Unavailable..

For the next 2-3 weeks I will be sight unseen (well only by my cast and production team). We STILL haven't finished the brand new show and we are a day away from flying to meet our ship. All the material hasn't come together to make the show happen and probably won't right up until opening night. Needless to say I have to do some laundry and pack for the trip. Oy!! I'll be so happy once the shows are installed and set. No more learning. No more grueling rehearsals and notes sessions. Just flat out full on performance. So for now I'm signing off. See ya in a few weeks shouting out from the cool air of Alaska.



Speaking of unavailable, this is the new face of happiness. Also going by the name of Chris. The cast will inevitably call him Chris and me Chrisser (adopted from my last initial Chris + R.) to distinguish between the two of us.

Amazing People...

Once and a while someone walks into your path and just takes your breath away. It could be a love interest, family, a great friend, or a random stranger. Several people in my life have made me happy over the past few weeks to which I'm eternally grateful. My family despite all the bumpy roads have always made me happy though. Especially my parents. They've given me the freedom in my life to make my own choices. Even as far back as I can remember I had to make my own decisions. It was baseball or dancing, art school or honors school, bowling or singing, or both, and various other things. Anything that happened on my road to where I'm at now including my college choice and life decisions are all because I chose them and not because they said you MUST do this. Sure, they put a hand in when they thought something wasn't right or if I was doing something wrong to keep me on a good path and I listened (for the most part). My Aunt was a special one. She was like my best friend growing up. An amazingly giving and understanding person with this great energy. She's a different person now because of the disease affecting her memory, and I don't know how much longer I'll have her around, but that imprint of her back in my childhood will always be in my heart. I do hate being away from my family, but it's the only way I can experience life the way I want to experience it. The memories in my heart and the modern age of communication have been blessings these past weeks.

Good friendships last and seeing my old pals out here on the west coast have been totally thrilling to me. I went to San Diego and just being around everyone down there felt like home. I didn't want to leave. These people are just very loving and welcoming and the atmosphere is so relaxing down there. I'm totally grateful for my time in San Diego and meeting these fabulous people. Also my best friend is down there and despite her busy schedule and mine, we manage to still keep tabs on each other. She has helped me through so much and I hope I've been there for her in her moments. I'm sad that I may miss the most important day of her life because of the future planning I've already made, but the most amazing thing is that she understands. I've even kept in touch with some friends I made through my former partner here in L.A. and that's amazing to me. It's amazing that my former partner and I are on the road to a great friendship. He has been an inspiration for 4 and a half years we were together and I believe he will continue to be a very close friend. I could go on and on about old friends and new friends that have touched my heart in the past few weeks. Especially all my eastern buds (you know who you are). I feel honored to have people in my life who care and I feel someone's watching over me to help me through all the changes that have been happening.

Most importantly are my new discoveries.This new cast of friends that have entered my life have entered my heart. One in particular has made his way into that special place in my heart. He has an amazing voice, a bubbly personality, and he's such a giving person altogether. I couldn't believe it was happening as it was happening. From day one I knew I was in trouble since he was part of my cast. I was trying so hard to keep my love life and cast life separate, but love always finds a way. As the days grew on he just became infectious and it became harder and harder to distance myself from him. Yesterday, another cast member intervened and told me the feelings were mutual and I was a goner. We're taking it slow since we both know the repercussions of what could happen if this didn't work for any reason, but I somehow believe this is going to go in the right direction. This cast is amazingly talented. We work well together and it shows in performance. We were sad to lose one of our cast members because of injury, but in this business you have to pick yourself up and go and we've welcomed yet another talented girl into the mix. I'm looking forward to the months ahead with my newfound heart throb and a new cast of great friends.

I feel very special to have all these amazing people in my life. I will cherish them always.

My Old Home...

Ahhh. San Diego in Balboa Park as the sun sets in the west. It was my paradise of a home for 2 years. A fabulous luxury apartment 2 blocks from Sail Bay Beach in Pacific Beach (for less than $1,000/month!!), a whole year of 70 degrees and sunny, good friends, and beauty all around. It was relaxing and balanced out the stress of not having much to live on. This is definitely where I'll come once I'm finished with the hustle and bustle of the entertainment industry and I've worn out my excitement of living in NYC. If I had it my way I'd be bicoastal. So when things got a little overwhelming in NYC, I'd just run out here and do a little gig to calm my nerves.

I did have a chance this weekend to revisit the old area and see some of my good friends out here (Sarah, Devin, Michael, Gladys, Marianne, and Eric).


These wonderful people brought me back to memories of huge dinners, the Fat Bastard Club, Moonlight, Festivals, Mafia, Christmas on the Prado, and just good fun. I miss my NYC friends just as well, but San Diego will always hold a special place in my heart. It was my first west coast home and such a welcoming one it was. The entertainment industry is fascinating. I have friends all over the world because of the travelling I've done and I'm so thankful I had the opportunity to do so. I even love to reconnect with folks I haven't seen or heard from in ages. It's a fascinating industry of creativity, drama, and bonds and that's why my heart is in it so much. Wherever my craft takes me, I hope to keep making new friends as well as keeping the old ones close to my heart.

Broken Family...

Yesterday we said goodbye to one of our cast members. We heard the official news yesterday at 6pm that one of the girl dancers was being replaced. She had sprained her ankle this past week and we thought she'd be okay. There was no news from the office that any replacing was happening only concern for her situation. The doctor said she'd have to spend a week in recovery while icing her ankle. This was too long since we are learning a brand new show and production wanted to make sure she'd be at full capacity since the head honcho from Seattle was going to be on our ship the first 2 weeks. I guess he causes a lot of drama when on board reviewing new shows and they didn't want to take any chances of her rolling her ankle again while he was there and they wanted to give her proper rest time so she can come back. The good news out of all this is that she has a contract in her hands for October on the same ship, so we'll see her again as we're signing off for turnover. Lots of love went out to her last night when we all said goodbye. I hope she has a restful summer and comes back strong. Hey, she'll have 2 shows under her belt when she gets back so rehearsals will be a piece of cake. It's tough to see a cast member go especially at this stage of the bonding process. I hope we get to cross paths again. In other news, we are still in emotional turmoil because one of our other dancers has been dealing with abdominal trauma. At first we all thought it might have been food poisoning (bad tuna). Then it was the flu so we all got worried for ourselves. I'm going to veer off here for a moment. Whenever someone coughs, sneezes, feels woozy, or just looks like death warmed over our first reaction is "Are you okay?" (moment of concern for their well being) and then if the response is in the sickly direction we all back off and start taking our vitamins and Airborne. Especially the singers. No one can afford to be sick right now. Oy!! Anyway, we all thought it might be the flu and then the news came that it might just be his appendix. So, now we are awaiting the official news. He's worked for the company several times, so there's no concern about him getting another spot. The sweetest thing is he doesn't want to leave this cast and we don't want to see him go. Although, a living dancer is better than a dead one. The appendix is a serious thing. I hope it's just the flu at this point for his sake. It's a scary thing and I'd hate to see another family member leave us. I'll know by the end of rehearsal today. He looked much better yesterday, but the company is insisting he get it checked out. All of this happened yesterday on Friday the 13th!!! Well the heightened trauma of it all happened yesterday with the replacing and the serious news about our boy dancer. The events leading up to it happened all throughout the week. Yikes!

The new girl comes in today. She's friends with one of the other girls in the cast. As I type she is at the costume studio fitting into her clothes. She'll have a lot of information to process in the next 2 weeks before we leave. I hope she's the only newbie. On a side note, one of our choreographers came back from putting up a brand new show on one of the other ships and it appears we have a bumpy road ahead of us until mid June. The head honcho from Seattle is very picky and seems to have contradicting/hypocritical ideas. It's confusing and frustrating to our production team since they are being restricted in so many ways. I hear a good rule of thumb is that whenever he sails, they always have to send someone with him to tone him down a bit so he doesn't fly off the handle and fire everyone. He'll be on our ship as we put up 2 new shows. Yikes!! Kind of makes me sick when I hear about people like this in power positions. I haven't met the man personally yet. It's only hearsay right now. So a lot of my thoughts about him are prejudemental based on other people's opinions, but when the head of the production company even says bad things about him you have to wonder.

It's a day off for me tomorrow and I'm visiting my peeps down in San Diego. It'll be a nice get away. Signing off for now.

Love My Cast...

Zaandam cast
Originally uploaded by cscottredding.

There have been a few instances in my life where I've been a part of a cast and we get along so well that we become a very cohesive family. As of this moment, this cast is one of those casts. I don't know what kind of jostles to that cohesiveness sea life will bring, but as of right now (aside from a few differences) we all get along very well. Rehearsals are fun, and if they're not, we all try to make them fun (or we all have a blast just venting about them later). It's a constant feeling of happiness like when my friends Brooke and Phil would get together in NYC and jam around the piano or just make up silly scenes. I never wanted those moments to end back then, and now with this cast I pretty much have those feelings at my fingertips everyday. I know I'm attached to the cast when I have nightmares about the company splitting us all up and putting us on different ships at this stage of the game. These are a talented bunch of folks and I'm very honored to be in this group of people. It's a rare occaision that this happens in the entertainment industry so I will cherish it.

DisneyLand

DisneyLand
Originally uploaded by cscottredding.

On Sunday I went to Disneyland with my best friend, her boyfriend, and another friend of ours. We stopped in to see another friend performing in Aladdin at California Adventure. This place is truly the happiest place on earth. I always feel like a kid whenever I go there. At Disneyland they had updated the park for their 50th Anniversary. Gold Mickeys in various places with "50" in the center. Also, all the rides from the original park had a gold piece outside the ride. Some had the piece ON the ride. The carousel had a gold horse as well as one displayed and Dumbo had a gold Dumbo as well as one displayed. Throughout the park were also murals of various Disney scenes pieced together by tiny photos that people sent in from their experiences at Disney parks. It was fascinating that a bunch of diferent people posing with Tigger made different shades of orange for paint in a picture. I'm always transformed into a kid again when I go there. Disney may be a huge corporation that practically owns 60% of all the entertainment we see, but it is a great place to go to escape the woes of the world. There had to be thousands of people packed into the park that day (Mother's day), but despite these huge crowds I was not aggravated as much as you get with the same crowds or less in NYC or any other place. Lines were only 15-20 minute waits surprisingly. Most of the population there that day were small children and very old people. I guess that would explain the short waits for all the thrilling rides I wanted to experience. I'm so thankful we have places like this to escape to when things get too heavy in the real world.

Blog Problems..

I've been having a problem here with a post not being posted. So this is just a test. My Emmy page isn't showing up. Whaa!

HA! Found the problem. I guess you have to clear your cache whenever I update the page since your computer tends to store an address that links to a prior saved page. Which means my updates won't show. So, clear your cache/internet history if you think it's been a while since I've updated and try again. =)

And the Emmy goes to...

So, we went to costume fittings yesterday at one of Bob Mackie's studios. In the fitting room on a shelf above the costumes were a row of Emmy's won for costume design for the Carol Burnett show, Cher, and various others:


I was very impressed. I got to pose with one ;)


I'd like to thank my mom, dad, family, friends for all they're support in leading to this award. Thank you ;)

Hahaha. I don't even know what I'd say in a situation like that. Public speaking? Not my forte. I'd have to be one of those people that brings up a piece of paper and even then I'd be shaking.

Two shows down and one to go. Now it's just review review review until Wednesday.