So it has been a bit over a week since I have been back in town, and Friday night I spent my time:
a) Baking a pumpkin pie while geeking out with the X-Men movie on tv.
b) Dancing the night away in da cluhb with my lady friends.
c) In the bathtub with a good book, where I spend most of my free time.
or
d) Perusing the internet for fun toys, home decor, and lingerie.
I had an outstanding time in Shanghai. I actually ended up not taking my camera or computer with me, so I will rely on my cast members to supply photo footage for your viewing pleasure.
We left on a Wednesday morning and arrived in China Thursday evening. The 14 hour flight across the Pacific and the Barring Sea did not seem as long as I had expected, but actually sitting for that long in such a stuffy environment is quite trying. None the less, we arrived safe and sound.
Taking a tour of the campus
The theater we performed in was quite nice. Notice the red banner on the balcony...welcoming banners were placed all around the campus. It was sincerely overwhelming how accomodating, friendly, and entusiastic the students and staff were to be having us perform.
The following day our cast and director taught a "Master Class" in improvisational and expressive movement.
The one thing I was anticipating on this trip was that with being thrown into a completely and utterly new culture that the students would be more reserved. The anticipation of such had me wondering if it would possibly take a relatively large amount of coaxing to have them "play" with our warm-ups and silly techniques.
I was entirely incorrect.
They were ready and willing to join in after about a 10 minute shock of how different everyone in the cast looked and acted.
Almost two hours later we took a break and it had seemed as if everyone transformed into the paparazzo. haha. Everyone wanted to take pictures with us. It was too cute for words.
Later we ate dinner in one of the facilities on campus. And, of course, Raychel and I couldn't help our silliness...
The following day we went out shopping and sight seeing for a bit. Most of the sight seeing included going to one of the major shopping areas called Nanching..Nanzing? Road. Highly popularized by tourists. Almost like a mini NY with a minature Central Park and all. Raychel and I broke away from our group and went lingerie shopping. I ended up trying on two sets that I practically fell in love with, but ended up not buying either one. Raychel on the other hand bought a cute little red number that made her boobies look most delicious. It was definitely an experience trying on lingerie with these little Chinese women who barely spoke any English helping us out.
(and when I say "helping us out" I mean they followed us into the dressing room and would not let us put on the garments by ourselves....they insisted on doing it for us!
)
The following day we did some Tai-chi in the morning (my legs were so sore the next day!) and then spent the rest of the day rehearsing for our performance.
If you don't remember me talking about it last year...here is a link to some funny dressing room antics from last fall's run of the show Houdini's Box
This time around was probably one of the best performances, if not the best, that we have done. I can honestly say that even if the audience hadn't been clapping along with the music, laughing along with the jokes, and applauding at the end of each mini-finale scene, each and everyone of the cast members was more than happy with their performances. And to top it off, all of the students from our master class came to the show and brought each one of us a boquet of flowers.
I think we were all in love with each other
We had a "Thank You" banquet immediately after the show where I spent the entire time making new friends, learning some Chinese, teaching some English, and having lovely conversations with a group of girls I had just met.
*sidenote: As I see this entry growing in length I will sum up the rest of my experience with some shorter detail and the rest in photographs
After the performance the whole group of students from the master class, literally, came with us back to the hotel were we went to the karaoke bar, drank, sang a bunch of American songs (they sang a few popular Chinese ones for us), and partied into the wee hours.
The following day we did some more sight-seeing. We went to the Shanghai World Financial Center where Justin (our Vaudville Houdini) proposed to his girlfriend of 5 years Lindsay (The Medium) on the 94th floor!!!!
We then traveled to the 97th floor and took in the Eastern and Western views of Downtown Shanghai, Pudong, and the "Jetson City".
The following day we traveled 2 hours outside of the city to a watervillage, did some shopping, did some yummy eating, and came back to our hotel where all of our new friends were meeting up with us. Partied the night away. Spent 2 hours saying our goodbyes and some how managed to pack up all of our belonging for our 10 hour flight back to the US. *sigh*
And now the photos:
Our entire cast sitting at a mini-proscenium space in the Yuan Gardens
Lindsay and Justin
Nicole and I looking out to the Pudong River
Jetson City
The Entrance to the Water Village
The famous Chinese Hairy Crab
The fish whose mouth looked like a vagina
Sunset on our last day
Peace
My trip in a nutshell. A medium to large sized one.
Tonite I will be attending Club Suicide to take part in the New SG Book signing! Hope to see you there!
Oooh, I almost forgot!
If you would like a holiday card from me this year, please pm me with your address!
a) Baking a pumpkin pie while geeking out with the X-Men movie on tv.
b) Dancing the night away in da cluhb with my lady friends.
c) In the bathtub with a good book, where I spend most of my free time.
or
d) Perusing the internet for fun toys, home decor, and lingerie.
I had an outstanding time in Shanghai. I actually ended up not taking my camera or computer with me, so I will rely on my cast members to supply photo footage for your viewing pleasure.
We left on a Wednesday morning and arrived in China Thursday evening. The 14 hour flight across the Pacific and the Barring Sea did not seem as long as I had expected, but actually sitting for that long in such a stuffy environment is quite trying. None the less, we arrived safe and sound.
Taking a tour of the campus
The theater we performed in was quite nice. Notice the red banner on the balcony...welcoming banners were placed all around the campus. It was sincerely overwhelming how accomodating, friendly, and entusiastic the students and staff were to be having us perform.
The following day our cast and director taught a "Master Class" in improvisational and expressive movement.
The one thing I was anticipating on this trip was that with being thrown into a completely and utterly new culture that the students would be more reserved. The anticipation of such had me wondering if it would possibly take a relatively large amount of coaxing to have them "play" with our warm-ups and silly techniques.
I was entirely incorrect.
They were ready and willing to join in after about a 10 minute shock of how different everyone in the cast looked and acted.
Almost two hours later we took a break and it had seemed as if everyone transformed into the paparazzo. haha. Everyone wanted to take pictures with us. It was too cute for words.
Later we ate dinner in one of the facilities on campus. And, of course, Raychel and I couldn't help our silliness...
The following day we went out shopping and sight seeing for a bit. Most of the sight seeing included going to one of the major shopping areas called Nanching..Nanzing? Road. Highly popularized by tourists. Almost like a mini NY with a minature Central Park and all. Raychel and I broke away from our group and went lingerie shopping. I ended up trying on two sets that I practically fell in love with, but ended up not buying either one. Raychel on the other hand bought a cute little red number that made her boobies look most delicious. It was definitely an experience trying on lingerie with these little Chinese women who barely spoke any English helping us out.
(and when I say "helping us out" I mean they followed us into the dressing room and would not let us put on the garments by ourselves....they insisted on doing it for us!
)The following day we did some Tai-chi in the morning (my legs were so sore the next day!) and then spent the rest of the day rehearsing for our performance.
If you don't remember me talking about it last year...here is a link to some funny dressing room antics from last fall's run of the show Houdini's Box
This time around was probably one of the best performances, if not the best, that we have done. I can honestly say that even if the audience hadn't been clapping along with the music, laughing along with the jokes, and applauding at the end of each mini-finale scene, each and everyone of the cast members was more than happy with their performances. And to top it off, all of the students from our master class came to the show and brought each one of us a boquet of flowers.
I think we were all in love with each other We had a "Thank You" banquet immediately after the show where I spent the entire time making new friends, learning some Chinese, teaching some English, and having lovely conversations with a group of girls I had just met.
*sidenote: As I see this entry growing in length I will sum up the rest of my experience with some shorter detail and the rest in photographs
After the performance the whole group of students from the master class, literally, came with us back to the hotel were we went to the karaoke bar, drank, sang a bunch of American songs (they sang a few popular Chinese ones for us), and partied into the wee hours.
The following day we did some more sight-seeing. We went to the Shanghai World Financial Center where Justin (our Vaudville Houdini) proposed to his girlfriend of 5 years Lindsay (The Medium) on the 94th floor!!!!
We then traveled to the 97th floor and took in the Eastern and Western views of Downtown Shanghai, Pudong, and the "Jetson City".
The following day we traveled 2 hours outside of the city to a watervillage, did some shopping, did some yummy eating, and came back to our hotel where all of our new friends were meeting up with us. Partied the night away. Spent 2 hours saying our goodbyes and some how managed to pack up all of our belonging for our 10 hour flight back to the US. *sigh*
And now the photos:
Our entire cast sitting at a mini-proscenium space in the Yuan Gardens
Lindsay and Justin
Nicole and I looking out to the Pudong River
Jetson City
The Entrance to the Water Village
The famous Chinese Hairy Crab
The fish whose mouth looked like a vagina
Sunset on our last day
Peace
My trip in a nutshell. A medium to large sized one.
Tonite I will be attending Club Suicide to take part in the New SG Book signing! Hope to see you there!
Oooh, I almost forgot!
If you would like a holiday card from me this year, please pm me with your address!
VIEW 6 of 6 COMMENTS
melladoree:
looks like you had a wonderful time! xoxo
captmonte:
What show were you doing? It makes me happy that you're a theatre person as well. I would kill to perform in a different country.