Musical Reinforcement & Acoustic Treatment.

The score calls for 5 musicians to play a number of instruments; keyboard, keyboard 2 (with ‘Mainstage’ computer interface), drumkit, acoustic guitar, electric guitar, banjo, bass, and trumpet. The band pit was in the offstage left wingspace. We used a variety of acoustic treatment methods (plexigalss, velour curtains, absorption panels, carpetting, and packing blankets) to contain the sound of the band, so that we had as little bleed on stage as possible.

The 11 members of the cast all had wireless headset lavalier microphones. The theater itself is a very narrow space with concrete walls. This created a lot of sound reflections that sounded like bouncing, particularly in higher frequency sounds like clapping, snapping, and plosives in the actor’s lines. To contain this bouncing effect, we installed absorption panels on the walls of the theater closest to the stage to dampen any early reflections.