ShenZhow to Beijing

Monday June 9, Tuesday June 10, Wednesday June 11, Thursday June 12, Friday June 13, Saturday June 14
Days 23-28


Well it is now Thursday and we are in BeiJing (Bei Jing? Beijing? … I don’t know which is correct). On Monday we finished getting ready for the Mendelsson/Firebird show and it went pretty well. My 4 girls showed up, all were university students, 2 were in computers and 2 in accounting. None had any hair experience, naturally. But all of them had some English which was a plus. I managed to teach the wigging class and then sent them off for dinner and told them to be back at 7:30.

The food in the canteen inside the theater is where we had to eat. The theater is about a 10 minute bus ride from the hotel. Anyway, the theater is lovely and very, very big and new. However, trying to get a meal is always a chancy prospect. I can’t recall if I told you about the nice Chinese buffet we had for lunch but apparently they didn’t realize we would be eating dinner there too. They tried to serve us the leftovers from lunch and when we finally managed to get our request across, they brought us a menu. Only downside was when we would point to something, he would say they didn’t have it. This began to get quite comical. Anyway, getting a meal is rather interesting. You have to be persistent. Oh, and it seems they can only make one meal at a time… you order together and person #1 gets food and a while later person #2 etc. If you want to wait to eat together as is normal at home, you would have cold food. So we just start eating. I think it is because in regular Chinese restaurants you order a bunch of items and they start bringing them out as they are completed and you eat family style in stages. They just haven’t gotten the knack of whole meals of separate items per diner.

On Tuesday I got up and took the 10:30 am dancer bus to go and get the hair ready and then had a little lunch and read a book until time to start on the show. Then load out, again. My girls performed great. That night I had the sweetest compliment. One of the Poly Theater representatives, Tina, asked me on the first day she was there if she could give me a Chinese name. She said my eyes (which are blue) look like the moon and could she name me “Moon” --- it sounds like Yu-Yure and when she pronounces it, it sounds very nice. Apparently in written script 2 moon symbols together equal “friend” so it has a double meaning. I was quite delighted. Anyway, that night two of the girls told me they did not have an English name (the other 2 girls did) and would I please give them an English name. I was extremely flattered and told them so. I suggested “Lilly” and “Rose” and since one of the dancers had some flowers, I showed them what Lilly and Rose meant. I think they were pleased. I know I was certainly tickled…Lilly and Rose are characters from Secret Garden but I didn’t bother to explain that to them, they just looked like lovely flowers.

Load out went fine until Woody realized one of the trucks was too narrow to hold the set and they had to pull it out and break it down. Then the Chinese drivers were going to drive it the 25 hours to Beijing. Each load out is like a Chinese puzzle trying to get all the pieces into the 2 trucks (which are usually of extremely old vintage and look pretty battered) and so far (my fingers are crossed…) each one has gone great.

Because the set wasn’t to get to Beijing until Thursday, we had Wednesday as a free day. Many dancers and crew hopped a cab to a local temple and cruised around the city. I, however, spent the whole day in bed, reading a book and watching tv. I think I may have become addicted to Chinese commercials. They are great to watch, very entertaining.

That night we were invited to a company party along the Yank see River which was very fun. It was quite relaxing and the food was good… except for the chicken heads decorating the chicken dishes… The best part was you could walk to the river’s edge and buy a paper lantern, light it and send it up in the air with a wish. The local guys who were there really helped us understand how to get ours to light up properly. It was a lovely evening, not too hot or cold or windy … so the lanterns just lazily rose up in the air over the river. It as very peaceful to watch. I finally got to bed around 2 am but I understand some folks didn’t see their rooms until about 5. Then we had to be up for luggage call at 9:00 am. Needless to say, some of the peeps on the bus were pretty sleepy.

Today was a travel day. It took us about 2 hours to get back to the airport and get on the plane. Had a PBJ as part of my lunch and it tasted great. The flight to Beijing took about 2 hours but we didn’t land at the main airport. I don’t know why…. So took another bus (3 hours or so) into town. We are now at the Poly Hotel and Theater and I have to go downstairs (yes, the theater is actually in the hotel) to start load-in and maintenance. No rest for the wicked I guess.

The dressing rooms are a bit confusing but at least I have all the 8 maidens (my “ba gur”) in one room right next to me… and as usual I have the 2 little local girls who are our pages for finale in my room. After settling in we finally called it a day and went back upstairs. My room is pretty nice, it has a window which overlooks the roof of the theater. Not too exciting but after ShenZhen and the bat cave, I’m grateful for anything. The shower is hot and the bed is … well never comfortable (nothing matches mine at home..) big.

On Friday I went downstairs for breakfast (this one is as nice as Shanghai) and over to the theater to begin maintenance. That usually takes about 3 hours or more. My “girls” showed up around 1:30 pm and this time they are “ladies” not college students as they usually are. Once the ladies understood what they were to do, they got very excited sand enthusiastic. We have noticed that the helpers seem to want to help so much they tend to swarm over anyone who needs help, in spite of the fact that only one of them is assigned to help that person. They are amazingly helpful and cheerful.

Side note… It is always a question as to how many crew will show up… apparently the Poly people have a hard time understanding that hair and wardrobe departments are separate.. they seem to think that anything relating to “dressing” is one department. However, I think I got it sorted out, finally.

So with my ladies it was on to Wigging-101 …pincurl training… and unfortunately Dennis Nahat (the big cheese) and John, the company photographer strolled by while the ladies were practicing pincurling and wigging on me. Dennis looked confused and I told him it was “wigging-101” which is the training I have to do in each city as no one ever has any hair experience. He seemed surprised and delighted … He immediately told John to take pictures of the process. Oh dear—and of course I looked, um, less than my best. My only hope is that the pictures will be so boring that no one will ever look at them.

So once the training was done, I released my crew until showtime. We were scheduled for a performance of Mendelssohn Symphony (a non-hair show) and Firebird. Each performance that includes Firebird consists of me presetting stuff and then wigging Karen before half hour and then doing the Firebird makeup at half hour and Maximo as the bad guy at either curtain if it is a Mendelssohn night or half way through Serenade because Max has to dance in the first portion. Getting Max done is a big project… he gets a bald cap, a nose appliance, a chin appliance and green makeup. At the beginning it took us (max helps) about 45 minutes to do it, but we’ve gotten it down to about 25 now. Anyway, while I was most of the way through Max’s makeup, John came in to photograph and film him getting made up. It was difficult finishing his makeup with a camera at my hip. Anyway, it went ok.