Bakst, Diaghileff and mobility

    In the late 1980s to early 1990s I was actively involved in a local theatre company, which specialized in stage combat. I did it all, writing plays, acting, fighting, set building, directing. It was great fun, and being single, I had plenty of time to do it. Theatre seems to be one of those activities that uses up as much time as you give it, and then some.
    What did I enjoy the most about those days in theatre? The people. They were a very friendly, fun loving group of folks. My wife has suggested many times since then that I should do some more theatre, and I've told her and others that my interest in theatre was more in the people than the plays.
    I could go on for way too long on this topic, but it's not the point of this entry. I did finally take my wife's suggestion, and I am currently doing a local production of "You Can't Take It With You', as Boris Kolenkhov. During an early rehearsal I was backstage working on my lines and found that I had no clue what Bakst and Diagheleff meant, and since they were words in my lines, I figured I would be able to deliver them better if I knew what they meant.
    Out comes the T3, I fire up Opera Mini and off to Google I go. Turns out Bakst was a famous Russian artist who later in his career designed sets for the Russian Ballet. And Diaghilev was a well known Russian ballet choreagrapher, whom Bakst teamed up with to produce some of the best Russian ballet productions in the early years of the 1900s. Now the line made sense and I could deliver it with the gusto and feeling it required. And I was educated on some ballet greats at the same time. All from backstage while waiting for my entrance.
    Oh yeah, my fellow thespians are a fun, talented bunch and our director has pulled it all together with aplomb, despite the difficulty of getting men for a very male heavy production, some of whom we didn't get until 2 weeks before opening. And don't tell them I was doing this blog doing the last rehearsal. :-)

Posted at 07:18PM Nov 08, 2006 by dragonfly in Palm  |  Comments[2]