Six Acts rehearsal day 1

Good morning family and friends! Today begins the PQ for me even though the conference doesn't officially begin until Thursday. So for clarity's sake I am going to try explain the Six Acts project structure. The PQ sponsors the Scenofest which has a number of different workshops and performance / design related activities over the course of the PQ. The six acts project is a part of Scenofest and I am a part of Act 1 of 6. I hope that helps!

The performance that my group and I are creating is taking place in the Franciscan Garden. This place is so peaceful and serene, it is a perfect place to stage a performance. It is amazing to have such tranquility is such a busy place like downtown Prague. You never realize how much noise pollution we deal with in New York until you come to a city like this. Most of the streets are so small and historic that most if them are pedestrian only. It's so beautiful! Here's some pictures of the garden and believe me the pictures don't do the garden justice.


This image is from the main entrance from Narodni street.


This image is from the opposite side of the entrance.


This is a picture looking back at the monastery.

So it would be an entry if I didn't talk a little about food and my hotel! I had a Czech favorite last night at a pub in Old Town, fried cheese and potato salad. It was tasty! Here a picture for all my foodie peeps (Babycakes, Mr. Hoyt this picture is for you!)


Yummy!

My hotel room is cozy, it reminds me of a west village apartment, sloped ceilings and enough room to use the bathroom and sleep...lol! I have already met some great people and I haven't even met anyone from the PQ yet! It's been so much fun so far and it will only get better!

More to come...

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Made it!

I have landed in Prague right on time this morning! The flight was painless and smooth. I sat next to a very interesting woman named Karla who grew up in Prague to the age of 35 then left with her husband and two children in 1977. She now lives in LA after stints in NYC and Minneapolis. Her husband is an actor performing this week with an opera. It was fantastic to have had such a great opportunity to ask questions and talk about this amazing city. She talked about the iron curtain and a communist Prague which was so interesting and informing. It turns out that today is her birthday and it almost marks half her life in Czech and half in the states. She coached me on how to get out of the airport and the ins and outs of Prague. She also, invited myself and my fathers entourage to the show her husbands performing on June 21st which is our last full day in the city. All in all it was a great traveling experience.

So, after I picked up my bags at the baggage claim it was the simplest commute from the airport. I bought a bus ticket after I exchanged $30 in the airport. I hopped on the 119 bus to the subway which was the A train and poof I was in the heart of the city. I found my bearings and headed over to the hotel to have them hold my bags until check in. I headed over to the bank where I exchanged the rest of my American cash...good thing I read up on this because they did not accept one of bills because it had a little marker on it. When I took cash out in the states I was very particular with the banker about no writing on the bills. She thought I was a little nuts but it paided off because if I didn't read about the cash money exchange I might be a little broke.


See the little marker in corner, the bank would not accept that...note to Bob bring clean bills! Mom please remind him...lol!

Well, I am off for a walk over to the Franciscan Garden, then a nap!

More to come...

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At the airport

Here we go! I made it through the security and all the airport confusion. This is my first time at JFK and it wasn't to bad navigating through the check in and security process. The delta employees were helpful and friendly. The only issues that I experienced was that awful traffic getting to the airport. Now, I totally understand when jerry seinfeld would holler about not driving on the van wyck. It's a total nightmare, thank you seinfeld for being right! Anyhow, I do have some mild anxiety about the airport and public transit in Prague. The good news is that I do not have any conference related plans for Monday. So I have no need to rush. The only plans are to check in to the hotel and walk until its time for sleep. I am so excited to be a part of this amazing experience! Thank you to all that have helped me reach this day.
Next entry will be when I arrive in Prague 10 am local time and 4 am NYC time. Hopefully I'll get some shut eye aboard the 8.5 hour flight.
Also, thank you Jeanette for the helpful food tips! Anyone who knows me, knows how much I like food! I can't even believe it myself but until you commented on the blog I hadn't even thought about the food. Those tips are a great starting point and my friend Stephaine raves about the fried cheese sandwiches. I mean who doesn't love fried cheese??

More to come....

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4 days till departure

Well as the weeks grew to days the information is now flowing and I am getting a better idea of my schedule at the PQ. We start rehearsal for the 6 acts project on Tuesday June 14 at 10. I am so excited to work with other artists from around the world. The six acts project is part of the scenofest. The scenofest is an off shoot from the entire PQ. There are different performance / design projects going on through out the city. For more info check out: http://scenofest.pq.cz/ for the basic information or check out www.scenefestexchange.com for daily info on what is happening in the scenofest. It's pretty cool! The piece that I am working on is based in the Francescan Garden which is in the heart of Prague. Our director is Pavel Stourac (you can read his bio in the six acts section of the scenofest website) and our media that we our using to tell the story of the garden will be paper. So far we have been collaborating via facebook. There are 28 people in our group and everyone has posting some amazing work. I am really looking forward to meeting and working with everyone. Basically, we conceive a narrative, collaborate, design, build, rehearse in 4 days! The show goes up Saturday June 18th at 9pm Czech time which translates to 3pm nyc time. Totally excited!! It should be very cool and I will be posting pictures and video over the course of the collaboration.

So in the days up to my flight its pack, friends wedding rehearsal, friends wedding, baby christening then off go JFK! So when packing this time I am not forgetting the most important thing for European travel:



Power converter! When tanya and I went to Spain on our honey moon we forgot this and all of our electronics died...not this time!

More to come....

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Getting ready to go!

This past weekend I have been gearing up for my trip. I have been checking all my documentation, checking to make sure my hotels are booked properly and researching the conference and the city. So when I was checking on my hotel reservation it turned out that I did not book it correctly and there were no longer rooms at the hotel!....oh no!... So I had a brief freak out and then with advise from my lovely wife (tanya) I called booking.com whom I used to book the room and they helped me find a new hotel. They were really nice and extremely helpful, I suggest using them if you are in need of a hotel anywhere in the world.
Also, I was researching all the events that I would like to attend when I am at the conference. There are so many performances, workshops and films to see in the 2 weeks and I tried to narrow down to the ones that seem the most interesting to me. I'll post those things in a later blog. It's also pretty tough to figure out which things I want to go because I don't know my rehearsal schedule for the street theatre performance project that I am working on in the festival and I don't know when I will be participating in the USA student exhibit. It's kinda cool not knowing where I am, the language and what I am doing, I think that there is some freedom in that even though it could be scary....

More to come!

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Less than 1 month away!

Getting ready to go to the PQ and I am so excited. The department of theatre awards banquet was awesome the other night. When Tom announced that my design of Top Girls was in the PQ I received a standing ovation. It was truly amazing and I am so grateful for Brooklyn College.