The Cowboy Rides into Town

The blog's been out of commission because I've had some serious trouble logging in; Google's sites seem to have had problems in all of Asia. Right now, I'm at Starbucks (again) on Tuesday afternoon, and using the UF VPN, which makes the network think my computer's actually in the US. Ah, the virtual life!
Much has happened, and lest I once again get too far behind, here's a digest of it all. Currently, I'm by myself in Beijing. After having come back from Arkansas on Wednesday, Joe Graves departed again for Taiwan on Sunday, this time with David in tow. (Upon entry, Joe was slightly delayed at the airport due to the Chinese authorities' almost militant over-cautiousness about the H1N1 virus -- vulgo, swine flu -- of which there have been a total of 3 (!) documented cases in China, none fatal. If you think that's being unreasonable, let Joe tell you about the time the bird flu hit and they quarantined campus from one hour to the next...no one allowed to leave or enter for 3 months!)
So, I've finally met Joe, who is technically the producer of our show. (David, of course, knew him from being in a play with him at Oregon Shakes many years ago.) He is tall, craggy-faced, sloppy, profane, and entirely charismatic. A full-blooded actor and adventurer, he came to China about seven years ago to do a show and stayed to create an institute, and now has ambitions to establish theatre departments on campuses around China, using their childlike devotion to Shakespeare as leverage. (He tells an unbelievable story about the first Chinese translator of Shakespeare that would need a blog post to itself, or perhaps a movie.) Joe has been able to charm money out of people and do the almost impossible, organizing tours of English and American theatres in China, directing Western and Chinese plays at the People's Art Theatre in Beijing and many other locations around the country, and so forth. He sees himself as a spiritual anarchist (scion of a Baptist preacher, no less), hedonist, and holy fool, and somehow, with his amiable but tough-minded persistence, he is able to puncture that skein of bureaucratic intransigence that otherwise envelopes everything here.
His intervention now has restored our performance dates, at least approximately, at the Centennial Hall theatre on campus. We'll be performing from June 2-4, which is precisely 2 weeks from now. This prospect leaves me somewhat beathless, seeing as we haven't even gotten through the whole play, and have virtually none of the props necessary, haven't talked to the lighting designer, etc. On the other hand, the costumer has come and measured, and promises delivery of the costumes by the 25th. In David's almost weeklong absence -- he and Joe are giving Shakespeare workshops around Taiwan -- I am conducting what must be the most difficult part of the rehearsals (I say this as a mere statement of fact). All of the scenes we've thus far avoided because they involve props (stilts, roller skates) and a good measure of acrobatics and athleticism now fall to me to block through. This continues amid the usual problems associated with rehearsals here -- students who suddenly discover they're unavailable for the evening, rooms that are double-booked or guarded by some dragon with a serious animus against theatre, etc. Fortunately, the actors (when present) are good to work with and quick to pick up ideas. (If they were slow-witted, I'd despair.)
Of course, I'm also covering David's classes, so I'm somewhat beleaguered this week. On top of that, Professor Sun (remember her from a previous post?) once again requires my services on Thursday evening, this time to judge the intercollegiate drama competition at Beijing U of Business and Economics. I'm sure I'll have something to report about that...
Just when David comes back, I myself will leave for Hong Kong from May 25 to 28 to attend the finals of the 5th annual Chinese Shakespeare festival at HK Chinese University. Hardly do I return from that excursion, and we get ready to open.
Speaking of excursions, we did get to go to downtown Beijing on Saturday (finally) to see a magnificent exhibit of Turner paintings on loan to the Beijing Art Museum by the Tate Gallery in London, and we rode the subway home.