Scratch that thought

It's crazy how fast things and decisions can change. Whitney and I ended up turning down the offer for Little Theatre on the Square. It just was NOT enough money to pay for our apartment in New York. The couple subletting our apartment decided to leave as originally planned and we don't want to be paying rent when we're not living there. We feel really good about our decision. We'll be back in the city and I might get my tonsils taken out in Iowa before my birthday, so this will be a good time off for us. Plus, we were just offered the ensemble for the gig anyway and we're getting to the point in our career where we have to turn down work to get what we want.
On another note - Clemmons/Dewing casting called me in for an appointment for the role of Frank Jr. in the "Catch Me If You Can" tour and unfortunately I can't go because I'm still in the middle of the ocean... really?

Future Contracts

If you didn’t read our past blog about summer work, Whitney and I are doing Summer Stock theatre in Sullivan Illinois with Little Theatre on the Square.

My contract begins May 21^st through July 28^th

Whitney’s begins June 7^th through August 12^th

We will be there for 10 weeks receiving 10 Equity points and performing in 4 different Musicals.

We will both be doing Pirates of Penzance, Music Man, and 7 Brides for 7 Brothers.

I will be opening the season with Grease and Whitney will be closing the season with 9 to 5. We are very excited to be again working with each other.

Now we just have to wait and see if we get cast in Legally Blonde with the Palace Theatre in New Hampshire. It would literally be during the break from the Cruise to the summer theatre gig.  4 weeks long, April 23^rd – May 20^th. Yikes. If we both get cast there is no telling if we would even take it. We would love to be able to visit NYC and our families before the summer gig would start, but we’ll keep you all updated.

Smash

We LOVE SMASH:

This is a new show about Broadway Musical Theatre and it’s so good!

We mainly love it so much because it reminds us what we actually are striving for in the city. It’s been 9 months since we’ve been in New York or auditioned for anything and this show gives us the excitement to go back to it. The cast is excellent, the writing is good, there is nothing really that we would complain about. It’s on NBC on Monday nights and if you are not caught up – go on the Internet and try to watch from the beginning.

Blah and Yay

Well we are soo behind – this blog was supposed to be posted 2 weeks ago but here it is now…

March 10th

Wow – a few weeks since our last blog. I think we’re such in a routine that we feel like our lives aren’t exciting enough to update you all. That, or we’re just lazy…

2 weeks ago Kevin and Marissa (Whit’s sister and bro-in-law) came on board for a week on the Eastern cruise. They got a steal of a deal. Our friends signed them on and their cruise was only $140. Not bad for a vacation. We had a fun time with them, pictures below. 

 March 10th

 This past week was a really bad week for Whit and me. We had a disagreement with Corporate. With every job – there is always some rule or policy that you don’t agree with. Well, when you eat in the formal dining room, at the end of the cruise you are supposed to tip for the whole week.  Yes, we agree with this, but our tips were stolen, and we had to pay them again. We all left our tips in the envelopes in Marissa and Kevin’s stateroom for the stateroom attendant to distribute them. Well, apparently that is a major no-no especially when leaving cash and they got stolen. We’re not talking about $20, we’re talking over $100! Whitney and I were chewed out by our boss and said that we would have to pay the dining room staff regardless. It was unfortunate.

Then, Whitney wanted to go back to blonde before we got back to New York and since her parents are coming on the Cruise for the second time next week she wanted to surprise them. So she went to the spa on our ship because some girls had gotten their highlights done and it turned out great. Well, if you don’t know Whitney’s past hair salon experiences… no    one    can    do     her    hair    properly… she always comes home mortified with how her hair looks. And I’ll be the first to admit that it’s not just her own psyche telling her, it usually is a disaster. Whitney is normally very cool about her hair – it doesn’t need to be perfect. With that said, she gives way too much grace when someone messes her hair up.

Exhibit A : Problem #1

Language Barrier

a.     Andrea, the woman who did Whitney’s hair from the spa on the ship, is from Hungary and she could speak English but it wasn’t perfected.

b.     Whitney tells every little detail on what she wants with her hair

c.      Andrea tells Whitney her hair is too red – so she is going to highlight and darken the rest…

d.     ???

e.     Whitney, confused… says she doesn’t want darker

f.      ???

g.     Whit decides to trust Hungary’s opinion

Exhibit B : Problem #2

Dark Roots

a.     Hungary starts putting the dark color in her roots and down both sides of forehead

b.     Whitney’s eyes get very big… (trust, trust, trust, don’t be a diva..)

Exhibit C : Problem #3

Hair is ruined and it’s too late

a.      Whitney’s hair is now very dark with light light highlights… she thinks she looks somewhere in her 60s

b.     Hungary says she’s proud of herself because she thinks she did a good job

c.      Whitney basically runs out of there

d.     Nathan tries to cheer her up

e.      Unsuccessful

Solution

1.      A couple days later, Friday in Cozumel Mexico, Whitney emails best friend Brittany Bagwell and explains what has happened. She ends up asking her to call a Salon near our port in Florida and beg someone to come in on Sunday since they are closed and fix her hair. 20 minutes later, Brittany emails back and says she has an appointment for 10am with the owner of the salon! What are friends for?!

Let’s hope that it can be fixed!

Now onto me and my problem. Back in November I dislocated my left shoulder when I was lifting weights in the gym. I wasn’t being stupid or lifting more than I could handle, I just have weak shoulders to begin with and when you’re in the gym constantly there’s bound to be some kind of injury. Well it was my turn. It popped right back into place but ever since then I have been having on and off pain. It got so inconsistent that I went back to Medical and demanded an MRI. In order to get an MRI – I had to get an appointment on shoreside at one of our ports. So I got scheduled in Grand Cayman. Long story short, I waited for 3 hours to be told that the doctor was busy doing clinics all morning and didn’t have time to see me. I was blown away by this. The place was a dump and I couldn’t believe that I wasted so much time to be turned away.

I went back to medical and they then scheduled me for Cozumel for the following day. I was going with my buddy Jonny from our cast because he blew out his knee so I was glad to have some company. This hospital was a lot nicer and we got to see the doctor right away. He gave me an x-ray – even though I knew I didn’t need one because I knew there was nothing wrong with the bone. After he examined the x-ray and found nothing wrong, he told me that I would have to come back in 2 weeks for a follow up and if my shoulder was still bothering me I could get the MRI then…

Haha, are you kidding me? I told him that the MRI was the only reason why I was there and that I wasn’t leaving without one. After long discussion Jonny and I both got an MRI. Finally!! Each MRI took about an hour, it was extremely uncomfortable but we were both so happy to be getting answers. We ended up being there for 4.5 hours. It’ll take another few days to get the results. So I’m hoping whatever it is, it can be fixed. The good thing about all of this is that it has cost me nothing because the ship has taken care of it. God Bless! The other flip side of this story is that the Hospital’s wi-fi Internet was flying! I was able to do SO much on my computer. It was fantastic! I was telling our cast that everyone could just go to the Hospital in Mexico and pretend they had something wrong with them just to use the Internet.

March 25^th

Results…

Whitney got her hair fixed and it looks a lot better – she will be going back in a couple of weeks to go a little blonder.

My MRI showed nothing negative about my shoulder so I don’t need any treatment. The doctor thinks the pain was more psychological than anything; there could be some truth to that because ever since my MRI I haven’t been feeling much pain… weird.

Whitney’s parents and friends, Phil and Naomi, came on board March 11^th and we all had a great time!

Whitney and I got an offer from Little Theatre on the Square to do Summer Stock Theatre this summer and we accepted.

We will be there for 10 weeks

I will be in:

Grease

Pirates of Penzance

7 Brides for 7 Brothers

Music Man

Whitney will be in :

Pirates of Penzance

7 Brides for 7 Brothers

Music Man

9 to 5

It will be so much fun and we get 10 Equity points  - HOORAY!