Anyone here done any theatre work?

[Trevoire520]

Hey guys,

Got an interview next week for a sound supervisor position at a theatre near me. I have plenty of experience in studio and live sound for music but haven't ever done any theatre stuff.

Anyone want to share their experiences and maybe give me some pointers?

 

[egan.]

It depends on what you're doing. Is it a touring house? Musical theatre? All purpose? The FOH PA stuff is pretty similar. Monitoring is less complex but you can end up doing surround and effects speakers that you never see in music stuff. There is the potential for tons of wireless stuff. You need to understand intercom systems and how they work. You need a basic understanding of power. If you don't know anything about lighting and soft goods you'll learn pretty quickly as you'll end up helping out with that stuff more than likely.
Good luck!

 

[Trevoire520]

Seems to do a bit of everything, stand up comedy, orchestra's, musicals etc.

Tech spec on the website seems pretty basic actually, D&B E series with a LS9. I was expecting a ton of wireless stuff but there doesn't seem to be any other than a couple of Shure's with the B87 heads. I'm thinking maybe they hire things in when they need more.

I've done some very basic lighting stuff in venues but never really worked on a proper lighting board.

 

[egan.]

Cool. The D+B should sound great. What you'll find is that musicals will bring in big wireless rigs to cover their needs. You may find yourself dropping your PA a fair amount for tours to come in. A little rigging knowledge helps. Honestly though, it's all stuff you can pick up in the course of a year.
The lighting stuff you need to worry about is more hanging and focus.

 

[arv_foh]

Joel Adams does (JoelPlagues)

 

[joelplagues]

heard my name?

whilst 'cruisey' on the tech side of things (to an extent/depending on the theatre) it can also be very picky,rude, and main thing is to not forget that the aesthetic of EVERYTHING is a huge thing. If your cable looks like shit you will know about it.

I'm used to seeing terrible/cheap wireless headset systems brought in for musicals,plays, etc that just scream in the high mids and in my experience communication between stage, lighting, Back of House, etc is as important as the sound of a show itself. You do a lot of things with one ear due to having communications system covering the other ear. But really they just want the sounds they desire to be projected and don't care how you do it/if you can. In a great sounding theatre you don't have to do a great deal anyway but then again not everyone gets to work in a place like I used to with remote control absorbtion panels and a 5 tonne moving wall.

I've done everything from musicals to solo pianist,awards ceremonies and upto 100 piece choir+orchestra and National Defence Force Big Band. The place I worked in mainly had amazing patch setups on every part of the stage,walls, orchestra pit, etc. and usually meant long days/nights/next morning.

Some days it's enjoyable and others a a bore, like sitting down next to a cd player ready to skip forward/hit play at any moment whilst the director of a stage show sits down with the lighting person to design a zillion scenes to the show. some times I didn't even press play and got paid for a full days work on my iPhone. anything specifically you'd like to know though?