A tale of two shows

As I had mentioned in a previous post, just as I was all settled in at MFL, they were off for a week so I was over at “O” for that time.

I thought it would be fun to do to a little compare/contrast between the two shows.

Parking

MFL-We are ridiculously spoiled with having a private lot right outside of the loading dock to the theatre. This makes getting in and out of work super easy. Since Luxor is on the south end of the strip, there’s also less traffic congestion to deal with and it’s basically a straight shot to and from my house. Winner winner chicken dinner.

O-The Bellagio is a very large property and they have separate guest and employee parking lots. My first day there, I just parked in the guest lot, then walked through the casino and met one of the therapists outside of the O box office to take me backstage. That was easier than having to try and navigate my way through the back employee entrance…or so I thought. At the end of my shift a little after 11, I thought I knew where I was going, but very quickly realized I must have missed a turn or something and did not recognize where I was. I was lost in the labyrinth of the employee hallways/offices. I asked someone how I got back to the casino floor and she told me I could take this elevator (she pointed just to my right) up one level. I didn’t remember taking an elevator or stairs to get backstage, but my short term memory is not super reliable, so maybe I did and just forgot. Well I go up one floor in this elevator and find myself in the back kitchen of some restaurant. Nope..not the casino floor. Crap. I go back down and start heading back to where I left the theatre and I walked past a set of escalators. Hmm did I go down escalators to get here? I must have. It looked like a bunch of casino employees were heading up to start their shifts so I decided I would follow. When I got to the top of the escalator I could only go right or left. I chose left. Wrong. Should have gone right. After about 10 minutes and a lot of confusion, I finally made it back to the casino floor and then to my car. Note to self: Pay attention when someone is bringing you somewhere new that you will have to navigate on your own only a few hours later. Luckily that was the only time I got lost. It’s actually a little easier to navigate from the employee parking lot to the theatre, it just takes about 5 minutes longer. Did I mention the Bellagio is a large property? I need to invest in one of those hover board things when I’m over there.

Theatre/Show

MFL-The Luxor theatre took me a few days to navigate..partly because I had to learn all the theatre terms and partly because it is not set up the same on both sides. How was I supposed to get to the “stage left quick change” if I didn’t even know where stage left was. The show itself is a magic show, so its different than your typical “Cirque” type show. There are little elements of Cirque, such as gymnastics, dancing, etc, but the main focus is on Criss and the Illusions. If you’ve never seen a magic show before or are even remotely interested in it, I would suggest coming to see MFL. They do a really great job-its very entertaining to watch!

O-For those who may not know, “O” is Cirque’s water show. It’s been around for almost 20 years. The stage is almost entirely water. There’s lifts that go up and down to create platforms of dry land, but most of the time its all water. This can make getting from one side of the stage to the other quite difficult. I had to quickly learn where it was safe to walk so that I didn’t end up IN the pool. Side note: I will have to eventually take a “swim test” to be over there. They want to be able to swim from one end to the other and back and then tread water for 5 minutes. Do i get a raft for this? Little water wings? Anything?I’m much more of float down a lazy river vs a actual swim person. Minus the water, the theatre is pretty easy to navigate because its almost symmetrical. The only confusing part for me was remembering the orientation of the training rooms to the stage. Its almost the complete opposite at MFL, so it took me a second to figure that out. The show itself is an artistic masterpiece! Franco Dragone is the mastermind behind this production and there has been very little change in almost 20 years because it is such a beautiful story. If you want to see synchronized swimmers, acrobats, divers, ariel artists, and contortionists all performing in and above the water, this would be a great show to see.

At both shows I’ve been able to work with some really talented artists. I am really enjoying being in this setting and being able to help these artists perform at their best each night. Of all the settings I’ve worked in, this is probably the most exciting for me. I’ve always loved “behind the scenes” type stuff and even did a bunch of stage crew gigs back in high school. Getting to pair that with my passion for helping people prevent/recover from injuries has been such a great experience so far. I’m so excited to see what these next few years will bring!