A New Audience

4:11pm

I’m sitting in my hotel room looking out at the spectacular view from my room on the 53rd floor. I am really in awe of this city. I love how alive and bustling it is. There is an incredible amount of construction going on for the 2010 World Expo, due to begin May 1st. Not only are they preparing the site itself, but the city is creating new metro lines, building a new high-speed train between Beijing and Shanghai, and has placed many Haibao’s all over the city. Haibao is the mascot for the Expo, it means “treasure of the sea” and is meant to be lucky.

Haibao, the 2010 World Expo mascot, can be found all over Shanghai!

The Expo sounds like it will be incredible, and seeing all of the preparation going on around me makes me wish I was coming back next year, too. Though it isn’t as though there is nothing going on right now. The government is planning and putting final touches on the celebrations for National Day in Beijing. The festivities not only sound unlike anything I have ever seen, but will be extremely chaotic as well.  The city will be jam packed, there will be parades and marches all over the city, namely Tia’namen Square, fireworks and much more.

Fireworks explode over Beijing's Tiananmen Square on Sep. 12 during rehearsals for massive National Day celebrations to be held Oct. 1.

I have heard it will basically be impossible to get around, and there are so many people in the city that catching a cab will be hopeless. We’ll have to see. For now, the Company has two more performances of Swan Lake then off to Beijing.

We opened on Tuesday with the Mixed-Rep program and Wednesday with Swan Lake. Yuan Yuan Tan danced the lead Odette/Odile role in a sort of homecoming performance for her. She was stunning and seemed to be even more in her element than usual. Just beautiful.

Yuan Yuan Tan in Swan Lake, 2006 (photo © Erik Tomasson)

The audiences here are a little different than we are used to back in the United States. The applause is more reserved. Audiences at our home theater (the War Memorial Opera House) are loud and enthusiastic, but here the clapping is more polite, and I know it’s not because they didn’t like it.  Though I wonder if the clapping was so soft because so many audience members were busy taking pictures during bows? That’s something else we don’t see too much of at home.

The stage at the Shanghai Grand Theatre is great, it’s expansive and feels a lot like home actually. Things were a bit chaotic at the beginning of the tour, which is to be expected, but now the shows and rehearsals are running more smoothly.

I have to head back to the theatre now for the second performance of Swan Lake, Vanessa Zahorian is dancing tonight. I will have more to report on later.

Bye.