Missives

Well, Gabriel Shanks, the executive director of the Drama League, came to Sofia to check in on me and Daniela Varon (another DL alum here who's taking a workshop with Sfumato Theatre).  It was great to have his objective viewpoint on the process and to share my thoughts with him on the experience.  Sometimes you need that outside validation... :)

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Staging continues apace and we've got 4 of the 11 scenes sketched in.  Not bad for three days work!  And for artists who are approaching a text from two different cultural viewpoints, it's amazing how many of the same impulses we share.  I guess it goes to show you that theatre and human behavior speak much of the same language no matter where you are...

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Getting ready not only for the trip home for the holidays (Wisconsin!), but also for my Bulgarian performance debut at the theatre Christmas party.  Yes, I will be both singing a duet with an actress here at the theatre and doing a dramatic interpretation of a poem that children learn in school.  So, I'm off soon to practice both reading Cyrillic and singing before rehearsal this afternoon!  I will try to get someone to take video...  :)

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Got a chance to see some theatre with Daniela and Tony Simotes, artistic director of Shakespeare and Company, this past week.  With Daniela, I saw a solid production of Pillowman and with both of them, I caught a production of The Winter's Tale.  The latter had an extraordinary set and some solid performances, but some of the stylization of the piece kept me from totally engaging.  It did have an actor in it (Boyko Krustanov) that I know from our theatre, so it was great to see him in another role.

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More soon!
Andrew