Our show at the State Opera House this evening in Ulaanbaartar, Mongolia, was a great surprise -- with a minimum of time and a maximum of human effort and mind-over-matter visioning, Barry (lighting) and the dancers managed to pull off an extraordinarily professional looking show. The underseams that no-one saw were almost as compelling as the staged show:
1) the 60+ cardboard boxes, flattened and taped together (purchased by Otgon and me on the Q.T. from the workers at the State Department Store) that formed the under-flooring covered by old, distressed linoleum covering. This cardboard layer served to mitigate the impact on the dancers balance and confidence of the "undulating" wooden stage floor that has seen quite a few too many heavy opera productions
2) the disruption of the dancers' preparation time on stage due to the need to make an appearance at the Chinese Embassy to obtain visas for our arrival two days hence... We'd been turned down 4 times earlier, and dared not cause any ripples since, with the Embassy closed tomorrow, and our departure time on Wednesday being 9 a.m., this was "it".
3) the seriously, sadly under-equipped Opera House where the lighting structures and instruments appeared to have been installed along with the gouged gwooden floor in 1942...
Luckily, art transcends practical problems; all of us wanted to do our best for the Mongolian audience, and at 1:15 a.m., before crashing, I can honestly say that we outdid ourselves.
Monday, May 5, 2008
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