Teen Idol Georgia

Nika is director of the State Orchestra and Chorus now, but on the side he is co-owner/rebuilder of the state theater. The building was started in the 80s, but never finished. Now renovating and completing it is a four million Euro job.

On Tuesday I took the grand tour of the construction site. Interesting to see such a massive space completely unfinished, the sloping bare concrete floor with piles of brick and wood debris scattered around where soon there will be carpet and plush seating for 1200. The main stage will have three rotating sections, circles one within the other. As there is no flooring yet, we could see all the intricate details of the wheel-glider and metal frame substructure.

Up in Nika’s finished office, we had coffee and discussed the grand future of Georgian theater in Tbilisi. Nika will be music director and his partners will be artistic director and management coordinator. The Symphony will practice here, and perform every Thursday night. Every Wednesday night will be a folk music concert. Tuesday night will be drama club performances and dramatic readings, weekends will be foreign guests, and Mondays everyone will be sleeping!

As more and more people drifted into the office, I asked Nika what was going on. He explained that for a side income, he is one of the jury members for the equivalent of Georgian Teen Idol.

I’ve never even seen this show in America, or any of the new genre of reality shows or ‘ordinary people’ shows, -whatever they’re calling them- but this is supposedly based off of that model. Five hundred Georgians originally tried out for the competition (by singing a song); today we were to narrow the best twenty five down to ten Finalists, who will go on to be on live television. I was allowed to stay and watch:

First Nika did a briefing on the proceedings, then everyone filed out of the large half circle office except for about fifteen ‘insider’ theater people, all furiously chain-smoking and looking cool. I felt like I was back at Wesleyan, in line for the Senior Films.

The girls came first; one by one they came in, stood by the piano, and launched into a song. Ninety percent of the time Nika knew the song and played an incredibly complimentary accompaniment, but a few of the performances were acapella. Ages ranged from twelve to twenty five with most candidates being around twenty. Next the guys came in one by one and did the same thing: singing a song, or two if we liked them, answering a few questions, and quickly being hussled out of there.

The camera crews rolled the film, the room filled up with smoke. In small breaks, I quickly and discreetly opened the windows, letting the cold air flood my lungs and at the same time clear the room enough to see my way back to my seat five meters distant.

To my ear, it was farely obvious who the top candidates were, in style, confidence, singing ability, attitude, and look. On TV the visual aspect is equally important to the singing ability. Nevertheless, tempers roared, and heated discussion ensued. It is always more difficult when we’re personally involved I remember from Spirits audition days. Finally we had some tie-off performances by equalized candidates.

Nika was playing the whole time, so I took notes for him, and the other judges joked that he was so professional he had even brought in his own American consultant from Teen Idol. How far from that person I really am, they would never guess.