Big River is not a new show to local theatre, but it was completely new to me. Typical load in to preview night (final dress) for Cd'A Summer Theatre is 10 days. This is done for four shows that run from June to late August. I'll post some shots from my Nexus 4 camera from Big River and add descriptions over the next day or so since I have to run off to record some click track in a bit for Poppins.
Front of House with PM5D and Qlab 3 Basic Audio
View from Front of House
Not ideal, but 22 channels of ULX-P with one splitter per 4 channels and stock antennas
EAW front fills. 4 of them for this show.
EV speaker for lower, outer seats. A problem coverage area with the current PA system.
Brand new 5 box Nexo center cluster was installed into a temporary location just a day before sitzprobe. It's quite high, but improved the overall intelligibility of the venue for musical theatre. The house is a very nice acoustic hall and is known for great opera performances. The existing Left-Right EAW 730 was difficult to work with because of the nature of the hall's reflective walls and the spilling of the wider 730 coverage on them.
A couple of JBL powered boxes for downstage monitors. I tried to move them on more and focus them upstage a bit, but the lights won that battle.
With the limited resources, my final two monitors were on the upstage wall to help with entrances and some orchestra fill. A conductor camera was used in the greenroom for offstage vocals parts.
Another small EV speaker to help with "The Crossing" entrance. Another set of speakers hanging from a batton would have been great, but we didn't have anything that was riggable.
View from house left to FOH.
Slightly annoying, but the show is called in the tech booth behind the mix position. The glass has been removed from the windows unfortunately.
22 Channels in a shoe bag and a 9 volt rechargeable station in the spot booth.
Speaking of the spot booth, that window was also removed and it's fan is loud enough to mask soft dialogue. I went looking for the glass since one light was on for the entire show (no luck).
The show went pretty well, I got the actors in mics for the first time for the sitzprobe and then had two dress rehearsals before the preview opening dress on Wednesday. E6's were used mostly, but a B3 was used on a wigged character and another was for Duke who toupee clipped in his. I really prefer the sound of the B3 the forgiveness of it like when the Duke character was in agony after getting tarred and feathered. The E6 will overload a pack more quickly than the B6 when screaming or moaning in agony.
Today is Day Three of Mary Poppins and I will update this page with it's trials and successes I hope if time allows. Today has a designer run I hope to get on video so I can spend the limited time the theater is open to get the pit wired. I am making labels for the mic packs, PM5D and working on sound effects. I have purchased the iPad Qlab remote so the stage manager can fire cues during the upcoming tech rehearsals. I did this for Big River and it worked pretty well. There was a little delay with the remote, but it might have been when it was used through the building's network.
Thanks for reading and let me know if you have any questions or comments.
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