I know...where have I been?!?! haha

Well, sorry that I've been a little out of pocket since my birthday. It has just gotten really CRAZY down here! We are now officially working on all 3 shows everyday and my brain feels like mush by 6 o'clock!!! Today we began by learning new things for "Piano Man" - then did a run of that show...after lunch we ran "Pure Country" which I can finally say is completely finished (it is the first show that we've finished everything for so far)...then we learned the finale of "Ballroom Fever" which means we are about 4/5 of the way through that show! I find myself singing my spanish songs with a very SOUTHERN twang after running the country show first though, so I'm glad that we do 2 runs of the same show each night on the ship. That way I can get in the right mindset for that particular show and I won't have to switch gears at 9 o'clock! haha

It looks like we are definitely doing "Pure Country" for our official run on Wed. the 21st. Incase you weren't sure, this is GREAT news for me!!! This is by far my favorite show and all I have heard is that we would be doing the ballroom show for our run because of our ballroom couple's leading role in it... BUT I'm sure that the main reason the office chose the country show is because we've officially learned everything for that one, so from here on out we'll just be able to run through the whole show over and over again. Where as with the other 2 shows we're still not finished with them, so it's hard to perfect something that you haven't learned yet...

Other than rehearsing from 10ish to 6ish everyday I do A LOT of sleeping right now. I'm absolutely exhausted and I can't wait to get past the learning process, onto the ship, and into the performing!!

I can't believe we fly out in 9 days, over night in Seattle, and board the ship May 23!! We'll have a 3 week "install" which will be almost as tiring as what we're doing now because we'll have to get used to the stage and having the actual props at our disposal, but once we get through that part it's smooth sailing the rest of the way...

I hope all is well at home! I miss everyone terribly!! It's good that I stay busy because if I didn't I would be a mess!

Keep praying that my brain continues to function to the best of it's ability!!! hahaha

His,
Kris

Show #3 Has Begun :)

OK - the first pic. is from our wild and crazy - yet very very HILARIOUS White Trash Christmas Party. Then I just liked this pic. of Roland and so I decided to add it as well!

First off: YAY I'm 24!!!! hahaha Today has been a really GREAT day! I got flowers from someone special *wink ;) and my cast got me a cake and a gift certificate to the mall. It was soooo sweet!!! We are going to have a nice dinner tomorrow night and then go to the beach Sunday so this will be a weekend of birthday celebrating! I can't wait!!!!!!!

Other than that, we started our 3rd show yesterday, so we are now working on "Piano Man". So, far I really like it. Our new director for this show is great and very laid back so we really get along well. I'm singing some really good stuff in this one: "Superstition" - Stevie Wonder, "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road"- Elton J., "Georgia on my Mind" - Ray C. etc etc. This one will most likely be my 2nd favorite next to the country show.

I will definitely say that all the material is starting to pile up now, so I'm really trying to be dedicated to all 3 shows...which is really hard! Learning new material and still trying to improve the last two shows is taking a tole on my mind, but it's coming along slowly but surely! AND I'm not alone in this battle - everyone is feeling the same way, so atleast I'm not the only one that feels this way.

Keep updating me on how things are going where you guys are! I love getting messages, texts, phone calls - just anything to keep me posted!!

His,

Kristian

Getting better everyday :)

Well, our whole cast was finally back at rehearsals today after having 1/2 of our girls get quarantined to a hotel with G.I. (gastro-intestinal something...) for 3 days. First Heather started the throw-up process on Wed. and by Thurs. we had 3 girls sick and they were sending someone to our apartment to disinfect EVERYTHING while the girls packed and headed to a hotel. But, thankfully everyone finally has medicine and is feeling a good bit better. AND I DIDN'T GET IT!!! YAY! hahaha :) I just can't afford to be so sick that I can't go to rehearsals right now. There's just too much that I need to learn and I have to do this stuff over and over and over to really grasp it so...I definitely can't be quarantined to a hotel room...though it would've been nice to have my own big bed, room service and my own t.v. to watch whatever I wanted for a night!
Even though rehearsals haven't been the same without the other cast members I will say that it's given me a lot of opportunity to work on my songs. Since no one else other than Eric and I have been able to sing we've really been able to focus on our songs when we're with the vocal director, so I feel really good about my part of the 2nd show so far. I'm finally starting to get the choreography, so now it's just a matter of making it look natural instead of like...well, choreography. :)
Other than that I should have some VERY interesting pictures to post after tonight because I will be attending our first themed party of the rehearsal period: "WHITE TRASH CHRISTMAS". Don't ask me what I'm gonna wear, but from what I understand everyone is expecting me to be the most creatively redneck because I'm from Alabama...I don't know if I appreciate the assumption, but never the less it should be a very interesting night for all of us! hahaha If you have suggestions please feel free to text or call!
I miss everyone like crazy, but I'm still having a blast down here! Don't forget about me while I'm hundreds of miles away!!!!

With Love,
Kristian

Ballroom Disaster!!

Oh WOW...that's all I can say! Today is the first day that we have actually worked with the choreographer for this show and let me just say that I have more movement in the very first song than I did in all of the country show combined!! I'm EVERYWHERE! Did I mention that I dance a lot and I have to sing spanish while I do it?? This will by far be my hardest show...which I already knew because it's all about dancing anyway, but I guess I really thought most of what I would do is walk around...well not exactly! I actually have choreographed dance steps for about 16 counts...I know what you're thinking, "Kristian, that's really not a lot of dancing." BUT the rest of the song I'm running all over the stage in between dancers like a chicken with my head cut off singing english, then spanish, and then trying to keep from having my head knocked off by high kicks and flying dancers etc. It's a madhouse!!! hahahaha I know, we just learned it and it will come, but WOW...I just keep saying that over and over...and this is only the FIRST of my songs!! I think it's even more challenging because we are learning this with a whole other cast. So, we are sharing studios and the same choreographer is trying to teach it to both of us at the same time. The problem is that our stages are very different so she has to take one group at a time and block us, and then come back to the other group and do the same...so we technically get half the time to work with her and fix any mistakes...BUT I'm sure I'll get it soon enough despite all of that...won't I? haha :)

Other than that things are going really well. Heather got back from the doctor and was CLEARED so she will definitely be staying! YAY! Thanks for your prayers!! Unfortunately, now our boy 2, Aaron, is under the same kind of threats because he went back to the doctor and found out his bronchitis has turned into laryngitis and now he's not aloud to sing either. If it's not one person then it's someone else...so start your prayers all over again please!

The other day I posted a video through facebook without realizing that anyone who tried to go to that link would need a password to access the video. SO, I'm uploading the video to myspace so that you will only have to copy and paste the link to pull up the video. Sorry about that!! Try this one instead:

God Bless the Broken Road during rehearsal with all singers:
http://myspacetv.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=32864254

Ok, that's all I know for now! Just trying to keep you updated!

Love,
Kris

Ballroom FEVER!

Well, we've been working on our ballroom show for a week now and things are going really well. I'm really starting to enjoy the show because I don't have a lot of songs to learn, which balances out the fact that 2 of the ones I do have to learn are in spanish! It's coming a lot easier than I thought it would. I guess this is where I should thank Mrs. Stricklin for 3 years of memorizing Italian, French, and German songs for voice! Now spanish is as easy as 1-2-3!...well not quite, but it's not as bad as I thought anyway. :)

We ran the country show today for the first time since Monday and everything went great so I think we are really starting to get that one under our belts. It was nice being able to take a break and come back to it too. It gave us a chance to...well breathe for a while and regroup...

We've had a lot of sickness in the cast so I'm gonna go ahead and ask for prayer that I don't get sick as well! Everyone knows I'm the world's worst at catching any kind of cold, virus, etc at the drop of a hat... And please pray for Heather (girl 2 singer) because she has been struggling vocally since we started due to a mild case of laryngitis (sp) and they are now threatening to send her home if her doctors visit doesn't go well Monday...I'm really upset too because I LOVE Heather and I don't want a new girl to come in!!! Our 4 singers are amazing and we all mix really well together so we can't mess that up now! So...PRAY PRAY PRAY!!!! Thanks! :)

Ok so I couldn't get my video to upload to the blogger site, but I wanted you guys to hear a little bit of us while we rehearse. Here's the link for "God Bless the Broken Road". If you can't just click on the link then copy and paste it to your browser and it should go there. Keep in mind that this was the first song we sang full out that day so it's not perfect by any means!!! This is one of my favorites!


http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=510640816119&subj=156800509


His,
Kristian