this is fun

we've had quite a bit of time on our hands lately, since the ship is on red level with noro virus. booooo. luckily, no-one in the cast, crew, or band caught it, and we're hoping they'll lift it to amber come southampton. unfortunately, that means that for the past week, our shore leave and passenger area privilidges were suspended. but i've been finding plenty of things to do...

tim, one of the pianists on board, heard some of my music and asked if he could get some musicians together to record it... i jumped at the opportunity, of course, and now i have a recording of 'new boots' with guitar, piano, drums, horns, and back-up vocals =). we did it at 1am after a show night; it was the only time we were all free and the space was available, and i had the best time ever (as soon as i have a copy, i'll try and put it up somewhere...myspace?). now that i have more free time, i'm writing a lot of music, and i'm also trying to work out some of the rust on my piano technique and sight reading.

cruise staff is going well; since our cruise director used to be a performer and has a good idea of how demanding six shows are, we only ever get duties (ceramics is my favourite) on sea days, which is fabulous because we always get shore leave in ports (before this week, anyway). we've had the opportunity to pick up extra jobs in addition to our cruise staff duties that we get paid for, so i'm now officially the resident seamstress, and i'm teaching a few people how to sew.

i'm also taking class almost every day... everyone in the cast takes turns teaching, so it changes all the time. it feels really good to concentrate on technique and work on choreography that people are passionate about, and to work through something for the sake of dancing it, rather than to get it show ready. we're planning a showcase around the holidays where we can all perform something we created, as well as bits and pieces of the princess shows that we like, for the rest of the staff and crew (they don't usually get a chance to come, because they're working when we're performing). paul and i are also trying to train for the silks as often as we can, and we're getting strong enough that we are trying new tricks that we couldn't do before.


once per cruise is the 'on deck walk for the cure', and even if it's not part of our duties for the day, some of us will usually go up to support everyone who's walking by cheerleading at the finish line every lap.

before we were on level red, i got to go on the bus trips to florence, pisa and rome, and we got off the ship in monte carlo and barcelona as well. rome blew my freakin' mind... it reminded me of being in greece, and feeling humbled to be in the presence of history of that magnitude. pisa was fun, but there's nothing much to see there but the tower. the picture is me refusing to do the cheesy "look, i'm holding up the tower of pisa!" pose. everyone around me looked like a weiner, it's a field full of people with their hands randomly in the air. in hindsight, i should have just taken a picture of that... florence was just as beautiful as i remember it being, and i bought a new journal there to add to my collection. i got a chance to practice my french in monte carlo (another task on the list of things to do while i'm here in order to not suffocate from boredom), and we went swimming in the ocean right off the pier next to the ship.

that's all for now, team... send me e-mails! i would love to know what's going on in your lives. take care of each other, i miss you!

installation is over!

we all survived. courtney left in southampton on saturday, and we all went out to crew bar instead of rehearsing on our last night together. we opened 'piano man', our last show of six, on monday night, and we are officially through install. it's only been a few days, but things have drastically improved. it's incredible what a little time off and a full night of sleep can do.



yesterday was officially our first day off in six weeks, and we were in cadiz, spain... we saw the cathedral, went to play in the tide pools by the fortress at the beach, walked through the gardens and ate at a little moroccan restaurant. i don't know if it's just because i haven't seen daylight in a month, but it felt like one of my favourite days ever. hopefully now that we can get off the ship every time we port, there will be many more to come. as staff, we get to sign up to escort tours and go on them for free, we just have to wear a cruise staff shirt and help herd people on and off the bus. they also offer free/ridiculously cheap tours just for crew at least once or twice a cruise, so this friday i'm going to florence and pisa, and next week i'm going to get to see rome (finally!)

our non-performance related duties on board is something we were worried about, but they're turning out to be a lot of fun as well. i'm usually assigned to ceramics or scrapbooking, so essentially i get to be crafty and talk to the passengers about the shows. it's actually really nice to have an opportunity to hear feedback from the guests, it makes performing more interesting when you see faces you recognize in the audience.



in other news, my cousin amanda had a baby! (congratulations!!!) his name is jacob douglas whiteman, and he's gigantic (ten pounds eleven ounces) and i haven't even met him yet but i miss him so much. i cried like a big dork in the internet cafe when i found out. =)

i know my last few updates were a little distraught, but now that the misery of install is over i'm really having an incredible time. and now, two short lists that summarize my life:

things that suck
- false eyelashes
- hitting your head on the celing when you wake up every morning
- when there's no good cheese left at the buffet

things that are awesome
- there's almost always good cheese at the buffet
- my uber-cool roommate
- having time to read good books and write music
- the view is always gorgeous
- shore leave
- the beach
- my cast is great
- meeting new people
- jamming with the show band
- free gym membership
- a glass of red wine with every dinner
- saving money to pay off my loan
- taking class with the cast

as you can see, the second list vastly outnumbers the first one, so i'm doing just fine. =)

part three - i live in a bubble

what is going on in the world? still a war going on? how's our dollar? anyone famous do anything worthwhile lately? seriously, i am completely out of touch with reality.



the captain said on the first day that this ship has a tendency to roll through the bay of biscay (we go through it every time we leave southampton), but i have never experienced swells like this... the floor just drops out from under you every eight seconds or so... if you're wearing a dress you float a little. it's pretty, until you throw up all over your fancy shoes.

everyone in the medical centre knows me by name, since i came close to fracturing my leg on a moving set piece, and then had a serious allergic reaction to something in the dressing room three days later. they know pretty much our whole cast... darrius threw up from being seasick between every number on our 'cinematastic' opening night, and maryann broke her nose when the ship hit a huge swell. as dramatic as this sounds, we have so far opened three shows without too much drama, and they were all very well recieved and looked (according to our director) great. we open our fourth show tonight, and then start rehearsals for the fifth at midnight...

we woke up this morning to discover that we had to be out of our rooms by 9am. all our suitcases are re-packed and rammed in the costume storage, and hopefully when we get back on the ship today we'll have a place to sleep.

the issues with contracts are slowly being resolved... short of them misplacing our paycheques for two weeks. hm. they're found, and we're paid, and all is well...

as we keep reminding each other...we're healthy (for the most part) and are in a beautiful part of the world (which, hopelfully, we'll actually get a chance to see once install is over). and we all get along. and we can eat whenever we want. life is good. in all seriousness, despite the chaos and the exhaustion, i am having a wonderful time... we laugh ourselves hysterically into tears at least twice a day, and that makes everything completely worthwhile. and you all know that how much i love being onstage outweighs any drama in the wings.=)




i miss you all. please, please, please feel free to send me updates about your lives... i am completely out of touch with reality, and would love to know what is going on in the real world.

part two - ships are...special

where to start.

we left london at 6:15am with the intention of embarking at eight, but the ship was five hours late because of a medical emergency in france... we sat in the crew cruise terminal for six hours on the cement with our luggage in a big pile. we played a lot of cards.








once we got on the ship, we figured out that somewhere, someone's lines were crossed, and none of us were expected to arrive that day. so far a few of us still don't have rooms. also, my name was caroline kelling on the manifest, and as such, on the program, medical card, and my nametag. which is making it hard to replace since everything went missing from backstage during a run of a show on the second day. as such, i'm not allowed off the ship; not that we have time at the moment.

there was a shipping error, and our costumes, wigs and shoes, we're told, are somewhere on the ship. we're just not sure where. they've bumped back our opening night until thursday, in the hopes that everything will be sorted out by then...

other than that, things are pretty good. i can tell that once things settle down and i have a place to put all my things that i'll be very happy. we're thrilled that courtney (our first director/choreographer) is back to install our shows, and rehearsals are going well, even though they're usually early in the morning from midnight to five am (it's the only time the theatre is available). as entertainment we get almost the same privilidges as guests, short of the uber-fancy restaurants, and we only have to dress up on formal nights (i'm particularly happy about this one!). the cast is still in good spirits, and the food is great, so i'll be just fine. =)

part one - london is excellent

we flew on thursday afternoon, a day and a half early than when we thought we would leave, so we were all frantically packing on wednesday night. only one of our cast members lost their luggage (it arrived later that day) and since we left early, we got to spend a whole day in london, ta daa!

london is excellent. i decided to just wander aimlessly and ran into things that were interesting. i fell asleep on the lawn outside westminster abbey, which made me very happy. the pictures really speak for themselves... and i am oh so enthusiastic about waking up at 5 to go to southhampton (insert hint of sarcasm here).

love you and miss you all!

almost there

two more days off since the last post, and both of them were fairly uneventful... which was exactly what i needed. we sat by the pool, went to the beach, took naps, and went to see a movie. all activities that require no more effort than occasionally lifting a glass of wine to your mouth. i never thought sitting around doing nothing would feel like such a luxury...





cocoa beach is home to the world's biggest ron jon's surf shop, open 24 hours (in case of a 4am surfing emergency?) which we drove to at midnight because we were stir crazy and i needed a hat.



the situation with the office isn't the greatest... as a cast we're completely unimpressed that our project sheets and original drafts of our contracts blatantly omitted a few things, under the claim that they were 'last minute revisions'... the truth is they knew we wouldn't have agreed to come if those articles were in there, and now that we're here and have gone through rehearsals it's unlikely we'll leave. ugh. apparently we're the first cast that they've hired that aren't dumb as a bunch of monkeys, because we refused to sign them as they were and called a meeting with head office to revise them. as i understand it, this has never happened before, and they're curious as to why we feel that we would like to see things like, oh, i don't know, a copy of our health insurance policy. shocking. the good news is communication seems to have improved since the meeting, and i'm hoping that it will continue to once we've signed everything...

we only have three days left of rehearsals to go. this week, we have a preview show for the office and stakeholders in the company on wednesday night, followed by a party for us at peter's house (he owns the company. also, he's a hundred, i think). we have a day off on thursday to do laundry and pack, and we fly to london on friday morning. we just found out our first show opens on august 8th, two weeks sooner than we anticipated, so i suspect we'll also get called in to rehearse on our day off, which, although annoying, is still better than looking like a disastrous chaotic mess on opening night.



also, i found some lizards on my lunch break and made friends with them. florida isn't good for much, but it's good for lizards.

my next post will be from the ship... if you're interested in pictures of the vessel or my itinerary, you can find it at http://www.princess.com/ships/cp/index.html.

still having a great time, although i think we're all sharing a cold right now... =(

miss you all, and please let me know what's going on with you in the real world!

le update

we had our first day off recently, and it was karen's (one of the dancers) birthday. we all went to the beach (no pictures, my batteries died... it looked like a beach) and then out for dinner and drinks, and to the movies. it's remarkable how thrilling an average day can become when you're stuck in a windowless studio for ten hours a day.







last week we all went to the aerial gym to learn silks and lyra, and ended up having a great time... except that none of us could move our arms above our heads for three days after, our shoulders hurt so much. once we get on the ship we can train every day for half an hour or so, rather than exhausting ourselves for a full day and being useless the day after...








it's hard to believe i've been here for two weeks already... at times it feels like i only arrived a few days ago, and then there's moments where it seems like i've been here and known these people forever. we're making our own fun in cocoa and at the hotel, a.k.a. le chateau dixie (even though it is in the middle of nowhere), but i think we're all anticipating embarkation and starting to install the shows.

courtney (our director that we had last week) is on vacation, so we have someone new for our next two shows. jack is... hm, how to say this diplomatically... less than excellent at life. and dancing. and teaching. and being a nice person. if nothing else, it's bringing the cast closer together, because we have to lean on each other to stay sane and healthy...

speaking of sanity and health, the former is still surviving for me, but less so the latter...i sprained my ankle in rehearsal on tuesday. nothing too serious, and thankfully we have a vocal rehearsal day today and a day off on friday, so i have two days to rest. my partner paul is also injured with a dislocated shoulder, and most of us are resting from strains and pulls and cuts and bruises. thankfully we all are covered for physio, so i'm taking full advantage before we leave. plus, it's fun making the floridians confused when they can't comprehend how i don't have a zip code.




all in all, i'm still having a great time, despite some minor drama with my director and my injury. even though we're all stressed out, i laugh my ass off every day with these people and feel very lucky to have them all in my cast. we're still short one male dancer, so next update i'll let you know how he fits. hopefully he's a non-smoker like the rest of us (a wholly non-smoking cruise cast?! unbelievable!)