Zaia World Premiere Aug 28 2008

I’ve received several emails asking why I didn’t post details about the world premiere of Cirque’s ZAIA on Aug 28, 2008. I told one friend “it went well – we did it and people clapped.” (See how utterly interesting I can be?)

Many of the Cirque artists for Zaia started rehearsing in September 2007 in Montreal Canada. The musicians arrived the end of January 2007 to begin training. We worked on the music and getting the computers ready at a recording studio facility in Montreal Canada. The end of March the whole troupe relocated to Macau China. A couple weeks to find apartments and get settled – then started the “creation process” in mid April 2008. The creation process is very intense and not for the feint of heart – very hard work, very fun and very hardcore.

By the beginning of July 2008 we were having our “Lion’s Dens” – which are full run throughs of the show with close friends and Cirque staff in attendance for reviews and notes. Then by middle of July we had preview performances for friends and staff which were more like “dress rehearsals” – with the show almost up to target speed.

The end of July 2008 was the “soft opening” – which is actual shows for paying customers. This is common for shows to start running so things can stabilize. After that was the world premiere on August 28, 2008 – the official opening of the show.

On August 27, the night before the premiere, we had the “media frenzy” day where reporters were invited to spend the day backstage for interviews – and received tickets to see the show for reviews and articles. The big media splashes happened on the soft opening end of July and on this August 27 preview before the opening. After each of those there was a blitz of videos on YouTube, articles from newspapers all over the world, and tv coverage in Hong Kong news reports.

So I tell you all that just to show you that by the time the world premiere rolls around we were all quite prepared. I can only talk for myself and the musician experience – but I would imagine it is similiar for artists. Each show we each do our own thing to focus and prepare our minds for the show.

What do I do to prepare? I have a little park I like to meditate in. Before the show I play Hanon excercises, sometimes bits of Bach like the Italian Harpsichord Concerto, improvise in Baroque styles and play some gospel hymns and excerpts of the show. That’s what gets my focused.

We don’t get “nervous” before a show – but we feel the intensity as we ramp up to prepare. I always try to keep in the front of my mind that there is a member of the audience who is going to experience “Cirque” for the first time – and I try to fill myself with the intention of giving them that from my part the best I can.

It is a very different experience from community theater where you have three months of rehearsals and then only one week for “hell week” (the five days before opening where you move into your performance venue and set everything up). The other difference is most people working on the show have dedicated their entire lives to their specific specialty, but also are given ample time to explore their talents and bring it fully to the stage with 60 plus hours a week of time available.

At the grand opening there were presentations by the owner of the Venetian Casino and by representatives of Cirque. We (Zaia) are the first Vegas style show to setup camp permanently in Macau, China – so much of the focus has been that this is the beginning of transforming Macau into a Vegas type destination for Asia. Not too many years ago there was a stretch of water near Macau – and now it’s filled in with construction everywhere round the clock – this is the Cotai Strip – the dream of a Vegas in Asia.

There are other Cirque shows coming to Macau in the future, and other Vegas style shows in other Venues. So we are enjoying this time as the pioneers of a new era for Macau.

Most of the people in attendance for the grand opening were invited guests of the Venetian – the grand opening was also the one year anniversary of the Venetian opening.

After the opening there was a posh party at the Venetian with the main restaurants of the Venetian providing food, there was a live DJ, lots of important looking people in suits, and staff dressed up like quasi-Cirque characters.

At the end of the premiere there was a standing ovation and artists were called to the stage for a second round of bows.

So the opening – “we performed and people clapped”.

The exciting part – is that now we’re on our run of shows. We have the “keys to the car” and are pacing ourselves for performance runs of 10 shows a week to spread the “Cirque experience” to new audiences in Asia. We take it seriously – after all – it’s Cirque. 🙂

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