The last one.... ????

Some of this is a recap from the previous session but time has flown and I wanted to bring you up to date on stuff and some things might be repeats I just can’t remember…….
Shenyang
Shenyang is a city of super-contrasts. It is a venue for the Olympics and they have built a brand-new soccer stadium but downtown where the Poly Theater and Hotel are located it is quite old and somewhat falling apart. I have noticed that in China the government or the builders have put in beautiful new facilities but seem to forget to allow for maintenance. Buildings that were very new already showed signs of wear that a little TLC could have fixed.
While in Shenyang our hotel clearly was the least well kept. The rooms were small and did not fit most of our standards of cleanliness. The really fabulous part, however, was the fact that my hotel room was directly over my makeup workroom. In order to get to my room I just walked up the theater stairs one floor (past the sign that said “no performers” –literally!) and onto the next floor and down the hall. The view from both rooms was exactly alike. When we went to load out I could hear all the trucks (all – yes 5 of them!) and their drivers as they left. When we arrived the “key man” and I had a confrontation via our interpreter (what a valiant girl she is) about keeping the rooms open. He told her that he really wasn’t supposed to open any of the doors. Once I got him to agree to leave the doors we needed unlocked that evening so we could unload, apparently Les had a running argument with the “powers that be” about keeping doors open for the rest of the stay. Shenyang also has trouble with its plumbing system – or the hotel does because at about 10:00 pm the water appears to shut off completely. Some of the dancers and staff were caught in the shower with soapy hair and bodies but no water. This was also a theater with no laundry facilities or a place where Val could hook up her portable washer. This was worrisome because while Val has doubles of all tights and many of the leotards, we travel from one city to the next with only one clean set of laundry. Once she gets to the next city she spends the load-in day washing everything from the city before so that she will have clean laundry for the dancers the next performance. So Val couldn’t hook up anything and there did not appear to be any person in charge who had a way out of the situation. Fortunately, the goddess of laundry took pity on Val – she noticed one of the stage crew carefully and minutely examining the costumes and she asked him what he was doing. It turned out that he had worked wardrobe for theater companies for ten years and he was looking at the way things were built. Val nabbed him from the stage crew and the next morning she and her assistant took all the laundry upstairs to her hotel room and washed it all in the bathtub and sink. Where there’s a will – there’s a way! Or as I like to say, “Where there’s a will there’s a B!” (As in always having a plan B if plan A doesn’t work out.) Anyway, we got the dancers ready and as usual stage crew worked themselves to a standstill trying to get everything in place in time. It was a rough show technically but our dancers rose to the challenge and the audience loved it. It was like a rock concert – the people were eating, drinking, talking on their phones, taking pictures and generally raising a ruckus. So unlike what we were used to and the theater was pretty full to boot! They really loved the show. After the show we did go to one of the crew rooms to celebrate – unfortunately no one had had much time to shop so we were just eating leftovers but Mike had managed to buy some “Purple Corn wine” and we had a blast reading the label. Reading labels and signs in China got to be quite entertaining. Apparently this particular wine was “particularly good if drunk with canned pork.” Really! The next night was just as crazy and then the inevitable craziness of load-out. We managed to stay on target but then found that instead of the 2 big huge truck/trailers that the Poly people sent us 4 smaller trucks and a pickup. I really didn’t believe it would all get packed! I totally doubted Richard and the guys but, wow, they managed. The next morning we loaded up the gang and headed back to Shenyang airport (one hour) to fly to Shanghai airport (2 hours) to be bused to Ningbo (3 hours). Going through Shenyang airport this time we discovered that they had built a brand new airport – the only one we had seen coming in was the abandoned one across the airfield. Anyway, the ladies and gents of the plane had (as usual) wonderful snacks and lunch for us and away we flew. At the Shanghai airport (have I mentioned it totally reminded me of the Honolulu airport???) we exited the airport (who leads the parade I wondered?) and headed for the baggage claim and then to the buses. Oops – Poly missed it again…..the buses were on the OTHER side of the airport and apparently the only way to reach them was via a small elevator that only took 3 people and luggage at a time. Another huge waste of time. And, did I mention it was raining….. again? Anyway, we left the airport and headed for Ningbo. By this time everyone was a little tired (well, more than a little) and cranky and worried about the state of our next hotel. Rumor had it that it was worse than Shenyang….. (In Shenyang, apparently one dancer spilled some tea in her hotel room, used her towel to clean it up and they made her buy the towel (15 RMB –about $2) because they said it was too stained. This from a hotel where the towels were dingy to begin with! Another dancer was called at 1:30 am in her hotel room by the hotel staff demanding to know where her bath towel was—she replied it was in her dressing room in the theater. They demanded that she return it or she would have to pay for it!

One positive and fun thing about Shenyang was a hike that Maggie and I took to find a t-sheet/jersey she was looking for as a gift for her husband. Carol had told her of a shopping area “a few blocks away” and gave her directions. Well, in Shenyang there appears to be more than one “temple on the street with golden dragons to the right on the next block”… after walking in a very scary area for a while she called Carol again and got better directions… off we hiked some more! Eventually we ended up on this long, long block of shopping arcade where the cars have been blocked off and you walk up and down to shop. It was really fun (except that part of the street was torn up right in the middle). It was funny because at each end of the arcade there was a McDonalds and a KFC and another KFC in the middle. Apparently, Shenyang-ian’s love their KFC. We ended up eating in a Yoshinoya and Maggie got to use her “what meat is this” set of questions from her last Chinese lesson. We decided to cab it back to the theater because, frankly, I refused to walk another step! Fortunately, we did find the store she was looking for and they did have one jersey like she wanted – but only one. Most of the stores don’t carry a lot of merchandise on hand. I don’t know how they stay in business actually.

Ningbo
Ningbo is our last stop. It is located nearer the coast where three rivers come together as one. It has a long history and is only about 3 hours from Shanghai. Once we got on the buses we traveled pretty smoothly and got to travel over the brand new causeway that crossed the area. It has only been open about 6 months I think and was very, very beautiful. I understand it is the second largest causeway in the world. Unfortunately for the sets – trucks are not allowed on it so the sets had to go the long way around, a 9 hour trip. As we had been delayed and delayed, we did not get to Ningbo til around 7:00 p.m. The hotel (WOW!) is called the “S&N Hotel” which means “Smile & Natural.” It is only a couple of years old and, again, WOW! Our rooms were gorgeous. The hotel is huge but for the first time I was on the same floor and, in fact, next door to Maggie and Val and Carol and Mike and others were across the hall. We all raced downstairs to enjoy their evening buffet. It cost 98 RMG (around $13) but boy was it terrific. All of this boded well for breakfast the next morning. We, the crew, decided to go over to the theater (its about 15 minutes away) as we were told they were waiting for us to come and show us around. Well, no bus was there so our Poly girl, Tina, got us cabs to go over. Once we got there we knew that the sets and equipment would not be there until at least 8:00 am since the airport had delayed the permission to unload the plane. There wasn’t much we could do so Val, Maggie, Les and I begged Tina and our translator to get us a cab back to the hotel. For once I decided to sleep in and not take the 7:45 am bus to the theater but waited for the 10:30 am dancer bus. What was I thinking! Imagine my shock when I got to the theater, found Wilbur (my road box is “some pig,” spacewise) and opened it to pull it into my dressing room. Somewhere between 8:00 am and 10:30 am someone had opened it and stolen 2 blond wigs. !!! Shock!! Horror!! Disbelief!!! I went over the box thoroughly, called Maggie over, she went over it, I called Dennis over and pretty much started hyperventilating right then and there. Fortunately, Robin had sent 5 swing wigs and the only 2 that were taken were blonds. I called Catherine and Tiffany for a fitting and we were up and running. I only thanked the benevolent goddess that they had not taken Karen’s brunette wig! Or either of the decrepit princesses – stuff that would have been hard to replace. Anyway, I unloaded and set up and was ready to go back to the hotel when I discovered that my crew had been called to come to the theater a day early. So I went ahead and started wigging-101 and got to know my new girls.
These girls came from a local theatrical makeup school and their teacher, Ms. Wang, even came with them to watch. I couldn’t ever figure out if it was a state university or a private school but Ms. Wang and I had a fun conversation after class was done via our translator. Apparently there is no licensing of hair dressers in China but they do have to be “registered” or something like that. The girls are hoping to be makeup artists when they graduate and there is a growing amount of theater and movie making going on so I wish them well. This was really the first time they got to work in a real theater doing real stuff – even if it was with “fake hair.” “To Fa” is Chinese for hair and they don’t have a real word for “wig” or “wigcap.” They were really nice girls. In fact, all my “girls” were lovely – smart, quick and observant. Carol and I laughed because I always had “my girls” and she had “her boys.”

I think the biggest drawback of the Chinese people today is that they still have difficulty thinking on their feet or outside the box. I imagine this is from centuries of different types of repression. I believe that in another 10-15 years they will start to be more adept at creative thinking. So often I could see that they are given a task and no real options on doing anything other than that specific task – the key guy in Shenyang wasn’t allowed to open doors, even when faced with the need to actually use the rooms – floor and room cleaners re-clean the same area they are assigned all day long, over and over, even if no one had been through the area -- food servers stay close and can’t seem to walk away while you are thinking about what to order --or retail clerks follow you around the store – that’s what they are hired to do, that’s what they do. They also don’t like to work alone. They would tend to “swarm” and work in pairs or trios instead. I would have to physically move one girl off one dancer and over to another.

The first performance in Ningbo was not as much fun for me since it was a “black box” show but the next night was the final performance of Firebird. I had Maria and Ali and Karen and Max (and any others I could rope into it) sign my pair of “dead firebird shoes” that I got from Maggie for my office. They hang over my desk and I really enjoy having them as a bright reminder.

After the last show, I cleaned the laces on the wigs for the trip home, packed up and loaded out for the last time, not a little bit sad that it was over. It has been an amazing journey. I can’t keep saying that enough. I learned so much about myself and what I can and am willing to do. What my comfort zone is -- of being brave and where I draw the line. I certainly hope and wish that I get to do it again! Six weeks was a very long time for me but it was eye opening.

We headed back to the Shanghai airport the next day and boarded the plane for the last leg. As always, the flight crew had food, wine, drinks, snacks and presents on board. At our seats was a lovely bottle of wind in a silk wine bag as a gift from the dancers to the crew. Very thoughtful. We had 2 types of celebration cake – it was Beth Ann’s birthday (no fair, she got to have a 36 hour birthday!) and Willie Anderson’s send-off/retirement cake. We will miss Willie’s great talent and kind heart next year – I know I will. He always has such a kind word and gentle hug.

The trip home was quite and fortunately uneventful. I tried to sleep and watched a couple of movies I had never seen (Juno and Knocked Up) and one I had seen only once (August Rush) – it seemed to be my night for unplanned pregnancy movies! Sleep came with the help of Harry Potter in my ear as always and the time seemed to “fly” by. (You know I had to make that joke at least once on this trip!)

I called Tim from the airport as we landed and surprised him because I had gotten my AM and PM mixed up. I thought we would be landing at 12:30 am but we got there 12 hours earlier. He was waiting with Starbucks ice tea and my favorite cookie. But he looked better to me than either cookie or cold drink! Once I got home, he dragged my stuff upstairs and unpacked my suitcases while I talked nonstop and then went to sleep.

All in all I’m glad to be home. I still find myself thinking I must have imagined the whole thing and that it wasn’t real but it was and I have tons of great memories to think of. Let’s hope they decided to do it again and I get the opportunity to go. Thanks again, Robin!!!