Dear Diary,
In writing this entry, we hope to keep fresh in our minds, the incredible experience of performing at MXAT in Moscow. The trip can easily be summarized by Sasha Petetsky’s remark “Someone, please pinch me! This cannot be happening,” as he was walking into the elevator with the star of Moscow Art Theatre, Stanislav Lubshin to go up to the buffet in the cafeteria.
The buffet at the Moscow Art Theatre was our favorite part of the day, not only because we felt like we were a small part of history, but also because the “apple plushkas” were unbelievable. I think Alla, who is size 8 by now, left the actors of Moscow Art Theatre without “plushkas” for the week that we were there. We felt complete pride being part of the Moscow Art Theatre where the sense of tradition was felt all around us. Every single person we passed in the halls looked us in the eyes at and said “zdravstvujte”, no matter the rank.
We had two performances at the Moscow Art Theatre School stage attended by the general public, Mark Rozovsky, Anatoly Smeliansky, Vasilij Istratov (from Russkij Mir) and many of Igor’s and Alana’s classmates. We performed both shows to a full house, but the 7:00 pm show was overflowing with 30 more people than the theatre could accommodate. There were people sitting on the stairs, standing, leaning on the walls and it seems like the stars were aligned for us, especially for the 7:00 pm show.
It was a once in a lifetime feeling when the actors onstage became completely in sync with the audience, where the actors could feel and hear the breath of their silence. We had their fullest attention and it seemed like we could do anything onstage. Every movement stirred the audience, it was the ultimate connection that happens once or twice during an actor’s career. There were lots of flowers and a standing ovation, but was different is that the flowers came from completely unknown people, it was a true celebration of theatre.
After the show, in the dressing room, we huddled and were literally jumping from the adrenaline rush. We huddled screaming “we effing rocked this!!!!!” There was a crowd of people waiting to congratulate the actors, and it was difficult to pass through as we were told that Smeliansky was waiting for Igor Golyak outside.
Finally, after breaking through, and running out with half a face of makeup from Mephistopheles, Igor sees Anatoly Smeliansky and Vasiliy Istratov standing together with their arms crossed. He saw Smeliansky glowing from the inside and him trying to refrain from showing any emotion (after all he is the head of the greatest theatre school in the world), but at the same time he could se huge pride in himself for giving us this opportunity. His exact words were: “Nu chto, mi dovolni” – “So, we are happy”. Igor jumped!
This “dovolni” had so much more behind it, as in Chekhov plays, and made the whole struggle well worth it. We all felt a huge sense of accomplishment and a great sense of fulfillment. We came back from Moscow feeling energized, with new insight and ready for new challenges. We could not be more grateful to our friends and generous supporters who made it possible for us to experience performing on the greatest stage in the world!
– Arlekin Players