Heather!!

Well, week two is almost over. Second show down. Heather is a...........mazing.


Hope you are well and all is grand in your lives.

Let me clarify that last one for y'all... Heather is our amazing stager. She teaches us the shows just like a director and a choreographer combined; but, since the shows have already "opened" she re'stages' them onto us. It's a very difficult job because often times shows become messy and the stager has to shape things up a bit. Heather does all that and more. She's funny, talented, sweet, beautiful, and a riot! She likes long walks on the beach... Jk, I'm not writing her personal add, she's engaged to be married! Although she was upset that I failed to mention her in my first blog; so I am trying to makeup for that, to escape from doing 50 push ups. Also the better you do something, the longer her pause is between a and mazing.




We finished our second show called 'Studio 54' yesterday. In it I sing a Beatles set among other fun songs like the Rolling Stones' "Jumpin' Jack Flash." we are rehearsing two different ships at the same time with the same shows the Cloud (which i am to go on) and the Wind, and because the male singer for the Wind is staying on the ship, I'm the only male singer at rehearsals. This means I "get" to rehearse everything twice with both casts. Haha. So I may be very tired and really not want to, but it actually is very good for me because it sinks in a lot better than doing it on the side once. Plus one of the female dancers on the Wind is staying as well, so the lovely and very talented Nina does the same. Let me tell you, We Are Exhausted after a seven to nine hour rehearsal day!




Our musical director Manny is absolutely a gem. He isn't with us on the weekends, but he's so talented that learning all the music seems easy. (even though the five minute German song is still haunting me because I have yet to learn it.) one day at a time. I would talk more about all the inns and outs of the company I'm working for and who everyone is, because everyone is absolutely lovely, but this blog isn't really meant for that. I'm keeping it more focused on my day to day (ok, week to week) adventures. The places I see, the progress I make kind of thing. (that's progress for all the Canadians reading at home.) {sorry I'll try to keep the inside jokes to a minimum.}



Left to right : Nina, Heather, Alice, Victoria, Olivia, Kelly, Lucy, Carina, me
The casts and stager of the cloud and wind.

Today's rehearsal will be running everything in "54" and making sure we are prepared for tomorrow's office run. Translation: Rhett and Nina will be dead at the end of the day. Haha. I have to say that I love both casts a lot. I've become very close with all three casts rehearsing (the spirit, the cloud, and the wind). So far it's been a wonderful, exciting, demanding, and tiring rehearsal process.

On a completely different note, I miss all my friends and family (we have a dance move called the "hi mum" -it gets me every time), can't wait to catch up on "the voice" and "the killing" (hint hint Rob), and hope that you all are winning just as much as I am! (it's the new phrase one of my very best friends and I created. Everything you do just follow it with "I win" - makes life happier!)

Spread love,
Rhett

~with love and care from who knows where~
Life On The SilverSea

Location:The Fort, FL, USA

Week one!

Week one done; show one check!!

Hi y'all! Hope you're all having a wonderful day!




Well, I made it into Fort Lauderdale last week and arrived at this beautiful hotel! There is a beautiful glass-covered outdoor courtyard complete with the restaurant (on the left) I will be eating a lovely buffet breakfast at every morning and a grand fountain! There is also a nice gym (haha, seriously I need to start hitting up the gym more frequently) a lovely pool and hot tub which at this very moment I am about to go for a dip in.




We have Internet all over the hotel provided for us by our company which is nice!! I'm staying in a gorgeous double room in a heavenly comfy full bed with my very own tempur-pedic pillow (brought from home of course)!





My roommate's name is Michael and he's a wonderful guy from South Carolina. Really talented. He was roomed with me because we were going to be roommates on the ship; but, to make a long story short I won't be on the same ship as him anymore. Basically, I got switched to a different ship (halfway through week one) where I'm more featured. It's been a tough week on my brain and body to switch casts and shows!!

Btw, many cruise ship casts break down the same way ours does
Male 1 (singer) - me
In the photo below my cast! From left to right:
F1 (singer) - Victoria (UK)
F2 (singer/dancer) - Kelly (UK)
FD (female dancers) - Nina (Slovenia) & Olivia (UK)



we have two additions: the ballroom dancers who are from the Ukraine! (Anton and Olga) (I took a photo from his Facebook lol)



We started rehearsal with meet & greet at 8am, and got all our paperwork filled out. I filled out a form for a Maritime Bahamian Seamanship Book! So cool. I rehearsed the first two & 1/2 days with one cast for the Silver Spirit, and now I'm rehearsing for the Silver Cloud. It's very confusing and very hard on my body and brain. But I basically had to forget all the stuff I was learning and learn a brand new show in one day. Thats right, one day. Haha. Some kind of record, I'm sure. Anyway we finished the show (called: dance on the waves -my Sinatra set) and performed it for the office on Monday. We've started work on our second show, Studio 54. Although we've already learnt some of our fourth show The Lands.



On our day off I went with the Spirit cast (the other cast & ship pictured above) down to Miami beach and soaked up the 85 degree sun, and of course stopped off for lunch and dessert at Michael's Genuine Food & Drink of Food Network fame. Sooooo good. It was an amazing day off.



I'm hard at work learning new material, hip-hop dance among other challenging choreography, narrations, different languages, music, lyrics, the ins and outs of cruise life, and many other things! It's crazy busy, but very fun and I cant wait to get on the ship! (btw, if you call it a boat, everyone makes a big deal and you get corrected immediately: "a boat is where you go when the ship is sinking") hope your lives are full of joy!

Spread love,
Rhett

~with love and care from who knows where~
Life On The SilverSea

Location:Fort Lauderdale, FL, USA

Welcome To My New Blog

Hello everyone!
Welcome to my new blog!!! (glad you found it) it's called Life On The SilverSea (because I'll be living on a cruise ship "On The Sea", and the cruise line is called "Silversea Cruises, Ltd.")

I am getting ahead of the game and writing my first post from the very home I grew up in, in Carmel, Ca USA. (I can't believe I just put USA there, but in the coming months you all will need to know the country too!) Anyway, I set off in three days to start the month rehearsal process for the little tug-boat. I've been calling it a tug-boat because it hasn't hit me yet that I am going to be on one of the, if not the, most luxurious ships in the world! (Thats the whole world people! I can't believe how lucky I am!)

Now, before we all get ahead of ourselves, I am not going to be living e dream life as some might imagine the cruise industry to be. You must remember this (a kiss is just a kiss, jk [that means just kidding for our older readers]) I will be probably stuck in some tiny hole of a crew room, and will be wearing a uniform 24/7 when I am in a passenger area. I'll have duties like schmoozing with the passengers and things I won't want to do after performing a 90min. show. But, and thats a big but, I've signed on for it because I want to take on all those fabulously awful things and try them out. I want to sail around the world and sing with some amazing people (who I have yet to meet)! I want to see some of the most beautiful cities on Earth! Boy, oh boy, do I feel like a lucky guy! Once I get into the rhythm of rehearsals, later this month I'll tell you more about how this all came to be and what auditioning was like because it's an interesting story. Just know, that I feel blessed and honored, excited and happy to be setting out on this new adventure!!

_____________________

More to come: about the ship and where it's going, about rehearsals, about the origins of the job, some other stuff.

A few things to keep in mind about my blog:

-A of all: I have absolutely no idea how to blog.
-My spelling and grammar can sometimes be terrible, so I hope there aren't too many tyypos.
-I will try to do my best to keep this a regular thing, once I am on the ship but who knows what will happen with internet and all that and I often get distracted.
-My humor is dry and wet. So sometimes I'm totally sarcastic and sometimes I'm the corniest person ever; but, if you're reading this you probably know me, so you get that.
-if I use any crazy new words (that I often make up) or shortenings like "the fort" or "lol". I will try to explain them as I go, I may use a key at the end of the blog, or you may be "SOL."
---btw (by the way) those were "Fort Lauderdale" (where I am rehearsing, I think it sounds cooler so I made it up); "laugh out loud"; and "simply outta luck" (I like to create PG rated language out of sayings that might not normally be so!)


And now for a picture of your humble narrator:





Lots of love from my very first blog ever,

Rhett



~with love and care from who knows where~
Life On The SilverSea

Location:Carmel, Ca USA