A typical travel show day!

March 26, 2015

 9.15: Oh no!!!! Alarms start to go off! Why is it always so hard to get up in the mornings eh?  Most of the time breakfast finishes at 10am or 10.30am and almost everyone makes it down in time to get some breakfast before bus call. I know myself I like to get down a little earlier then everyone else who come down last minute. There is always a mad rush to get the boiled eggs and when everyone comes down in one go they always disappear! I also like to have time to go back up to my room and pack my last bits and pieces for bus call. It is true though,breakfast for us is the most important meal. It’s good to stock up in the morning before we get on to the bus and won’t eat for a while.

Between 9 and 11: Bus call can be at any time of the morning but most of the time it’s between these times. We always have a call time to put our bags on to the bus and then a departure time. This means that everyone has their bags on the bus and we can leave bang on time.

 

2pm: We get to our next hotel. It’s time to get all our bags off the bus and into reception. Our tour manager Laurie always rings the hotel in advance to tell them that we are on our way and when we arrive ( most of the time) they have a table set up with envelops with our names on it in alphabetical order and when we get in we just simply go to the table, pick up our key and then get the lift up to the room. The only thing is that because there are so many of us and we each have three bags ( at least each) we can fit very little people into the lift at the one time. Often it takes a while to get up to our room. Sometimes I just sit on a chair in reception and chill out until the Que. goes down. We also have the lift system nailed by letting the people on the higher floor in first so there is no messing around when you get to a certain floor and the person can get out quicker and easier.

2pm-4.15pm: This is time we have free to do as we please. Most of the time it involves people going into the town for a walk to get out in the fresh air and explore the surroundings or go for a coffee.

4.15pm: If it’s a drive to work we normally leave the hotel at 4.15pm/4.30pm. We get there just in time for catering starting at 4.45pm. On arriving to the venue we must tick our name off on the sign in sheet. This shows management that we are in the venue and if we leave we must sign out. Everyone needs to be in the venue for half hour call. We find our dressing rooms and then go to catering.

We are so lucky to get such wonderful catering on the tour.  Sven and Irene are fantastic at their job! They work morning till night feeding the cast and crew and we always have so much food to choose from served with a smile! There is everything from soup and salads to at least four different dinner options as well as deserts, tea and coffee.

5.15pm-/5.45pm: The band, singer and taps sound check commences. Also from this time our massage schedule is up and running. We have at least two 20 minute massages a week and our massage therapist Rupert is great! The massage schedule is put up every week so it is up to each individual to check what day and time they have massage at. Our physio Fiona mc Cabe is on hand if we have any problem we would like her to look at. We can pop into her any time until the show finishes.

6pm/6.30: The Irish troupe are on stage for what we call rotations. Andy, our dance captain takes charge of this.

We first have to stand out some numbers for lighting issues. The stage is always a different size in each venue so it’s only takes a minute for us to stand in position and the lighting guys can adjust the marks. Rotations let us know what dances we will be doing that night and what positions we will be in. We start from the first number right through to finale and make sure everyone is ok with their positions. The majority of the time we will be in positions we have done before but the odd time you could be moved so it’s essential that you run the dance before hand.

Doors open! It’s time for us to leave the stage in order for the staff to open front of house and let our audience in!

6.30/7.30pm: We use this time to get ready for the show. Hair and make up are done in this time and we get changed and ready for warm up. A lot of people like to do a workout on the side wether it be skipping, stretching or circuits. Chloey, one of our female lead dancers who is also a personal trainer will sometimes take an abs class or a spartan 300 class. At 7.25pm ( half hour call)  it’s time for warm up, again taken by dance captain Andy. It involves a cardio workout  and then a series of stretches.

7.50pm: This is 5 minute call. At this point we are normally running around doing last minute things and getting dressed, setting our costumes if we have any quick changes and getting our shoes on.

8pm: Show time!!

10.10pm: The show ends… Phew! Some people are extremely quick at getting out of the venue and on to be bus. Others take their time and have a shower and ice. With our travel being so hectic in Germany this time around we have lots of “load outs” this means that the crew are under a very tight time schedule and they need to get out of the venue and get the stage and everything else loaded on to the trucks within a certain time. This means we got to be fairly quick at getting out of the quick change after the show as our quick changes ( were all our costumes are hanging up and were we get changed in between numbers) are the first things to be loaded onto he trucks. They crew are on a sleeper bus too which means that everything done needs to be under a time schedule. It effects their bus driver as he needs a certain amount of rest and hours sleep himself so everything has to be planned to perfection.

10.30pm: We head back to our hotel. We get very hungry after the show so some people will head off to find food, others will have bought something from the supermarket like cereal and other bits and bobs to have when they get back. With being up so early most mornings we tend to chill out on the hotel. Germany has been hectic for us with so much travel and we like to all gather in a room and chat or watch a movie together!

So there you have it! Our typical travel show day in a nutshell 🙂

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