Jan. 23rd, 2012

ceebeegee: (Vera Ellen)
I posted the below (at the bottom) last week on Facebook and even since then I continue to be aghast at what apparently happened.  I saw a video of a crew member (I'm guessing it may have been the purser--for some reason pursers were always female on our ship*) addressing the passengers and telling them everything was fine and to go back to their cabins.  She HAD to have thought she was telling the truth--who would risk that much (career, lives) knowing there's a camera on you?  So that means the lines of communication had completely broken down--the chain of command had failed.  Just unbelievable.  When I was on the R2, we had CONSTANT safety drills and meetings.  3 per every cruise--for most of our contract that was every ten days (we started a new cruise every time we left Barcelona or Lisbon) but for the last 2 months that was every 5 days (we switched to a 5-day itinerary toward the end).  The very first drill was the passenger drill, and we did it as soon as we left port the first day.  Everybody on deck with your lifepreservers--all of us cast members were assigned posts where we had to stand and serve as a meeting place for groups of passengers.  So they knew right away what the procedure was and (ideally) what to expect, and on cruises that originate in the US apparently they have the passenger drill before they even leave port.  Then about midpoint through the itinerary the crew has their own safety drill when you're in your cabin (or doing whatever--it was during the day so we didn't have shows) and they ring the alarm in the crew quarters and you muster.



Jesus, this looks terrifying, like something out of an Irwin Allen flick.  My brother was really into Irwin Allen movies and made me watch them as well--I have had a lifelong fear of tidal waves (literally, nightmares about them ever since I was a kid).  I used to wonder if I hadn't died on the Titanic in a past life, because I was so fascinated by that disaster, but now it occurs to me I might just be emotionally scarred from having seen The Poseidon Adventure at the tender age of 6 or so!

And at some point during the cruise you also have your safety meeting--you are in a group with maybe 10-15 other crew members and the safety officer will go over various safety procedures that might be useful, or he might show you a video.  Those meetings were very interesting--we learned all sorts of things like how to lower the lifeboats, and pilot the motorized rescue lifeboat.  We also watched a very interesting video about the Estonia disaster, and about the 3 types of responses to emergencies (I can't seem to find an article online to jog my memory but what I remember is that most people deny what is going on, or assume someone else will tell them what to do.  A small minority of people panic, and a small minority of people recognize what is happening and take appropriate steps--and those are the ones that survive and help others to survive).  I liked these meetings because the more I learned, the more empowered I was--the safety officers tended to be very sexist and didn't want to teach me things like how to lower the lifeboats, saying I was too small and the Chinese laundry guys should learn instead.  Well, the laundry guys were so exhausted they were sleeping standing up during the meetings!  (I knew them because I was in charge of costumes so I used to drag the laundry down every week to them.)  Dude, do you really want to trust lifesaving know-how to a bunch of poor guys who just want to go back to sleep?  Why not trust it to someone who WANTS to know? I always thought I would have been a good safety officer (although, of course, my talents are much better suited for Captain!).

The Costa passengers had to save themselves, apparently--there is some footage of some of them forming a human chain to lower themselves over the hull of the ship down to the lifeboats.  Just unbelievable.

The pictures of that enormous ship (it's MUCH, much bigger than our was--ours was mid-sized, about 600 passengers and some 350 crew members whereas I believe the Costa Concordia held 4000.  Good Lord, I can't even imagine a ship that size!) are frankly disturbing.  It looks like a dinosaur laid to earth--that must be incredibly creepy to see that every day for the people who live on that island.  Jesus, what a mess. They're not going to be able to move that ship anytime soon, that's for sure.

With all that, it's kind of interesting revisiting those days--I loved hearing from Gillian and Holly again, and would LOVE an R2 reunion!  3 of us are right here in NYC and Mickey is down in Philly.  And Rian, our SM, is in PA too, I think.  I was SO, so over it by the time we signed off and couldn't wait to get away--I still hated a lot of the crap we had to deal with (skanky officers, sexually harassing cruise directors, sexually harassing crew members, cruise directors who ENABLED sexual harassment, the cheapcheapcheapness of Renaissance).  But it wasn't all bad.  Our cast fought but we were also super-close to each other and always banded together against outsiders.  We laughed a LOT too--we each had our own unique sense of humor, Mickey in particular made me laugh a lot.  Todd got in some great zingers as well--I remember when yet another "OMG someone on the senior staff is fucking with us AGAIN" crises developed.  Mickey appraised us of the situation, we all vented and decided on how we were going to approach (typically mine was head on!) and, in conclusion, Mickey asked us all how we were doing.  Todd said "well, fine actually--I'm always fine until Mickey or one of you reveals how we're actually being screwed.  It's like I'm living in the Matrix [which had come out when we were in rehearsal]."  I died laughing--we all did.  And our second cruise director, Dave, was GREAT--he loved us and we loved him.  His Assistant Cruise Director and the cruise staff person were also great--they knew how demoralized we were after Sexually Harassing Cruise Director had signed off, and they did a lot of stuff to boost morale.  We had meetings every cruise where someone would win the Golden Camel (a camel for Morocco, one of the countries we visited) an award for whoever's stood out the most this cruise for whatever reason.  I won it twice, which was cool.  They also got ahold of some kind of fund and used it to throw Cruise Staff Only parties (which effectively meant all the entertainers--the Paramount Performers(us), the musicians, the Renaissance Duo (lounge performers) and the magician and his wife/assistant.  We would buy sangria, tapas, the works.  These were usually birthday parties but we had just for fun parties as well.

*During our "Bon Voyage" show, there was a section in the middle where they would introduce the senior officers and the band would play a little phrase of music to usher them on.  Eg., the captain got the first phrase of "Anchors Aweigh." (After my roommate spied him him getting down with a huge-breasted woman on the dance floor up at the Sports Bar, we decided his music should be "bam chicka bam bam.")  For the purser (we had 3 and each one was a woman)?  The band played the first phrase of "Ain't She Sweet." VOMIT.  That's the way to make sure she's taken seriously!



____________________________________________________________________________

From Facebook:

This cruise ship story is horrifying--how does a cruise ship go down in the MEDITERRANEAN?! Do you know how shallow that sea is? There's a reason western civilization started there--the sea is easily navigable and it's enclosed so you don't really get huge waves (unless, a la The Poseidon Adventure, there's an earthquake). You are never far from shore in the Med. They hit a reef that the captain claims was unmarked? Uh, GPS guys! And radar. Look into it and enter the 21st century. They must've had a lot of time (so close to shore, they couldn't have been going too fast)--at the worst, the passengers could've swum to shore. Apparently the passengers were told "just an electrical problem" AS THE SHIP WAS LISTING. So the passengers had to FORCE their way onto the lifeboats, which the crew members didn't want to deploy. It puts all those safety drills that Gillian Roth Myers, Amilcan Mickey Rodriguez Jr.Todd Wilson Tony Staub Holly Hylton Aly Reid and I had to attend when we performed on the R2 in a new light. I used to pester our safety officer to teach me how to lower the lifeboats--I never trusted those skanky officers! Several of them were far more interested in hitting on us than in doing their jobs!







  • Debi Heartley Betances Well said!!!
    January 15 at 2:42pm ·

  • Amanda Brewer I agree...You like me probably sailed out of that port a few times eh Clara?
    January 15 at 2:52pm ·

  • Clara Barton Green Amanda, our itinerary was along the western Med and the northwestern coast of Africa--Barcelona, the Balearic Islands, Almeria, Malaga, Gibraltar (you remember!), Tangiers, Casablanca, Cadiz and Lisbon.
    January 15 at 2:58pm ·

  • Amanda Brewer I have a feeling that the skanky officers were spending far too much time with the Steiners as usual and not enough time thinking of the passengers safety!!
    January 15 at 3:38pm ·

  • Rick Stutzel It was an ITALIAN ship. nuff said!
    January 15 at 6:06pm ·

  • Hunter Kimble Well, I really can't blame them for trying to hit on you! =;^)
    January 15 at 6:24pm ·

  • Clara Barton Green When they're married?! One of the safety officers offered to let a castmate of mine skip her safety exam if she agreed to have drinks with him--in his quarters! (To be fair, she had just signed off another ship in the same fleet a few months previously, so she knew what she was doing, but still...completely sketchy! This sort of thing happened ALL the time.)
    January 15 at 7:31pm ·

  • Hunter Kimble YIKES! Yep, pretty icky behavior. (BTW my comment was intended as a back-handed compliment!)
    January 15 at 7:44pm ·

  • Clara Barton Green Oh, I know! I wasn't offended at all, just trying to provide more context.
    January 15 at 7:45pm ·

  • Hunter Kimble Whew! Now, ya wanna come up to my room to see my stamp collection?
    January 15 at 7:49pm ·

  • Holly Hylton Oh my gosh!!! I MADE you go with me to have drinks with the skanky officer!!! I will never forget that! Thank god we sailed safely!
    January 15 at 9:26pm ·

  • Clara Barton Green Holly, I had typed out more details and then thought....maaaaaybe let Holly tell more if she likes :) Yes, we BOTH went to the safety officer's quarters for drinks and he brought another dude so it was a very weird double date--on their part! On our part we were just trying to get the heck out of there with our honor intact! ;) But the whole business does NOT inspire confidence in the officers with whom we entrusted the safety of the ship. Ah, memories!
    January 15 at 9:33pm ·

  • Holly Hylton Indeed. Ship life. Urrggh!
    January 15 at 9:57pm ·

  • Chris Friend We were aboard a cruise ship in the Bahamas when I heard about this, scary!
    Monday at 6:51am ·

  • Gillian Roth Myers you guys had drinks with the safety officer?!? Clara, you used to do an awesome impersonation of that guy. So funny...time for an R2 reunion.
    Monday at 8:00am ·

  • Clara Barton Green Yes! I would love that!!! Y'all can come to NYC--Holly and I live here and Mickey is not too far away :) And I digitized all the rehearsal tapes I made--I can email them to you if you like! I actually played the opening of OSS for friends of mine a few weeks ago, complete with that chees-tastic choreography. "Broadway--AHHH. One singular sensation!" *snap, snap*

My Weekend

Jan. 23rd, 2012 01:27 pm
ceebeegee: (Pink!)
Saturday evening:
  • Shift Driving for RightRides, a non-profit organization that gives free rides home on Friday/Saturday evenings to women and LGBTQ individuals.

Sunday morning:

  • Soccer game.


Sunday afternoon:

  • Auditions for The Vagina Monologues for TTC.


Sunday evening:

  • Apprising myself of the Giants game by popping into every bar I passed in Hoboken and the Village while on my way home.


Conclusion:

My yin and yang are well-balanced :)

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