Third Week of Rehearsal
page 8

Mimes appear in four scenes in the opera, of which I'm in three. During the first scene, we are peasants and soldiers, not demons.

About halfway through the opera, we make our first demon appearance in the “opium scene,” during which we huff imaginary drugs from small plastic bags and simulate a drug trip, writhing around in fetish wear and high heels, performing sex acts intended to be suggestive rather than realistic.

The glue-sniffing business is funny—apparently to Germans, plastic bags mean drugs; while to Americans, they mean lunch. So it looks kind of stupid when the demons and Faust breathe into baggies. Apparently someone tried to suggest that the directors use pipes or bongs, but they didn't appreciate the cultural difference. During the scene, demons pass plastic bags to the chorus positioned around the “action stage,” playing operagoers perched in orchestra and box seats. They inhale the drugs, and a few of them get carried away. Later, when I asked one of my friends who attended opening night if he had figured out the significance of the plastic bags, he responded, “The bags go into the chorus and produce bad behavior.”

At the end of the scene, we demons, in our huge boots, exit quickly as the music fades. I thought we sounded like a herd of buffalo the first time we did it, and the conductor concurred. The director spent a lot of time exhorting us to exit quietly, but frankly, it’s not possible. During one of these discussions, I said, “You need to insulate the underside of the stairs.” The director, who as far as I’m aware of hasn’t heard a word I’ve said since we started rehearsals, looked at me as if I had grown another head. “Carolyn’s right,” she said, “It’s echoing from underneath.” Then she dropped the subject. By the following rehearsal, set technicians had stapled grooved rubber treads to the stairs and had placed vertical panels between the horizontal treads. This has damped the sound considerably.

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First Day - 1 2
Second Day - 3 4
Second Week - 5 6
Third Week - 7 8 9
Final Week - 10 11 12

“To Germans, plastic bags mean drugs; while to Americans, they mean lunch.”
— Author