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Author Topic: First theater production assistance  (Read 3536 times)

Mike Sullivan

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First theater production assistance
« on: June 10, 2014, 02:33:54 PM »

So I got called yesterday to work my first theatre production...two day show in two separate school gyms with stages off to the side of the basketball court. Up to 8-10 headsets at any given time, with live music in between scenes (folk music and solo/duets to the side of the stage)and music on stage for the second half. Stages are 24' and 30' respectively, and 1.5' and 4' high respectively. Will be planning on flying 40 foot of truss with 8 Elation theater lights and some LED cans for color. As far as the PA, I'm still deciding on flying a pair of regular loudspeakers (RCF) or renting 8 boxes of HDL20a's as the larger stage is in a large gym (stands used will support the weight). The folk band will be using either a wide diaphragm condenser if it will work or we will do pencil condensers or regular 57's as a last choice. Anyone have any tips and suggestions?
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Scott Stephens

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Re: First theater production assistance
« Reply #1 on: June 10, 2014, 08:33:11 PM »

Mike,
    First of all, sit sown with the director(s) and make sure that you know all the facts. Theater people, directors in particular, love to pull crap; to put it bluntly. It is the: "it's my show" syndrome.
   Secondly, charge enough because the bodypacks and mics will get abused. We have a lot of performers especially dancers and the like, wear a 3 inch wide elastic band with a big piece of velcro on each end; for different sizes, and on each strap put a pocket with a small velcro strap to hold in the mic. The back pocket of a pair of jeans works great for this.
   Third, have a couple of mics on "standby", cause you never
know.
   Fourth, I suggest small condenser area mics or clip on mics because of little things like feedback rejection and sight lines. But better yet, find out if you really need  to mic the orchestra. We've gotten away with just a couple of clip ons and a D.I. for keys.
   Fifth, find out if the actors are going to need some backstage monitoring so they can hear their cue lines. A hot spot or cheap powered thing works great for that. Something where they can turn it up and down but over which you will have ultimate control.
Goodluck, hope this helps.
scott
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Bill McIntosh

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Re: First theater production assistance
« Reply #2 on: June 10, 2014, 10:55:21 PM »

You probably know all  these: 

If there are mic changes or costume changes involving the actor's mics, you will need an A2 backstage.  Don't expect that person to do anything else.

Make sure the stage manager knows she/he owns getting the acts on and off the stage.

Consider if you can use a fixed mic (like a hanging choir mic) for any of the scenes instead of micing the actors.  That has helped us with kid's plays, where they are more likely to stand still and talk.  (And more likely to fidget with the mic.)

Spare lav/headworn (whatever you are using) are a huge plus. 

Recheck the frequency assignments especially if the mics are rentals.  Don't count on getting matched pairs -- or proper channel separation.

+1 on Scott's post -- including complaints about the mics being seen. 

How many pieces in the folk band, and are they pro enough to use the single LDC?  It makes life easy for you, but if they can't balance themselves it won't sound good.

See if the gym will get decorations other than the staging, you may be able to include something to reduce echos. 

Will the audience be seated on the gym floor, or use the bleacher seats, or both?

If your mixer has scenes -- work through them, they can save you a lot work during the show -- but the actors have to stay on script. 

Make sure the understudy is comfortable with the mic.  If there is no understudy, find out what the director is going to do if a main character is not able to go on.

Enjoy -- plays are a very different challenge than concerts, but can be a lot of fun in a different way.
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Cailen Waddell

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Re: First theater production assistance
« Reply #3 on: June 11, 2014, 07:29:56 AM »

Consider a mono cluster if you are flying your speakers.   You will get better intelligibility with your actors.  Especially in a big gym.  My experience is the quieter I can run a show in a gymnatorium, the more successful I am, and the fewer sources of sound, the less reflections, multiple arrivals etc.


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Mike Sullivan

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Re: First theater production assistance
« Reply #4 on: June 11, 2014, 05:15:10 PM »

You probably know all  these: 

If there are mic changes or costume changes involving the actor's mics, you will need an A2 backstage.  Don't expect that person to do anything else.
Make sure the stage manager knows she/he owns getting the acts on and off the stage.
I believe they will have someone backstage to help with mic changes.  They will be creating a mic "schedule" so each person gets the right unit for the scene

Consider if you can use a fixed mic (like a hanging choir mic) for any of the scenes instead of micing the actors.  That has helped us with kid's plays, where they are more likely to stand still and talk.  (And more likely to fidget with the mic.)
I have thought about it but the only thing I can really use would be an Audix condenser, no way to really leave permanent mics out

Spare lav/headworn (whatever you are using) are a huge plus. 
There will be spares.  We are up to 8-9 speakers in scenes at the moment, but I will be probably renting 10 units as a precaution, maybe more

Recheck the frequency assignments especially if the mics are rentals.  Don't count on getting matched pairs -- or proper channel separation.
Will do

+1 on Scott's post -- including complaints about the mics being seen. 
These units are similar to the Countryman E6, the ones that go around the ear and basically are blending in with the skin, that was their preference

How many pieces in the folk band, and are they pro enough to use the single LDC?  It makes life easy for you, but if they can't balance themselves it won't sound good.
Supposedly they are, if worse comes to worse I may end up using SM57's and doing bluegrass festival-style micing

See if the gym will get decorations other than the staging, you may be able to include something to reduce echos. 
I will check and see.  Don't think so as far as I know.

Will the audience be seated on the gym floor, or use the bleacher seats, or both?
At the moment foldout chairs on the gym floor, but the bleachers may be used for spare if needed

If your mixer has scenes -- work through them, they can save you a lot work during the show -- but the actors have to stay on script. 
I will be renting my buddy's Performer 3 for the show versus using my Studiolive, so I will be setting scenes up

Make sure the understudy is comfortable with the mic.  If there is no understudy, find out what the director is going to do if a main character is not able to go on.

Enjoy -- plays are a very different challenge than concerts, but can be a lot of fun in a different way.
Thanks for your recommendations and advice, I really appreciate it.



Consider a mono cluster if you are flying your speakers.   You will get better intelligibility with your actors.  Especially in a big gym.  My experience is the quieter I can run a show in a gymnatorium, the more successful I am, and the fewer sources of sound, the less reflections, multiple arrivals etc.
I may try a center cluster.  My original plan was a flown spaced pair with a front fill as the truss will be up at least 15-16', but I may try it on rehearsal night and see how I like it.  That would also get it farther away from the live music section during the intermissions, but also be a little bit of an issue during the second half of the show, where they will be playing on stage (WDC as well)

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


Mike,
    First of all, sit sown with the director(s) and make sure that you know all the facts. Theater people, directors in particular, love to pull crap; to put it bluntly. It is the: "it's my show" syndrome.
I have talked with the directors, they are pretty laid back and haven't been too picky.  They understand the technical aspect of it.

   Secondly, charge enough because the bodypacks and mics will get abused. We have a lot of performers especially dancers and the like, wear a 3 inch wide elastic band with a big piece of velcro on each end; for different sizes, and on each strap put a pocket with a small velcro strap to hold in the mic. The back pocket of a pair of jeans works great for this.
Units are being rented, but are being upcharged slightly to cover any chance of damage.
   Third, have a couple of mics on "standby", cause you never
know.
I will have access to 4 spare units if something goes haywire during dress rehearsal.
   Fourth, I suggest small condenser area mics or clip on mics because of little things like feedback rejection and sight lines. But better yet, find out if you really need  to mic the orchestra. We've gotten away with just a couple of clip ons and a D.I. for keys.
We were going to try the clip on route but it would almost be better to do the headsets for each individual speaker.  Maybe for scenes where the kids are just singing we will use condensers, but the speaking parts will probably be better by headset

   Fifth, find out if the actors are going to need some backstage monitoring so they can hear their cue lines. A hot spot or cheap powered thing works great for that. Something where they can turn it up and down but over which you will have ultimate control.
I don't have any small monitors as a hotspot, but I will probably have a small cue wedge set up just in case. 
Goodluck, hope this helps.
scott
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Mike Sullivan

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Re: First theater production assistance
« Reply #5 on: June 12, 2014, 10:59:51 PM »

Well, this was a hectic day, kinda cursed myself.  Rearended someone (Trailer brakes were set wrong) when they slammed on their brakes in front of me, and had to wait an hour and a half for a deputy to show up for a report (was his company's truck), which set me way behind, but luckily I had a couple friends that were able to pick some gear up for me.  The units are all Shure PGX's with an around-the-head headset (9 of them) plus a 1/4" cable for the acoustic guitar.  Worked beautifully, and had zero problems with them, or the wide diaphragm condensers we used for the folk band (bluegrass style music).  And front of house was just a pair of RCF ART 312a's, which was plenty for the gym we were in.  Now to set lights up tomorrow, finish cleaning the stage up, and looking forward to my first show.
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Re: First theater production assistance
« Reply #5 on: June 12, 2014, 10:59:51 PM »


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