| The urge to seek out your own countrymen is strangely compelling when you’re far from home. On a cruise ship from Hawaii to New Zealand – which features a strikingly international crew – I unearth Montrealer Geoffrey Platt. As sound and lighting technician for the ship’s nightly stage shows, he never has a day off and seldom has spare time.
Inside his lurching lighting booth, he explains his time management system.
"I sacrifice my sleeping time to go out and enjoy port time. The thing with shipboard life is that there’s work time and there’s play time, and then there’s sleep time. In order to compensate for the port time, you have to sacrifice sleep time."
Geoffrey entered ship life when he tired of his job as a high school teacher in Montreal. He did a stint as regional lighting director for Club Med, and then got on board with Royal Caribbean.
"I figured I’d like to try and pursue my career more professionally, and I could always go back to teaching when I got older. I applied for Club Med, and my roommate from Montreal picked up a job with Royal Caribbean through a recruiting agency outside Toronto. My roommate told me how great it was and how much fun he was having, so I thought, why not? I sent my resumé off and got a call two or three days later."
In a given week, a ship theatre technician can stage everything from cabaret, stand-up comedy and show tunes to folk musicians and magicians. Often, Geoffrey must figure out how to light a show during an afternoon rehearsal, and then perform it live twice that evening. Many of his decisions are based on very brief consultations with the performers. He shows me the lighting suggestions he received from the Celtic singing group that played the previous night, which is a set list with vague adjectives scribbled in the margins: "energetic/upbeat" and "slow/medium."
His difficulties are compounded by the physical complications associated with being at sea.
"The difference between land-based theatre and ship-based theatre is that on land, the theatre doesn’t move. My challenge is that my lights always come out of alignment and I’m always doing maintenance. The bulbs are fragile so they’ll burn out quickly. Everything is a lot more secured on a ship, and safety is taken very seriously – things are fastened down a hell of a lot more."
Add to this the cultural confusion inherent in a theatre crew where nobody comes from the same country, and you have a tough working environment indeed. Despite these problems, cruise work has its bonuses. Geoffrey points out that his equipment is of Broadway quality.
"The equipment we have to work with is all top-notch, completely high-end, well-maintained and automatically replaced as soon as it breaks down."
The combination of technology, job security and high pay makes technical jobs on cruise lines extremely competitive. Nonetheless, Geoffrey admits that the lifestyle can be wearing.
"Living on a cruise ship probably has a five-year shelf life. You’re never settling down, you’re always moving. Relationships are almost impossible because you’re only on a ship for six months or four months at a time.
"Also, it’s hard to be promoted. For the larger productions the lighting is pre-set, so I’m working more as a lighting programmer than as a lighting designer."
That said, Geoffrey plans to stay put for the moment.
"For myself, I get to work with entertainment from all over the world – from cheesy Los Angeles lounge singers to illusionists to famous Hungarian pianists. You’re working, living on ship and travelling all at the same time – and you can’t find that anywhere else." |
