theater people
Feb. 27th, 2007 09:21 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gilanaThe last few days of my trip were definitely the best. Friday night I went to see the ship's production show. They had a show every night, with singers, dancers, acrobats, etc. During the variety show on the first night, I was watching the dance ensemble. When I watch a group of dancers, I generally tend to look at them all and pick out one as a favorite to focus on. This time, that was incredibly easy. There were about six female dancers and men men. I started by looking at the men, and as soon as I started looking, one of them stood out so much that I never even got around to watching the women. He was just bursting with energy, every move he made was clean and precise and measured, every line was graceful, and he was clearly giving it everything he had, not holding anything back. He made all the other dancers look sloppy and lazy by comparison. Just a thing of beauty to look at. Even when he was standing still, the way he held himself was simply magnetic. (The fact that he was gorgeous, with killer cheekbones and a lovely build, didn't hurt, but he could have been the elephant man and I still would have enjoyed watching him.)
Anyway. The Friday night show focussed on the dancers, and he really blew my mind even more than before. Afterwards, I went up to the Cruise Director, Stefano, and asked him for the dancer's name, and told him how great I thought he was. Stefano seemed very pleased to hear it, and said that his name was Stephen and that he would be performing in one of the smaller entertainments going on that night, that I should tell him myself how much I had enjoyed his dancing.
They had little skits and dance lessons and such going on in four areas of the shop that night, repeated four times, about different countries -- France, Spain, Greece, and Egypt. I went to the French one first, got there late, but didn't see Stephen. Went on to Greece, went up to someone that I thought looked like he might possibly be him although I was dubious, and asked if he was Stephen. He said no, his name was Lucian. He was standing with another guy named Gareth -- I had noticed his name tag said "Gareth Davies" the day before, and thought how Welsh that sounded. I started talking to Gareth, who was in fact from London but seemed impressed that I recognize the name was Welsh. We started talking about Doctor Who and totally bonded :) And then it turns out he went to drama school, so we were talking about theater as well.
Anyway, soon he had to leave to prepare for the next show, so I saw Stefano there and asked him which area Stephen was performing in. He said France, so I went back down there and sat through the whole show , but Stephen came on after the intro and left with the rest of the dancers immediately after their bit. After the show, I talked to the woman from the cruise staff who was running that show, and she said she'd see what she could do. Sat through the whole show *again* (but hey, I got to watch Stephen do the Can-Can again) and after that one, she beckoned me backstage, where I finally got to talk to him. I told him how much I had enjoyed his dancing throughout the cruise, what amazing energy and precision he had, and how when he was onstage, I forgot to look at anyone else. He seemed very pleased, asked which show I had enjoyed most, we chatted for a few seconds, then they had to go prepare for the last show.
I went back to the Greek performance where Lucian and Gareth where, and got to learn to dance the Sirtake (which I keep hearing as Shitake.) I love learning dances like that, and it was easy to pick up, so that was a lot of fun. Afterwards, they mentioned that they'd be in the disco that night. A few of the folks from my group had been hanging out at the disco every night, but it was really crowded and smoky and mostly the music they played wasn't my thing. But I went that night, and once the guys finally finished their work and got there, I had a blast dancing with them. They have a 2am curfew, sadly -- have to be out of the passenger area by then -- so they couldn't stay too long.
I spent a lot of Saturday going to the events that they were putting on, and chatting with them between work stuff. Turns out Lucian (Luc for short) went to Uni in Cardiff, and was in a pub one night when the Torchwood folks were there. He asked one guy what he did and Burn Gorman replied "Actually, I'm in this show called Torchwood..." I'm so jealous.
Saturday night was Roman night. The ship supplied togas for everyone (and it was amazing how many passengers on the ship were wearing them, although not many from the Jewish group) and they had a ship-wide talent show. (I'll have to do a separate post about the Jewish group's talent show -- my hula went over very well!) They had the cruise staff and dancers onstage, the cruise director was Caesar, Luc and one of the other cruise staff were lions to feed the bad acts to, and they were all goofing around onstage and through the audience during the acts. I felt bad for the performers -- it was pulling focus on a ridiculous scale, and I know I would have been *pissed* -- but I have to admit it was a lot of fun to watch. At one point Gareth and a guy named Eric disappeared from the stage and came back dressed at Robin and Batman, and had a fight onstage with some of the Roman centurion dancers, complete with sound-effect cards held up by the other dancers. After each act Eric would ask the audience if the act was good or bad -- should it be sent to the midnight buffet or the lions. Mostly you'd only hear people yelling "buffet!", but every now and then you'd hear a few voices calling "Lions!" and see that the lions had snuck into the audience and were voting for a snack. I'm sure it would have been fun no matter what, but it's always so much more fun when you know the people onstage, so it was fun to see what my friends were doing up there.
Sunday morning people had different gathering points for disembarkation at different times. Luc was the one stationed in my area, and I was the first one there, so we got to sit and chat and start to really get to know each other. He's a really great guy. We talked about work and travel and kosher and all kinds of stuff. We exchanged email addresses and I got his MySpace info, and I invited him to come stay if he ever makes it to Boston. Sadly, even after an hour delay, all too soon I had to leave the ship. Gareth was the one leading us out, so I got the chance to say goodbye to him, too, and I had given him my email address the day before.
Through most of my trip, I had been hanging out with a small group of women from the Jewish group. They were teasing me all that day about my new friends, and how I was abandoning them from the guys. I suppose I was, really, although I did make an effort to see the women as well. I was thinking about it later, trying to figure out why I felt so much more comfortable with Luc and Gareth than with most of the people in my group, and I realized -- they're theater people. Gareth literally, and I don't know if Luc has done any previous acting, but what they do all day is really performing for people. Don't know why, but somehow those seem to be the people I enjoy. I think I'm ruined for normal society now -- although come to think of it, even in high school I was hanging out with the theater crowd.
Anyway. Haven't heard from them yet, but they have very little free time and not a lot of net access. I hope that we do keep in touch and that I get to see them again some day, but even if I don't, it was a great time.
Anyway. The Friday night show focussed on the dancers, and he really blew my mind even more than before. Afterwards, I went up to the Cruise Director, Stefano, and asked him for the dancer's name, and told him how great I thought he was. Stefano seemed very pleased to hear it, and said that his name was Stephen and that he would be performing in one of the smaller entertainments going on that night, that I should tell him myself how much I had enjoyed his dancing.
They had little skits and dance lessons and such going on in four areas of the shop that night, repeated four times, about different countries -- France, Spain, Greece, and Egypt. I went to the French one first, got there late, but didn't see Stephen. Went on to Greece, went up to someone that I thought looked like he might possibly be him although I was dubious, and asked if he was Stephen. He said no, his name was Lucian. He was standing with another guy named Gareth -- I had noticed his name tag said "Gareth Davies" the day before, and thought how Welsh that sounded. I started talking to Gareth, who was in fact from London but seemed impressed that I recognize the name was Welsh. We started talking about Doctor Who and totally bonded :) And then it turns out he went to drama school, so we were talking about theater as well.
Anyway, soon he had to leave to prepare for the next show, so I saw Stefano there and asked him which area Stephen was performing in. He said France, so I went back down there and sat through the whole show , but Stephen came on after the intro and left with the rest of the dancers immediately after their bit. After the show, I talked to the woman from the cruise staff who was running that show, and she said she'd see what she could do. Sat through the whole show *again* (but hey, I got to watch Stephen do the Can-Can again) and after that one, she beckoned me backstage, where I finally got to talk to him. I told him how much I had enjoyed his dancing throughout the cruise, what amazing energy and precision he had, and how when he was onstage, I forgot to look at anyone else. He seemed very pleased, asked which show I had enjoyed most, we chatted for a few seconds, then they had to go prepare for the last show.
I went back to the Greek performance where Lucian and Gareth where, and got to learn to dance the Sirtake (which I keep hearing as Shitake.) I love learning dances like that, and it was easy to pick up, so that was a lot of fun. Afterwards, they mentioned that they'd be in the disco that night. A few of the folks from my group had been hanging out at the disco every night, but it was really crowded and smoky and mostly the music they played wasn't my thing. But I went that night, and once the guys finally finished their work and got there, I had a blast dancing with them. They have a 2am curfew, sadly -- have to be out of the passenger area by then -- so they couldn't stay too long.
I spent a lot of Saturday going to the events that they were putting on, and chatting with them between work stuff. Turns out Lucian (Luc for short) went to Uni in Cardiff, and was in a pub one night when the Torchwood folks were there. He asked one guy what he did and Burn Gorman replied "Actually, I'm in this show called Torchwood..." I'm so jealous.
Saturday night was Roman night. The ship supplied togas for everyone (and it was amazing how many passengers on the ship were wearing them, although not many from the Jewish group) and they had a ship-wide talent show. (I'll have to do a separate post about the Jewish group's talent show -- my hula went over very well!) They had the cruise staff and dancers onstage, the cruise director was Caesar, Luc and one of the other cruise staff were lions to feed the bad acts to, and they were all goofing around onstage and through the audience during the acts. I felt bad for the performers -- it was pulling focus on a ridiculous scale, and I know I would have been *pissed* -- but I have to admit it was a lot of fun to watch. At one point Gareth and a guy named Eric disappeared from the stage and came back dressed at Robin and Batman, and had a fight onstage with some of the Roman centurion dancers, complete with sound-effect cards held up by the other dancers. After each act Eric would ask the audience if the act was good or bad -- should it be sent to the midnight buffet or the lions. Mostly you'd only hear people yelling "buffet!", but every now and then you'd hear a few voices calling "Lions!" and see that the lions had snuck into the audience and were voting for a snack. I'm sure it would have been fun no matter what, but it's always so much more fun when you know the people onstage, so it was fun to see what my friends were doing up there.
Sunday morning people had different gathering points for disembarkation at different times. Luc was the one stationed in my area, and I was the first one there, so we got to sit and chat and start to really get to know each other. He's a really great guy. We talked about work and travel and kosher and all kinds of stuff. We exchanged email addresses and I got his MySpace info, and I invited him to come stay if he ever makes it to Boston. Sadly, even after an hour delay, all too soon I had to leave the ship. Gareth was the one leading us out, so I got the chance to say goodbye to him, too, and I had given him my email address the day before.
Through most of my trip, I had been hanging out with a small group of women from the Jewish group. They were teasing me all that day about my new friends, and how I was abandoning them from the guys. I suppose I was, really, although I did make an effort to see the women as well. I was thinking about it later, trying to figure out why I felt so much more comfortable with Luc and Gareth than with most of the people in my group, and I realized -- they're theater people. Gareth literally, and I don't know if Luc has done any previous acting, but what they do all day is really performing for people. Don't know why, but somehow those seem to be the people I enjoy. I think I'm ruined for normal society now -- although come to think of it, even in high school I was hanging out with the theater crowd.
Anyway. Haven't heard from them yet, but they have very little free time and not a lot of net access. I hope that we do keep in touch and that I get to see them again some day, but even if I don't, it was a great time.
