shen--where???

Sunday, June 15, Monday June 16, Tuesday, June 17, Wednesday June 18
Days 29-32, I think..

So, finishing up in Beijing… On Saturday we had a photocall and I had not planned on attending but was there anyway… it was a good thing since Erena needed her fall for Serenade pictures. This was the first time I put it on her and as you can see from the picture, she looked gorgeous. I was very pleased and she was too.

Did I mention that one of the nights in Beijing after the show we went to Hooters? It was a lot of fun but the cab in which Carol, Craig and I were riding got stuck on a small side street that was totally filled from end to end with empty taxi cabs. Apparently the street is nothing but small bar after small bar and the driver insisted we get out and that Hoosters was “close by” .. Carol navigated by the seat of her pants and said, “Humm… I think it is THIS way and marched off, with Craig and I right behind like ducks in a row. We walked to Hooters and did find it about 3 long blocks away. Everyone else was already there and had ordered… apparently their taxi drivers took a different route.

After our Saturday night performance we had load-out as usual. All the departments are getting pretty fast at load-out and we were on course for our best time ever UNTIL we found out that the city doesn’t allow certain size trucks in until after 11:30 pm and we had to wait for them. We were done by 10:30 but couldn’t load the trucks til at least 11:30. When the trucks came we were surprised that one of them was a refrigerated meat truck.... complete with meat hooks. Everyone’s first comment was “thank goodness hair and wardrobe were already on the first truck! Who wants their costumes to smell like meat?” Ugh.

Anyway, finished loading the stuff out and went for a drink in the hotel tea garden… the hotel bar was way too expensive. We had a great time with a few beers (I drank tea) and then to bed. We did get a little silly (but not snockered…cuz it was only a couple of beers) and decided to circle-stab each other in the neck with a chopstick to put us all out of our “misery.” It was sort of funny that Craig wanted another beer and they were out of SingTao and asked if they could bring “another kind” .. he said yes so they brought him “alcohol-free beer” .. she just didn’t understand the difference between the 2 types of beer.

Sunday was a free day and about 13 of us had decided not to join in Sylvia Young’s tour which included a trip to the wall, Forbidden City and lunch but to put together our own day. We left at 11:00 am for the Great Wall section of Mutianyu. They were going to the Badalong Section. It was a small bus and only the 13 of us were on it so it was very private and fun. Also quite cheap… 200 RMB (under $30) for transportation and then we had to pay to enter the Wall, another 55 RMB (the current rate is $1 to 7 RMB) so under $10 and it included a ski lift to the top and a toboggan run back down. (Very very fun!) Apparently there is no ski lift or toboggan at Badalog. After we walked along the wall – which is truly amazing – we had a little picnic lunch at the top and came back down. There were some sellers .. kind of like a street of cheap stalls.. and I practiced haggling and bought a couple of small items. Very brave for me.

One the way back we had a choice of stopping at a silk factory or a Chinese holistic health center for a free foot massage. Val and I had talked about going shopping so when we got there we took a cab back to the hotel and then a cab to a place called the Silk Market. It was 6 floors of nothing but stuff. It should have been called “Haggle City.” The sellers constantly accost you and if you indicate even the smallest interest in their goods, they are on you. It is very hard to say no but I found that if I walked away and said no enough I could usually get my price instead of theirs but I doubt I got the better of anyone. However, it was enough that I could get the price down. They would start at about 30 times its value and drop down and down … I would counter with practically nothing and go up a little at a time. All in all, I had fun but it was very exhausting. Val was with me and while I was talking to one seller, she was waiting and chatting with some others who told her “I was very good.” Probably mere flattery but it still feels pretty good.

After shopping and spending at least a week’s per diem (my daily pay for meals and incidentals) Val and I joined up with Mike Perry, one of our carpenters and went to dinner in a nearby Thai restaurant. I told Mike we had to be careful about spiciness and he ordered and the food was great. Spent the evening just talking and a little bitching but it was good to be able to express concerns that I had which apparently were similar to everyone else’s. Very enlightening.

On Monday we had a travel day from Beijing to Shenyang. We had to be up for baggage call at 8:00 am (we told one dancer 7:30 in jest) and everyone was on time but one of our massage therapists (we travel with 3). We got underway and drove back to the Tianjin (I think) airport and our great plane. As always, the flight crew had amazing snacks and lunch.. it was only supposed to be a 90 minute flight but we still had cocktails (margaritas and chips and salsa… how they pulled that off I sure don’t know) and a choice of Peking Duck or peppered steak for lunch.

We landed in the Shenyang airport and were bussed on an airport transpo shuttle to a side road in the middle of nowhere and put on 2 buses (instead of 3) and a luggage bus. One of the dancers called it the Redwood Terminal. Then we drove into Shenyang. Some of the crew guys said the actual airport looked like it was very run down and falling apart but I didn’t get a chance to see that. Anyway, there we were in nowhere waiting for the drivers to get into town. Everyone was getting tired and cranky. It got worse. When we finally got to the hotel, the bus got stuck in traffic and everyone just got off and walked over and into the hotel.

This hotel put most of the crew on one floor and we all went up to our rooms to drop off our stuff and begin load in. We only had about 24 hours (really only about 12 or so working hours) to get everything hung and lit for a performance on Tuesday. Well the 6th floor of this hotel was amazingly awful. The halls were dirty and the carpets stained. The paint and wall paper were peeling and it smelled. The bathrooms were dirty and the towels grimy and yucky. We all went down and reported it and Dennis immediately had them move us into better rooms. It looks like the hotel has been undergoing renovation a floor at a time and hadn’t done the 6th yet… although the 5th isn’t a whole lot better. Which is where most of the crew are. I’m lucky and on the 3rd, one of the best ones.

So we went into the theater without a lot of great expectations. And we were right. Apparently their rigging is different as is their lighting and many technical aspects that I don’t understand very well. Carol and the guys went right to work trying to “make it work.” I can only say, they are all amazing. How they manage with few interpreters and unknown theaters and situations and still pull off a show is beyond anything I could expect. I spent my time trying to get the dressing rooms open as the “key guy” kept saying he couldn’t open them. I finally got him to tell me that he really didn’t have the authority to open any of the rooms when he did open them. Apparently the Chinese have a mania about locking dressing room doors --- odd however, since not once did anyone ask me for my badge or who I was the entire time… anyone could have walked in… so once we did see the rooms they were also not clean enough for our tolerant standards. We got Tina, the Poly girl, to talk them into sending another cleaning crew the next morning before the dancers come in. I had already used my wig cleaning alcohol to clean my counters and mirrors before I would set out my stuff to work on.

More later….

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.

Wuhan and the Mall

Friday June 6, Saturday June 7 and Sunday June 8
Days 20, 21, 22 … I think. hey i think i have learned how to upload an image... cool

So Friday was a travel day to Wuhan, which is called the Furnace of China. We had to be downstairs at 10:00 am for a 10:30 departure for the airport (40 minutes) … get our bags loaded on the bus and almost left a late dancer at the hotel … she only managed to get on the bus by the grace of a red light. Maybe she will learn a lesson not to be late to travel call? Doubt it.

Anyway, it was pouring rain (like a cow on a flat rock as my dad would have said.) The travel to the airport was fairly straightforward except for loading and unloading in the rain. Then back through baggage check and security check and down to our departure gate. There was a stack of plastic rain ponchos there —not a good sign. Waited there for a while for our bus to the plane. As we waited it got wetter and wetter. Ugh. We were all getting soaked. Fortunately, the flight crew had fancy nibblies and lunch ready for us.

We ate ravenously, dried off (Kris brought be a BIG fluffy towel!) and proceeded to wait…. And wait…. And wait…. And wait some more … the storm was so big the airport was closed. We did not get underway until about 10:00 pm that night. We could have flown home in the time we waited on the plane! But we had dozens of movies, music, food and friends to hang out with. The plane did start to leak a little but Kathy, a flight attendant, said it was from the emergency doors not being hermetically shut, like when they are in flight. We pretty much trashed the plane. I think they were going to need a fire hose to clean it up! But I know it will be pristine for our next flight to Beijing.

Another note about China’s people’s job duties and rules….they are very odd… While we were waiting on the tarmac in the bus to get off and go up the stairs on to the plane I noticed that the airport ground crew were all in heavy rain gear – slickers and pants, the whole works. But this poor little gate attendant’s job is to stand under the plane and be ready to help anyone who might need it. So there she was in her regulation black pumps, white stockings, short black uniform skirt and white blouse and tiny rain poncho in the pouring rain. Why? Because that was her assigned job duty. Certainly seemed absurd at the time but I guess if that’s your job, you do it, no questions, no complaints. Hopefully, once we were all on the plane she got to go dry off. I sure hope so.

So it was now 12:00 pm and we had to get our baggage and be bused 30 minutes to the hotel in Wuhan. Once at the hotel I went straight to bed to sleep at about 2:00 am! I then had to be up early for 7:30 am bus to the theater on Saturday to load in for a matinee performance and an evening performance. Fortunately for me, these were NOT firebird performances so I got to spend the day and evening getting stuff ready. We were very concerned that all the stuff might have gotten wet in its travel from the airport to the theater. I went through every wig in my box to be sure nothing had gotten wet and was fortunate that only one wig was wet. I cleaned and dried and reset her and now my roadbox is clean and pretty. I am all ready for Monday now.

Sunday is to be a free day but of course since we lost time on Friday the deck crew had to work to get lights hung and focused for Monday’s performance. We have a performance scheduled for Monday and Tuesday, a free day on Wednesday and then we travel to Beijing. I slept in (all the way to 9:00 am) and mosey’d around the room and finally decided to go downstairs for some food. On the way I met up with Karen Gabay, one of our principal dancers, (and a super nice person at ALL times) who is traveling with her charming minx of a daughter, Kalena. We decided to have lunch together and another dancer, Peter, joined us as well. It was a fun meal. Karen and I decided to go to “the Wuhan Mall” and Raymond Rodriguez, another dancer and dance master (he runs the warm-ups and daily class among many other things) and we grabbed a cab for “the mall” … I am not sure if a mall is the same thing in China as we are used to because both places we went were more like a department store. Did some window shopping and we then stopped for a snack. (and oh, did I mention that it is raining like a cow on a flat rock?) It took us quite a while to snag a cab but now I’m back in my fairly decent room on the 26th floor (it has its own little balcony (about 4”x4’) which activates my fear of heights but is fun. I fully appreciate windows in hotel room now… even with the agoraphobia.

Well, as I said we have a show tomorrow so I am going to just chill-ax here in my room, then grab little dinner and cruise the internet. If you are reading this, feel free to drop me an email to let me know if you like it. randehar@hotmail.com.

Talk to you all again later

Shenzhen and other thoughts

Monday June 2, 2008, Tuesday June 3, 2008, Wednesday June 4, 2008,Thursday June 5, 2008
Days 16, 17, 18 and 19?

So we packed up from Dongguan and took our trusty buses back to Shenzhen. The ride was interesting since (a) our bus driver didn’t know where he was going and (b) some of the freeway entrances aren’t finished yet. That was some trick driving the buses over what essentially was an empty lot. Anyway some of the highways are toll roads – heck, they may all be and I just didn’t notice. I took some pictures from the bus of the area but I still haven’t actually seen the sun for 3 weeks.. it is always either overcast or heavy smog, I can’t tell which. Oh, did I mention I have a fabulous 90 minute foot massage in Dongguan for only $7? It was great. She massaged my shoulders, back, arms, feet and calves. So relaxing and my feet had been hurting something horrible. Big relief I can tell you.



The driver got us to “our hotel” in ShenZhen only to find out it was the wrong place. We are staying at the Grand View Hotel …. However, what the grand view is, I have no idea because it is in the middle of a brand new area and all you can see are tall buildings and a new shopping mall. I have tried to insert a picture here. Hope it works.




Once we got our rooms – more like a bat cave – there are no windows in the rooms. I feel like I do in Las Vegas or Reno – can’t be sure what time it is or if it is day or night. This is very unsettling to all of us. Anyway, the room is small but exceedingly clean and tidy. The hotel is pretty new. Did I mention that all the hotels have this card slot where you have to put your hotel key card to turn on the lights and power? It is most annoying because in some of the hotels it is tied into the air conditioning as well … so if you leave your room, it gets hot and stuffy.

My hotel room in Dongguan was quite spacious and had a vaulted ceiling and a huge block of windows out overlooking the street. I really enjoyed watching the traffic. In Hongzhou my room was on the 22nd floor and if you could see out the window because of smog and such, the view is nice. At least I think so. They had a restaurant on the 34nd floor which revolved in the evenings. It would have had a lovely view if you could have seen anything out the windows.



Here in Shenzhen we loaded into the theater. The theater is only about 6 months old and the staff are extremely protective of it. It looks like an egg to me but the staff say it is referred to as “the pear.”

It is interesting that here in china every store and building has, oh about 3 times what you would encounter in the US. There are people whose jobs are just to stand by a doorway … did wal-mart get this idea from china or vice versa? Anyway, the clerks follow you about … I think I mentioned this already but if I did I have forgotten it – and either are there to help you or be sure you don’t take anything. Oh well … at the Shenzhen Poly Theater they are so protective that Les our SM had to sign a paper saying we wouldn’t damage anything. Now she laughs that she will either be jailed or caned if something goes wrong. And, of course, it did. Apparently the dressing room side lights are high intensity bulbs placed too close to the plastic shade and the lights melted right through the cover. Now what? The theater people said they would fix it right away.



We are “a big deal in China” (?) ….I don’t think so. The two performances so far have gone very well all things considered but sadly these are 1400 seat houses and not much audience. This kind of depresses the dancers but by the time we all get to the German-style (yes, german!) beer place we all shake it off with a few beers (white wine for me) and hanging out. I am generally the first to leave since I like to sleep but I understand several people routinely stay til closing. The crew has gotten on a first name basis with the staff there and Amy brings me just what I want … the rest of the servers can’t understand I just want a single glass of wine, not a bottle. Anyway, we have one more firebird tonight and then we load out and head to Wuhan. We have to travel back to the airport and we fly to Wuhan. Goody, back on our beautiful plane! The staff there think of everything. Its great.


Talk to you all soon.