T minus 8

Alright, eight days until I leave for Alaska.  Not freaking out.  Breathe.

I only have eighteen hours left of work for ASM and I'm excited for those eighteen hours to be over with, but I'm also excited I get to do those eighteen hours.  It's a fairly complicated event, which are always some of my favorites to do.

I have been practicing drinks over the past three days; now to practice games over Monday through Wednesday in addition to packing.  Oh what fun this will be!

T minus 12

Just a dozen days left until my official start date, and only two days before the show opens to the public.  Yes, I have ten extra days to get everything that I need to do done, and, judging by the fact that I freak out a little every time I look at my counter, that's a good thing.  Of course, it still seems forever away.  I still have three days off and four days of work and I'm spending four days packing, so I'm right on schedule with everything that I need to be doing.

These past few days have been days of buying supplies that I will need in Alaska.  Thankfully, I have a lot of it already, but I haven't bought a new pair of hiking boots since freshman year of college, and I haven't had a real need for a waterproof jacket.  I'm buying those, plus a few toiletries and specialty laundry supplies that may not be available in Alaska.

I have picked up bike riding again as if it were last month when I stopped; I am still struggling with tight turns.  I plan to hit the open road tomorrow to see how I do with the added distractions of vehicles and pedestrians.

I am learning to make a couple of different types of drinks and learning a card game for the Alaska project, so hit me up if you will be in Salt Lake on Wednesday!

T minus 17

Okay, so I rode a bike for the first time since high school today; it only cost me $7, and I can definitively say riding a bike is a skill not soon forgotten.  There is a bit of a story behind this, so I'll start at the beginning.

My meeting yesterday went well for the most part.  We went through company policy and what not (did you know that there are two grocery stores in Skagway and the barge that brings the groceries comes late Monday, so the grocery stores are out of almost everything on Sundays and Mondays?), and read through the script a couple times.  Everything was dandy until we got to the tour part.

I can literally only remember the first few words of what I assume was a rather long speech; I think I blacked out from shock after "Andrew drives the bus..."

A bit of background: I do not drive.  There are viable medical reasons behind why I do not drive.  That is not to say that I do not want to be able to drive.  It would make many thing more practical for me, especially in the business I am trying to break into.

Back to the moment after I blacked out.  I politely waited for a sentence break before I interjected.  "I was not informed I would need to drive and I cannot drive."  Rosemary asked me if I could get a license.  I told her that I could, but that due to my medical history it would be much harder for me to get a license.  I was afraid that she would fire me on the spot, but she just said, "We can work around that."  In retrospect, that's probably one of those reasonable accommodations that they talk about in contracts.

I am now riding a bike to the dock and back instead of driving, and I am much less intimidated by that prospect today than I was yesterday.  You see, Salt Lake City has a bike share program, so I was able to go out today and try out a bike.  After a shaky start in a parking lot, I moved to the sidewalk to practice not running in to people.  It worked super well and I didn't fall or run in to anything once!

Other than that; I have to practice alcohol recipe's and card games.  Oh darn... guess I'll have to have a drinking party soon.

T minus 19

Today is the day where I start getting really anxious.  I have my first production meeting tomorrow, two weeks of ASM left, stuff to finish up here, and a packing list that just keeps growing.  In addition, I am thinking about what happens when I get back to SLC; it's way too early to be thinking about being unemployed, right?  All of that, plus the fact that there are still unknowns about living in Alaska for five months, and your head is likely to explode.  I've had constant headaches for a couple weeks now, but what are a few headaches in the entertainment industry?

I am 80% memorized at this point, and that is better than good enough for read through number one.  Pending any special requests in tomorrow's meeting, my next hurdle is consolidating in Logan and bringing any necessary materials from there as well.  My Dad already offered to get me to the airport; so; thankfully, I don't have to worry about that.

T minus 24 days

As I get back into acting after a year long hiatus from doing legit shows, I was reminded today of a sobering fact: learning lines on your own sucks!  Seriously.  It's better than doing anything else that doesn't involve theatre; even better than the ticket office at a theatre, but still...  The good thing about having that year where I did the boring, repetitive jobs is that I learned a valuable lesson: pace yourself or you will get burned out.

Pacing myself in college never worked out.  I would be doing a class for an hour a day, memorizing and doing homework for three hours a day, and usually doing a show for an average of three hours a day.  That's seven hours of theatre a day and, while doing the physical act of theatre is something I could do for twelve hours straight, the mental toll of all of that work would make me not want to do the things that I could put off; like memorizing.  The problem with that system is that cramming for a rehearsal or a show or an audition never works.

Here's what I've learned about memorization; I can only memorize during the first hour or so of memorization; and usually not the length of the "Henry V" prologue, but more of the length of the "Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow..." speech in "Macbeth".  I also have to learn naturalistically, meaning that I can't just learn the words; I have to learn the ideas and the thought process behind them.  This "hour a day" method means that I am excited to memorize the next day and not looking forward to having a day off memorization.

But I didn't just write this just to share some mildly useful knowledge, I also have news from New York!

Rosemary Libert and Karl Klupar (yes, they live in NY), the two owners of the Historic Skagway Inn, have decided on a date for our first production meeting!  How am I getting to NY?  Some of the other cast members and I will be joining them via the magic of Skype.  We'll be going over the entire show, and I will tell you all about it here once the meeting is over.  Just kidding!  You'll have to buy a ticket to learn all about the show.  Princess Cruises has some awesome deals going on right now starting from $699.

T minus 27 days

It's T minus 27 days until what I am going to refer to as "The Alaska Project".

I received my work schedule for my final week of work at ASM today.  It's a good reminder that we're coming up on this project very quickly.  I am already stressing about what to pack and figuring out what I can afford to leave behind for five months.  I don't think I'll actually realize how tough this is going to be until I have that first layover in Seattle.

I have my first production meeting this or next week via Skype.  We are going over all of the information necessary to work in Skagway as well as doing our first read-through of the script, which I will receive later this week.

What a change from handing out food samples!

T minus One Month

It's T minus one month until I head off to Alaska for five months.  What spurred this blog post?  I received my ticketing information today!  That's right; this is now too real to scoff at.

I head out of Salt Lake City when most people are having their morning coffee and arrive in Juneau seven hours later; with a bit of a layover in Seattle somewhere in there.  From Juneau, I fly in a small plane to Skagway; where my work begins at 9am the next morning.

There is a link to the Princess Cruises company on the right where you can book cruises to Alaska from $699 and many shore excursions; including Legends and Lies in Skagway.

Until next time!

April Update

Hello peoples!

I have added a countdown to my blog that gives the exact time left to my starting work in Alaska.  I am super excited to be working as a production coordinator for five months on Legends and Lies at the Historic Skagway Inn.  I figured I'd get started by telling you that Legends and Lies is an exclusive excursion sold onboard cruise ships that dock in Skagway.  That is all I know up to this point.

Getting ready for the move:

I have started compiling a list of things that I will need to take to Alaska, as well as figuring out what I can get there.  I'll be staying there for five months, so my regular compact system of a backpack and a carry-on suitcase will not cut it.

Other than that, I don't have much to tell you.  I bought "The Force Awakens".  It's still amazing and I love it.  I am super stoked for "Rogue One".  That is all.