As of yesterday I have been away from home for 1 month... I can't believe that a month as come and gone already. It's nuts.
In true Maddie style I am getting sick. Slight fever/sore throat/runny nose/sneezing today. I am hoping I can sleep it off tonight since tomorrow is a lighter day than today was.
The mail ended up being a sweet note from Harriet, a girl I studied with at Carnegie Mellon wishing me the best. Harriet: if you're reading this - thank you it was so nice of you to write me. It literally made my day :) Not a lot of people get mail here, so I felt very elite.
Tonight is Indian Independence Day so there is a huge curry party in the provisions area of deck 1.
I have not been off the ship for 8 days... I'm getting a bit stir-crazy. I just find it so difficult to get motivated to leave the ship at 9am when I work until 1 or 2 every morning. I have been trying to rest more, and especially now that I'm getting sick... *sigh*
It is very difficult to establish routine here since personnel is constantly changing over since people are usually on 6 (or fewer) month contracts and even when they come back they usually rotate throughout the fleet... so you really never get the same combination of people twice. The activity manager who I have become besties with is signing off on the 26th and my supervisor (the cruise director) is signing off on September 6th... So I feel like I have to start all over again with my working relationships. Whereas the AV manager I don't much care for is stuck here until mid-November. Oh well.
We also just got a new hotel director and associate hotel director (my boss's boss onboard the ship), so that is changing the dynamic around here as well.
There is a lot of butt covering going on.
I mostly just try to get my job done with the minimal amount of effort possible. :D
There are two kids onboard right now that remind me of... well... me. They are stage-managers-to-be, so they will be shadowing me running technical rehearsals tomorrow. I think it's really nice to be giving back to the technical theater community. Lots of good karma.
I miss you all.
Wednesday, August 17, 2011
Monday, August 15, 2011
I got mail!!!
Most exciting email I've gotten since I arrived onboard is that I have mail waiting for me in the crew welfare office! I can't pick it up until 5 but really... SUPER EXCITED!
Friday, August 12, 2011
Houston... we have... friends :)
Last night was the first night I really felt like I had made friends onboard. Not to say that the cast and av team haven't been lovely, but I have to draw a line with them since, at the end of the day, I am their boss.
People I would consider my friends: the Activity Manager, Joe, one of the Activity Staff, Victoria, and two guys who work in the shops Ian & Christian (Christian actually has some crazy spelling of his name that I failed to remember from last night). Anyway, its just nice to feel like the social settling is happening. It's also nice to be friends with people outside of the theater... so we talk about different things all the time.
* * *
On a more serious note, during Sizzle last night one of the casings for a moving light fell from the ceiling and hit a six-year-old girl in the head. So now we are in full force of "cover your ass mode." The girl is perfectly fine. The casing weighs a maximum of 2 lbs and fell a maximum of 8 feet before hitting her. But still not good. Not good. Not good.
People I would consider my friends: the Activity Manager, Joe, one of the Activity Staff, Victoria, and two guys who work in the shops Ian & Christian (Christian actually has some crazy spelling of his name that I failed to remember from last night). Anyway, its just nice to feel like the social settling is happening. It's also nice to be friends with people outside of the theater... so we talk about different things all the time.
On a more serious note, during Sizzle last night one of the casings for a moving light fell from the ceiling and hit a six-year-old girl in the head. So now we are in full force of "cover your ass mode." The girl is perfectly fine. The casing weighs a maximum of 2 lbs and fell a maximum of 8 feet before hitting her. But still not good. Not good. Not good.
Thursday, August 11, 2011
The Productions Onboard
So I’ve realized that I have actually managed to speak little to none about the actual productions onboard. I’ll attempt to rectify that now while I am currently in my office between shows.
In general…
There is a production everyday. There is always a technical rehearsal of that production in the afternoon, and then there are two performances (otherwise referred to as “seatings”) that evening. The theater is designed to be able to hold half of the ship’s capacity, so in theory all guests may see all shows if they so choose. Seating times are either 7:15pm & 9:15pm (early shows) or 8:45pm & 10:45pm (late shows). The times are structured around the two available dinner seatings for the guests. Each guest is assigned to either late dinner or early dinner. So, if we do late shows, you eat at your dinner seating and then go to the performance afterward. If we do early shows, those with an early dinner reservation go to the late show, and those with a late dinner reservation go to the early show. For some reason this never ends up working out as designed. But that’s the logic behind the evening’s scheduling anyway.
Production shows…
On any given Celebrity ship there are 3 full-scale, full-cast production shows. These shows are almost always on formal nights and have late seatings. The three onboard the Constellation are:
1. iHollywood
2. Land of Make Believe
3. Celebrate the World
They are all of the same genre – a mishmash of popular songs (mostly popular in the US, but in Celebrate the World especially there are hit songs from many countries). Land of Make Believe has a loose plot line that is some combination of The Wizard of Oz and Alice in Wonderland. iHollywood is the most technically complex, and just features a lot of great moments in film history – largely focusing on pirate movies, James Bond, Judy Garland, Little Mermaid, etc.
These shows are each performed 1 day per voyage. They use all 5 singers, 10 dancers, and 2 aerialists. iHollywood uses the onboard orchestra, and the other two run off of track. During these shows I operate from the rigging booth (shown in a picture in a previous post). That is where I run the fly system, turn table, and lifts. I also call any track cues, deck cues, and pit cues from there.
Opening & Closing Night Shows…
The exact content of these shows varies from cruise director to cruise director (they really get to decide the entertainment makeup while they are on board). Currently, our cruise director’s name is Sue Denning. She is a lovely British woman with a fabulous taste in shoes and short blonde spiky hair. For her, the opening night show (which is performed one time on embarkation day at 10:45pm) is called “A Taste of Things to Come.” It opens with an orchestra feature, goes into a cast “bumper” (a piece 10-15 minutes long that is a mash-up of many songs in very similar style to the production shows), a piece done by the aerialists, a number by the onboard a cappella group, and perhaps one or two more pieces contributed by onboard musicians.
The closing night show is called “Everything Musical” and it is literally just that. The cast does a bumper, the orchestra does a feature, and every musical act on board comes through with one piece. It is a technical nightmare with a million changeovers. Right now on board we have a band called Great Ideas (the cheesy party band), Carl Williams (a ballroom dance music group), Expression Strings Trio (violin, viola & piano), Lemon Squeezy (an a cappella group), Jefferson Ang (a guitar/vocalist)… and probably more that I’m forgetting.
//so now I’ve accounted for 5 nights of a 12-night cruise.//
Guest entertainers…
At any given point in time there are 2 guest entertainers onboard. They always swap out mid-voyage so they can perform for one group of guests at the end of their voyage and the next group of guests at the beginning of their voyage. So 4 nights of the cruise you will have guest entertainer performances. These range from vocalists, to pianists, to comedians, to magicians, to ventriloquists, to (playing tonight) a violin duo. You name it, they try to have it. Just like every other show, they do a rehearsal in the afternoon and perform twice on their evenings.
///so now I’ve accounted for 9 nights of a 12-night cruise.//
Local Folkloric Shows…
When a ship does an overnight, they will try to bring a local group on to perform one evening (one seating only). For this voyage, the local group is called Moroshka and they are from St. Petersburg, Russia. I pick them up from the gangway at 9pm, they immediately rehearse and ravage the backstage hospitality, and then they perform once at 10:30pm, and they’re off the ship by midnight. Pretty easy.
//so now I’ve accounted for 10 nights of a 12-night cruise.//
Variety Night…
Not much of a variety, really. The two onboard guest entertainers do a split show. Two 25-minute sets each, typically.
Perry Grant…
Perry is the onboard pianist who plays mostly in the Michael’s Club (usually a VIP lounge). His style is very… umm… flamboyant. And his jackets are very sparkly. He is a terrible singer, but a great entertainer. He sounds a lot like a goat when he sings. I don’t quite get it, but there are literally hundreds of people a year who book cruises just to attend his shows. Literally. No joke. They’ve done studies on it. Anyway, he’s always feeling a bit “under the weather” to get a bit of “sympathy.” So we appease him just so he’ll get on the damn stage every 12 days.
//so that’s it for performances in the Celebrity Theater.//
Theme Nights…
Usually on nights where there isn’t a full production show there is what’s called a Theme Night. Simply put, this is like a miniproduction that happens late at night, using some contingent of the cast, and ends up being a pain in the butt most of the time. Our onboard theme nights that I am involved in are Live@Sky, Broadway Nights, and Sizzle.
Live@Sky is a 1940s theme that has … well … most of the music from IN THE MOOD. Not done as well, but there are many more swing dancers.
Broadway Nights is a cabaret-style evening where each of the singers sings a few Broadway hits. Which was probably exactly what it sounded like so why am I still writing?
Sizzle is a latin dance night. It’s really to get the party atmosphere going. The singers don’t do sizzle, but there are many choreographed dances done by the production dancers. It also features the brass and saxophones from the orchestra.
There are also…
Captain’s Club Celebration
A Cappella Matinees
Aerialists Show
Sue’s One Woman Show (the cruise director)
Captain’s Toast
Crew Talent Show
Star Chef
… and probably more that I’m not thinking of right now.
In general…
There is a production everyday. There is always a technical rehearsal of that production in the afternoon, and then there are two performances (otherwise referred to as “seatings”) that evening. The theater is designed to be able to hold half of the ship’s capacity, so in theory all guests may see all shows if they so choose. Seating times are either 7:15pm & 9:15pm (early shows) or 8:45pm & 10:45pm (late shows). The times are structured around the two available dinner seatings for the guests. Each guest is assigned to either late dinner or early dinner. So, if we do late shows, you eat at your dinner seating and then go to the performance afterward. If we do early shows, those with an early dinner reservation go to the late show, and those with a late dinner reservation go to the early show. For some reason this never ends up working out as designed. But that’s the logic behind the evening’s scheduling anyway.
Production shows…
On any given Celebrity ship there are 3 full-scale, full-cast production shows. These shows are almost always on formal nights and have late seatings. The three onboard the Constellation are:
1. iHollywood
2. Land of Make Believe
3. Celebrate the World
They are all of the same genre – a mishmash of popular songs (mostly popular in the US, but in Celebrate the World especially there are hit songs from many countries). Land of Make Believe has a loose plot line that is some combination of The Wizard of Oz and Alice in Wonderland. iHollywood is the most technically complex, and just features a lot of great moments in film history – largely focusing on pirate movies, James Bond, Judy Garland, Little Mermaid, etc.
These shows are each performed 1 day per voyage. They use all 5 singers, 10 dancers, and 2 aerialists. iHollywood uses the onboard orchestra, and the other two run off of track. During these shows I operate from the rigging booth (shown in a picture in a previous post). That is where I run the fly system, turn table, and lifts. I also call any track cues, deck cues, and pit cues from there.
Opening & Closing Night Shows…
The exact content of these shows varies from cruise director to cruise director (they really get to decide the entertainment makeup while they are on board). Currently, our cruise director’s name is Sue Denning. She is a lovely British woman with a fabulous taste in shoes and short blonde spiky hair. For her, the opening night show (which is performed one time on embarkation day at 10:45pm) is called “A Taste of Things to Come.” It opens with an orchestra feature, goes into a cast “bumper” (a piece 10-15 minutes long that is a mash-up of many songs in very similar style to the production shows), a piece done by the aerialists, a number by the onboard a cappella group, and perhaps one or two more pieces contributed by onboard musicians.
The closing night show is called “Everything Musical” and it is literally just that. The cast does a bumper, the orchestra does a feature, and every musical act on board comes through with one piece. It is a technical nightmare with a million changeovers. Right now on board we have a band called Great Ideas (the cheesy party band), Carl Williams (a ballroom dance music group), Expression Strings Trio (violin, viola & piano), Lemon Squeezy (an a cappella group), Jefferson Ang (a guitar/vocalist)… and probably more that I’m forgetting.
//so now I’ve accounted for 5 nights of a 12-night cruise.//
Guest entertainers…
At any given point in time there are 2 guest entertainers onboard. They always swap out mid-voyage so they can perform for one group of guests at the end of their voyage and the next group of guests at the beginning of their voyage. So 4 nights of the cruise you will have guest entertainer performances. These range from vocalists, to pianists, to comedians, to magicians, to ventriloquists, to (playing tonight) a violin duo. You name it, they try to have it. Just like every other show, they do a rehearsal in the afternoon and perform twice on their evenings.
///so now I’ve accounted for 9 nights of a 12-night cruise.//
Local Folkloric Shows…
When a ship does an overnight, they will try to bring a local group on to perform one evening (one seating only). For this voyage, the local group is called Moroshka and they are from St. Petersburg, Russia. I pick them up from the gangway at 9pm, they immediately rehearse and ravage the backstage hospitality, and then they perform once at 10:30pm, and they’re off the ship by midnight. Pretty easy.
//so now I’ve accounted for 10 nights of a 12-night cruise.//
Variety Night…
Not much of a variety, really. The two onboard guest entertainers do a split show. Two 25-minute sets each, typically.
Perry Grant…
Perry is the onboard pianist who plays mostly in the Michael’s Club (usually a VIP lounge). His style is very… umm… flamboyant. And his jackets are very sparkly. He is a terrible singer, but a great entertainer. He sounds a lot like a goat when he sings. I don’t quite get it, but there are literally hundreds of people a year who book cruises just to attend his shows. Literally. No joke. They’ve done studies on it. Anyway, he’s always feeling a bit “under the weather” to get a bit of “sympathy.” So we appease him just so he’ll get on the damn stage every 12 days.
//so that’s it for performances in the Celebrity Theater.//
Theme Nights…
Usually on nights where there isn’t a full production show there is what’s called a Theme Night. Simply put, this is like a miniproduction that happens late at night, using some contingent of the cast, and ends up being a pain in the butt most of the time. Our onboard theme nights that I am involved in are Live@Sky, Broadway Nights, and Sizzle.
Live@Sky is a 1940s theme that has … well … most of the music from IN THE MOOD. Not done as well, but there are many more swing dancers.
Broadway Nights is a cabaret-style evening where each of the singers sings a few Broadway hits. Which was probably exactly what it sounded like so why am I still writing?
Sizzle is a latin dance night. It’s really to get the party atmosphere going. The singers don’t do sizzle, but there are many choreographed dances done by the production dancers. It also features the brass and saxophones from the orchestra.
There are also…
Captain’s Club Celebration
A Cappella Matinees
Aerialists Show
Sue’s One Woman Show (the cruise director)
Captain’s Toast
Crew Talent Show
Star Chef
… and probably more that I’m not thinking of right now.
Getting worn a little thin...
I have bags under my eyes. They are big and dark and I can't hide them with makeup and even if I manage good sleep they don't go anywhere. I'm tired.
Someone stole my black flats out of the dryer. So now I am down to 4 pairs of shoes, 2 of which have started smelling quite terrible. I really wish I had packed more clothing. I have this pair of perfect black heels sitting at home right now... why didn't I bring them?
One of my cast members is in trouble for flirting with a girl who is 14-going-on-28 (if you catch my drift). I was supposed to call him at 8:30 this morning to tell him to go down to security by 9am - that way they could surprise him with a confrontation of the issue. I set the alarm, but forgot to turn it "on," so now I'm on today's shit list for Security and the Cruise Director.
*sigh*
Also, my daily schedule today looks like this:
August 11, 2011
At Sea 3
12:15PM - Captain's Club Backstage Tour
2:25PM - Lemon Squeezy Mic Check
3:00PM - Lemon Squeezy Matinee
3:45PM - Laszlo & Claudia working with lights
4:15PM - Laszlo & Claudia working with sound (without band, though you may be setting up your stations at this time)
4:30PM - Laszlo & Claudia Tech
6:00PM - Sound Check Sue's One Woman Show
7:15PM - Laszlo & Claudia Performance #1
9:15PM - Laszlo & Claudia Performance #2
10:15PM - Sue's One Woman Show
11:15PM - Sizzle (exact start time will be determined by when the ship crosses under the bridge)
And that just drains any energy left in me right out of me. I need Warnemude to come faster so I can have a break.
I have to tell our lighting technician - a grown woman about 6 years older than me (has been working on cruise ships since before I was in college), that people are complaining about her hygiene standards. Strategy: Quick like a bandaid. I'll let you know how that one goes.
Someone stole my black flats out of the dryer. So now I am down to 4 pairs of shoes, 2 of which have started smelling quite terrible. I really wish I had packed more clothing. I have this pair of perfect black heels sitting at home right now... why didn't I bring them?
One of my cast members is in trouble for flirting with a girl who is 14-going-on-28 (if you catch my drift). I was supposed to call him at 8:30 this morning to tell him to go down to security by 9am - that way they could surprise him with a confrontation of the issue. I set the alarm, but forgot to turn it "on," so now I'm on today's shit list for Security and the Cruise Director.
*sigh*
Also, my daily schedule today looks like this:
August 11, 2011
At Sea 3
12:15PM - Captain's Club Backstage Tour
2:25PM - Lemon Squeezy Mic Check
3:00PM - Lemon Squeezy Matinee
3:45PM - Laszlo & Claudia working with lights
4:15PM - Laszlo & Claudia working with sound (without band, though you may be setting up your stations at this time)
4:30PM - Laszlo & Claudia Tech
6:00PM - Sound Check Sue's One Woman Show
7:15PM - Laszlo & Claudia Performance #1
9:15PM - Laszlo & Claudia Performance #2
10:15PM - Sue's One Woman Show
11:15PM - Sizzle (exact start time will be determined by when the ship crosses under the bridge)
And that just drains any energy left in me right out of me. I need Warnemude to come faster so I can have a break.
I have to tell our lighting technician - a grown woman about 6 years older than me (has been working on cruise ships since before I was in college), that people are complaining about her hygiene standards. Strategy: Quick like a bandaid. I'll let you know how that one goes.
Wednesday, August 10, 2011
Tallinn, Estonia
I managed to get off the ship for a grand total of 1 hour in Tallinn. Which was long enough to walk right to the entryway of old town, turn around, and return to the ship. Once you get off the pier, the port sidewalk is lined with little shops and stuff, like a miniature bazaar. You could tell that most of them rely on it being really to help sell their merchandise (mostly scarves, hats, gloves, etc.). There were some AMAZING natural wooden bowls and serving dishes. I almost got one, and then I realized I would have absolutely NO WAY to get it back home. And I don't know how much they cost, but that's neither here nor there...
Getting to the old part of town was about a 25 minute walk from the ship.
This steeple was my beacon. I just followed it and figured it would be surrounded by cool stuff, or, if nothing else, it would be cool on its own.
I walked up what felt like a million stairs (speaking of which, my stair tolerance is slowly going through the roof right now), finally arriving at what looked like a giant citadel (that's probably not really the word I want, but it sounds good and the internet is too slow to look it up). I had no idea what I would see as I slowly walked around it to peer through the archway...
Only to begin to see beautiful buildings on the other side...
Honestly it looks like something from a happy Harry Potter movie. Beautiful side-by-side quirky buildings. So unique. Right as I saw this, it was literally time for me to turn around and start walking back to the ship or I was going to be late for rehearsal. So next time, I know which direction to head, I will walk faster, and I will leave earlier. Because now all I want to do is explore what's there.
On my way back I overheard an older woman trying to find someone who spoke English. I piped up and asked if I could help. She was lost, trying to find the shuttle stop to head back to the Constellation. I explained that I didn't even know there was a shuttle (nonetheless where the stop was), but that I was about to walk back and she could join me if she cared to. So she obliged, and I walked back with a very lovely Canadian doctor who explained to me that her two middle-aged sons had taken the shuttle map and somehow managed to ditch their own mom. She was peeved to say the least. It was nice to have a real conversation with someone who doesn't work on the ship. By the time we were walking back through the bazaar, she stumbled upon her husband and we parted ways. It was definitely my good deed for the day.
Getting to the old part of town was about a 25 minute walk from the ship.
This steeple was my beacon. I just followed it and figured it would be surrounded by cool stuff, or, if nothing else, it would be cool on its own.
I walked up what felt like a million stairs (speaking of which, my stair tolerance is slowly going through the roof right now), finally arriving at what looked like a giant citadel (that's probably not really the word I want, but it sounds good and the internet is too slow to look it up). I had no idea what I would see as I slowly walked around it to peer through the archway...
Only to begin to see beautiful buildings on the other side...
Honestly it looks like something from a happy Harry Potter movie. Beautiful side-by-side quirky buildings. So unique. Right as I saw this, it was literally time for me to turn around and start walking back to the ship or I was going to be late for rehearsal. So next time, I know which direction to head, I will walk faster, and I will leave earlier. Because now all I want to do is explore what's there.
On my way back I overheard an older woman trying to find someone who spoke English. I piped up and asked if I could help. She was lost, trying to find the shuttle stop to head back to the Constellation. I explained that I didn't even know there was a shuttle (nonetheless where the stop was), but that I was about to walk back and she could join me if she cared to. So she obliged, and I walked back with a very lovely Canadian doctor who explained to me that her two middle-aged sons had taken the shuttle map and somehow managed to ditch their own mom. She was peeved to say the least. It was nice to have a real conversation with someone who doesn't work on the ship. By the time we were walking back through the bazaar, she stumbled upon her husband and we parted ways. It was definitely my good deed for the day.
Saturday, August 6, 2011
Stockholm, Sweden
I didn't have much down time today to wander Stockholm. I in fact, did not even have enough time to walk downtown (approximately 45min walk from the port). But I did manage an hour of exploration up to a lovely overlook. I can't wait until I get better at my job so everything goes faster so I can actually do REAL stuff.
To help me keep track of where what set of pictures are from I am now trying to snap a shot of something with the locations name on it. Hence... the crate.
To eliminate the language barrier, and likely so that port security stops getting pestered by tourists, the port literally has a sign off the gangway that states "Yellow downtown, Blue overlook, Red boat excursions." Sure enough, painted right on the ground are lines you may follow every step of the way until you reach your final destination. First-it's genious. Second-it's impressive since some of these lines are several miles long (as per the line that spans the whole 45 minute walk to downtown).
This just made me laugh.
Another awesome staircase. Why do all of our fire escapes have to be so ugly, yet they make it an architectural feature in Sweden?
View from the overlook off to the left.
View from the overlook off to the right.
Me doing one of those awesome self-executed tacky shots in front of the overlook.
I zoomed all the way in to get this picture because I wanted you to be able to see the Swedish flag flying from this building. Perhaps if you click on the picture to see the full-sized image you can?
REALLY awesome building.
This was right outside of the port security. I just thought it was so cool. Because of the direction it was facing I didn't even notice it until I was on my way back from my walk. Just something different.
* * *
Tonight I ate dinner in the Seaside Cafe, the buffet on Deck 10. I like to eat up there because the variety of foods is better than in the messes, and you actually get a view while you dine. The pictures below are the views that passed by my window as we sailed out of Stockholm. Times like these I feel REALLY lucky to be where I am.
I'm not sure if you can tell or not, but there is actually a wedding reception going on in the picture. I just thought that was an incredibly stunning setting for one's nuptials.
Yeah. I'm lucky.
To help me keep track of where what set of pictures are from I am now trying to snap a shot of something with the locations name on it. Hence... the crate.
To eliminate the language barrier, and likely so that port security stops getting pestered by tourists, the port literally has a sign off the gangway that states "Yellow downtown, Blue overlook, Red boat excursions." Sure enough, painted right on the ground are lines you may follow every step of the way until you reach your final destination. First-it's genious. Second-it's impressive since some of these lines are several miles long (as per the line that spans the whole 45 minute walk to downtown).
This just made me laugh.
Another awesome staircase. Why do all of our fire escapes have to be so ugly, yet they make it an architectural feature in Sweden?
View from the overlook off to the left.
View from the overlook off to the right.
Me doing one of those awesome self-executed tacky shots in front of the overlook.
I zoomed all the way in to get this picture because I wanted you to be able to see the Swedish flag flying from this building. Perhaps if you click on the picture to see the full-sized image you can?
REALLY awesome building.
This was right outside of the port security. I just thought it was so cool. Because of the direction it was facing I didn't even notice it until I was on my way back from my walk. Just something different.
* * *
Tonight I ate dinner in the Seaside Cafe, the buffet on Deck 10. I like to eat up there because the variety of foods is better than in the messes, and you actually get a view while you dine. The pictures below are the views that passed by my window as we sailed out of Stockholm. Times like these I feel REALLY lucky to be where I am.
I'm not sure if you can tell or not, but there is actually a wedding reception going on in the picture. I just thought that was an incredibly stunning setting for one's nuptials.
Yeah. I'm lucky.
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