day 3 - exhibit ready to ROCK! and I'm ready to ROLL into bed

Another filled day! But the exhibit is now ready (which is a good thing as we can't work on it during the day tomorrow (the museum that is housing the National and Student Exhibits is also  a regular museum also housing the state collection of Modern and Contemporary Art, and crazily enough they want to be OPEN for tourists without hammering. nailing and welding going on constantly).

Here are my Prague-lings: Yu Shibagaki, Collin Ranney and Rachelle Beckerman, the three students who have been helping put this thing together for the past two years. I'm incredibly proud of how hard we've worked, and what it's come together to be. There is also a sense of relief... no bones about THAT.

The big news onsite today was that the remaining HALF of the Phillipines National exhibit finally arrived... it had been held up in customs for the past two weeks.

 The National exhibits can get really big and intricate. Once everything is open, I'll send pix of my favorites of the National and Student Exhibits... I already know the Belgian Student exhibit is going to be a favorite... just think LARGE CLAMSHELLS... I'll leave it at that for now.

After we futzed and fiddled with the exhibit, I headed out to explore again.  I walked a couple blocks north to the CZECH INDUSTRIAL PALACE...

... which is where many PQ's past have been held. We couldn't this time, as there was a devastating fire that leveled the entire right-hand flank of the building about two year ago. It has yet to be repaired... and for some reason is housing a tattoo convention as we speak....

After that, I headed back deeper into the Old Jewish Quarter. It  was late enough in the day that I didn't go into the museums and things I wanted (I'd have had to hurry thru), but it was still really cool to walk thru the area.

There are several synagogues thru this area, and although I couldn't get a good pic of the REALLY old one, this is the largest...

and this is the gate to the Old Jewish Cemetery...

after to checking to see if the Museum of Decorative Arts was still open.. it was but only for 15 more minutes.. I headed across the Manesuv Bridge, looking south to the Charles bridge... shown here)

and walked thru the river-side part of the Mala Strana district, doing some window shopping, before curving up onto the Charles Bridge and heading back into Old Town/Stare Mesto.

you can see my shadow in the bottom of that picture!


I'll get better pictures of the Charles Bridge tomorrow... it's really quite stunning.. it's really wide and is typically lined with artists selling their wares... I was late enough in the day that many had already packed it in... though there was one watercolorist I hope is there again tomorrow....

the day ended with a VERY late meal... like we finally got served at 11pm-late.... but it was my first real taste of traditional Czech cuisine... the meal was hosted by USITT (the organizers of the American exhibits here) as a "thank-you" and "thank God that we've got the exhibits up, finally" fete at Strelecky Ostrov, a restaurant which is on one of the bigger islands in the Vltava River. Pilsner Urquell (the local basic Czech beer) flowed like wine (which also flowed) --- and side note here... what they say really is true... at times, and places, here in Prague, beer IS cheaper than water --- and we all ate!

I had Svickova, which is a braised beef sirloin in a pepper-cream-white wine sauce with cranberry compote and served with a side of Potato Dumplings... it was quite good... very good in fact.... kinda wish I had more with me as I'm typing this. As we started to leave (and the younger kids went out bar-hopping and searching for the drag bars in town). I caught sight of the National Theatre across the river lit up...

it was a lovely end to a lovely long day... ready for some rest and a whole lotta sight-seeing and museum-going tomorrow, followed by the PQ opening gala tomorrow night!

day2 - the day we make contact... with the exhibit

another long, but exciting, day here. we got to the Veletrzni Palace at 9am this morning to start our work.

We got to walk thru the hall where many of the national exhibits (showing the work of professional designers) are in process. Some are 2+ stories tall. and I REALLY look forward to posting some of the exhibit pictures after they're done... some are truly stunning already, and they're only in process at the moment.

The exhibit (which as previously stated was built by the University of Montana tech theatre staff and students), was mostly in, and we spent the morning and better part of the afternoon making some adjustments, and getting things programmed and the "exhibit book" together.

We kinda hit a standstill at 5pm, so I headed out to walk the city a bit... I walked from the Veletrzni Palace (located in the northern part of central Prague in a peninsula created by the bend in the Vltava river, walked down to the river, across the Stefanikuv Bridge, alongside Josefhof, the old Jewish quarter. There are a couple museums I want to hit here, but I tabled those for today.

I continued down Revolution Blvd until I hit the Municipal House (seen above), with it's splendid Art Nouveau mosaic-work by Alphonse Mucha (his Museum is near the top of my wish list... hopefully in a couple of days...) I then turned south adn headed down the promenade toward Wenceslas Square

which is about as beautifully tacky and metropolitan as you can get. the architecture --gorgeous, the path up the hill-- arduous, the sheer new-york-centric commecialism -- disheartening... I'm well aware of the financial melting pot the world has had to become in many ways, but there's nothing quite as painful --to a designer, mind you-- than seeing a gorgeous 17th century baroque architecture gem, housing a McDonalds on the ground floor, and a Swatch outlet store on the second. To me, it's wrong... 'nuf said.

I walked up to the National Museum... noticing the sheer detail of the bronze and plaster-work along the domes at top.... and noticing ever so slightly that the bronze detailing on the domes at the BACK of the building are less well-polished....hmm... well... who can blame them? there's enough bronze filigree work on the buildings downtown to choke an armada of donkeys.

Anyhow... I popped over to the State Opera House a couple buildings down, just so that I could see it before I go to the opera there on THU night (forgive me, I'm going to get stage-design-geeky here)... the one ticket I got in advance of my travel was to see TOSCA there this Thursday... now, I'm not a huge opera fan (I like it, I don't LOVE it), but this TOSCA will be using a set recreated from the 1947 design by Josef Svoboda, a noted Czech stage designer, and were there to be  patron saint for  stage designers, he'd be at the top of the list for who it'd be. he was working with image and video projections on/in/around scenery 50 years before it was actively picked up in the west. a true visionary in the field. tosay that I'm going to see one of his designs in the flesh, is TRULY exciting to me.... geeky moment over... thank you for your indulgence....

I continued my walk further south and heading toward the river again and swung by the Church of St John Nepomuk on the Rock (a saint I've never come across before)... a true baroque gem... wish I could have gone inside.

It got me thinking about Prague, and some of this city's history... Prague is often called the "city of 1000 spires" and I'd believe it... There are no fewer than 6 beautiful churches in a 4 block radius around the apartment I'm staying at... some are Rococco, some are Romanesque, other Baroque, some neo-Classical... it's crazy how much architecture lives in crazy proximity to something else entirely architecturally separate. it also makes you wonder...WHY so many different churches exist here... they can't all possibly be full?!??! but that's one to ponder for another day.

I'll leave you with one last picture...  here's the building I spoke of in a previous post... it's given name si Tancici Dum, lovingly known in the world of architecture as FRED AND GINGER... you can certainly tell which half was designed by Frank Gehry, can't you?   its' bizarre, its' modern -- I can't say it's my favorite building-- but you can't deny that its' interesting.....

THIS... is right across the street from my apartment here... I can look out of my window and see it lit up in the night...amazing....

aaaaand scene! day 1

going to be short I fear as I'm about to fall over asleep. aside from airplane napping I've now been up for over 36 hours, and we've got a full day of work to do tomorrow starting at 9am.

After a little downtime this afternoon, Rachelle (one of the students who's working on the exhibit with me) and I went for a walk. We went up along the Vltava river from our apartment and then cut across the parts of Nove Mesto into Male Strana.  THe Nove Mesto is where we're staying... roughly translated it means NEW TOWN... which is somewhat a misnomer as the New Town was annexed for the expanson of Prague proper in the mid-1400s.

OK... falling asleep at keyboard... going to bed now. more soon,
to mzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz                                        

day 1 part 2 arrival and apartment

arrived in Prague, exchanged money, caught the bus to the metro... 30 minutes of winding roads up and down hills, if I hadn't been trying to hold onto my bags and keep them from tipping into the caustic and wary-looking grandmotherly type sitting across from me, I would have snapped pictures. got to the Metro Station at Nove Botovice, and went underground to Karlovo Namesti and came up from underground to lovely weather and GLORIOUS Art Nouveau plasterwork on the building facades... I got pictures. will upload later. I'm sure I looked quite the traveling geek, with my bags falling about on the ground and me snapping pictures of building facades... I walked up the block toward our rented apartment and turned the corner right into the Architectural FRED AND GINGER... also known as the "dancing buildings"... one of the architectural landmarks of Prague... and guess what?!?! our place is right across the street... third floor and it looks out onto the Vltava River... absolutely gorgeous.

now for food.... and some light sightseeing!

there's nothing quite like ARRIVING for lifting weary spirits, eh?

day 1 - travelin' man

Sitting here in Stockholm’s Arlanda Airport… I can’t help but feel like this is all incredibly surreal… not made any easier by the higher-end-IKEA like surroundings of the airport, coupled with the fact that I arrived here at 7:30am (local time) on a SUNDAY and thus it’s rather desolate… aside from the working patisserie three gates down and the roving band of, apparently omni-present, Asian tour groups heading to Bergen, Germany.  There’s just something slightly off about walking into a bookstall and having NO clue what any of the titles say, but noting that every “culture” magazine appears to have pictures of William and Kate’s wedding, or Taylor Swift, or that the duty-free prominently displays wares by Ralph Lauren or Kentucky Bourbon (Jim Beam… I’d have been REALLY impressed had it been Woodford Reserve).

It was a smooth, easy flight, and the lack of any movies I wanted to see made it great for reading and pouring through the tourbook of Prague that I’d hardly had time to crack. I’m quickly realizing that there’s no way I’m going to get to see everything I want to see and do while I’m here. I’ve got my wishlist and will pack in every moment I can… not often a midwestern bumpkin like myself gets such an opportunity… but there’s something equally inspiring and unapologetically frightening about being “the other”. Even on the plane… surrounded by Caucasians as far as the eye could see (and almost ALL blond… strange), it was still a little bit of a ‘mind-catch’ to realize that I was entirely outnumbered by people who speak Swedish… a language that sounds beautiful when spoken but couldn’t be more foreign to me. … the utter silliness of Utgang (gate) or Hjartstartare (Defibrillator). The relative lack of connection to the Latin language group… root words and basic structures are so completely different, and the same can be said for the Czech language too…

Now if I could just get a little more sleep…. It’s 2am Chicago-time, 9am here in Stockholm (same timezone for Prague), so I’ll be getting into Prague noon, local time, but my body will be saying that it’s 5am… methinks this is going to be a VERY long day for my body…..

One week from now...

I'm currently sitting here in downtown Chicago, in a tech rehearsal for a show  (YELLOW FACE at Silk Road Theatre Project), and I just realized that one week from RIGHT NOW -- assuming that airlines are running on time, and assuming that I can figure out Prague's public transportation system -- that I'll be arriving at the rental apartment that I and the Student Exhibit Committee will be sharing... IN PRAGUE!!!

Pardon my excitement and anticipation!

I feel I ought to backtrack a minute a explain what this trip is about for those of you reading that have no freakin' clue...

Every four years, there is an event called the PRAGUE QUADRENNIAL (PQ for short) that happens in Prague-- strangely enough -- and is basically a huge international symposium about stage design. at this year's PQ,  65 countries will be sending fully-realized exhibits of professional work done in their country in the past 4 years, and of those 65 countries, 42 will also send student exhibits, that will be showcasing student design work. In addition to the exhibits, there are workshops, lectures, presentations, performances, and events of all kinds. It's sometimes called the Olympics of Stage Design, but that sounds kinda silly... the thought of dueling scenic designers throwing drafting triangles at each other, or costume designers racing to sew a hem... hmmmm.

 For the past two years, I've been working with the US Institute of Theatre Technology (USITT) as the mentor/leader of the committee to help conceptualize, design, curate and execute the student exhibit. Along for the ride are 4 student designers from across the country, and together we've done all the leg-work, while the University of Montana Theatre Department (where my grad school classmate, Alessia Carpoca is on the team!) has actually BUILT the exhibit that we've designed.  Entitled EMERGE, our exhibit contains the juried work of over 200 American student designers, from 60 colleges and universities across the country. In addition to the presentation of that work, the exhibit will also include an on-site design experiment, wherein we'll have American student designers on-site, collaborating and creating new design art that will be continually added to the exhibit throughout the 10 days of the PQ. What will start out as a white, empty-looking box, will (hopefully) be overflowing with new student work by the end. It's been a fascinating, and at times intense, project, but one that I'm really proud of.

And now, it's finally about to HAPPEN, and that too is exciting.

My hope and plan with this blog is to spend 20 minutes, each night that I'm traveling, writing about the things that I see/do/experience. Ultimately, it'll really just be my journal of the event, but by posting and sharing, I get to share with whomever wants to know, what the PQ is about.

More to come....

10 Days and counting

I'm realizing that at this very moment ten days from now, I'll likely be in the airport in Stockholm, waiting for my connection to Prague. It sounds rather insane to even think such a thing... Stockholm?!? Prague?!? I know that I've been incredibly lucky to have travelled as much as I have, and now to be attending what is, in my field of study/career, THE BIG ONE.... there a little adrenaline involved, I must admit.

Having said that, there's a lot of angst in going.... not about the travel per se... more having to do with the amount of work that needs to be done, signed, sealed, and delivered, BEFORE I get on that plane at O' Hare at 4pm on June 11th....the bags that need to be packed, the socks that needs to be purchased, the money exchanged, and making sure that my other work projects are in a position for me to be completely unavailable to them for 10 whole days ... it's strange, just the thought of being somewhat cut off from easy connection with my normal everyday world... for 10 days, I won't be constantly texting with Janna about everything from Lucy's loose tooth to what to grab at the grocery on the way home. While my iphone will (theoretically) work, the roaming charges in Eastern Europe would make your checkbook perform an instant self-lobotomy. but I'm told that sticking to wi-fi and skype is the best way to go, so we'll see.

Janna and the kids are kinda used to me being in tech rehearsals, working late, and sometimes being gone for long stretches, even when I'm doing a show IN Chicago, but this is different... I'll be in a foreign country, and can't simply drop things to be there if I'm needed. It'll be fine, I know it will.. but the perspective shifts, and in shifting it makes you think.... more to come....