It’s all about the equipment … this week

My work focus has shifted over the last couple of months as I take on more office based duties, hence the declining number of backstage show posts.

But this week has seen two fairly big shows both see opening nights in the same week – both shows co-produced with different companies, no small feat for a theatre that still has a strong receiving house bias.

And particularly as two of the full time staff have been absent for most of February.

They claim that having a newborn daughter and taking a show to Australia count as valid reasons to be absent from work (not the same excuse for both of them!) – I mean honestly, where’s the work ethic?

One show is the Choreographer’s cut, almost a test to see if a dance show can evolve into a percussion and string concert while the other is the result of a collaboration between French dancer, English choreographer, Canadian director and English fashion designer, with a little Japanese dance and European history for good measure..

It is, as the theatre folks are already thinking, the stuff of nightmares.

Actually, no it’s not but it does provide a good example of the changing focus that has been instigated.

Switching back to the choreographer’s cut, this is actually a continuation of a production I’ve worked on several times in the past (try here for the most detail).

This time around it took place in the Roundhouse, a lovely building if you get the chance to visit. I had originally been volunteered to mix the sound on this one – until the collaborative piece turned up in the same week and my colleagues announced their upcoming disappearances.

While it meant that I had to take a step back, it also meant that I could watch a show evolve.

The seven musicians from before morphed into 19! Drums grew from 14″ and 16″ floor toms to 7′ taiko drums, a guitarist appeared, and  the final gong was taller than a tall man (and I’m including basketball players here). The musicians platform started at 4 metres and had seven different heights. From the original 11 dancers, we now had 17 and the audience capacity grew from 1500 to 1800, standing room only.

[Shop talk]

The size of the band (and the size of the drums) all but necessitated headphones for all the players. I believe it was 16 mixes to the band members from a PM5D.

It was a somewhat different collection of mics this time around but it was all the usual suspects – DPA clip mics on all the strings; KM184 and C414 on overheads and cymbals; MD421, SM57, M88 on perc and DI’s for guitar amps and for the greatly named Electro-dude – one man, one table and a host of hard- and software based synths.

Headphones were mostly musicians own with signal from 8in – 8out headphone amps.

Another PM5D ran the FOH sound through a Meyer MSL system. System processing was done by a Galileo box and alongside the live sound, a Macbook running Qlab sent out prerecorded track, click track and MIDI for the lighting desks.

Lighting was down from a Hog and a Pearl and lights were a PAR64 heavy rig with a mix of CP60 and CP62 lamps. Various 1kW fresnals, and Source 4 and SL profiles filled the rest of the conventional lighting overhead and on the booms and Vari*lite spots were used for subtle effects – no disco strobing here.

[/shop talk]

Squeezing all the kit and a false pros into the Roundhouse proved to be something of a challenge but we managed and the show went up bang on schedule.

The show also went with a bang – and was well-received by critics and audience alike.

Meanwhile, our international collaboration has been causing a little more perplexion to watchers – as much as it’s not quite what people were expecting as any thing else.

A devised work, it mixes dance (obviously), drama and physical theatre – more than our dance-centric audiences expect.

It’s also not quite what we expected – and all the little issues that a new devised piece will throw at it’s crew have been a reminder. Whether sourcing teflon sliders, right angle bolt mounts or brown gaffa tape, there’s always been something to keep us amused …

In my case, this seems to have been equipment issues.

Firstly was the Great Sound Desk Hunt – I think a goodly number of people are aware of my quest for a shiny O2R96, which including checking Montreal and which finally came to a successful resolution in North Wales – thank you Theatr Clwyd.

Since then, when I haven’t been shoehorning a show into the Roundhouse, I’ve been getting far too acquainted with the innards of Vari*Lite 3500Q.

It’s seems to be one of those things where most VL’s that come in seem to suffer from temperature issues – these so-called silent running moving heads have been no exception and I’ve got from having no idea on how to dealing with them to being able to strip out the shutter module in in minute or so.

I wonder if I should charge service tech callout rate …