It's been a while...!

Meow! My my, blogging is hard to keep up when you're in rehearsals from 10am-6pm six days of the week! Sorry it's been a while but I am hoping to make amends with my next few posts :) I won't be doing separate weekly posts for the weeks that I've missed but will instead pick out some highlights and share them with you now, hope that will suffice :D

First I'll update you on all things Cats and what we've been up to in rehearsals!

In the opening number, we pick out a guy in the audience and will no doubt make him feel rather uncomfortable as 22 cats stare straight at him and sing about his ignorance of Jellicle Cats, before informing him and the rest of the audience exactly what they are :) When we first learnt this section of choreo we were all fixing our focus on different spots in the studio so we eventually got creative by drawing and labelling our very own 'Man' which makes me chuckle every time I look at it!

Gus: There's a man over there, with a look of surprise.. As much as to say 'Well now how about that?'
Munkustrap: Do I actually see with my own very eyes, a man who's not heard of a Jellicle Cat?

To help us get used to how they would move and get into character we were introduced to our rehearsal tails!!! Such a weird sentence to type! Needless to say, when I saw this box sitting inconspicuously in the studio I got far too over-excited and couldn't wait to pick one out! 

Enric, Kelsie and I showing off our new tails! 

It's actually crazy how quickly you get used to wearing them! I don't feel right when I'm running through the show without mine anymore :) we have to be aware of them when we are pirouetting/whirlygigging (!) and also negotiate ways around not sitting on them while we are rolling around on the floor being feline! But like I said, I am getting far too comfortable wearing mine.. I even wear it for lunch breaks, am surprised I haven't worn it home yet...!

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Royal Caribbean and Dreamworks have teamed up to offer character meet and greets, parades and lots more on board some of their ships! The Oasis is one of the ships that will feature the Dreamworks characters and we were lucky enough to meet some of the characters at the studios as the Oasis Dreamworks cast were rehearsing :)

Dom, Lee and I with the Pengiuns from Madagascar!

Apparently the penguins had to cross 4 lanes of traffic to get to the studios to interact with us! Can't imagine what the people of Hollywood thought of that! Too funny :) Why did the penguins cross the road?!

Kelsie and I with Kung Fu Panda :)

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So Cats and being a Cat has kind of taken over my life... I find myself gesturing to things using a paw instead of a point and when we run our other show, Come Fly With Me, find it difficult to break out of being a kitty! We've been spending a bit of time improvising whilst being a Cat - how they sit, how they walk, how they run, how they move in general, how they react to sounds/situations, how they feel, how they interact and so on and so forth! Very valuable research to do for the show :)

As of midweek this week we've now learnt the whole show; from opening to bows and every wonderful moment in between! Hooray! Sometimes we were a tad overwhelmed with learning lyrics/harmonies etc... especially for a section in the show where we portray a Siamese Cat army... haha! I was unfamiliar with this part of the show and it took a while for me and most others to get the lyrics in our heads...

This was my roommate Kelsie really trying learn the words for the Siamese one break time! If I had been wearing a hoodie I would have been doing the same thing too! 

We did get there in the end however so all is well! Pheeeeew! Since learning all of the material rehearsals have focused on cleaning, working with click tracks to set the tempo for each number, tightening up transitions between numbers, developing our cat characteristics, identifying our relationships with the other Cats in the tribe and just really trying to pull the show together! We ran the show from start to finish for the first time the other day which felt awesome :) and we've just started adding the mics in too! It is such a pleasure to get to do this show, I can't even put it into words! Cannot wait to get onto the ship and explore the set to see where Syllabub's favourite place to sit actually looks like :)

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For me, Cats is such an iconic and amazing show, and over the last couple of weeks I have tried on my costumes for Syllabub, had my wig fitting and been given a tutorial on my very complex Cat make-up! I was sooooooo unbelievably excited for each of these to happen and literally couldn't keep the smile off my face as I saw myself transforming into Syllabub bit by bit! I haven't tried everything on all at once so I have had snippets of what I will look like eventually so cannot WAIT to put it all together :) and also I can't wait to see what the rest of my cast will look like once they're transformed into kitties too! I have a feeling it will be hard to recognise some of them :) Unfortunately I can't post any pictures of my time in wigs, costume or make up because I was never in them all at once and wouldn't want to ruin the full effect! Be assured that as soon as I can, you will be inundated with photos of me as a kitty! Bet you can't wait! 

Right! That's all for my recap on rehearsals! Will aim to get my food roundup on here soon too :) 

Meeeeeeow! :) 

Rum Tum Tucker #3

Wow... so it's been rather a long while since I last posted to my blog! I've had a very busy couple of weeks with rehearsals, an amazing week with my boyfriend, a trip to New York and more rehearsals! I have been taking lots of pictures to remind me what to write about though so I will attempt to catch up with myself today :) here goes! 

I'll start with my food blog from a few weeks back! 

Our Old Deuteronomy, Trent, had his birthday this week - this was his amazing birthday cake :) 

It was layered cake; vanilla and chocolate! Very light and fluffy, the icing was great too! 

While in Publix I came across a few varieties of lemonade and opted to try the Mango Lemonade variety! Very thirst-quenching and fresh! 

I also tried some french toast... I wasn't the biggest fan of this! It was a bit soggy and didn't really taste of much! Never mind :)

I also picked up my first lot of vegetables since I've been here! I felt like I was back at home with this meal :) chicken kiev, rice and veg! It was sooooo good though :) home comforts! 

When I was younger I always used to drink the powdered Nesquik milkshake but saw that they had it in syrup form here so decided to give it a try! It has the taste I remember but you don't have the powder stuck to the bottom of your glass - genius!  

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On Saturday we came into the break room to find a scrummy surprise from the office staff at Royal Caribbean :) lots of boxes of Dunkin' Donuts!

Here's Enric with one of the boxes! Such a nice treat :)  

This is donut I shared - had vanilla cream inside and powdered sugar on top! 

Me enjoying my donut :) 

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On Sunday I went to dinner at the Cheesecake Factory with Enric and Kelsie... 

I ordered a Long Island Iced Tea...

...and a Macaroni and Cheese Burger with Sweet Potato Fries :) delicious!

And I couldn't eat at the Cheesecake Factory without ordering cheesecake! This week I opted for the Red Velvet Cheesecake! Cannot even tell you how good this was :) 

So that's it for my food craziness this week! 

Until next time, meow! 

Week #3 In Miami - The Start of Cats Rehearsals!

Hello there! It's time for my weekly round-up of all things rehearsal related :) and non-rehearsal related ramblings too! Apologies for being a day late posting this week, was procrastinating and relaxing rather a lot on my day off yesterday!

As I mentioned in my last post, WE STARTED CATS REHEARSALS THIS WEEK! :D Haha, sorry! But yay, I got to actually take on Syllabub and start trying to figure out what kind of kitten she is! Actually, on that subject, in my vocal score her name is spelt 'Sillabub' so am now having an identity crisis... will investigate! Still super excited that I am a Cat :) Have calmed down now... sort of..!

So on Monday morning the Cats and I met with our creative team and had an amazing few hours listening to Chrissie (our rehearsal director/choreographer) introduce us to the show, share amazing anecdotes and Cats facts, inform us about our Cat personalities and talk about the progression of the show from the opening number to the finale. I have to say that as per my usual theatre-geek self I took lots of notes as she spoke but the first word I wrote on my notepad was 'surreal!' I wrote this as we were going around the circle introducing ourselves and saying which Cat we would be playing... It's crazy! Cats is a musical that I've grown up watching, enjoying and loving; I know the names of all the Cats, what they do in the show and now I was a part of that! Too amazing :)

Hehe :) 

After our introduction, we spent the afternoon with our musical director learning the vocals for Jellicle Songs for Jellicle Cats (the opening number of the show) I have to just say here that every time I tried to type the word 'Jellicle' on my voice memos as I was recording sections of harmonies etc, autocorrect tried it's best to take over! Can't remember what it's alternative suggestions were now but there were some interesting ones... why not try typing it in and see what you get?!

After vocal rehearsals I decided I needed to get busy and organise my vocal score so I went to Target and purchased highlighters, pencils and page markers and got creative...

During the week, my collection of Cat's voice memos grew and grew as we learnt all of the ensemble vocal work for Act One and parts of Act Two; loved every minute :)  

On Tuesday, we had a warm up with Chrissie and we started exploring the physicality of cats and how we can interpret their mannerisms and the way they move, a key skill to be able to have in this show for obvious reasons! I will be taking lots of inspiration from Sweet-Pea, George and Lizzie; my three family cats to help me out on this.

Before I left for Miami, my amazing mum bought me some warm up socks with paws printed on the bottom! So cute and so appropriate! I have been wearing them everyday for our warm ups :) meow!

We then started dance rehearsals and began tackling the epic number that is the Jellicle Ball which closes act one. We actually spent a few days this week learning this one as it has so many different intricate sections that we had to piece together... For me, this dance is everything! If you haven't seen it before, click here to have a look! The choreography is wonderfully creative and compliments the musical score so amazingly well, and from watching it over and over again I was excited to get stuck in! It was amazing to recognise sections or specific movements from watching the choreography and to actually be dancing them was insane :D

In other news: 

You know you're a dancer when you are covered in bruises from throwing yourself all over the place and attempting new movement combinations etc! These past couple of weeks I have had more than my fair share of bruises, but unfortunately bruises aren't the end of it.... MOSQUITOS! I hate them with a passion! At one point this week I had seven bites on my calves/shins alone!!! Thought I'd share a few of my maladies with you...

These I believe were briefcase inflicted...

Just a selection of my multiple mosquito bites!

No idea where this one came from! 

Anyways... onto the next thing! All my friends at home will know that I am slightly completely obsessed with nail polish and may own quite a few lot of bottles!!! Hmmm... so I stopped into CVS one night this week and found some Sally Hansen nail wraps kits that I've never come across in the UK so I thought I'd give them a try :)

I chose the design called '340 - Girl Flower'

The kit includes 16 different sized nail wraps, a cuticle stick and mini nail file!
 

This was the finished result! They are meant to last for up to 10 days and look so amazing :) There were very clear instructions and they were super easy to apply! Hopefully they'll be available in the UK soon!

Lastly but far from least; I had a package arrive at the studios for me this week... I was very much intrigued as I wasn't expecting anything and when I opened the box I had a note that told me I had to phone my boyfriend MJ once I had seen what was inside...curious! Now what was inside was an absolute shock and a dream :D a pair of LaDuca dance heels :D I had been wanting to get my feet in a pair of these for ages but you can only buy them in New York... But being the wonderful person that he is, MJ had somehow organised for them to be delivered straight to me! I hadn't even mentioned to him that I would love a pair or anything..he's very good at researching too ;) Thank you again!!! Xxx

So yes! All in all this week has been a very awesome one indeed :) I'll be writing my third instalment of Rum Tum Tucker shortly; keep a look out!

Meow :)

The Oasis of the Seas

Yesterday, my kittens and I had morning rehearsals and then we piled into a minibus to make our way to Fort Lauderdale to visit our new floating home: The Oasis of the Seas!

Excited was an understatement! I have never seen/been on a cruise ship before so I really had no idea what to expect... I knew that the Oasis is the largest cruise ship in the world but had nothing to compare it to so everything was a surprise! It. Is. HUGE! Like, HUGE! Until you see it you can't even imagine! :)

I took quite a few photos, and also filmed a few areas to make a video to share with you all!

My first glimpse of the Oasis in the distance from the minibus 

My visitor badges issued by port officials

Kelsie, Dom and I getting all excited on the gangway to the Oasis

The entrance to our new theatre home - The Opal Theatre in Entertainment Place

Sneaky side view of the stage from the wings

Looking up at the lifts to the top of the ship from deck four

Guide to areas on each deck (if you zoom in you can read them all!)

Panoramic view of Port Everglades from the Windjammer Marketplace restaurant on deck sixteen

Another view from somewhere on the ship! 

Water attractions on deck fifteen 

FlowRider on deck fifteen - I would be rubbish at this!!!

Apparently I like taking photos of flags.... hahaha! 

Oasis of the Seas life ring

We only had about 45 minutes or so to dash around and explore the ship while we weren't rehearsing so didn't manage to get photos of everything but I will have plenty of time for that in the future months :)

Here is a video of the Royal Promenade, Central Park and Opal Theatre (where we will be performing 'Cats' and 'Come Fly With Me.' Please try to ignore my horrendous commentary!!!)


Hope you enjoyed my photos and video :) gives you a little insight to the Oasis! I shall leave you with one final picture...

Kittens sad to be leaving the ship behind!

We received our Cats scores on Friday and are starting our Cats rehearsals TOMORROW! Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! Cannot wait! Next week I am sure I will have lots of feline news to inform you all about!

Until then, meow!

Rum Tum Tucker #2

So it seems I took more photos of food this week than I did for my actual weekly summary :) that sums me up completely! Will jump straight into it...

This week, my roommate Kelsie and I tested a few of the food places near the studios for our lunches. First up was Pita Pockets:

We both ordered the Chicken Caesar Pitta which was delicious and very filling :) we enjoyed our lunch here so much that we visited again later in the week! 

We also copied each other on our choice of beverage! We don't have Snapple in the UK as far as I'm aware but there are many flavours available in the States. We tried Kiwi Strawberry flavour which was yummy and very thirst quenching :) 

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The next local place we tried was Miami Subs Grill. We had a particularly long lunch break this day and thought we'd opt for a slightly larger helping of food to give us some energy for our full run through of Come Fly With Me... 

I ordered a Philly Cheesesteak Sub with Spicy Fries... YUM! Sooo good! I did have an issue saying the name of the sub... variants included Chilly Peesesteak, Philly Cheesecake etc haha! 

You can fill up your drinks cup with any beverage in Miami Subs Grill. They had an awesomely amazing machine (shown above) with so many different choices. Once you had selected one of the brands you could then pick which flavour of that particular product too! I opted for something I hadn't tried before; Mello Yello Peach flavour... again, very nice! 

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Despite eating out for lunch a few times this week, I continued to make my own dinners in the evening! I've pretty much been surviving on different types of pasta this week. One intriguingly named sauce I found to accompany this was this one.. 

Yes you read that right... Vodka Sauce... To me it just tastes like a Tomato and Mascarpone type sauce.. I checked, and there is vodka listed in the ingredients list however! Thought this was amusing! Alcoholic pasta sauce! 

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I went for shopping trips to Target and Publix this week and picked up a few new things to try, also took pictures of things to make you all jealous that I am yet to purchase and test out :) 

Me with an armful of goodies! Bought some Bacon Mac and Cheese flavoured crisps - very scrummy actually!

Also saw Cappuccino flavoured crisps... Had to do a double take when I walked past these bad boys... Needless to say I didn't buy these as I hate coffee and couldn't imagine coffee and potato as being a very good combination! 

The little blue bag you can see in the shopping haul picture above was S'mores flavoured Goldfish Grahams which look like this when you open the packet :) very impressed with these little fish! Moreish is an understatement! 

These are something I have wanted to try since watching Mercedes on Glee have a hissy fit because they were removed from their high school lunch menu... wow... stagey much?! Anyway! Just had to try these :) 

Cooked Tater Tots with a yummy Cheeseburger as a Saturday night treat :) 

Also tried Cheetos Puffs which were abnormally huge to say the least and took me by surprise when I opened the packet! Had a bit of a giggle with these while video calling my boyfriend MJ (mangooftheland.blogspot.co.uk) one evening this week...

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My family are addicted to Oreos. Fact. I already posted an image of the first variety I tried last week but I am still working my way through those so nothing new to report on this week. However! I took some photos of all the awesome Oreo based desserts available from Publix :) take a look! 

 Cannot wait to get my hands of some of these :)

That's all food wise for this week! Looking forward to discovering more next week!

Meow x