{"id":2972,"date":"2014-02-09T00:15:56","date_gmt":"2014-02-09T08:15:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/?p=2972"},"modified":"2014-02-09T00:15:56","modified_gmt":"2014-02-09T08:15:56","slug":"turn-the-dial-at-sea-02082014","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/?p=2972","title":{"rendered":"Turn the Dial \u2013 At Sea \u2013 [02\/08\/2014]"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"High-Tech-Retro-Pin-Ups-3\"<\/a>Radio, remember Radio
\nWe used to turn the dial
\nAnd use our imagination
\n[\u2026]
\nTo hear the past and smile again
\nRadio, I miss you so-di-oh-vo-di-oh-vo-di-oh-do
\nRadio, I miss you so<\/i><\/p>\n

If there was one \u2013 of many \u2013 reasons that I keep coming back to the flagship, it\u2019s for the dinner theatre. It\u2019s just not offered anywhere else, it\u2019s exclusive to the grand voyages and every season the script is different. Especially this year\u2026<\/p>\n

You see, before this, we have always held a Murder Mystery (4 different ones every season actually), but they were the brain child of the previous Cruise Director, and when he moved on he took the scripts \u2013 which were copyrighted \u2013 and the concept with him. Leaving us with having to come up with another idea. So the new CD, faced with the idea of having to put his own spin on a seasons\u2019 old tradition \u2013 came up with the idea of the Radio Show Dinner. Early last month, when the World Voyage first started (literally the first or second day) I walked by the CD\u2019s table in the Lido only to be stopped before I\u2019d taken more than a few steps<\/p>\n

Yo, Shaughnessy, I want to slot you in for a pretty big role in the Radio Dinner Show\u2026you interested?<\/i><\/p>\n

Er\u2026yeah, of course.<\/i><\/p>\n

None of us were sure what to expect when rehearsals actually started, but as it turned out, the CD had penned an absolutely brilliant (albeit slightly ridiculous in places) comedic spoof of a bygone era, just funny enough to keep people in stitches, and just nostalgic enough to tug on the right heartstrings. We were utterly cracking up in rehearsals, and it wasn\u2019t until our tech rehearsal the night before last that we were able to get through the whole thing with even close to a straight face. And then lo, it was curtain time.<\/p>\n

With only an hour to get ready (which is not much, seriously), it was a bit of a rush to shimmy into my yellow and black cocktail outfit (I was playing a honey bee\u2026don\u2019t ask), and get the curls set in my hair, thankfully in my random formal night experiments over the last year I\u2019ve stumbled on a style that looked suitably \u201840s but didn\u2019t require a great deal of time. Then it was just a matter of sitting backstage and chewing my fingernails.<\/p>\n

\u2018Cause you see, there was one other aspect of all this that had me \u2013 unsurprisingly for those who know me well or even slightly \u2013 nervous to the point of shaking. Weeks ago, the CD casually said to me in his office that he wanted me to sing<\/p>\n

Something loungey, something that fits the era\u2026<\/i><\/p>\n

So I picked my song, got the music, and waited patiently to be told what to do. But despite years in the industry my stage fright still gets the better of me. Once I get up there? Totally different story, but in the hours before? I can barely even think.<\/p>\n

Thankfully, one of the nice things about this format instead of the old one is that we actually don\u2019t have to interact with the guests during the show. Previous to this \u2013 for the old Murder Mysteries \u2013 we\u2019d have to sit at the table in character throughout the evening, but since this is meant to be a radio<\/i> show, we didn\u2019t have to do any such thing. Instead, we were granted use of the back dining room of the speciality restaurant \u2013 which they closed off from the public area \u2013 in between acts, so we could eat in a relaxed atmosphere and discuss how things were going, which\u00a0 jokes needed to be tightened, which lines got skipped etc etc. In short, we had a backstage; we had a backstage with really really good food and free wine.<\/p>\n

Which, for the first twenty minutes of the evening until after my solo was over, I barely touched.<\/p>\n

Shaughnessy, you\u2019ll do fine, have your wine, it\u2019ll help\u2026<\/i><\/p>\n

I don\u2019t drink before I sing. Ever. Trust me, I\u2019ll have it afterwards\u2026<\/i><\/p>\n

Once my solo was over (and went well, I\u2019m told), and my stomach unclenched \u2013 which was just before the main course \u2013 I was able to actually relax and enjoy the rest of the evening.<\/p>\n

In truth, I haven\u2019t had that much fun at any kind of performance in a very long time. Perhaps it\u2019s because we know each other so well by now that things just run easily, or perhaps it\u2019s because deep down we all knew we desperately needed a laugh. It\u2019s hard to say. And yes, things went wrong, lines got trampled, we even had one wardrobe malfunction, but it all just got rolled into the spirit of the show\u2026.<\/p>\n

Either way, the audience lapped it up, and word of the evening\u2019s success has spread like wildfire throughout the ship.<\/p>\n

And we, quietly, toast our success, switch the radio off until April, and congratulate ourselves on a job well done.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Radio, remember Radio We used to turn the dial And use our imagination [\u2026] To hear the past and smile again Radio, I miss you so-di-oh-vo-di-oh-vo-di-oh-do Radio, I miss you so If there was one \u2013 of many \u2013 reasons … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[72,15,18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2972","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-grand-world-voyage-2014","category-performances","category-theme-events"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3GtNE-LW","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2972","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2972"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2972\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2973,"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2972\/revisions\/2973"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2972"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2972"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2972"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}