Working: Part 2

On with the story…where was I? Oh, yes, I had decided to join the tech crew since I was not selected to appear in the fall play of my freshman year (our school had a fall play and a spring musical). That autumn the play was Miracle Worker. What part I thought I was fit to play I cannot say, but there was no way that Helen Keller was going to be portrayed by a teenager with the chest that I have. Suspending disbelief would be damn near impossible. And I was far too young to take on the character of Annie Sullivan with any semblance of veracity. So, I was billed in the program as the sound operator, a title that suited me, strangely enough, very well.

Miracle Worker was a difficult play to do sound for. There were 4 microphones on the two story set. Two overhead to handle scenes on the second floor of the set (Helen’s bedroom) and any action taking place from the middle to the back of the stage. There were also two floor mics for scenes down on the stages apron and proscenium area. Over a decade later, I am loathe to tell you how useless those floor mics were in a play with all the banging, brawling, and hand slapping that our Miracle Worker contained.

Second semester found me auditioning yet again, this time for the musical, Anything Goes. I was confident that with my dance background (I had ballet and gymnastics as a youth) I would be a perfect choice for the chorus since there were several phenomenal song and dance numbers in the show. How wrong I was. Sadly, my hopes and dreams were crushed when the cast list was posted and my name was nowhere on it. Soldiering on, I once again volunteered to join the tech crew and run the sound board.

Suffice it to say I was not the most popular kid in school, I was a quickly turning into a total drama dork, but I did have something the other kids did not, a Mackie 12 channel console. With it, I could control performers’ vocal volume over the pit orchestra. Yes, we were a well enough off school district that our High School had a beautiful theater complete with orchestra pit, downstairs dressing rooms, and a messy room piled high with props, costumes, and sets from show’s past that we called lovingly, the green room (although if memory serves, it was actually a light blue color with various paint samples from numerous sets).

The theater was not a space one could easily fill with just your speaking voice. It was bigger then a 99 seat theater, but not by much. The balcony was difficult to see from due a design flaw that required a wood railing directly in the sight line to the stage. The musical brought me more responsibility and really sparked my interest in audio as a career. I had 3 small radio frequency microphones that I mapped out between the actors so each would wear it during their big singing numbers. I felt so important handing out those battery powered mics to the students starring in the show. The mics transmitted their voices to my console where I could affect the pitch and volume…oh the heady power trip I embarked on with this duty.

Throughout rehearsals I grew more adept at hitting the proper level with the faders on the mix board. My confidence grew as did my fascination with sound. There were two men who came to school to set up the microphones, speakers, and give me a crash course in handling all of it. For this blog, I will call them C and J. These guys were kind enough to volunteer their time and experience to our High School even though their kids were not in the productions (they did have children my home town’s school district, just not in High School at that time).

Man, did I admire these guys! They were knowledgeable and what-more; they treated me like an intelligent adult capable of handling any situation that arose with their audio equipment. In retrospect, I now understand that most of the gear was rented, but it bolstered my confidence to feel their confidence in my abilities. Two years ago J even contacted me on one of his trips to the LA area and we had a lovely reunion. I thanked him for changing my life and sparking my ambition and interest in audio, a passion that inspired and lead me through an exciting decade of learning and working.

To be continued