Ahoy there!   I hope your new school year has been going swimmingly!
 
I know in my post at the end of the last school year I said I would start blogging again once summer has ended, but I just wanted to let you all know that I won’t be posting until mid-October.  This summer ended up being a bit more stressful than I’d anticipated, starting, sadly, with my mother’s passing, but ending on a better note with buying a new home in a Rocky Mountains foothills town, just south of Boulder.  Both, along with a few other life-events, have been taking up a lot of my time and energy as you can imagine. (Photo is a view of my backyard – definitely a way from the ocean!)
 
In any case, better times are on the horizon!  I’ll be taking a cruise on the Utopia of the Seas in early October, and I have arranged to interview some theatre crew - and also hopefully a “cruise-tuber” who is currently on board! - and then I’ll be bringing you lots more posts about what it’s like to work on a shipboard theatre!
 
So please hang in there, I’ll be back sometime around mid-October!
 
 
Please Like and Comment – I’d love to hear from you! Thanks!
 
Curious about working on a cruise ship?  Check out the Master Class
 
Serious about working on a cruise ship?  Check out the Discovery Cruise

Hello Everyone!
 
I'll be taking a hiatus from blogging over the summer, and will be back in early September.
 
All the same, summer is the perfect time for YOU to take your Discovery Cruise, so please don't hesitate to contact me if you'd like to find out more about that.
https://www.cruisetechies.com/discovery-cruise.html
 
Summer is also the time to catch up on any blog posts you may have missed!  Check the side bar down on the right for quick links to blogs about discovery cruises, job info, ship info, and my latest cruise on the Norwegian Bliss!
 
A happy and safe summer to everyone!
 
Curious about working on a cruise ship?  Check out the Master Class
 
Serious about working on a cruise ship?  Check out the Discovery Cruise

When you go on your Discovery Cruise you are most welcome to bring along any family and friends that you’d like – may as well make a vacation of it, too!  However, please remember that only you will be able to meet with the theatre staff.
 
But, sometimes you need to, or want to,  go on your Discovery Cruise on your own.  You can if you are over 21.
 
Here’s some things to know about if you are traveling solo…

​One of the things you may be curious about is what experience do you need on lighting and sound consoles before you can work in a theatre on a cruise ship.  I have a friend who used to work on cruise ships who mentioned using a GrandMA, which, if you’re not familiar with it, is a concert-grade light board. Most productions on board ships are musicals, so you may or may not run across that level of console control.

Here's what to expect…

​We’ve been talking a lot about what it’s like to work in a theatre on a cruise ship, but what is it like to actually live on the ship, too?
 
As we saw in a previous blog post, a crew member’s contract can be around 6 months.  That’s a long time to be away from home, living in a small – usually shared – space. Let’s look at some insight about crew turnover from Joie and Abby, aboard the Norwegian Bliss…

​In many ways, stage managing a show on a ship is the same as stage managing a show in high school or university, or any other land-based theatre.  You manage the rehearsals and tech week, make sure the cast is in places, call the cues.  But in some ways, there are differences.

​
While I was on the Norwegian Bliss, I asked Abby,
the Production Stage Manager for “Jersey Boys”,
​about women in cruise ship tech theatre.
 
Here’s what she had to say…

​A cruise ship has a LOT of venues.  The Norwegian Bliss has the main theatre, and then there’s the Atrium, bars and night clubs, comedy clubs, lounges, poolside entertainment, and an outdoor movie screen.  And of course, all of these venues have sound and lighting systems.  And someone’s gotta run them.

Enter stage right the entertainment technicians.  I haven’t said ‘theatre technicians’ because not everyone works in the theatre per se.  At the time of this interview there were 14 technicians working on the Bliss.

“Jersey Boys” has:
2 audio techs; one front of house and one on deck
1 lighting technician
4 stage techs (props and smaller set pieces)
1 automation technician (as you will recall from previous blog posts, the stage has automated scenery)

Then there are:
6 lounge technicians

The theatre technicians tend to be specialists in their area – lighting, sound, sets, and they
usually have a theatre education and background, and have an understanding of the theatrical process.

Whereas the lounge technicians may be more ‘Jackies of all trades’.  Lounge technicians need to know how to set up a band, audio and video setups, how to run a basic lighting console and sound console, and understand patching (and when I say “basic”, these days that means digital boards). It's also important to know how to set up a band and make it sound good.  That involves a bit more expertise than just knowing how to turn mics on and off. 

If you are considering being a lounge technician, 

In this post we’ll be going behind the scenes of “Jersey Boys” on board the Norwegian Bliss, and looking at how a show moves from land to ship.
(Photo credit – NCL Image Assets, available to Travel Partners)
 
First, as with any show there are the rehearsal and tech periods. As you can imagine, these cannot possibly take place on the ships – there is nowhere on a ship where there would be enough space and time to rehearse.  Nor is there anywhere to build sets and costumes, or the opportunity to hang a new light plot, or set up the sound and a/v systems needed, and so on. So, this is all done ‘shoreside’ ahead of time.
 
In the case of Norwegian Cruise Lines the show is rehearsed and built at their Creative Studios facility in Tampa, Florida.  Following is a thumbnail timeline of how a show ends up in a theatre on a ship…

​This week’s blog is all about what would your daily schedule as a theatre technician look like, and how long would your contract be.
 
In chatting with Joie and Abby on board the Bliss (you can read all about them in the previous two blog posts), it seems that on average a theatre technician typically works a six month on six week off rotation (at least on Norwegian – other cruise lines may differ).  Joie, who has been doing this for 14 years, said it was more like five months for him, however he – and other techs – have occasionally been extended to seven months.  Abby on the other hand has had a more varied schedule. She was on the Bliss for eight months in 2022, then took a few months off – which she says, is the best part about working for cruise lines!  She was then on the Joy for four months, and then the Escape for a month.  She’s now been back on the Bliss for about seven months, and will be finishing that contract at the end of the month before taking a well-earned break.  So, as you can see, contract lengths can change for a variety of circumstances, but you should be prepared to be working on board for about six months at a time.  One reason why it’s important to take a Discovery Cruise first – because that’s a long commitment to jump into without having fully assessed what it would mean for you.
 
What about the daily work schedule of a theatre tech...