The Agony and the Ecstasy

"I think Sasha told me his girlfriend had a baby yesterday," was Sara's response. Before our eyes was a group of second year MXT actors tossing one of their comrades dangerously high in the air. The cheers, the laughter, the Russian taunts were all lost on us Americans, but it was to be expected. Today we were there to observe the second year MXT studio work with Thomas Ostermeier's students. It was going to be a cacophony of foreign languages.

[Ostermeiter, btw, is a fancy-pants German director who runs the Schaubühne theatre in Berlin. He and four of his students are at MXT for a week to work with the MXT second-year actors and directors.]

As the Russians tossed their classmate around, we Americans quietly took our place in the velvet booths that sit in the observation area of the sixth floor rehearsal studio at MXT. We were quickly shooed off of these comfy benches by a Russian woman -- Ostermeier was entering, and, seeing that we were students, this woman and another faculty member needed the seats. So, onto the rough century-old wooden floor we went, each in his or her self-contained spot.

Ostermeier takes his seat in the left corner of the room. Next to him is his translator - he speaks in German, she translates into Russian (thankfully Jenny, an American dancer who lives with us, was there to observe and could translate the Russian into English for us). Pleasant greetings, a few words of introduction, and onto their feet go the MXT actors, presenting their scenes: selections from Ostermeier's translation of Hamlet.

For the two hours we were able to observe, we watched Act I scene 5 (?? - Herr Ostermeier took some liberties with his translation) and got to see not only the cream of the national crop from Germany and Russia work, but also some cultural differences. It was interesting to say the least.

Stanislavski and Russian naturalism are alive and well at MXT (duh). This was, I think, a point of contention between some of the actors and Ostermeier. After they would perform their scene, Ostermeier would solicit questions and responses from the observing students (who were not American -- we were there to quietly watch). A phrase that seemed to come up with some frequency (so far as I could tell) was "it is not natural for me" -- actors trying to deal with their creation and Ostermeier's criticism.

It was an interesting dance to witness -- Ostermeier pushes, the Russian actor pushes back ... respectfully (they are a student, afterall) and then tries to accomodate the professor. 2 hours - two scenes by two different directors, both interpretations of Ostermeier's translation of I-v.

The rest of the conversations are esoteric and boring to type, so I'm not going to. Instead, I leave you with some impressions.

First: never let it be said that Americans lack in theatrical talent. The stumbles and guffaws that the Russians stepped into could be found in any reheasal studio anywhere in the world - Chicago, New York, Berlin, or Moscow.

Second: Russian (I would say European, but so far all I've seen have been Russians) actor training is Physical. Clown, commedia, gestus, etc. Where American actors would take someone around the shoulder, Russians actors would jump on their back in the same situation.

Third: I have a static eye, and that is boring. Elements of composition that have been drilled into my head since July are starting to take root. The pleasure of movement ... I'm beginning to understand it.

Leaving the rehearsal studio, what was foremost in my mind was how "television" our theatrical sense is in America. Glitzy sets with actors methodically placed around the set -- not climbing on one another, not doing acrobatics or anything physically amazing, just positioned like talking vases of flowers. The conversations can be deep and thought provoking, but the performances .... eh.

I think this is why we were just there to observe: as Americans, we had little to add to the conversation.