So far, So good

As we have seen more theater on this trip by this point, I'm very happy to say that it's been very impressive. I'm liking what I'm seeing from most production. In general, the acting has been supburb, and staging and been interesting in a way that it's hard to take your eye off of what is going down on stage.

So, at this point my favorite production has been "Antony and Cleopatry." It was very raw and honest. I had never read or seen this play, so I had mixed reaction going into. Every aspect was well exicuted and well thought out. Every action had a purpose. It involved music that was beautiful yet haunting. I say kudos to the director--it was you who really made this production spectacular.

Other good plays: Genesis 2 was great as well. We say it in a very small theater (black box-like). It was an in-your-face kind of show that I could really connect with. It only had three characters, but this one also used music to give every line rythm; at times this was very enjoyable and entertaining, and at other times you barely noticed. I also enjoyed Resurrection Super. This was in a large sor of black box theater. The set was really amazing--not realistic. It was cold and industrial. The cast was large for this play, and most everyone seemed really impressed by how they used the cast to change the set between scenes.

I did find the production of "The Seagal" that we saw upseting. In this one, it was mostly the director's fault for not really know what he wanted to express. The sad thing about this is that the acting was pretty top notch--maybe even the best I've seen so for, but the director had to ruin a perfectly moving moment with such things as dead characters getting up and dancing pushing weeble trees to and fro.

Anyway, Some of us went to a ballet yesterday--"Sleeping Beauty." It was in a huge theater inside the Kremlin. Dancing was good, the stage was pretty, but the lighting was bad because it was such a huge stage.

We leave Moscow soon, and that makes me sad--I do like it here. I've had fun walking the streets and riding the beautiful subway they have. The people have been fun (Muscovites and Oles alike).

Nick