catching up -week one -so far

Saturday May 17
Day 1
At the airport – that was a trip down the red carpet for sure. The plane and flight crew were amazing. It was a regular cocktail party (at 10:00 am!) with the most amazing things to eat. Of course, it was too early for my stomach to handle much more than a chocolate covered strawberry. The plane is really enormous and my seat in “clipper” class was right behind the wings in the most stable part of the plane. There was plenty of room for everyone to move around and the flight crew kept feeding us stuff – including lovely white and red wine and Dom champagne. I actually drank several glasses of the champagne and it was an experience – no sleepiness or headache.

We took off around 1:45 pm and flew northerly and across the Pacific just below the Aleutian Islands. The funny thing was that it was daylight for the whole trip. We sang happy birthday to Ali Meier for Saturday and then again for another dancer on “Sunday” once we crossed the dateline.

Sunday, May 18
Day 2
We got off the plane at the Shanghai airport and it was raining. We were taken through a very quiet airport. It was about 5:00 pm so our flight was little over 11 hours. I was prepared for 13 so was quite surprised. I think we all were in “Wow, we are IN CHINA!” It was very unreal. Baggage came up promptly and dancers and staff took off for the Park Hotel. I stayed to help Les, our extremely competent stage manager, pick up luggage for some people who weren’t there. Consequently, our bus was nearly empty (there were 3) and we left the airport for Shanghai. Oddly, I didn’t realize (and I should have) that the airport was over an hour away from the city and downtown district. I was one of the last to get to the hotel and so I went straight to my room and went to sleep.

Monday, May 19
Day 3
This was load-in for stage and wardrobe. Once the rooms were assigned Maggie (head of wardrobe) and Val (head dresser) and I went to work. Those two ladies do the work of 20! Once my room was assigned (and the Shanghai Grand Theatre is huge) I unloaded my box and found everything as just Robin had described. She really thought of everything. My set up took a few hours but I moved very leisurely. We then had lunch in the theater “canteen.” It only cost 15 rmb (a little over 2 us dollars) and they served way too much. The food is very different from California Chinese cuisine. I rarely recognized anything so I tried just about everything. Its really hard to communicate since no one in the theater speaks English and I can’t seem to remember much more than “xie xie” which is thank you. It was a very tiring day. After dinner once I had everything set I just hung out since I didn’t know if I was supposed to stay in the theater or what. I kept falling asleep in my very hard chair. Reminder for next time – we need to send at least one high makeup chair since there isn’t one here. However, I’ll just make do since a high chair is never a priority for me. Finally, I got back to the theatre and an attempt to sleep.

The hotel is quite nice and breakfast has a mix of American and Chinese food. It is nice to have “comfort” food at breakfast. I have a room to myself which is great but a bit lonely. I haven’t been alone like this probably in my whole life. Quite different. Didn’t know how to get my computer working so just watched a little CNN and a local Chinese station that broadcasts in English to know what is going on. Watching the TV reminds me that I am in a Communist country that definitely controls the local TV. Because of the earthquake they have declared a 3-day mourning period and TV, theatre and entertainments have been cancelled. Since we did not have a performance scheduled, it didn’t affect us. The TV constantly shows pictures of the quake zone and relief efforts. Last night they showed some of the local cities with their mourning rights. They had a national 3 minute pause of silence in memory of the quake victims and the TV rebroadcast pictures of the various cities – showing everyone stopping at quake time to stand with heads bowed and hands over hearts. It was most inspiring. All those millions of people just standing and giving silence.

Tuesday, May 20
Day 4
I decided to bit the bullet and pay for a day of internet so I spent the morning checking and responding to emails.

Tuesday we continued load-in and started teching the shows. The stage crew have been working endlessly and while they have plenty of willing hands to help, its hard without enough translators to keep everyone busy. I decided not to call in my crew (all 1 person, hopefully 2 for Firebird) until Wednesday since I only had to fit one wig and practice a makeup. Since 2 of our principal dancers could not come on the trip because of Visa and passport problems other people have to jump into their roles. While rehearsing Carmina Burana it was decided that one dancer’s knee was hurting so we have to double one dancer in 2 roles back to back (one right after the other) so that’s another hurdle to overcome. However, as I have said, everyone has a truly “can-do” attitude and we’ll all “make it work.” It’s a mystery. I decided to leave the theater early and went back to try to sleep.

Wednesday, May 21
Day 5
I woke up at 2:30 am again and couldn’t sleep. I decided to check my email again and call home. Got to speak to Tim and felt much better. Finally went back to sleep and slept pretty well. Once I got up I decided to go shopping with a great lady, Sylvia, and had lots of fun. Got to see some of the city (about 10 blocks) but at least I am finally outside and seeing things. Shanghai is an interesting city – it reminds me of a cross between New York City and Los Angeles – the weather is like LA with lots of smog and the buildings are more like NYC. Some of the buildings are quite old and need refurbishment. The people seem like standard city dwellers anywhere – just going about their lives and not really noticing much else. It is amusing that at a crosswalk on a big street the people will wait patiently for a green crossing sign but eventually one person gets impatient and starts to cross and everyone follows. Safety in numbers. I was brave enough to try to find a 7-11 store one block up and away from the hotel and nearly got run over by a guy on a vespa. He frowned and then I smiled stupidly and he seemed to recover. Anyway, I’m still in one piece. Fortunately, it was a smaller street and seemed to be restricted to bikes and motorbikes. Had it been a regular street, I would have been toast! On my way to the theater I broke down and got an ice tea from Starbucks – I definitely needed the caffeine and home fix. Right now I’m in the theater while they are teching Serenade. Tonight we have a full dress rehearsal of Carmina Burana with the chorus and soloists. I really love this piece of music and the dance for it is really inspiring. I really hope the Chinese people who come enjoy it as much as I do – and I only get to see it from the sidelines. I am fortunate that my work room has a monitor so I keep track of what’s happening. I must admit that so far it has been really amazing the amout of work and attention to detail that everyone has put in to get this tour off the ground. So many people and so many, many details. It still boggles my mind.

So here I am missing my family, trying to learn a little Chinese and appreciating the entire event. I feel physically better but do miss the horses – 6 weeks away from the riding (my mental therapy) is hard to take. I take pleasure in the fact that Sabrina may go occasionally out to exercise Bailey for me. I hope it will continue when I get back.

Thursday May 22
Day 6
This has been a very eventful day. I slept better and got up and came to the theater to meet my two assistants. I had met Nana last night and while she speaks no English she is extremely smart, quick and helpful. With the help of one of our interpreters, Amy, she learned how to prep, pin and wig a blond maiden. She also learned to put the falls on the spring maidens for carmina and helped me put makeup on the swan. Since Hal Bo is not the swan, now its Seth and we went through his makeup for the first time. He has to be the devil immediately after and the costume change is a nightmare. However, they altered his costume and hopefully will work out at tonight’s first performance. The symphony sounds amazing and hopefully the chorus will put forth extra effort and sing well. Its very hard music. Our tenor soloist, Joe, was just in Three Penny with Samantha, the baritone was one of my Danilo’s in Merry Widow
at West Bay and Allison was my Papagenna for Magic Flute at West Bay. Small world.

Nana arrived early so she and I spent time with my computer program helping me to learn some Chinese. Now my brain hurts.

Willie Anderson came and told me he forgot his makeup in California. I did not have a base dark enough to Nana took me on an adventure to try to find some. It was a blast. We covered about 6 or 7 stores and finally found something that might work. There are some hair stores in a cluster and I wished I had time to look at the synthetic wigs just for fun. I did buy a pair of scissors for myself. We then came back and had lunch. After lunch her sister, Xie Jia arrived and we spent the afternoon playing and learning hair prep. Nana and Xie Jia were sweet enough to spend the time helping me learn more Chinese and took me to a lovely dinner at the mall up the street. Very Valley Fair – the fun part was it was billed as a Japanese restaurant. We spent the meal looking at things and the girls asking me to name them in Chinese. Then we would all laugh at my rotten pronunciation. I think I may have learned a few words to recognize but can’t seem to keep them in my brain long enough to speak them back. I’ll keep trying. Now we are on break before our first performance and I’m going to stop for a few minutes. ok, the show is done, we aren't sure how it was received since we understand the Chinese don't usually applaud a lot. I think we had a good sized house but can't be sure. anyway, the dancers were outstanding and Nana and I breezed through the whole evening and had fun fun fun. Everything was "how" (good).