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Wed. May 30, 2007.

Last night started off with the Crew Chief, Andrew, who makes all the daily schedules, asking me if I had any plans in Skagway tomorrow. I smiled at him and asked if that was a rhetorical question. I knew what tomorrow entailed. He smiled back and nodded. Skagway was packed with rehearsal schedules, the most of any day of my contract so far. I really didn't mind though, since I've been in Skagway twice now and seen all the local fanfare. I'd like to take a trip on the White River Train at some point, but today wasn't it. Piano Man was the show of the day (even though we aren't performing it until tomorrow) and we ran it a total of four times. Since that show uses the singers and the live band, both groups of which are new to the ship this week, we had to pack in as much time as possible. It also took some adjustment on my part, as I was so used to the characteristics of all the recently debarked singers and musicians. Not that this group was worse, but it's a lot like driving a car that you're just comfortable with and then jumping in a new rig--just doesn't feel the same. I suppose at the end of the day it didn't matter since all the singers were happy with everything and the bandmaster had no notes for me either. I'm just making all kinds of friends.

As a side note, during the last rehearsal the Cruise Director (Josh) asked me for the decibel meter so he could take readings in the house. Talk about putting on the pressure! We're supposed to keep the levels under 90dB, and last week two people complained that the levels were too loud. The way I see it, that's two that didn't like it and close to 2000 that either didn't hate it enough to say anything or were basically content. Josh reported that the levels hovered around 86dB with peaks in the mid 90s. I can deal with that to be perfectly honest. I think if I had to run in the low 80s or high 70s people would start complaining about a performance venue being too quiet. I don't think anything will come of it. Besides, a couple of days ago I rang out the venue and balanced the main array with the delay speakers to make it sound a bit more even throughout the house. I run a tight ship.
:)

Tonight was also the crew show, which added the new bandmaster as the last act of the evening. No problems there, although that show is indeed more work for me than any of the production shows. Lots of disc swapping and everyone's doing something different. It's a lot like an amateur talent show, but the audience eats it up. I suppose that's why we're doing it every week.