masha and Vershinin are considered the hardest roles in Chekov, they openly questioned our intentions, our training and our commitment to the theatre as film and tv actors. I suppose I should’ve been offended, but I was too tired and I get it. They’re protective of their greatest playwright and national treasure. The interview was aired and seemed to generate interest because we sold out the main floor and they had to open the balcony…which no one had expected.

So we performed in St. Petersburg Thursday night to a skeptical and intensely curious packed house, wondering what this troupe of Los Angeles actors were going to do to their beloved Chekov. In a beautiful tradition, after the show we had a reception and many speeches were given. The 90 year old artistic director of the theatre, told us that after 10 minutes they realized that we were indeed doing their beloved Three Sisters and by the end of the play we had delivered an American Chekov that was also a deeply Russian Chekov. I am still stunned and continue to weep whenever I think of his kind, and incredibly humbling words.

On Friday we met with the US Embassy staff in St. Petersburg that paid for our trip and heard how the Russian cultural minister, who typically won’t acknowledge the Embassy’s work, not only thanked them by name publicly in his pre-show speech, but was incredibly moved and grateful for our production afterwards. They were stunned by the thaw in relations brought about by our show. First-hand evidence of how important cultural exchanges can be.

After that we took a tour of the city, only scratching the surface of the unbelievable Hermitage and then took a boat around the canals.

Lest you think it’s all been perfect, a pair of dress shoes I brought for nicer functions, like attending the theatre, literally crumbled under my feet the night of our opening, leaving pieces of each shoe all along my walk to, and through, the theatre.

Even more incredibly, my iPhone keeps crapping out so I’m not sure I’ll be able to recover all the photos I’ve taken so far much less post them in a timely manner.

The Chekovian nature of these mishaps is almost too perfect. How could a great artistic triumph not be followed by some personal tragedy, no matter how small it may seem in the grand scheme of the Universe?

Honestly, I’ve been semi-dreading this trip to Russia based on my memories of my very diffcult trip to Moscow in 1989 prior to the fall of the Berlin Wall and the Soviet Union. That was a trip of never ending trials for me which I handled poorly; not being able to communicate or find food or breathe clean air, always being under suspicion, our class being split up into groups that were all treated very differently, and ultimately, feeling not free for the first time by all of these things and more. I couldn’t talk about that trip for a year without getting angry as I relived these events.

Even so…I’ve been highly privileged because unlike so many who deal with much worse, my struggle was temporary and came with memories and experiences that I have cherished for years: studying at MXAT, spending time at Melikhova, seeing the Kremlin, St. Basil’s, etc. I didn’t realize how precious these all were to me until being back here. And I don’t even set foot in Moscow for another hour.

We’ve been met with such warmth, such joy at both our being here and our work that I’m embarrassed by that dread and humiliated by my younger self’s inability to cope with the hardships.

But more than that…I’m overwhelmed with joy and gratitude that I found this little theatre company that could and because of it, get a do-over, a chance to make new memories. And, of course, I’m especially grateful for Tina and Richard who share my deep and abiding respect for theatre history and my desire to be a part of it, honor it and shake it up a little bit.

I can’t wait to get to Moscow in June!

[Mark]

Moscow

My FB post, June 18, 2017

Unrecognizable.

I can find no better way to describe what I’m seeing than this. I’m an old record at the end of it’s side constantly repeating phrases like, “This is incredible,” “That wasn’t here,” “I can’t believe this.”

There are shops and cafes and nightclubs everywhere. There are colorful signs, skateboarders, selfie-sticks, park-goers and outwardly visible signs of joy everywhere. There is construction on what seems like every other street as new buildings are going up, old ones are being renovated and city services are being improved. There is a Krispy Kreme down the block, and a Starbucks across the street, from the Moscow Art Theatre and Conservatory. A freakin’ Krispy Kreme! Arbat has been turned into a Disney-like street with cafes and shops and street merchants and little shows…and their own Shake Shack.

Upon entering a market, undergound as many of them seem to be…the irony of which I really love…I burst into tears. It was like a Dean & Deluca. Tasty prepared foods, meats and seafood, freshly baked breads and cakes, imported coffees and teas. A far cry from the markets I entered in '89 with literally 6 cans of beans and 3 packages of meat on otherwise empty shelves. My buddy Mark wasn’t allowed to buy his bunch of bananas until he had wrapped them up. Contrast that to our translator/guide/KGB plant Yulia (if I remember her name correctly) who told us in 1989 that she hadn’t seen a banana in 7 years and you begin to get some sense of how this trip is working me over.

Anecdotally…I mentioned this story to Tina and she told me she was here when bananas started being brought in again. She said people everywhere were walking down the street eating bananas and peels were strewn all over the city, piled high as the remnants of some strange banana bacchanal that had taken place.

I am that annoying uncle/neighbor/friend who tells the same story over and over as if for the first time.

I can’t be much fun to be around on this trip. Especially for the cast who are here for the first time and barely remember the Cold War or were hardly of school age when I was here in '89.

The transformation of this city is truly remarkable.

Of course to Svetlana, one of the people who worked on the translation of our show and took us to grab a quick bite yesterday between runs, this is the norm. She’s probably too young to know any other Moscow than this one. She’s a freelance translator who works for tours of plays, musicals, circus shows…whatever needs translation. Like any artist in most other major cities of the world. She fell into this gig. She had been studying English in school, saw a touring musical and thought, “I want to do this.” No different than when I saw Annie and The Magic Show come through the Fisher Theatre in Detroit.

I think that’s the biggest takeaway. The Moscow I experienced 28 years ago didn’t want to be a part of the Western world. It held itself separate and that separation was incredibly difficult to traverse. Today, Moscow seems to be like any other great European city trying to keep moving forward while holding on to it’s long and storied history. And wow…from this outsider’s limited view…it seems like it’s working gangbusters.

They say that each cell in our body is replaced over the course of every 7 years, in essence, transforming us into an entirely new person. If cities follow the same pattern then the Moscow of today has regenerated 4 times since I was last here. Feels about right.

[Mark]

My FB post June 24, 2017

Got back from Moscow last night after about 4 hours of bus rides, 12 hours of flight time, another 5 hours or so of waiting around to check-in/go through customs/whatever and another 45 mins in the LA traffic to drive to my house.

Once I get more sleep I’ve got to wrap this all up and try to revive my phone and post some photos.

[Mark]

My FB post June 27, 2017

I’ve resurrected my phone and saved my photos so I’ll be posting a lot of those in the days to come until then though…

Having been back from Russia for a few days I figure it’s time to try and wrap up the experience the best I can. Loretta has a friend who always asks for the best and worst memories of a trip and it’s an interesting contextualization exercise. So here goes.

The worst part of the trip was definitely not being able to sleep through the night for the entire time I was there. I woke up at 3am every day, and often followed that up by waking up every hour thereafter. Not fun. It led to my getting sick which, even though I’ve learned how to carry a small pharmacy with me on these gigs, made the last show a bit nerve-wrecking as I wondered if my voice would hold out. It did and I’m told it wasn’t noticeable but still…I noticed. Thankfully I’ve got a little bit of training that helps out in those situations.

In St. Petersburg, I experienced White Nights for the first time. It was beautiful but it’s very odd that it never gets dark at night. Unfortunately I’m pretty light sensitive so even with a kick-ass eye mask and dark curtains, I seemed to follow the light. And let me just say…the 3am sunlight in St. Petersburg is absolutely gorgeous. I just wish I hadn’t seen it every day. Especially since it’s not like I was closing down bars with the natives or anything either.

As for the best part of the trip…where do I start? The food was great, the cities are vibrant and the people were genuine and incredibly supportive. However…I think I have 2 memories that I will cherish above the others for a very, very long time. The first I’ve already written a bit about and it was our opening in St. Petersburg. Yes the audience was skeptical of what this American troupe of “film/tv actors” was going to do to their beloved Three Sisters. And we’ve come to find out that because of the crazy costumes and the stylized movement, they were concerned that we were going to make fun of the play. However, as it went on and they realized that we were doing the actual play, in our manner, they loved it. The audience response was overwhelming. They did the rhythmic clapping that seems like a staple of Russian applause, brought up huge bouquets of flowers and were incredibly loud in their outpouring of admiration. Not sure I’ll ever forget the faces of my cast-mates after we took our bows and stood there during that, not really knowing what to do other than let the tears fall. Afterwards, techies were coming up to us wiping away their tears, thanking us for the work. Actors from the theatre were actually talking to us…and trust me…that was a big deal. It was all amazing.

The second memory is a two-parter on the same night at the Moscow Art Theatre. We closed on Tuesday so Wednesday night we went to see the Comédie-Français version of Lucrezia Borgia. After the show we were hanging out in the lobby, which is on the 2nd floor, taking pictures with the photos of Chekov, Stanislavsky and other theatre luminaries. A guy starts waving at us excitedly so we say, “Sorry, we’ll move” so he can get the same pictures. He then blurts out in broken English, “Yesterday!” and proceeds to tell us how he saw our show and loved it. He got pictures with us and then got his wfe and child in some pictures with us. It was really very sweet. After this was over the theatre ushers kicked us out of the building…they’d been trying to get us to move along for a while. So as we gathered on the street outside the theatre I saw David talking to a girl with tears streaming down her face. As we all gathered around him to head off to the bar, the girl became incredibly excited as she recognized all of us, started shaking and saying how she loved us and loved the show. It was hard to understand the actual words because English was not her first language and she was squealing the entire time. She ran back to her parents…mind you this girl seemed to be in her early 20s to me…and kept squealing, pointing at us and jumping up and down. As we walked off she kept waving at us like we were going to war or something. Crazy

This whole night was surreal for me. Being at the Moscow Art Theatre, seeing Comédie-Français, and then being treated like some sort of theatre rock-star was too much to believe. Yet that was sort of the feel we got from theatre goers who saw the show in both cities. I imagine it’s the kind of reception film/tv star friends of mine get quite often. But this was for us…for our theatre piece. The sense of fulfillment and personal satisfaction I get from this…is just…it’s hard to describe.

The trip was a success on so many levels that it’s hard to express it adequately.

Personally…as I mentioned previously…I was confronted with all sorts of old, unpleasant memories, both of Moscow and how I dealt with the hardships. I cried a lot of joyful tears on this trip. I’d walk into a market, a book store, talk to someone about what our show meant to them…whatever…and burst into tears as I recognized the weight of the changes or the moment or simply acknowledged the difficulties I’d had previously. I was one big exposed nerve for most of this trip. Ultimately, I got to put all of that into better perspective and accept my failings and the new reality that is Moscow. A reality that I absolutely loved and hope to get back to. And trust me when I say that not one of my classmates would’ve ever expected that phrase to come out of my mouth. Me included. I’m proof that times and people can change.

Professionally…I’ve never felt the kind of appreciation or adulation for my work that I did in Russia…except maybe years ago when 10-year old kids would recognize me from TMNT II. I can’t help but think that maybe we touched those audiences in a way that they hadn’t been previously. We were the first American theatre company to perform in the Chekov Festival since ART in 1998 and we were the first American company to perform Chekov in the Chekov festival…ever. I’m told we may be the first American theatre company to ever perform in St. Petersburg, and though I find that hard to believe, I’m gonna run with it until proven wrong. So…to think that for many, our little show will be their first memory of, and future barometer for, American theatre is astounding. I didn’t feel that responsibility prior to the trip…I’m glad it never even crossed my mind…but now I feel the weight of that quite profoundly and it’s humbling.

So often we do our work and there’s little acknowledgment of its value, especially with the attacks on the arts over the last few decades. The audiences in Russia treat the theatre as a big part of their lives and it means a great deal to them. It’s something that we don’t see here in the US where it seems to be more a function of celebrity than of a genuine desire for the art-form to inspire and illuminate. They’re way ahead of us on that front.

There’s a lot to be said for creating a respectful dialogue amongst people…one that doesn’t include accusations and curses. Hopefully our little exchange has opened eyes and hearts other than mine. I can’t tell you how much I look forward to continuing our work and sharing the dialogue with people across the US and the globe.