I had a life altering experience during May-August 2009.  I reconnected with an old friend, Steve Devino.  Steve runs a small sound company, Granite Rocks Live, through which he provides live sound for community theatres in southern NH.  I volunteered to apprentice with him to learn more about the theatre sound biz.  During this period I helped support five shows – in various combinations of music and sound.

I initially approached this new adventure from a live sound perspective but I quickly discovered that my musical background combined nicely with the sound reinforcement.  My work with the Electronic Valve Instrument (see the EVI page) played an significant role in pit bands for two of the shows (see below).  And I’m excited about continuing to play multiple parts  in musicals to provide a wider range of instruments than would normally be available given the limited orchestra budgets of many community theaters.

Sound tech work included loading-in/loading-out of the sound equipment, installing/checking sound gear for both the actors (wireless mic’s) and the musicians, and providing both FOH (Front of House) and pit band monitor mixing.  I hope to continue gaining show experience during the Fall of 2009.

Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat

May 2009, Peacock Players – Nashua, NH
I (re-)started my musical theatre “apprenticeship” with this show.  My tasks included equipment load-in and then setting up the band pit for off-stage monitoring. A series of events led to me volunteering to cover the french horn part on EVI during the show while doing the band monitor mix. This worked well in the ensemble environment. I even had a couple of backstage visitors who were surprised to discover that there wasn’t a real french horn player. My experience here motivated me to investigate the possibilities of using the EVI to handle a wider variety of instruments.

All Shook Up

July 2009, Derryfield Repertory Theatre – Manchester, NH
This was my favorite show of the summer effort.  Again, ran the monitor mix for the band. The band was excellent – rhythm section + 2nd keyboard plus trumpet, trombone and multi-reeds (alto, bari, flute).  This was my first gig  covering multiple “books” with the EVI.  I consolidated the second trumpet and second reed books and ended up playing trumpet, flugelhorn, tenor sax and clarinet parts. It was great. The music was fun to play – all Elvis all the time -  but re-orchestrated for Broadway. The EVI work here is sort of the prototype for how I’d like to market myself to other musical directors.

Grease

August 2009, Peacock Players – Nashua, NH
This was my first chance to do front-of-house (FOH) mixing in addition to helping with the “deck audio” work of dressing wireless microphones on the actors. FOH mixing was shared between Cynthia Simonof (actors) and myself (band and sound effects). I was really able to see how controlling the band mix could help energize the actors. And this proved to be very important for a rock show like Grease.

Bat Boy

August 2009, Derryfield Repertory Theatre- Manchester, NH
This was a very hip/dark-humor show. And it was my first chance to mix the actor’s FOH sound as well as sound effects. We were using Steve’s big APB analog board.  It was a very busy show mixing-wise.  I inadvertently added some extra humor on the first night by mis-timing one of the gun shot effects.  Lessons learned…

Altar Boyz

August 2009, Derryfield Repertory Theatre- Manchester, NH

Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat

November 2009, The Norton Singers- Norton, MA
I started exploring theatre sound opportunities closer to home and was delighted when the folks from the Norton Singers asked me to help with their upcoming show.  I provided the Front-of-House mixing for the three shows.   And in the process I have made a number of new friends – Al Cunningham, the resident “sound dog”/photographer, Judee Bottomley, the show’s director as well as others from the cast and crew.

Little Shop of Horrors

December 2009, Merrimack High School- Merrimack, NH
Another chance to work with Steve and the Granite Rocks crew.  Steve and Rich were both playing in the pit band for this show so I handled the full FOH responsibilities.  The show was a kick to do once I got the sound effects queues down.  Adding the real-time over-the-top sound effects for Audrey II was a lot of fun.

Jesus Christ Superstar

January 2010, Derryfield Repertory Theatre- Manchester, NH
I was invited to be in the pit band for DRT alumni concert performance of Superstar.  This proved to be a great opportunity for the EVI and a serious challenge for me musically…  <details coming soon>

Jesus Christ Superstar

March 2010, Cushing Academy- Ashburnham, MA