My name is Robert, and I'm the Sound Designer/Sound Technician for New Line Theater's July 2010 production of Evita. I'll be updating throughout Evita, and (hopefully) beyond, but more on that later.
First, a bit about myself. I'm from Kirkwood, a suburb of St. Louis. I attended Kirkwood High School, where I first became interested in sound at the high school's Keating Performing Arts Center. At the beginning, I was only wanted to build sets. However, we used an attendance system to determine the tech positions, and since I attended all the crew sessions, I got first pick. Not knowing what was going on, I chose concentration almost randomly- sound looked interesting, so I took a prime sound position under the wing of our head sound techs. Stage crew rapidly defined my high school experience. We were a tight-knit but accepting group, and didn't give in to the silliness and infighting between cast and crew that most high school tech crews fall victim to.
Kirkwood High School is a land of opportunity for an aspiring technician- the equipment rivals most college theaters. Furthermore, the Keating Center operated as a semi-professional theater, renting the space to outside groups. We were paid to work as technicians. I learned sound quickly; formal training, however, was spotty at best. Most of what I know today I learned by hours of trial and error. In the first two years, 70% of the problems I fixed were problems I caused myself (now down to about 50%!). By the end of my junior year, I had figured out and documented the patchwork of equipment. My senior year, I became the head technician and began a system-wide upgrade process.
When it came time to pick a college, I looked at schools thinking I would be a structural engineer or architect. In doing so, I discovered architectural engineering, which is a mix of both. Architectural engineers are building engineers- they take the plans that architects draw and create a practical building: structure, electric systems, HVAC, acoustics, and so on.
Wait, acoustics?
Inadvertently, I had picked a field that combined two of my interests and I could still work with sound. Absolutely perfect. Based on the strength of their architectural engineering program, I decided to attend the University of Kansas. It just so happens that Kansas also has the best acoustics program in the Midwest.
I’m now entering my sophomore year at KU and am beginning to specialize into acoustics. I work heavily in my dorm’s theater providing technical services and furnishing some equipment. When I return to Lawrence, I plan on beginning a small sound company that would provide live sound and DJ services to the Lawrence and Kansas City areas.
Here's a picture of the Keating Center:
Before I go, some sound-nerd-speak. This will occur often, but I'll try to put it at the end of each post. It's probably incomprehensible to a normal person, but if you understand the jargon, you're probably the kind of person that would find it interesting!
As shown in the picture, the Keating Center has a Soundcraft MH3-32 console at FOH (an absolutely fabulous board). The speakers are set up in a LCR array, with EV T53s as the left-right pair and an EV TL606DW + HP Horns + DH1 center cluster. Amps are Crest Pro200 series. The speakers are starting to show their age, but still sound pretty good. The picture shows some Vega wireless units that were trashed due to the 700 Mhz switch and replaced with 16 Shure ULXP receivers. Monitors are run from FOH. 6 mixes are available, and the Keating Center has 4 EV FM12C monitors (another excellent piece of equipment) and 2 EV Sx100s that double as portable speakers elsewhere in the facility.
Well, that's all for today! Next time I'll talk about designing for Evita.
No comments:
Post a Comment