May Issue - Stage Directions Magazine

• How To Attract (And Keep) a Diverse Audience 

•New Arts Facility Energizes 

a California Town 

www.stage-directions.com 

M A Y 2 0 0 7 

Miking Broadway’s 

A Chorus Line 

Inside BMI’s 

Lehman Engel 

Workshop 

Should You Hire a 

Musical Director?

Table Of Contents 

M a y 2 0 0 7 

Feature 

24 Theatre Space 

A West Coast community gets a theatre that’s no joke. 

By Charles Conte 

26 Theatre For Everyone 

Building diversity is smart, but it takes staying power. 

By John Crawford 

Spotlight:Paris 

20 Molière’s Legacy 

Inside the French Academy at the Comédie Française. 

By Karyn Bauer-Prevost 

22 Parfait of Excellence 

For more than 30 years, the Training Center for Professional 

Theatre Technicians has been training France’s finest techs. 


Special Section:Musical Theatre 

30 The Eternal Dilemma 

Computers versus live musicians — it’s a question that’s 

only going to get hotter as computers keep sounding better. 

By Kevin M. Mitchell 

33 Covering Your Tracks 

What you need to know about using backing tracks. 

By Jerry Cobb 

34 Music & Lyrics 

The BMI Workshop is nirvana to musical theatre makers; we 

examine why. By Brooke Pierce 

36 A Perfect Harmony 

For everything there is a season, but is your show the time 

for a musical director? By Lisa Mulcahy 

22 

COURTESY OF CFPTS

Departments 

7 Editor’s Note 

There’s no such thing as summer vacation. 

By Iris Dorbian 

9 Letters 

A TD weighs in on tardy designers. 

10 In the Greenroom 

Yale rep finds a new #1; the Tacoma Actors Guild 

and the Jean Cocteau rep fold; a Disney VP retires 

and more. 

14 Tools of the Trade 

The onset of summer brings gear for the outdoor 

season. 

16 Light On the Subject 

Building a profile for the profile spot. By Andy Ciddor 

44 Answer Box 

Getting the fog just right. By Jason Reberski 

Columns 

15 Vital Stats 

Lighting designer Ryan Koharchik flexes his craft at a 

number of venues. Just don’t ask him to fill out 

paperwork. By Kevin M. Mitchell 

18 On Broadway 

A Chorus Line, that one singular sensation, is back. By 

Bryan Reesman 

39 TD Talk 

The bid system might be designed to save money, but 

inexpensive and cheap are different. By Dave McGinnis 

40 Show Biz 

Is there really any such thing as competition? 

By Jacob Coakley 

41 Off the Shelf 

New books and CDs imply that musicals still have life 

yet to live. By Stephen Peithman 

42 The Play’s the Thing 

Diversity in tone grabs the ear. By Stephen Peithman 

26 

34 

ON OUR COVER: The cast of A Chorus Line 

PHOTOGRAPHY BY: Paul Kolnik 

DAVID GRAPES COURTESY OF AMERICAN STAGE

Editor’s Note 

What Hiatus? 

kimberly butler 

One of the biggest fallacies 

that theatre outsiders have 

is that the season rumbles 

to an end in May, remaining dormant 

for the summer until the fall 

when everything revs up again. 

From the inside, it’s a much different 

story. Sure, for most venues 

throughout the country, the regular 

season does end this month, but that doesn’t mean 

all is quiet on the theatrical front. Some theatres rent out 

their space to local companies and schools for various 

functions (i.e. trade shows, conferences, parties, etc.); 

others take stock of their inventory and make plans to 

upgrade gear or renovate dilapidated space. Still others 

are putting the final touches to the next season’s programming, 

conferring with board members and artistic 

staff about casting and logistics. Then there are those 

who are launching their new seasons in mid to late summer 

with new productions. (Broadway has begun doing 

this the last few years with certain productions.) When it 

comes to theatre, all is relative, subjective and arbitrary 

— pretty much the way human opinion is on any topic! 

But then again, problems may arise when theatres 

find themselves multitasking during the summer. For 

instance, I remember one time when I was interning at a 

regional theatre in New Jersey, the artistic director decided 

to not only mount a small cast revue in the mainstage 

during the summer months — but to commence a long 

overdue lobby renovation. Suffice it to say the theatre 

looked like a mess (and it didn’t smell too good, either) 

when patrons trooped in to buy tickets. If the gung-ho 

artistic director had simply planned ahead, listened to 

advisers and realistically weighed the consequences of 

doing this type of renovation while still keeping a show 

running in the mainstage, he might have realized the 

disaster that ensued. Clearly, the solution would have 

been to postpone the revue to the following season and 

begin the renovation when the theatre was dark; or the 

exact opposite. 

So the moral of this story is…be patient, plan ahead and 

don’t jump the gun until you’ve thought everything out. 

Iris Dorbian 

Editor 

Stage Directions 

www.stage-directions.com • May 2007


Publisher Terry Lowe 

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Editor Iris Dorbian 

Editorial Director Bill Evans 

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bevans@fohonline.com 

Audio Editor Jason Pritchard 

jpritchard@stage-directions.com 

Lighting & Staging Editor Richard Cadena 

rcadena@plsn.com 

Managing Editor Jacob Coakley 

jcoakley@stage-directions.com 

Associate Editor David McGinnis 

dmcginnis@stage-directions.com 

Contributing Writers Karyn Bauer-Prevost, Andy Ciddor, 

Jerry Cobb, Charles Conte, John 

Crawford, Kevin M. Mitchell, 

Lisa Mulcahy, Stephen Peithman, 

Brooke Pierce and Bryan Reesman 

Consulting Editor Stephen Peithman 

ART 

Art Director Garret Petrov 

Graphic Designers Crystal Franklin, David Alan 

Production 

Production Manager Linda Evans 

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Advisory Board 

Joshua Alemany 

Rosco 

Julie Angelo 

American Association of 

Community Theatre 

Robert Barber 

BMI Supply 

Ken Billington 

Lighting Designer 

Roger claman 

Rose Brand 

Patrick Finelli, PhD 

University of 

South Florida 

Gene Flaharty 

Mehron Inc. 

Cathy Hutchison 

Acoustic Dimensions 

Keith Kankovsky 

Apollo Design 

Becky Kaufman 

Period Corsets 

Todd Koeppl 

Chicago Spotlight Inc. 

Kimberly Messer 

Lillenas Drama Resources 

John Meyer 

Meyer Sound 

John Muszynski 

Theater Director 

Maine South High School 

Scott Parker 

Pace University/USITT-NY 

Ron Ranson 

Theatre Arts 

Video Library 

David Rosenberg 

I. Weiss & Sons Inc. 

Karen Rugerio 

Dr. Phillips High School 

Ann Sachs 

Sachs Morgan Studio 

Bill Sapsis 

Sapsis Rigging 

Richard Silvestro 

Franklin Pierce College 

OTHER TIMELESS COMMUNICATIONS PUBLICATIONS

Letters 

SALUTES NEW YORK CITY 

• A TALE OF TWO SCENE SHOPS 

• THEATRE TOURS TAKE YOU BEHIND THE SCENES 

A P R I L 2 0 0 7 


Utah Plaudits for 

New Mexico 

Just thought 

I’d send along a 

thanks for the range 

of articles you put 

together for the April 

2007 issue of Stage 

Directions. Having 

gone to the University 

of New Mexico way back in the dark ages (the 

new Rodey Theatre hadn’t been built yet), it was interesting 

to hear what’s happening on campus and in the 

city of Albuquerque. It was also exciting to hear about 

Fusion Theatre Company. I checked out their Web site, 

and it looks like they are doing some interesting work. 

The Special Section focus on New York City was also an 

enjoyable read. 

Bill Byrnes 

Dean, College of Performing & Visual Arts 

Southern Utah University 

A TD Weighs In 

Regarding the TD Talk article “On Your Hands” (SD 

April 2007) where the TD is waiting for long overdue scenic 

plans or has only napkin scribbles, I have worn both 

hats as scenic designer and TD. If a director has difficulty 

reading ground plans, please let that be known to the set 

designer early on so alternatives like 3D CAD or a model 

can be built. If you are responsible for lighting a subtle 

drama, let someone know your past expertise is really as 

the lighting designer for a rock band. As a designer, let 

the director know up front if you expect to run late. 

I recall an opening night that came before I saw parts 

of one design; instead, we built what we had plans for. It 

is not fair for the designer to eat into the build time. 

The group you are working with does not want to hear 

about the other two groups you are also trying to keep 

happy. Don’t burn your bridges on purpose or by blaming 

others; just consider, “I might possibly be causing this 

difficulty so I better help fix it.” 

Rich Desilets 

Santa Rosa, CA 

Miking & Mixing 

the TRIPLE THREATS 

of COMPANY 

GELS 

Versus 

DICHROICS 

Albuquerque 

Gets its Moment 

in the Sun 

300.0704.CVR.indd 1 3/12/07 6:08:30 PM 

Correction 

On page 24 in April’s Vital Stats, the production photo 

of Romeo and Juliet was misidentified as being from 

Mockingbird Theatre. The production was produced at 

Tennessee Repertory Theatre on the Polk Theatre Stage. 

The production was directed by David Grapes who was 

then the producing artistic director.

By Iris Dorbian 

In The Greenroom 

theatre buzz 

Theatre Critics Honor Playwright with Award 

The American Theatre Critics Association recently named 

Ken LaZebnik winner of the 2006 M. Elizabeth Osborn New 

Play Award for an emerging playwright. LaZebnik picked up 

his award March 31 at the Humana Festival of New American 

Plays in Louisville, Ky. His play Vestibular Sense was also one of 

six finalists in the 2006 Harold and Mimi Steinberg/American 

Theatre Critics New Play Awards. 

“I’m deeply appreciative to the ATCA for recognizing 

that a playwright may emerge at any age,” says LaZebnik. 

“The Osborn Award inspires me to continue writing for the 

theatre, which remains vital and essential for the heartbeat 

of American culture.” 

The award, chosen by ATCA’s 12-person New Plays 

Committee, is designed to recognize the work of an author 

whose plays have not yet received a major production, 

such as off-Broadway or Broadway, nor received other 

major national awards. 

The Osborn Award was established in 1993 to honor the 

memory of Theatre Communications Group and American 

Theatre play editor M. Elizabeth Osborn. It carries a $1,000 cash 

prize and receives recognition in The Best Plays Theater Yearbook, 

the annual chronicle of United States theatre founded by Burns 

Mantle in 1920 and currently edited by Jeffrey Eric Jenkins. 

Brian Skellenger and Karen Landry in Mixed Blood Theatre’s world premiere, 

Vestibular Sense by Ken LaZebnik 

Ann Marsden 

Yale Taps New Press Chief 

Yale Repertory Theatre and Yale School of Drama 

recently named Susan R. Hood as its press director; she 

assumed the post March 5. 

Hood has more than 20 years of experience in public 

relations covering theatre, dance, music and the visual 

arts. She has promoted and marketed choreographer 

Eliot Feld and the tours of Felds Ballet/NY, as well as the 

New Ballet School (now Ballet Tech). Also, as a member 

of Ellen Jacobs & Associates, she served the press needs 

of Martha Graham, Merce Cunningham, Bill T. Jones, 

Pilobolus and other renowned dance companies. She 

has also represented Mabou Mines, one of America’s 

foremost avant-garde theatre companies. 

Prior to her stint with Ellen Jacobs & Associates, 

Hood was the senior press representative for Brooklyn 

Academy of Music (BAM). Her work at BAM included 

publicizing commissions and premieres of work by 

Philip Glass, Robert Wilson, Laurie Anderson, Meredith 

Monk, Twyla Tharp and Mark Morris. Most recently, 

she has served for nine years as the media relations 

manager for the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art 

in Hartford, Conn. 

Lack of Money Dooms Tacoma Theatre 

According to a Seattle Times article dated March 8, 2007 by 

Misha Berson, the Tacoma Actors Guild, which was Tacoma’s 

only professional resident theatre company, shut down 

operations in late February because it didn’t have the funds 

to continue. This follows the recent closing of Seattle’s Empty 

Space Theatre, which also shuttered due to a cash shortfall. 

James V. Handmacher, a local attorney who is president of 

the theatre’s board of directions, stated, “We canceled the last 

show of our season, Romeo and Juliet, and have no intention 

of going on with a season for next year. Our entire staff has 

been laid off.” 

Although a major fundraising campaign liquidated much 

of TAG’s debt, it still owes money to its landlord and the 

Broadway Center for the Performing Arts, as well as actors 

and staff. Yet there are no immediate plans for TAG, which 

was founded in 1978, to file for bankruptcy. 

“We really fell short on support from foundations,” explains 

Handmacher of the board’s decision to close down the theatre. 

“Many took the position of ‘wait and see,’ which doomed us 

to failure. What we needed was another $100,000 of working 

capital to get us through the year. If that had come, TAG would 

have survived.” 

10 May 2007 • www.stage-directions.com

industry news 

New Music Licensing Agency Opens 

After several decades of experience 

in management positions at Music 

Theatre International, the William Morris 

Agency and Rodgers and Hammerstein 

Theatricals, Steve Spiegel recently 

launched Theatrical Rights Worldwide, a 

new musical theatre licensing company. 

In its first few months of operation, 

the NYC-based agency has acquired a 

number of well-known titles, including 

All Shook Up, Forbidden Broadway, I Love 

You Because, Ring of Fire and Zanna Don’t. 

They also have an exclusive relationship 

with Nickelodeon to develop and license 

live stage adaptations of their properties, 

starting with Blue’s Clues. 

“We’ve learned from our customers 

what they need to produce the best 

possible shows for their audiences, 

and we have applied those lessons to 

making licensing a musical from TRW as 

easy and rewarding as possible,” explains 

Spiegel. For example, customers keep 

all materials — scripts and scores; they 

can be used, marked and personalized 

to their wishes. Also, all scripts and 

scores are available in large, clear print, 

prepared in Microsoft Word and Finale 

software, designed for ease-of-use both 

by directors and performers. 

Steve Spiegel 

To find out more, visit the Web site at 

www.theatricalrights.com. 

Courtesy of TRW 

Montreal Staging Co. Names New Bigwig 

Courtesy of Scene Ethique 

Ron Morissette 

Scene Ethique, a Montrealbased 

scenic design and 

fabrication company, recently 

appointed Ron Morissette to 

corporate development. There he 

will oversee standard staging and 

grandstand products that have 

evolved from Scene Ethique’s 

custom fabrication products. 

Martin Ouellet, president of 

Scene Ethique, says, “Ron will 

allow us to use the technology 

that we have developed with our 

custom designs for international 

tours and apply it to standard 

products that can be used in a 

wide range of live performance 

applications from staging, to 

turntables, to grandstands.” 

Morissette, who is a past 

president of the Canadian Institute 

of Theatre Technology (CITT ) and is 

currently vice-president external for 

CITT, has been involved in design, 

sales and consulting for more than 

25 years. Most recently, he served 

as vice-president of operations for 

the Montreal company Realisations, 

where he worked closely with 

its founder and president, Roger 

Parent (who helped bring Cirque du 

Soleil to international audiences), 

on projects in Las Vegas, Honolulu 

and Detroit. 

PRG Partners Up 

Production Resource Group, 

LLC (PRG), a top equipment rental 

and services company in the 

entertainment technology industry, is 

expanding with its latest acquisition: 

High Performance Images (HPI), a 

Chicago-based video operation. 

“HPI’s resources and expertise in 

high-end video staging solutions 

adds depth and breadth to our 

video division and gives us a greatly 

enhanced presence in the Chicago 

video market,” says Kevin Baxley, PRG’s 

co-president and chief operating 

officer. “It will greatly enhance our 

ability to offer our clients the complete 

package of PRG equipment and 

services — video, lighting, audio and 

scenic — as well as the start-to-finish 

production management that so many 

customers are looking for today.” 

HPI founder and president, Adam 

Benjamin, who has been named 

general manager of PRG Video in 

Chicago, is enthusiastic about this 

milestone change: “I am delighted 

to be able to offer PRG’s full range of 

products and services to my customers. 

I look forward to helping grow PRG’s 

video division into one of the leading 

professional video resources in the 

United States.” 

Known as a fully integrated 

equipment rental and services 

company, the expanded PRG has a 

global presence, with major operations 

in New York, Chicago, Detroit, Nashville, 

Toronto, Orlando, Las Vegas, Los 

Angeles, London and Tokyo. 


changing roles 

Walt Disney Entertainment 

DISNEY VP RETIRES 

Rich Taylor flanked by friends 

Rich Taylor, who headed Walt 

Disney Entertainment’s costuming, 

cosmetology and entertainment 

divisions for the past 10 years, retired 

in February to “pursue a variety 

of other professional endeavors,” 

according to the press release. Overall, 

Taylor, whose last position made him 

a vice president with Disney, had 

been with the company for 26 years. 

EAW Taps Rowe For Appointment 

EAW recently announced 

that veteran concert sound 

professional Martyn “Ferrit” 

Rowe will join their staff as 

product specialist. One of Rowe’s 

first duties will be providing 

hands-on training for operation 

of EAW’s new UMX-96 largeformat 

digital mixing console; 

he will also develop curriculum 

and presentations for company 

educational programs. 

Prior to EAW, Rome worked 

for several years as the head of 

audio technical services for the 

Las Vegas branch of Production 

Resource Group (PRG). He has 

also freelanced as a monitor 

engineer for the Cranberries and 

as a system technician for Mötley 

Crüe, in addition to working on 

myriad Las Vegas productions. 

“It’s an exciting time to come 

aboard as a member of the EAW 

Martyn Rowe 

Courtesy of EAW 

team,” says Rowe. “There’s a 

congregation of veteran pro audio 

talent that is firmly committed 

to truly serving the pro audio 

industry in terms of technological 

innovation combined with indepth 

support, such as a deep 

commitment to education, to 

back it up.” 

www.stage-directions.com • May 2007 13

Tools Of The Trade 

May MélangeThe rise in temperature 

Wybron Transition 

T h e W y b r o n , I n c . 

Transition, a CMY Fiber 

Illuminator, uses similar 

CMY dichroic color mixing 

technology to Wybron’s 

Nexera lighting fixtures. The 

Transition offers smooth color 

changes with nearly infinite 

color choices and silent operation. The advantage of using fiber 

optics is that the light source is separated from the light output, 

and its fiber optic strands do not conduct UV radiation, all of 

which is meant to allow practically heatless illumination. 

The Transition allows the fiber common ends to remain cool, 

and the unit will not burn PMMA fiber. It has a compact design 

that measures less than 6 inches wide and weighs just less than 

8 pounds. The Transition includes an integral electronic ballast 

and power supply. It uses a 150-watt compact UHI light source 

and has a 10,000-hour lamp life. It accepts 17 through 34 mm 

common end fiber bundles and is RDM compliant. The Transition 

can be placed in an accessible location for easy maintenance. 

www.wybron.com 

QSC SC28 System Controller 

The QSC SC28 System Controller is a two-input, eight 

output DSP controller that additionally offers user-adjustable EQ 

and delay. 

The SC28’s 

audio quality is 

rooted in 48 kHz, 

24-bit A/D and 

D/A conversion 

technology with 32-bit, floating-point DSP offering wide dynamic 

range and low distortion. System tunings can be selected by 

scrolling through a list of QSC loudspeakers found on the SC28’s 

front LCD panel and selecting the desired configuration. 

Once the SC28 has been configured to match a system, integral 

six-band parametric equalization can be added along with high 

and low shelving filters and signal delay. Password protected to 

deter unauthorized tampering, the SC28 also provides thermal 

and excursion loudspeaker protection, as well as a channellinking 

feature that can be used to select linked or independent 

control of stereo channel settings. www.qscaudio.com 

ETC SmartFade ML 

ETC’s new SmartFade ML is a compact, portable and easyto-use 

board. The 

SmartFade ML 

is intended for 

small touring acts, 

schools, house of 

worship venues, 

industrials and 

other applications. 

SmartFade ML brings professional features like palettes, 

parameter “fan” and built-in dynamic effects to novice or 

experienced users. Its direct-access style of operation means that 

Photo Courtesy of Wybron 

Photo Courtesy of QSC 

Courtesy of ETC 

students, volunteers, non-technical staffers and others will be 

able to use the console. 

With a capacity for up to 24 moving lights and an additional 

48 intensity channels (dimmers), and the ability to patch to 

two universes of DMX512A (1,024 outputs), SmartFade ML 

provides control for smaller lighting rigs. www.etcconnect.com/ 

SmartFadeML 

Look Solutions and City Theatrical Wireless DMX-it 

The Wireless DMX-it, by Look Solutions and City Theatrical, 

i s a n a c c e s s o r y 

d e s i g n e d t o m a k e 

any Look Solutions 

fog or haze machine 

WDS-ready; also, City 

T h e a t r i c a l ’s W D S 

wireless technology 

can control any Look 

Solutions product from 

their DMX console without DMX cables. 

The Wireless DMX-it has a built-in WDS receiver and two 

control output jacks: a 1 /8-inch Mini, to control Look Solutions’ 

Tiny-Fogger or Tiny-Compact, and a 3-pin XLR to control a 

Power-Tiny, Viper NT or Unique2. A 5-pin XLR DMX Out is also 

included, allowing the unit to function as a conventional WDS 

DMX Receiver while simultaneously controlling a fog machine. 

looksolutionsusa.com 

Clear-Com Tempest 

The Clear-Com 

Tempest 2400 

a n d Te m p e s t 

900 is a wireless 

intercom system 

that has been 

continues to usher in a diverse 

array of new products. 

engineered to 

avoid the need 

for licensing and 

frequency coordination. Utilizing Frequency Hopping Spread 

Spectrum (FHSS) in conjunction with TDMA technology, Tempest 

operates in both the 2.4 GHz and 900 MHz bands. 

Tempest is intended to serve as a solution for the dilemma 

wireless communication system users will face when the DTV 

transition is completed in early 2009. Tempest operates in the 

unlicensed 2.4 GHz and 900 MHz bands, so it is unaffected by the 

reallocation of the UHF-TV spectrum. 2xTX Transmission Voice 

Data Redundancy sends each packet of audio data twice on 

different frequencies and through different antennas. 

Tempest can interoperate with other Clear-Com intercom 

systems, as well as those from other manufacturers through fourwire 

and two-wire connections. Each base-station can operate 

up to five wireless belt-stations. 

A Shared-Slot feature allows one of the five belt-stations slots 

to be used for up to 25 half-duplex, single transmit belt-stations. 

The new system has a PC-based control panel, with set-up and 

programming transferred to belt-stations via Ethernet or a USB 

connection. www.clearcom.com 

Courtesy of City Theatrical 

and Look Solutions 


Vital Stats 


Hoosier 

Journeyman 

Based in Indianapolis, lighting 

designer Ryan Koharchik flexes his 

craft at a number of venues. Just 

don’t ask him to fill out paperwork. 

From IRT’s production of A 

Midsummer Night’s Dream 

Current Home: Indiana Repertory Theater, Indianapolis 

About the Organization: The IRT was founded in 1972, and since 1980 has occupied 

a 1927 movie house that was renovated to feature three stages (Main, Upper and 

Cabaret). The Main Stage is a proscenium-style theatre, seating around 620, and the 

upper stage, a three-quarter thrust, Ryan seats Koharchik 315. The IRT typically puts on nine shows a 

season. 

Moonlights At: Indianapolis Civic Theater, the Gregory Hancock Dance Theater and the 

ShadowApe Theatre Company, which he co-founded. 

Schooling: Koharchik holds an MFA in lighting design from Boston University and a BS 

in theatre design from Ball State University. 

Recent Work: Beauty and the Beast, Driving Miss Daisy, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Most 

Valuable Player and The Turn of the Screw. 

Up Next: Twelfth Night. 

From IRT’s production 

of Turn of the Screw 

His Approach to the Work: “I like to meet with the whole creative team and talk about 

the script. I don’t like the word ‘concept’ because it’s limiting after a while and can 

hinder the creative process. But I like to come up with ideas, impressions and ways to 

tell the story as a group.” 

Tools of the Trade: ETC lights run by ETC Obsession. 

ALL PHOTOS COURTESY OF RYAN KOHARCHIK 

On Moving Lights: “I love moving lights, but they can become burdensome. They are 

great for musicals and shows that require a lot of scenery, but they do become very 

loud, which is difficult to deal with.” 

Favorite Part: “I love the beginning because it’s most creative. You work with others 

and make ideas concrete. And I love the end — the tech process — from focus on to 

opening. I must admit the drafting, paperwork, data entry… if I had enough money to 

pay people to do it, I would.” 


Light On The Subject 

By Andy Ciddor 

The Right 

Profile 

Why are profile spots so different in the U.S. 

as opposed to the rest of the world? 

One of North America’s most widely used ellipsoidal 

spots is the basic fixed focus Altman 360Q. 

Selecon’s Rama 150 PC is an example 

of a spot fixture that’s popular abroad. 

The ETC Source Four is another very popular 

ellipsoidal spot used in North America. 

Globalization has been bulldozing its inexorable path 

through the world of theatre since Genghis Kahn decided 

to take his European vacation. Wandering about 

backstage in any vaguely modern performance space anywhere 

in the world, most of the equipment will seem familiar to you. 

But only at first glance. 

You may well see your favorite brands of dimmers, consoles 

and luminaires, but look more closely — you are likely to find 

some surprising differences. Some of the ellipsoidal reflector 

spots (known in other parts of the English speaking world as 

profile spots) may have a zoom focus knob on the lens barrel, 

and some of the Fresnel spots may actually have smooth (plano 

convex) lenses rather than the stepped lens you were expecting. 

While not entirely absent from North American equipment 

inventories, these variations are not very common in the U.S. 

In Historical Context 

The plano-convex spot (known in some places as a focus 

spot) was in common worldwide use in the early 20th century. 

Like today’s Fresnel spots, these luminaires used a spherical 

reflector to capture some of the light from the lamp and send 

it forward through a lens that allowed the beam to be focused 

onto the stage. At that time, the lens was a simple plano-convex 

lump of moderately heat-resistant glass, and the lamp was likely 

to have a cage or drum-shaped filament. 

The combination of the comparatively crudely made lens 

with a filament that lay anywhere but on the focal plane of the 

optics produced a vaguely rectangular blob of light with dark 

and light bands due to the structure of the filament. Moving 

the lamp and reflector within the fixture enabled some variation 

in the size of the beam and the sharpness of the striations. 

The uneven output pattern from these plano-convex (PC) spots 

made them particularly difficult to blend together to get an 

even stage wash. 

It should come as no surprise to learn that the lighting industry 

was anxious to find a better instrument than the PC spot. 

Developments took two directions. The first approach, taken by 

Levy and Kook, was to build a more efficient and accurate optical 

system using an ellipsoidal reflector and a grid filament lamp, 

which provided a more even beam of light through the PC lens. 

The beam was sufficiently flat that it projected a crude profile 

of any object placed at the right point in the beam. Thus arose 

the Leko ellipsoidal reflector spot (ERS), or profile spot, whose 

descendents would be fitted with shutters, irises and gobos. 

The other tactic for dealing with the PC spot’s main imperfection 

was to use a fuzzier and less accurate lens to remedy 

the uneven beam. The Fresnel lens, with its molded-in “imperfections” 

and its inaccurate focus due to the stepped rings, 

turned out to be ideal. The more diffuse beam was less striated 

and much easier to blend into even coverage. The shorter 

focal length of the Fresnel lenses also brought with it a wider 

range of beam angles. Although cost was initially a barrier to 

its widespread adoption, once manufacturing processes were 

improved, the Fresnel spot drove the PC spot to virtual extinction 

by the middle of last century. The archeologically inclined 

reader may be able to find a few dead PC spots (usually with a 

big crack in the lens) buried in the equipment graveyards under 

the stages and in the back corners of the equipment stores in 

older performing spaces. 

The States Versus Abroad 

Since its introduction, the ERS has been the subject of much 

research and development effort. The reflector system has been 

redesigned several times to collect more light and to focus it 

more sharply. A variety of lamps, featuring higher outputs and 

better filament arrangements, have been developed. In different 

efforts, the lens system has been both simplified for higher 

efficiency and made more complex by introducing zoom focus. 

The projection capabilities have been vastly improved through 

the addition of condenser optics before the gate, while the 

gate itself has been fitted with a vast variety of shutter systems, 

including a second set of offset blades to allow for both soft 

and hard focused edges. Despite all of these possibilities, North 

America’s most widely used ellipsoidal spots remain the basic 

fixed focus Altman 360Q and the fixed focus models of the ETC 

Source Four. 

The situation in the 200V+ regions (i.e., Asia, Africa and 

Europe) has been almost the complete reverse. Since the CCT 

Silhouette, a zoom-focusing quartz-halogen powered profile 

spot, first appeared in the UK in the early 1970s, there has been 

almost no interest in the fixed focus variety. So little interest, that 

even the world’s most popular ellipsoidal, the ETC Source Four, 

only became popular in the 200V+ regions after a range of zoom 

focusing models were introduced. 


Why the Difference? 

There has been much gnashing of teeth and pounding of 

café tables and bars over why these differences have arisen. The 

fixed focus fanatics base their fervor on the higher output and 

sharper focus possible with the simpler optics of their favored 

fixture. The zoom focus acolytes believe that the additional 

flexibility offered by the wider range of beam angles justifies 

the marginal light loss, the higher weight and higher price of 

their choice. One particularly hurtful (but valid) comment from 

the fixed beam camp is that, in many installations, the front-ofhouse 

rig is immutable because of a venue’s structure, and so 

nullifies any possible benefit from zoom optics. 

There may be other, less clearly identified forces at work, 

however. In most of the world, a luminaire is seen as a long-term 

investment that may not be replaced for 15 to 25 years, so buying 

the most flexible unit possible is seen as a measure of futureproofing 

the investment. Equipment upgrade and replacement 

cycles tend to be much shorter than this in the U.S., particularly 

when the inventory belongs to a commercial enterprise. 

In the same way that continental drift has separated the continents 

and allowed differing evolutionary paths for related species 

of animals and plants; so, too, has supply voltage difference 

isolated the two branches of luminaire development. Ohm’s 

law makes it quite clear that if you halve the voltage to a device 

(230V to 110V), you will need twice the current to produce the 

same amount of power (approximately 4 amps per kilowatt at 

230V and 8 amps per kilowatt at 110V). 

What Ohm’s law doesn’t tell you is that a 100V+ lamp is 

almost 10 percent more efficient than 

its 200V+ equivalent, due to increased 

heating efficiencies in the heavier filament. 

It also neglects to mention that 

the thinner filament is much more fragile 

or that the insulation required for 

200V+ devices is substantially heavier 

and more expensive than that required 

for 100V+. There may be 200V+ and 

100V+ versions of many lamps, but they 

are by no means equivalents in terms of 

filament size, robustness or efficiency. 

It was only quite recently, when voltage-independent 

switching power supplies 

became standard on some moving 

lights, that it was possible to make a 

luminaire that would work wherever in 

the world it was plugged in. 

The Altman 360Q probably didn’t 

make it in the 200V+ regions because 

there was no decent lamp available for 

it and because it came with 110V insulation 

that could not be approved by 

electrical authorities. Similarly, CCT was 

so busy building Silhouette luminaires 

to run at 200V+ that no effort was made 

to develop a 100V+ version. Even in this 

time of galloping globalization, only a 

handful of theatrical luminaire manufacturers 

set out to build products that 

can work across the entire voltage and 

regulatory spectrum. 

While one evolutionary branch of the 

plano convex spot may have become the Fresnel spot in most 

of the world, in Europe in the early 1980s, Fresnel lens technology 

was used to craft a hybrid lens. This is a kind of back-cross 

between the original ground and polished plano-convex lens 

and the molded Fresnel lens. Variously known as a prism convex 

or pebble convex lens, this variation has some knobby features 

molded onto what was previously the flat surface of the PC lens. 

The intention is to remove the unevenness of the original PC’s 

beam without losing its sharp focus. The result lies somewhere 

between an ellipsoidal and a Fresnel spot. Some less charitable 

critics of the result have observed that it combines the worst 

characteristics of both. While many LDs will use this luminaire 

for specific applications, such as tight stage pools, their use in 

the professional industry is not widespread. Nevertheless, most 

200V+ theatrical Fresnel manufacturers also offer a PC variant 

of their products. 

Nigel Levings, the 2003 Tony Award-winning lighting designer 

(La Boheme) who works in venues and productions on both 

sides of the Atlantic, gets to have the final to say on the subject. 

“From time to time, I have been forced to use PCs in repertory 

rigs, but I don’t like them much, “ he admits. “I see them as a lazy 

substitute for those who can’t calculate beam coverage. My rigs 

these days are mostly S4 fixed beam profiles (ERS) with various 

frosts and PAR cans.” I guess that this argument will probably 

continue in the bar after tonight’s show. 

Andy Ciddor has been involved in lighting for nearly four decades 

as a practitioner, teacher and technical writer. 


Sound Design 

By Bryan Reesman 

What I Did For 

At a time when glitzy, big budget productions dominate 

Broadway, the revival of Michael Bennett’s Pulitzer Prizewinning 

A Chorus Line is a welcome breath of fresh air. The 

current producers of this high energy, character-driven show even 

kept the show’s original 1970s look and musical vibe intact to 

present its timeless tale of a group of aspiring chorus line singers 

and dancers auditioning for a demanding but personable director. 

The staging is simple, with the actors being the focus, and the 

director’s voice generally emanating from offstage. The one visually 

dazzling element is the mirrored wall that occasionally is used 

to give the audience a sense of the performers’ perspective. 

The new Chorus Line features sound design by Tom Clark of 

Acme Sound Partners, and the live mixer is long-time Broadway 

veteran Scott Sanders, who spent seven years on Les Misérables 

and recently tackled Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and Hot Feet. During 

a break in his busy production schedule, he chatted about working 

on this classic show, which had a profitable run at the Curran 

Theater in San Francisco last summer, and which reportedly made 

back its $8 million budget on Broadway in 18 weeks — a new 

record. 

Stage Directions: A Chorus Line is more stripped down compared 

with the other stuff you’ve worked on recently. 

Scott Sanders: This one’s really simple. The original production 

was foots and shots. I think they had five foots and three 

or four shots. There are no sound effects; there is very little happening, 

and the band takes care of itself for the most part, unlike 

Hot Feet, where I was constantly mixing the band. Having no 

sound effects and being based on a lot of monologues, it’s pretty 

straightforward. 

Which console are using? 

A DiGiCo D5T. I’d say we’re using about 90 to 100 inputs. We’ve 

got duplicate wireless for the cast. We’ve got 20-some wireless 

mics to start the show; then we have another set of 17 that we use 

for the finale costumes. So for the quick change, there’s a transmitter 

already rigged into the gold costumes. There are 40-some 

inputs and wireless inputs just there, and then there are another 

60 in the 18-piece band. 

Which mics are you using on the actors? 

We’re using Sennheiser SK-5012 transmitters with the DPA 

4061 microphones. The one tough challenge in this show was the 

fact that the director was adamant that he didn’t want to see any 

wires, so we sort of stepped back a generation and almost everybody 

is rigged on their chest. 

I recall when one of the actors put her hands together, I could 

hear a little bit of a thud. 

Yeah, everybody seems to like to touch their heart when they 

say something about themselves. That’s about where most of the 

women are wearing them, right in the seam of their bra, and the 

men are wearing them in various positions on their shirt, in a lot of 

cases, underneath the shirt. We found the DPA works surprisingly 

well there, even if it’s covered by fabric. We use a lot of high boost 

caps, more than any other show I’ve ever done. Typically, when 

you’ve got mics on their head, you don’t need the high boost. We 

found that the high-boost cap on the people with it in their clothing 

gives not only a little more high-end articulation, but because 

the windscreen is flat, it also gets less fabric noise. 

So this show is high-tech but old school at the same time. 

It’s like going backwards. Fifteen years ago, when people realized 

that if you put mics on actors’ heads you could solve a lot of 

problems and get so much better quality, they stopped putting 

mics on people’s chests. But here it was the only way to do it 

because of the shorter haircuts. There are three women who do 

have it on their heads. The woman who plays Diana wears it on 

her head the entire show, and for the other two women who wear 

it on their heads, it changes over to a chest position during the 


Theater Spotlight 

Sound 

The challenges of microphone placement — foot 

and head — figures prominently into the current 

Broadway revival of A Chorus Line. 

Cassie dance and monologue, because the problem during the 

second half of the show is that they start playing with their hats. 

So if we had left those head mics on, we would’ve probably lost 

those two voices due to hat noise. We don’t have a great mic position, 

but I think with all the EQs that Tom put on people and the 

tuning of the system, they did a good job for what we were put up 

against. It wasn’t our choice to not have mics on people’s heads, 

but it still sounds clear, and because of all the delay changes we 

keep it pretty fairly well imaged to the stage, as long as they give 

me enough source to image. 

Is anyone double miked? 

No, because the leotards are so small. In fact, most of the 

women are wearing the pack itself in the bra, and most of the 

men are wearing their packs in their dance belts. A couple of the 

women wear it in the back portion of their bodies because they’re 

not comfortable with that in their bra. 

You have a separate mic for the director when he leaves the 

stage and goes to the back of the theatre, correct? 

I use that like any other wireless microphone. I only bring it up 

when he speaks. Then there’s one regular mic backstage, where 

he does his final speech. It’s just an SM58, like the one he sits in 

front of when he goes to the back of the theatre. I only use his 

wireless when he’s onstage. Otherwise, he’s right in front of me, 

at the very back of the house in one of the last two seats, behind 

a pillar. 

Was there live sound in the original production that ran from 

1975 to 1990? 

Yes. In fact, my mentor was Otts Munderloh, who was the 

designer that I first worked for when I came to Broadway, and he 

was the original sound man on this show. That was one of the 

turning points for me in taking the job. It was a nice circle for me 

because he’d been the original mixer. I’m not sure what they used 

back then, but he described it as dials, so the first console they had 

must have been a radio static dial of some fashion. I think that it 

had more dials than faders. As a matter of fact, a lot of the blocking, 

which is still true in our production, came from the necessity 

of the foot mics. When Sheila first has her conversation with Zach, 

and he asks her to step downstage, she takes a diagonal step to 

her right — that was originally to get her in front of foot two. For 

a lot of the blocking, where you see them step from the line and 

head to a certain place, there were five various sections along the 

front of the stage that they utilized. So when they were primarily 

singing a lot of their solo work, they were dead center in front of 

one of the foot mics. 

Do you have foot mics this time? 

We’re using some DPA mics with boundary mounts, but that’s 

only for emergencies. We have three total, but because we don’t 

have anybody double packed. If I lose somebody, it’s the only way 

the band would know that they were still singing. The center foot 

is the most important one, and it goes pre-fader down to the band 

because they’re in the basement in a room called “the bunker” 

with a double sheet rock wall with soundproofing, installation 

and air-conditioning. It’s a whole isolated room that, if I didn’t 

have any mics there, you wouldn’t know there was a band in the 

building. It’s that isolated. So if I were to lose somebody’s mic, the 

conductor wouldn’t know where the hell he was. I have the center 

mic pre-fade going to the Aviom mixers downstairs, so he’s always 

getting something from the stage. The only other times I’ve used 

them have been when Diana’s mic went dead a couple of times 

during “What I Did For Love.” Thank God the blocking was the 

way it was, because she stepped downstage to sing most of the 

big part of the number and was standing right in front of mic two. 

That worked out pretty well. 

Bryan Reesman is a New York-based writer who has been published in 

the New York Times, MIX, Billboard, and FOH. 


Theatre Spotlight 


Molière’s Legacy 

all photos courtesy of Comedie Francaise 

The façade of the Comedie Francaise 

After nearly 400 years, the Comédie Française is more than just 

France’s oldest theatre — it’s an institution. 

Affectionately referred to as the “Française,” with a capital “F”, 

the Comédie Française remains, after almost four centuries 

of brilliant performances, dramatic failures, internal battles 

and popular successes, France’s foremost cultural beacon. With 

nearly 400 employees on the roster, three distinct theatres and an 

amazing performance schedule, the Française is more than just a 

theatre; it is an institution that holds its own amid the 150 working 

theatres in Paris. 

The Comédie Française is composed of the historic 18th century 

Salle Richelieu, located at the Palais Royal, a luxurious marble 

and red velvet lined Italian-style theatre where 900 spectators can 

admire the chair where Molière pronounced his last words in Le 

Malade Imaginaire; the Théâtre du Vieux Colombier, whose bare 

stage was designed for performances without sets and, with its 300- 

person seating capacity, was acquired in 1993; and the smallest of 

“Ours is an ancient company. It 

is also contradictory, passionate 

and fragile.” — Denis Podalydès 

the three, the 100-seat Studio Théâtre, built in 1996 in the basement 

of the Carrousel du Louvre shopping plaza, providing for a most 

intimate, if technically complicated, setting. 

On any given week, from September through the end of July, 

the audience can enjoy five different performances, with three 

different shows at the Salle Richelieu alone. Actors are required to 

juggle roles among the three theatres and are often required to 

perform three times in one day, starting with a matinee at the Vieux 

Colombier, an early evening performance at the Studio Théâtre and 

ending with a role at the Salle Richelieu. 

“They must be very versatile,” says company administrator 

Isabelle Baragan. “It is a very demanding schedule.” 

Mandated in Versailles in 1680 by King Louis XIV, the original 

company, under the direction of Molière, functioned as an independent 

unit, with actors surviving on profits from ticket sales. The 

better the performances, the greater the crowds, the higher the 

pay. Despite heavy government funding covering nearly two thirds 

of operating costs, France’s only permanently salaried theatrical 

company has maintained its 17th century philosophy. 

The company works under the direction of an administrateur 

général, appointed by the French Minister of Culture, who selects 

the season’s performances, their respective directors and hires 

new actors. The new actors are hired for a two-year trial period as 

pensionnaires. They are then judged annually by a jury of their peers, 

known as the comité, who can promote them to the coveted level of 

sociétaire, providing them with a 10-year renewable contract, profit 

dividends and tremendous pride. Currently, there are 60 members 

of the company, of which 37 are sociétaires and 23 pensionnaires. 

“Despite the monetary progression,” adds Baragan, “it is a great 

honor to be recognized by a jury of your peers. Becoming a sociétaire 

allows an actor to become a member of a very elite and prestigious 

company. They carry on a 400-year-old tradition.” 

The six-member jury, known as the comité, is also responsible 

for firing actors at any level. The ax can fall, without warning, at any 

time. Both pensionnaires and sociétaires can have their contracts 

revoked, provoking anger and fury. Some may fall back on lawyers 

to defend their status. 

“Ours is an ancient company,” says sociétaire Denis Podalydès, 

director of the hugely successful Cyrano de Bergerac. “It is also contradictory, 

passionate and fragile.” The election process is severe 

and inflicts hostility, but prevents stagnation, keeping this otherwise 

permanent company in constant flux. 

Three theatres and an impressive production schedule allow 


“One false move can provoke 

a dramatic domino effect of 

hazards.” — Nicolas Fralin 

the Française to offer diverse fare, from Racine and Corneille to Pier 

Paolo Pasolini’s Orgie and Nathalie Sarraute’s For Yes or No, to its 

enthusiastic audiences. Nine hundred yearly performances attract 

nearly 350,000 theatregoers in Paris alone. Thanks to private funding 

by the Pierre Bergé Foundation, the Jacques Toja Foundation, 

the Crédit Agricole Bank and the Accor Groupe, The Française can 

export such ambitious productions as the Fables de la Fontaine, 

staged in 2005 by Robert Wilson and headed for the Lincoln Center 

Festival in July 2007. 

For Nicolas Fralin, chief production manager for the three 

theatres, the heavy programming schedule at the Salle Richelieu, 

known as alternance, is a source of daily headaches. “It is so complex,” 

he says, “that one false move can provoke a dramatic domino 

effect of hazards.” 

The Salle Richelieu boasts a staff of 150 stage technicians. The 

flies are equipped on a permanent basis with sets for four different 

productions. At the Salle Richelieu, a production is never performed 

consecutively. At 8:30 a.m., a team dismounts the sets from the 

prior evening. They then install decor for the play in preparation. 

At 1:00 p.m., the actors begin rehearsing, and at 5:00 p.m., another 

technical team installs the sets for yet another different evening 

performance. 

In addition to the ETC Congo lighting console that was installed 

last year, one of the more recent production improvements that 

has eased the load for Fralin came in 2005, when the sound 

technicians were provided with a discreet and 

open position on the level of the second balcony. 

Until then, the sound engineers had been 

working behind a glass panel on the third balcony, 

thwarting their ability to properly control 

sound quality. 

When, in February 2007, the company performed 

Bernard-Marie Koltès’ Return to the 

Desert, under the direction of sociétaire and 

now Administrateur Général Muriel Mayette, 

Fralin was faced with a predicament. He was 

The motto of the Comédie Française — “Simul et singulis,” which means 

together while alone 

required to install a wall stage center capable of moving to different 

levels smoothly and quietly throughout the performance, but 

he did it without fail. “It was complicated,” he says. “It required a 

special set of pulleys, maneuvered by the flies, which insured its 

smooth movement.” 

Perhaps last year’s arrival of Mayette, appointed administrateur 

général in July 2006, is most symbolic of the historic Comédie 

Française’s efforts to remain resolutely modern. She is the first 

woman to hold such a function, the youngest to be appointed and 

the first staff sociétaire to be honored with such a promotion. 

Mayette, 43, intends to export her company’s talents more 

often, with more demanding traveling time. She also hopes to 

bring greater notoriety to her actors, bringing them into the light 

of the media “prior to their retirement.” Two days after her official 

arrival in the administrative offices of the luxurious 17th century 

Salle Richelieu, the most prestigious of the three theatres, she had 

the gold letters “Comédie Française” mounted onto the building’s 

exterior wall. Until her arrival, the theatre was bare and enjoyed an 

elusive, hidden status. Another new era has begun. 

Inside the Salle Richelieu 


School Spotlight 


Parfait 

of Excellence 

For more than 30 years, the 

Training Center for Professional 

Theatre Technicians has been 

training France’s finest. 

A student works the board for a production in rehearsal 

Deep inside the gritty Parisian suburb of Bagnolet lies 

a theatrical jewel. Unique in its vocation, and highly 

acclaimed for the excellence of its academic offerings, 

The Training Center for Professional Theatre Technicians (Centre 

de Formation Professionelle aux Techniques du Spectacle, or 

CFPTS), has been attracting students from across France for more 

than 30 years. Open to both high-school graduates and practicing 

technicians, the school is fertile ground where professionals 

and amateurs meet. 

“It is a crossroads,” says educational supervisor Béatrice 

Marivaux. “Our goal is to promote the greatest amount of interaction 

among beginners and experts. Students often return to the 

school to engage in that rich exchange”. 

During an average year, some 200 active professionals will 

take time out of their demanding schedules to teach classes here. 

The school boasts nine classrooms, five stage facilities, four sound 

studios and nine extensive workshops. The incoming professors 

are invited on a rotating basis, keeping coursework contemporary 

and evolutionary. 

Often unaccustomed to working in a classroom environment, 

this rotating staff frequently requires assistance from the school’s 

in-house team of teachers who, according to Marivaux, “transform 

their enthusiasm into academic tools.” 

Nearly 1,000 professionals will have taken continuing education 

classes at the CFPTS this year, ranging from the more popular 

crash course on WYSIWYG Lighting Design and perfecting the 

grandMA console to working with the Pyramix Virtual Studio and 

understanding Flying Pig Systems. A variety of long-term training 

sessions are also available in the areas of theatre administration, 

technical direction, staging, rigging, lighting and sound. 

The school also prides itself on the diversity of its stage accessory 

classes, unique in France, which teach skills that include ironworking 

for designing stage jewelry; sculpture for creating masks 

and molds; and special effects for mastering onstage fires, explosions, 

snow, smoke and indoor fireworks. A variety of safety classes 

ensure that technicians function in a low-risk environment. 

Housed in a former sawmill factory, the CFPTS opened its 

doors in 1974 as a semi-private continuing education center for 

theatre technicians, who take classes to perfect their skills, or to 

change jobs entirely. It has since evolved, and in 1992 the school 

launched the Center for Art Training, otherwise known as the 

CFA. Unique in France, the program is open to recent high-school 

graduates, ages 18-25 years old. The 50 students admitted into 

each academic cycle must pass a written and oral examination, 

proving their scholastic level. They must also demonstrate their 

motivation by obtaining a two-year paid internship at a local 

theatre prior to enrollment. 

“If they are struggling to find an appropriate contact,” says 

Emmanuelle Saunier, the school’s outreach officer, “then we can 

provide them with some guidance, but we prefer to let them 

approach the various theatres on their own. It is essential for prospective 

students to demonstrate a certain level of enthusiasm 

and assertiveness prior to enrolling.” 

That assertiveness will be essential to their training throughout 

this two-year program as they alternate between six-week 

classroom sessions and hands-on work. Not only do interns 

receive a minimum salary, but the majority of those students 

studying here, whether in the CFPTS or in the CFA, pay no tuition. 

Fees, which can be extensive, (880€ Euros for a three-day rigging 

class, 17,200 Euros for a nine-month class in sound production) 

are covered by the “taxe d’apprentissage,” a French tax requiring 

businesses to reinvest a small percentage of their profits into 

training centers like the CFPTS. 

“We all learned by watching,” says Marie Noëlle Bourcard, 

lighting production supervisor at the Théâtre de l’Athénée Louis 

Jouvet in Paris, who frequently takes CFA interns under her wing. 

“We know how essential it is for theatre technicians to have that 

hands-on experience. They develop into an integral part of the 

team and are usually hired once their internship ends.” 

The post-graduation placement rate for CFA students is nearly 

100 percent. Among the prestigious venues where students have 

found jobs are the Paris National Opera and the National Theatre 


photos courtesy of CFPTS 

School Spotlight 

Students set up before a production 

A student works on a mold 

of Chaillot, as well as smaller, private-run theatres such as the 

Théâtre du Soleil or the Théâtre de l’Athénée. 

Degrees in lighting, sound or staging are only issued after 

the final exam that focuses on fully coordinating and executing 

a production. Students must demonstrate their technical skills 

and work as a team, negotiating situations with their peers and 

displaying problem-solving skills. 

A theatre company, dance troupe or circus act have come 

in occasionally, providing students with hands-on material. For 

Marivaux, “it is likely the first and only time in their careers that 

the actors will be working for the technicians.” 

The shows are often riddled with theatrical dilemmas, such as 

installing a curtain of rain without runoff or puddles, having an 

actor catch flying glasses on various intervals 

or creating a lighting atmosphere 

similar to one found under a sunlit tent 

in the desert. “If our students are asked to 

outfit a production in the middle of the 

Gobi desert, it is our job to ensure that 

they can, with no injuries,” notes Saunier. 

A recent production saw a rich collaboration 

between the graduating students 

of the National Circus School of Bondy, 

which allowed students from both sides 

of the curtain to work together in what 

might be considered a two-tiered final 

exam. “Many love stories resulted from 

that production,” chuckles Marivaux. 

Eric Proust, senior production supervisor 

for the annual Festival d’Art Lyrique 

in Aix-en-Provence, was among the 1996 

jury. “It was fabulous,” he recalls. “We 

were observing future technicians at work 

and exchanging ideas with fellow experts, 

some of whom were even former CFA 

graduates.” This 30-year veteran has since 

become one of the school’s most enthusiastic 

advocates. 

Prior to touring with the Théâtre 

Vidy-Lausanne’s latest production 

of Mademoiselle Julie, performed in 

November 2006, Proust enrolled in his 

first CFPTS class: Perfecting AutoCAD. 

“It was amazing to finally sit down in a 

classroom and work with other pros in a 

learning environment,” he says. “It is truly wonderful to learn. All 

theatre technicians should take classes — how stimulating!” 

Next year, Proust will teach his first class, a session on becoming 

a theatre administrator. While there, he may cross paths with 

Philippe Groggia, chief electrician from the Comédie Française, 

who will be teaching an electrical theory class, or perhaps he 

will meet Dominique Ledolley, sound operator from the Opéra 

Bastille, or art history professor Gérard Delpit from the Louvre 

Museum. Together they will be working to forge future talents, 

like Samuel Chatain, a young CFA student who is here for one 

simple reason: “Because they are the best.” 

Karyn Bauer-Prevost is a freelance writer based in Paris. 

www.stage-directions.com • Aprilr 2007 23

Theatre Space 

By Charles Conte 

Victoria Station 

ALL PHOTOGRAPHY BY JERRY LAURSEA, 

COURTESY OF CITY OF RANCHO CUCAMONGA 

An isolated West Coast community 

gets a cultural boost thanks to a 

new theatre complex. 

The exterior of the Victoria Gardens Cultural Center 

Interior view of the Playhouse 

Along with Timbuktu, Bora Bora and Walla Walla, Washington, 

Rancho Cucamonga, a city of some 170,000 42 miles east 

of Los Angeles, carries on the proud tradition of bearing a 

quirky name that’s guaranteed to make people smile. 

Far from hiding its heritage under a bushel, the city of Rancho 

Cucamonga embraces it. In 1993, the city erected a statue of 

Jack Benny (the comedian used the city name as the punch 

line in a running gag on his radio show) outside The Epicenter, 

home of baseball’s California Angels Class A affiliate, the Rancho 

Cucamonga Quakes. The statue was actually commissioned to 

encourage the creation of a performing arts center in the city. 

Today, that statue sits in the lobby of the 536-seat Lewis 

Family Playhouse, the focal venue of the Victoria Gardens 

Cultural Center, along with the Victoria Gardens Library. 

Completed in August 2006, the Cultural Center is a major 

anchor to the 1.5 million-square-foot Victoria Gardens 

retail center. 

The city enlisted WLC Architects and Pitassi Architects (both 

with offices in Rancho Cucamonga) to interpret the city’s vision 

for a facility combining a community-gathering place with a 

playhouse and a library. The city wanted to create a place that 

inspires, entertains, educates and sparks the imagination. The 

architects and the Berkeley Calif.-based design firm, Flying 

Colors, Inc., delivered on all counts. 

Auerbach Pollock Friedlander collaborated with the architectural 

team as theatre, sound, video and communications 

consultants. They also provided the design for all of the 

theatrical systems. The firm’s architectural lighting design 

division, Auerbach Glasow, provided lighting design services 

throughout the public spaces. 

In the Lewis Family Playhouse, home to the resident 

MainStreet Theatre Company, the Auerbach-specified FOH 

system is based around a Yamaha M7CL-48 digital audio console 

and loudspeaker arrays from NEXO. 

The Lewis Family Playhouse 

The Lewis Family Playhouse is a flexible proscenium theatre. 

As Auerbach’s project manager, Mike McMackin, explains, “A 

flexible platform system is configurable for use as a thrust stage, 

additional audience seating or as an orchestra pit. In-house side 

stages and side balconies provide an extension of the performance 

area into the volume of the audience chamber.” The 

proscenium opening is 40 feet wide by 22 feet high by 34 feet 

deep. The stage is fully trapped to accommodate entrances and 

exits from the space below. 

Sound system design for the theatre presented a number of 

challenges. First of all, the theatre would host a variety of performances: 

theatre for young audiences, professional theatre, classical 

music, musicals, pops performances and large format DVD 

presentations. Secondly, though line arrays were preferred for 

delivering the best possible left/center/right image to every seat, 

according to Auerbach sound system designer Greg Weddig, “We 

struggled with long line arrays, trying to integrate them into the 

architecture.” 

The NEXO Geo Series presented an interesting solution: their 

GEO S830 loudspeaker could be vertically or horizontally mounted. 

“Essentially, we turned a vertical line array on its side,” says 

Weddig. The center cluster consists of five GEO S830s, with appropriate 

(NEXO) processing, each delivering a 30 degree dispersion 

pattern. Vertical arrays consisting of three S830s each, left and 

right of the proscenium arch, are nearly invisible: the speakers 

measure approx. 16 inches by 10 inches by 6 inches. 

Two NEXO subs located at catwalk level above and slightly 

downstage of the center cluster are angled down and out toward 

the center of the house to minimize the sound energy being 

directed toward the stage. Three NEXO delay loudspeakers, 

used primarily for high frequency fill to the balcony seats, are 

mounted at the rear catwalk rail and delayed against the mains. 

Loudspeakers are driven by 12 QSC amps. 


LEWIS FAMILY PLAYHOUSE THEATRE 

Following is the sound and lighting equipment used at the 

Lewis Family Playhouse, a significant component of the Victoria 

Gardens Cultural Center. 

The Playhouse from the stage 

Inside the Lewis Family Playhouse 

Audio 

1 Nexo Controller NX241 

11 NEXO GEO S830 

2 NEXO CD-12C 

cardiod subs 

3 NEXO PS-8 

1 Yamaha M7CL-48 

Digital Console 

Monitors 

2 EAW JFX 200 Sidefills 

6 JBL SRX712M Wedges 

Amplifiers 

9 QSC CX Series 

2 QSC PL Series 

Microphones 

4 Shure SM58 

4 Shure SM57 

2 Shure SM81 

2 Shure Beta 52 

4 Shure MX418s 

Lectern Mics 

12 Shure ULXP14/50 UHF 

HH (3) & Bodypack 

wireless Mics (12) 

16 Isomax E-6 headset mics 

(14 Tan + 2 Black) 

2 Countryman DI 

Speaker Controller 

Peavey Media Matrix X- 

Frame 88; 24x24 matrix 

Lighting 

352 2.4 KW ETC Sensor 

Dimmers 

2 6.0KW ETC Sensor 

Dimmers 

24 2.4 KW ETC Sensor 

Dimmers racked and 

castered 

1 ETC Expression 3 

w/ Emphasis Control 

System 

1 ETC Smart Fade 2496 

“We’re primarily a family theatre,” says City community services 

director Kevin McArdle, “but we host a wide variety of performance 

events. The NEXO system has proved suitable for most 

everything we’ve done. Honestly, the sound quality we have here 

is much better than we ever expected.” 

Analog or Digital console? 

Providing an FOH mix position in this venue without losing many 

seats also presented a challenge. “The solution we came up with in 

conjunction with the architects is what I call the ‘audio porch,’” 

says Weddig. “We took the sound booth, which normally would be 

pushed back under the balcony, and pulled it out into the audience 

chamber, getting rid of the window. This improved the sound lines 

to the FOH clusters, so the sound operator has a better position to 

mix from.” The lighting and stage managers booths, isolated behind 

glass, are on either side of the FOH mix position. 

The choice of a digital console also helped saved space, though 

the decision between analog or digital turned on other issues. 

“We didn’t want a complicated digital console in this venue,” says 

McArdle. “We had committed to an analog board, until we saw the 

Yamaha M7CL. This console was a very agreeable mix of analog and 

digital functions.” Ease of use and programmability, for handling 

the multiple shows that come through the theatre each week, were 

the deciding factors in favor of the M7CL. 

The Playhouse is equipped with a full counterweight rigged 

fly loft, dimmed theatrical lighting throughout (with lighting positions 

integrated into the architecture of the theatre) and a fully 

automated ETC theatrical lighting system. A digital video system 

includes Extron switchers and scalers, Panasonic digital video cameras, 

a Sanyo projector and Stewart rear projection screen for scenic 

elements and a retractable 18-foot by 24-foot Da-Lite screen for 

large-format presentation. 

“Dry Cat5 network lines run through a patchbay so that any Cat5 

audio or video interface can run to any location in the theatre,” says 

Weddig. “It’s a standalone network, separate from the complex’s 

data network.” Video tie lines to the library video wall allow for live 

broadcast of theatre events. 

The Library and Celebration Hall 

The Lewis Family Playhouse, the Library and the 4,500- 

square-foot Celebration Hall are all under one roof — an 

unusual, if not unique, melding of performance art, education 

and a community-gathering place. “All three are really 

joined at the hip,” says McArdle, and joined, too, by the “Main 

Street” theme that invites visitors to stroll and explore. 

The library features a vividly colorful palette with an 

overhead 12-foot by 9-foot rear projection surface that is 

part of a digital signage package developed by Auerbach for 

displaying media, information and digital art. 

The Celebration Hall Conference Center, a large room 

used primarily for meetings and banquets, is divisible into 

three sections and can seat 450. A Crestron AV2 control 

system and TPS-2000L touch panels for each section offer 

control of room configuration, playback devices and loudspeaker 

volume. The loudspeaker system can also be divided 

or combined as one. The touch panels were programmed for 

easy use by the non-technically minded. 

The community has embraced the Lewis Family Theatre 

and its programming. The reviews from adults and children, 

says the cultural arts supervisor for the Lewis Family 

Playhouse, Susan Sluka, are pretty much head-over-heels 

ecstatic. “Comments often touch on the idea that we have our 

own professional group, The MainStreet Theatre Company, 

performing in such an exciting space right here in our community,” 

she says. “Previously, parents would have to drive to 

L.A. for their children to experience anything of this quality.” 

The Theatre’s “specialty” and “community” series offer 

grown-up programming throughout 2007. As the headline 

of an area daily newspaper said, the Victoria Gardens theatre 

complex inaugurates a “cultural awakening” for the city and 

the region. “I love that headline,” says Sluka. 

Charles Conte is a communications consultant and writer serving 

clients in the commercial audio industry as well as in other fields. 


Feature 

By John Crawford 

Theatre For Everyone 

courtesy of American Stage 

From the American Stage in the Park’s production of Regina Taylor’s Crowns 

Building a diverse audience is smart strategy, 

but it requires sustained commitment. 

In the mid-1990s, when South Bend Civic Theatre decided 

to tackle Joe Turner’s Come and Gone, it had almost no 

support from the local black community. For the most 

part, African-Americans didn’t come to the community 

theatre’s shows, and staff only knew of three or four black 

actors in the area — a problem, given that the August Wilson 

play required eight actors. “We had to pound the streets to 

cast the show,” recalls Jim Coppens, executive director of 

the South Bend, Ind. theatre. 

Starting with that production, South Bend Civic Theatre has 

made a commitment to diversity. Every year, it has put on at 

least one show that centers on black issues, and word has spread 

about their efforts. Today, out of its pool of about 450 actors, 

some 50 are black, a percentage consistent with the population 

at large. A similar percentage of African-Americans attend the 

theatre’s productions, though that rate might shoot up to as 

high as 50 percent for a show dealing with black issues. Diversity 

hasn’t just enlarged its pool of actors; it’s also brought in a wider, 

larger audience. 

Such diversity is obviously something to strive for. “You can’t 

be a true community theatre unless all members of the community 

are represented,” says Coppens. But committing oneself to 

diversity involves more than just putting on an African-American 

play once in a while. It involves more than just giving out discount 

tickets to a local Hispanic church. 

As South Bend Civic Theatre demonstrates, creating a diverse 

audience requires a long, sustained effort, one that ultimately 

makes everyone feel welcome at the theatre, no matter their 

race, age or class. “It’s a matter of sticking to it,” notes Coppens. 

“There is no magic bullet.” Unfortunately, not all theatres are 

able to spend the resources needed to make such a commitment, 

even though they’re faced with the daunting reality that 

their traditional white audiences are aging. 

Make the effort, though, and the people will come. They’re 

waiting for work that speaks to them. Just look to recent productions 

on Broadway as an example. Both The Color Purple and the 

Tony Award-winning revival (starring Sean “Puffy” Combs) of A 

Raisin in the Sun attracted sizable black audiences. 

“The audience is always there,” says Donna Walker-Kuhne, 

founder and president of Walker International Communications 

Group, a Brooklyn-based company that provides marketing and 

audience development services for cultural arts organizations. 

With a potential audience out there, theatres just need to find 

what will inspire people to buy a ticket. That being the case, any 

attempts at diversifying an audience starts with the plays a theatre 

chooses to do. Often, theatres make the mistake of thinking 

“The country is diversifying, 

we’ve got to be dealing with it.” —Seth Rozin 


“The main thing is to build bridges. 

It’s about relationships with people.” —Jim Coppens 

Gary N. Mester 

that marketing holds the answer, but a 

theatre can’t market a play that holds 

no interest to the population it’s trying 

to reach. 

“Programming needs to lead,” 

explains Jack Reuler, artistic director 

of Minneapolis’ Mixed Blood Theatre, 

which by taking its inspiration from 

the vision of Dr. Martin Luther King, 

Jr., tries to present a world onstage 

where people celebrate and respect 

each other’s differences. 

That’s not to say that marketing 

isn’t important. Much as it did with 

the black community, South Bend 

Civic Theatre is now trying to reach out to the area’s growing 

Latino population. This summer it’s doing Stand and Deliver, the 

third production it has done focusing on 

Hispanic culture. 

To promote the show, the theatre 

is going into the Hispanic community, 

meeting with leaders and schools, and 

doing an acting workshop at a Latino 

church that already has its own drama 

program. Because theatre staff is often 

busy and torn in many directions, South 

Bend has recruited one person whose 

sole responsibility is to represent the theatre 

and act as point person in the Latino 

community. “The main thing is to build 

bridges,” says Coppens. “It’s about relationships 

with people.” 

This grassroots marketing is effective. 

A person can easily ignore a TV ad, but if 

a person’s minister, alumni group, social 

organization or friend suggests a certain 

play to see, “that’s a whole different 

energy,” says Walker-Kuhne. 

When it reaches out to community 

members and groups, Philadelphia’s 

InterAct Theatre Company talks about 

the questions its plays raise and why they 

are pertinent. It also emphasizes its history 

of focusing on racial issues and cultural 

clashes. That’s important, because 

it establishes credibility. “Community 

organizations can be resentful if you’re 

trying to cash in on the one diverse show 

you do once in a while,” says Seth Rozin, 

InterAct’s producing artistic director. 

From the South Bend Civic Theatre’s production of Holes 

To spread the word about its plays, 

Mixed Blood engages in what Reuler calls 

a “hand-to-hand combat” style of targeted 

marketing. “We get them in one by one,” 

he notes. In a typical year, the theatre may 

have five shows that appeal to five distinct 

audiences, so it comes up with a different 

marketing strategy for each production. 

For instance, in 2006 it started the year 

with Indian Cowboy, a play about an Indian 

man’s journey to America. Point of Revue, 

a show about the black experience, was 

next, followed by Ten Percent of Marta 

Solano, which was performed in Spanish 

and English on alternating days, followed 

by Yellowman, another show about African-American concerns, 

and Vestibular Sense, a work about a young man with autism. 


Feature 

Seth Rozin 

Depending on the production, 

the theatre may work with 

autism information groups who 

distribute promotional materials 

and special offers right to 

families. It also may work with a 

Latino communications company 

that owns varied media outlets 

or with diversity networks 

at major local corporations, 

according to Kathy D. Graves, 

Mixed Blood’s marketing and 

public relations consultant. 

When thinking about diversity, 

however, Mixed Blood goes 

beyond just concentrating on 

marketing and what plays it’s 

putting on. To grow a diverse 

audience, it looks at the whole theatre experience a patron 

may encounter, from not only who’s onstage, but also who’s 

taking your ticket. Their mission is Dr. King’s vision, and that 

influences all aspects of their operations. “It’s our reason for 

existence,” says Reuler. 

Baltimore’s Centerstage also takes a holistic approach to 

diversity. While one-third of every season is devoted to blackthemed 

shows, the theatre strives to be more inclusive in 

everything, including its board representation, staff, volunteers, 

community outreach, media choices, photographs on the walls 

and brochures. The end result is an environment that seems 

open and respectful of every patron who walks in the door. “If 

people come in the door, they don’t feel like they’re entering 

an alien territory,” says Gavin Witt, the professional theatre’s 

resident dramaturg. 

And if people feel welcome on their first visit to the theatre, 

they’re likely to come back. “I keep likening it to dates,” says Witt. 

“If we’re clear about who we are and what we’re about, you’ll 

have better second dates.” 

Lately, Centerstage has been thinking of diversity not just 

in terms of race, but also in terms of age. “Diversity is an ever 

expanding term for us,” he says. As with African-Americans, the 

goal is the same: to make young people feel welcome. And as 

with African-Americans, the entire theatregoing experience 

needs to be examined in order to obtain that goal. 

“It’s not just putting young people onstage,” says Witt. “It’s 

not just putting on funky shows.” The theatre is looking at its 

From InterAct Theatre Company’s production of A House With No Walls 

promotional materials. Do they 

catch the eye? Do they utilize the 

Internet effectively? 

American Stage Theatre 

Company, in St. Petersburg, Fla., 

also has been trying to diversify 

its audience by reaching out 

to the young. Its educational 

programs serve lots of children, 

which gets them, as well as their 

parents, involved in the theatre. 

It offers an inexpensive ticket 

it calls the Next Wave Pass 

for people 30 and under. It also 

offers pay-what-you-can-nights. 

“On those nights, we find we 

have a real diverse audience,” 

says Todd Olson, the theatre’s 

producing artistic director. When American Stage builds its new 

theatre, it’s hoping to provide drop-in childcare and a crying 

room for fussy children. 

The theatre also has been reaching out to the black community. 

Faced with dwindling audiences for its Shakespeare in the 

Park series, a 20-year tradition, the theatre changed the outdoor 

performances last year by performing Crowns, a gospel musical, 

instead of Shakespeare. The result was the biggest black audience 

the theatre ever had. 

Olson warns, though, that reaching a diverse audience 

shouldn’t be the main reason to do a particular show. “Ultimately, 

it’s got to be about quality,” he said. Besides, the best works transcend 

barriers and speak to everyone. They’re universal. A Raisin in 

the Sun isn’t just a black story. “It’s a human story,” says Olson. 

Typically, though, most theatres aren’t thinking about diversity, 

says Rozin. It takes time and money to broaden an audience, 

and doing so takes away from energy spent on making sure the 

people who always come still do. Running a theatre is often a 

precarious financial enterprise, so staffers often don’t have the 

luxury of worrying about the future and what it will mean for their 

audience. They’re worried about the here and now, which means 

many theatres are content with the status quo. But in the long run, 

that attitude could be shortsighted. 

“The country is diversifying,” says Rozin. “We’ve got to be dealing 

with it.” 

John Crawford is a freelance writer living in the Boston area. 


Special Musical Theatre Section 

The 

Eternal 

courtesy of Stages 

Dilemma 


Canned Music or Live? Which 

option may be best for your 

theatre and why. 

While musicals sans musicians is certainly 

not music to the ears of anyone 

who has enjoyed a check for playing 

in an orchestra pit, it’s certainly a trend that 

is here to stay. To some purists, prerecorded 

music in any form is an insult; to a struggling 

community theatre, it’s a chance to do a Sound 

of Music, whereas they otherwise couldn’t. 

It’s a complex issue with many approaches 

available, as we learn when a playwright, an 

executive producer, a publisher and a musical director 

weigh in on the plusses, minuses and creative possibilities. 

The Biggest Expense 

Patricia Cotter’s The Break-Up Notebook, a new musical 

that won an Ovation Award for Best New Musical in 

Los Angeles this past winter, broke the bank to have live 

musicians. Cotter, who wrote the book, tells that her collaborator, 

composer/lyricist Lori Scarlett, was adamant 

about using musicians. But when the creative team, led by 

producer Rose Marcario, sat down to do the numbers, a 

collective gulp was heard. 

“It absolutely was the biggest expense of the whole 

show,” Cotter sighs. “And not just for the four-piece band. 

Once we had them, we realized we needed mics for the 

cast. That was another big expense. 

“But then having live musicians made all the difference 

in the world. If you’re going to put money anywhere in a 

musical, it should be for musicians. If you’re going to do a 

new musical and you want it to have a life after its initial 

run, it’s really worth it to invest in a live band.” 

Cotter had co-written another musical called Fat! The 

Musical! that was performed in 1998 in Hollywood, which 

was done on a very low budget, and the music for that 

show was pre-recorded. Then again, that musical had wildly 

different musical styles, as opposed to Breakup, which 

was all done in a pop/rock style and thus required fewer 

musicians to pull off. 

Cotter’s experiences have changed the way she sees a 

musical, she says. “Honestly, when I go into a theatre to see 

a musical and there aren’t live musicians, I think it’s going 

From St. Louis’ Stages production of Cabaret, in which pre-recorded music was used 

to be an amateurish show. I’m open to saying, ‘I’m wrong; 

this is great,’ but it’s like seeing that the set is a little shaky. 

All the elements have to add up.” 

Despite all that, the producer is looking to mount it 

again in Cleveland, and budget issues may force that version 

to use pre-recorded music — or at least whittle down 

the band to three members. “You feel live music differently 

than when it’s from a CD,” notes Cotter. “But if there’s no 

choice, it’s not the worst thing in the world.” [There are 

ways to combine both approaches. See page 33] 

Sometimes it’s not just budget issues, but space issues. 

And sometimes even pre-recorded music is live. 

“The theatre we’re in was not designed as a legitimate 

theatre,” says Jack Lane, executive producer of Stages, a 

community theatre in St. Louis. “It was originally designed 

as an organ recital hall. There is a space under the stage, 

enough room for a piano, bass and drum, but the sound 

from there comes out very thin, not that flowing orchestral 

sound you want.” 

Founded in 1987, Stages seats 400 and does four main 

shows a year, all musicals. Each show runs 40 performances, 

and the organization boasts 11,000 subscribers with a 

total of 50,000 people a year coming to see their shows. 

“Some people don’t appreciate or understand what it takes 

to do a good musical, all those disciplines that are needed,” 

says Lane. “Next to opera, it’s the most expensive art form 

to produce.” 

At Stages, though, they don’t pull a CD off the shelf 

— they get the score — and the music is arranged and prerecorded 

by their orchestral designer especially for their 

productions. Also, they sometimes supplement with a live 

musician or two playing along when they feel it will add to 


“Four or five instruments just don’t 

cut it for these fully-scored, classic 

Broadway shows. ” — Jack Lane 

Courtesy of Patricia Cotter 

the production. Recently, they had a single cello player to 

supplement the music for a particular show. 

Lane says that, while the cost of musicians is certainly 

more expensive than Equity actors, Stages’ decisions are 

more about space than anything else. Once they tried a 12- 

piece orchestra that they put in the scenic shop and then 

“piped” into the theatre, but that was not successful. Also, 

while publishers often provide scores for smaller groups 

of musicians, “four or five instruments just don’t cut it for 

these fully-scored, classic Broadway shows.” 

The success of Stages is due to all the details they manage, 

and that certainly includes the quality of the sound. 

They use a sound designer and have experimented with 

speaker placement to ensure the best possible experience 

for the audience. Currently, the theatre includes four 

Electro-Voice SX 200s and a Carver PM 1200. They use 

two as a center cluster, they place one house left and one 

house right for fill and a sub-woofer in the space beneath 

the stage. It’s run through a Soundcraft 

Series 2 soundboard powered by two 

Crest Audio 643-010s. 

Lane says that, while prerecorded 

music is controversial, technology is 

making it harder to tell the difference. 

“Being a singer myself, I have a sensitive 

ear, and I have difficulty telling the 

difference between augmented recordings 

and live musicians. In the last 10 

years, technology has truly become 

so sophisticated it’s hard to tell the 

difference. When one of my friends, a 

Broadway percussionist, saw one of our 

shows, he said he could not tell the difference. 

He was actually disappointed 

he couldn’t!” he laughs. 

Know Your Group 

“Every single new musical we publish 

comes with a production CD,” 

says Steve Fendrich of Pioneer Drama 

Service, based in Denver. He says 

recordings have opened up a huge 

market. “A smaller community who 

wants to put on a big musical can do 

it and get a full sound,” notes Fendrich. 

He adds that his productions come 

with rehearsal tracks as well, so there’s 

no need to hire a rehearsal pianist. 

Pioneer caters to schools, churches 

and community theatres, and Fendrich, 

who has been a publisher since the 

1980s, has seen a lot of trends and 

From Patricia Cotter’s The Breakup Notebook, in which live music was used 

changes. “When we started this in 1982, it was an experimental 

project and we were able to produce recordings 

for four musicals,” he recalls. “Today we have around 150 

musicals, and it’s an area that brings in the most money 

for us.” 

But he admits there are drawbacks. If a director wants to 

make more of a dramatic pause, that can’t really be done. 

Also, if a singer misses a cue or stumbles, they just have to 

catch up. 

South of Detroit is Southgate, home to the Southgate 

Community Players, a 600-seat community theatre cur- 



Another scene from Patricia 

Cotter’s The Breakup Notebook 

courtesy of Patricia Cotter 

courtesy of Stages 

Pre-recorded music is used by Stages, a community theatre in St. Louis. Shown is a scene from their production of Grease. 

rently celebrating their 50 th anniversary. Productions this 

season include Fiddler On the Roof and Aida — all done with 

live musicians under the careful direction of musical director 

Rich Alder. They perform in a middle school auditorium 

with no real pit, just an open area in front of the stage, 

where Alder places anywhere from eight to 20 musicians. 

“Talented musicians really like what I do, and the theatre 

appreciates the people I bring in. When hiring a musical 

director in the community theatre setting, you are paying 

for who he or she knows,” says Alder. For every production 

he works with a list of people who have some good, serious 

musical training and won’t do it for free. 

In Alder’s 18-year history with Southgate, he has dabbled 

in pre-recorded music. “I was one of the first to use 

MIDI technology for musicals in 1990, and using a computer, 

I sequenced the accompaniment.” (MIDI allows you 

to control the tempo without changing the pitch.) But that 

took a long time for him to program, and it still came up 

short and lacking spontaneity. Another challenge with prerecorded 

scores is special care needs to be taken in setting 

up a good monitor system for the actors on the stage to 

hear the music, or it can lead to disasters. 

There is wiggle room when he puts together an orchestra. 

Alder says he looks at the whole season, not just 

one show; he’s able to pay for a 15-member orchestra 

for one because he squeezed by with an eight-piece for 

another. Another time a few seasons 

ago, he studied the score of 

a musical carefully and figured 

out that he could get by with 

three reed players instead of five, 

though that required him rearranging 

the music. Often, when 

a score requires a lot of strings, 

he’ll substitute an extra synthesizer 

player. 

His advice to any group is to 

know what you have to work 

with. “Also, in the building process, 

you have to pick shows that 

have draws, because musicals are 

so expensive and you need the 

ticket sales.” Something interesting 

but obscure is going to be a 

poor choice, as opposed to something 

like Sound of Music. “There’s 

no such thing as a bad production 

of Sound of Music,” says Alder. 

“The kids are cute, and the audience 

comes. You don’t need a lot 

of men, and if you have a lot of 

women, make them nuns.” 


By Jerry Cobb 

Covering Your Tracks 

Backing tracks should ideally complement, 

not overwhelm, what the audience 

perceives onstage. A handful of 

singers producing a thunderous chorus can 

come off as overreaching. A massive wall of 

orchestral bombast emanating from a jazz 

band might elicit unwelcome chortling. 

Conversely, a dinner theatre with no visible 

musicians might be able to pull this off 

without a hitch. And overblown orchestration 

may be used intentionally to humorous 

effect. It’s all in what you’re trying to 

project from your stage. And, of course, 

what you can get away with. 

Sound Judgment 

While shoving a microphone in front of 

a cassette deck and playing tapes through 

the school P.A. may be okay for a kindergarten 

show (actually, it’s not even okay there), 

your facility needs to have a decent sound 

system — and someone to run it — in 

order to pull off a musical. This becomes 

especially important when considering 

adding musically dense tracks to a P.A. 

that’s already struggling. P.A. Audio professionals 

call this “headroom,” which you’re 

going to need. If your company is portable, 

you’ll need to bring along as good a P.A. as 

you can afford and/or carry, or hire a pro 

sound company locally. When it comes 

to sound reproduction, the adage “garbage 

in, garbage out” is especially apropos. 

Keeping it simple is fine; using audio junk 

is not. Musicals should be a treat for the 

ears and not a headache-inducing distortion 

fest. Make sure your audio gear is up 

to the task. 

With the addition of prerecorded tracks 

to the mix, the musical director’s job gets 

more complicated. Performers need to 

rehearse more intensely with the tracks and 

memorize purely musical cues, because 

once the track starts, it will play through 

with no mercy. This is equally true for any 

live musicians, as they must now synchronize 

to a harsh taskmaster. And everyone 

must be able to clearly hear the tracks at 

all times, making placement of monitor 

speakers crucial both on the stage and in 

the pit. These monitors will play a different 

mix from the one the audience hears, 

which should be a subtler blend of live and 

canned music than that which the performers 

need to hear. 

All this necessitates thoughtful sound 

design and competent sound persons running 

the show. 

Types of Tracks 

Backing tracks come in a variety of flavors, 

each with its own pros and cons. If 

your theatre is already equipped with a 

particular playback device and no budget 

to buy anything different, guess what you’ll 

be using? But if your company is new to the 

tracking game, you have choices: 

CD 

Perhaps the simplest plug-and-play 

solution are prerecorded CDs. Many online 

sources offer complete plays recorded in 

the original show key and tempo. These 

albums are re-recordings of the original. 

Each song appears on the album twice: 

once with music and vocals, and once with 

accompaniment tracks alone. This allows 

the performer to learn a song by singing 

along with the vocals and music, then to 

practice their technique accompanied only 

by the background tracks. 

Pros: Good audio quality, familiar format. 

Cons: Can skip or develop “dropouts” 

over time, can be a bit futzy to stop and 

start, especially on less expensive gear. 

Minidisc (MD) 

While not as sonically detailed to some 

ears as a CD or DVD, MDs are nearly bulletproof 

when it comes to ease of playback 

and skip-free dependability. CDs may be 

transferred to MD format using an MD 

recorder or having it done for a fee by many 

of the retailers who offer showtune CDs. 

Pros: Reliable playback, easy to stop and 

start, creates playlists. 

Cons: Slightly less audio fidelity than CD, 

fewer pre-recorded titles available for purchase. 

Equipment not as readily available 

(or repairable) as more popular formats. 

iPod 

Yes, of course you can transfer other formats 

to play on an iPod or an MP3 player. 

A karaoke collage of backing tracks from Broadway Best 

It’s not the most professional way to go, 

but it is doable. 

Pros: Massive song storage, ease of 

access, ability to create song lists. Instant 

downloads available. 

Cons: Less audio fidelity than CD, small 

connectors can be troublesome in a darkened 

theatre. Never trust batteries in a live 

situation. 

MIDI 

Think of a MIDI sequence as an old-fashioned 

player piano roll; it’s a series of zeros 

and ones telling your sound card which 

virtual instrument to play, how loud and 

what notes. Standard MIDI Files (SMFs) are 

widely available and varied in quality. On 

many songs the instrumentation will sound 

fake, and none will contain backup vocals. 

MIDI files can be played back by some 

synthesizers, dedicated hardware players 

or directly from a computer. 

Pros: An expert musician can tweak 

existing MIDI files to sound good. Song 

keys and tempos can be changed, and specific 

instruments may be muted or made 

louder. 

Cons: Instrument sounds are only as 

good as your sound card. MIDI files found 

on the Internet range from horrible to just 

okay, depending on genre and the skill of 

the original sequence artist. SMFs rarely 

sound as good as other formats without a 

lot of talented tinkering. 

A Legal Note 

Just because you purchase music doesn’t 

mean you have the legal right to perform it 

publicly. Remember to check on licensing 

before pressing play for an audience. 

Jerry Cobb is the sole proprietor of 

Videografix/LA, a video boutique specializing 

in music video, corporate and 

entertainment reels, and professional 

voiceovers. 

www.stage-directions.com • May 2007 33 

www.stage-directions.com • Aprilr 2007 33


Music& 

&Lyrics 

DAVID GRAPES 

For more than 30 years, the BMI 

workshop has been churning out 

the finest musical theatre writers, 

dispelling the popular myth that the 

art form is dying. 

By Brooke Pierce 

In the best of circumstances, when the lights go down and 

the curtain comes up at a Broadway musical, the audience is 

taken into a new world where it doesn’t seem at all unusual 

for characters to break into song. Music is such a seamless part 

of this world that the viewer suspends his or her disbelief and 

is effortlessly drawn in. 

However, creating that kind of world couldn’t be more 

difficult, as anybody who has ever tried to write a musical 

will tell you. Bringing the elements of story, music and lyrics 

perfectly together is a feat like no other. And every week at 

the BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Workshop in midtown 

Manhattan, a select group of writers and musicians are learning 

to perform that miracle. 

Beginnings Start here 

More than 30 years ago, Tony-winning composer and 

conductor Lehman Engel partnered with BMI to create 

workshops that would help train aspiring musical theatre 

writers. “It’s a complicated craft, and there are few places 

nowadays where you can really study its intricacies,” says Masi 

Asare, who is currently in the Advanced Workshop. “The BMI 

workshop was highly recommended over and over again 

by working professionals as the place to learn how to write 

musicals.” 

There’s really nothing else out there quite like it: A place 

where dedicated, talented people can gather regularly 

to work on their craft, get feedback from their peers and 

theatre professionals — and for no charge whatsoever. It is 

competitive, though. There is an application process, in which 

interested parties submit a tape and/or sample lyrics. Finalists 

then audition in person. 

The workshop — or simply “BMI,” as participants and people 

in the theatre world usually refer to it — is perhaps best known 

as the place where great writing partnerships are created. 

Ragtime authors Stephen Flaherty and Lynn Ahrens started 

collaborating there. More recently, it is where Jeff Marx and 

Bobby Lopez first began writing their Broadway hit Avenue Q. 

A shot from a recent production of Titanic at University 

of Northern Colorado. Titanic was developed at BMI. 

“I had several musical ideas, which had been brewing a long 

time, but I didn’t know where to find a collaborator, so I thought 

BMI would be a great place to meet people in the community,” 

says lyricist Tom Gualtieri. There he met composer David Sisco, 

with whom he is currently working on two projects. 

The Structure Song 

“The first year of the workshop was structured into specific 

exercises and specific kinds of songs in their pure form: the 

‘I Am’ or ‘I Want’ song, the ‘Charm Song,’ the ‘Comedy Song,’” 

explains Gualtieri. “Apparently these exercises have been in 

the workshop since its inception and are notoriously difficult. 

I found them to be some of the most successful and satisfying 

lyrics I have ever written.” 

“The most valuable thing I learned,” says Asare of her first 

two years in the workshop, “was that, for a character to sing in 

a musical, she has to want something really badly. In writing 

songs for musicals, we are working as musical dramatists. 

So we have to put the tools of melody, rhythm, harmonic 

structure, lyrical structure, tone and ‘singability’ to dramatic 

use. We have to use the tools of songwriting with the mindset 

of playwriting.” 

First-year participants who are considered sufficiently 

qualified are invited to come back for a second year, when they 

work on writing a full-length musical. At the end of the year, 

they present a portion of that musical, at which point selected 

members are asked to return to the Advanced Workshop. 

The Advanced Workshop is looser in structure. Rather than 

focusing on exercises, members sign up to present songs from 

their current projects and then receive feedback from the 

other members and the class moderator. 

“The trick is to have a really fantastic moderator who can 

synthesize the feedback from the class and sort of sum it up 

for you in a neat, concise package,” notes Asare. “Pat Cook and 

Rick Freyer, who teach the first and second year classes, are 

fantastic at this.” 

Several other dedicated individuals oversee this meeting 


BRUCE GLIKAS/BROADWAY.COM 

NICK REUCHEL 

(Right to left) Jeff Marx and Robert Lopez, composers 

of the Tony Award-winning smash Avenue Q. 

Jennifer Barnhart 

with Mrs. T in 

Avenue Q 

of the musical minds as well. After Lehman Engel himself 

passed away in 1982, many of the workshop participants 

became more heavily involved in running it — A Chorus Line 

lyricist Ed Kleban and Little Shop of Horrors tunesmith Alan 

Menken were two of the quickest to take up that task. 

These days, two of the most frequent guest moderators 

are Lynn Ahrens and composer/lyricist Maury Yeston 

(Titanic, Nine). “They are keen, sharp minds who can decipher 

your intention and give clear, constructive criticism or 

suggestions,” comments Gualtieri. In fact, these experienced 

pros sometimes go beyond just offering smart criticism and 

actually help the songwriters to reconstruct their songs for 

the better right on the spot. 

In addition to the famous names above, an impressive 

array of other notable composers and lyricists have come 

through the BMI workshop during its 30 years, including Carol 

Hall (The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas), Clark Gesner (You’re 

a Good Man, Charlie Brown), Gerard Allesandrini (Forbidden 

Broadway), Michael John LaChiusa (Marie Christine, The Wild 

Party), Brian Crawley and Jeanine Tesori (Violet), Paul Scott 

Goodman (Bright Lights, Big City), and Andrew Lippa (jon and 

jen). 

Passing the Torchsong 

Seeing the talent on display at any given class, there is 

little doubt that many more fine musical theatre writers are 

about to emerge. Bookwriter/lyricist Ben Winters, whose 

musical Slut was produced Off-Broadway in 2005, has found 

the BMI experience valuable. An especially helpful exercise 

that he notes is “when we went through the plots and songs 

of famous or classic shows to see what made them tick.” 

Winters also singles out the usefulness of “talking with a lot 

of different people, with a lot of different perspectives, about 

the art form.” 

In addition to the “structure, discipline and the value of 

audience response” that Gualtieri cites as being the best 

aspect of BMI, the workshop also has other resources, such 

as its series of in-house cabarets aimed at exposing the work 

of aspiring songwriters to the theatre industry. They also 

offer awards such as the Jerry Bock Award, a monetary gift 

that allows the winner the opportunity to further work on a 

musical theatre project. 

Non-songwriters need not feel left out of all of this. 

Knowing that the book (or script) is the foundation on which 

a great musical is built, Lehman Engel also established a 

Librettists’ Workshop to nurture writers who want to focus on 

learning the complicated craft of musical scriptwriting. The 

librettists are also given the opportunity to collaborate with 

members of the songwriters’ workshop on assignments to 

further develop their skills and meet potential collaborators. 

With so much activity done in the name of creating better 

musical theatre, it’s no wonder that the BMI Lehman Engel 

Musical Theater Workshop has been heaped with praise 

lately. In 2006 alone, it was awarded a special Tony Award 

for Excellence in Theatre and a special Drama Desk Award. 

In a time when theatre struggles to compete with TV and 

film, the workshop is helping to pass on the musical theatre 

writing craft and tradition to new generations. 

Brooke Pierce is a freelance writer living in New York City. 

DAVID BILLS 

CONTACT 

Jean Banks 

Senior Director of Musical Theatre 

BMI 

320 West 57th Street 

New York, NY 10036 

212.830.2508 

theatreworkshop@bmi.com 

Members of the BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Workshop and invited industry professionals 

gathered at BMI’s New York office for a presentation of new songs from the Workshop. 



A P e r f e c t H a r m o n y 

Should you hire a musical 

director for your school 

or community theatre 

production? Here are the 

pros and cons. 

By Lisa Mulcahy 

Courtesy of Turtle Lane Playhouse 

The job of being a musical director can 

make juggling knives seem downright 

easy, even in the best theatrical circumstances. 

Throw in the additional challenges 

that helming an educational or community 

production bring, and you really have your 

work cut out for you. Think about it: not only 

do you have to stage the piece effectively 

and make sure that show’s score sounds good, but you’re 

dealing with a talent pool that may be inexperienced. 

Some directors up the ante even further by trying to act 

as their own musical directors as well. Is this savvy — or 

suicidal? 

It depends on the director, the show and the institution 

you’re working with. Some theatres see hiring an 

outside musical director as an unnecessary expense, and 

really push for a show’s director to pull double duty. On 

the other hand, many theatres are averse to any potential 

creative risk, so they urge their director to work with a 

music specialist to ensure a show’s success. The question 

remains: what’s right for your show? 

Know Your Needs 

Your first step in determining whether to hire a musical 

director or let your director take care of the job is to 

objectively evaluate the specifics of your production. The 

first key factor to consider: the nature of the material itself. 

How musically heavy is the piece? If you’re dealing with a 

script that contains five songs or fewer, and those songs 

are relatively uncomplicated compositions, allowing your 

director to teach them to the cast can possibly work 

— if your director is musically skilled and experienced. 

However, should your show be musically complex, filled 

with many vocal parts or with a rangy, sophisticated score, 

it’s a far better bet to leave the musical direction squarely 

in the hands of a pro who can focus their talents solely on 

the job. 

If you do end up leaning toward handing the director 

the musical reins, your next task is to carefully analyze 

whether they can realistically handle both jobs. Your 

director’s first commitment must be to guiding the show 

as a whole: blocking, character development and technical 

supervision will consume a ton of their energy and 

The cast of Big River at the Turtle Lane Playhouse, directed by Elaina Vrattos 

time. Is your director not only musically adept, but highly 

organized and great at multitasking? How much prep 

time can they really afford to devote to the music? How 

will rehearsal time be effectively structured so that all 

aspects of the production get the attention they deserve? 

If your director honestly tells you they 

are uncomfortable trying to bite off 

so much, respect that decision and 

resolve to go with a separate musical 

director. 

Many directors balk at the idea of 

adding music to their job description. 

“There are many reasons why you 

should never be your own musical 

director,” warns Michael McGarty, artistic 

director of the Harvard Community Theatre in Harvard, 

Mass. and director of Harvard’s Broomfield School Drama 

Society. “It can only work if the director is somewhat 

superhuman, and frankly, not many of us are. Most 

directors who function as their own 

musical directors run music programs 

in schools. They have great musical 

skills, but usually poor acting/directing 

experience. They function by hiring 

a pianist for rehearsals, and think 

that they can then do it all.” 

“I personally think it’s a bad start 

when roles get doubled,” agrees 

Elaina Vrattos, a stage director who 

Michael McGarty 

Elaina Vrattos 

has directed musicals throughout New England. “In my 

opinion, you are setting yourself up for disaster. It is tough 

enough having a director and musical director putting the 

piece together. But having one person doing it all? Ugh!” 

Some companies actually elect to hire a musical director 

to handle the entire show, which is definitely not 

courtesy of Michael McGarty 

courtesy of Elaina Vrattos 


Courtesy of Michael McGarty 

Getting Out, by the Broomfield School Drama Society; Michael McGarty acted as director. 

recommended. “In this case, a large 

musical too often becomes a vehicle 

to showcase the musical talent of 

the actors, with the acting taking a 

back seat,” says McGarty. “The proof 

comes during the production week, 

when the musical director adds in an 

orchestra and stage technicians in 

addition to the actors, and can’t figure 

out why all the elements won’t magically 

come together. The only time 

I see this type of situation working 

is with small, intimate musicals, like 

Little Shop of Horrors and Nunsense, 

or revues, where a musical director 

and chor 

e o g r a - 

pher work 

together 

to create 

the 

piece.” 

parts of a production that I can collaborate 

easily on, and other parts 

of a production where I’d prefer the 

musical director takes a back seat. 

There has to be a good balance of acting, 

music and dance for the show to 

be successful. If the director, musical 

director or choreographer try to make 

the show more about their specific 

area rather than the whole, the entire 

show will suffer.” 

Even the most collaborative directors 

may feel amrmers make invaluable 

gains from the work, improving 

the production as a result. 

“It can only work if the 

director is somewhat superhuman, and 

frankly, not many of us are.” 

—Michael McGarty 

The Dream Team 

A smart director sees his/her work 

with a musical director as an equal 

partnership from the get-go. “You 

need to know your staff,” advises 

Vrattos. “Meet them ahead of time. 

Ideally, be responsible for hiring so 

you can really choose who you want 

to work with.” 

Make sure you mesh personalitywise 

as well. “Getting along with a 

musical director can be the biggest 

challenge of the show,” says McGarty. 

“I always have a long discussion with 

any new musical director well in 

advance to set the ground rules for 

who will play what role. There are 

“Understand that you can’t do it all 

by yourself,” says Kelly Ford, a musical 

director/producer/engineer whose 

theatre experience also includes her 

position as artistic director of the 

Medieval Manor Theater Restaurant 

in Boston. “Divide and conquer when 

possible. Often in a musical production, 

there will be times when I need 

to work with a soloist or a small group 

of kids on something specific. That 

leaves the rest of the group to sit 

quietly and watch — good luck with 

that! Kids like having your attention, 

especially when they aren’t the center 

of it.” Ford suggests putting the 

other young performers to work on 



an alternate production activity (i.e., 

the director can block a scene while 

the musical director teaches a song). 

“The more clear you are with your 

instructions, the more likely it is you’ll 

get the right result from the majority 

of kids,” continues Ford. “If there 

are certain musical terms that I need 

the kids to know, I’ll teach the terms 

during warm-ups at the beginning of 

rehearsal.” 

Charge At Those Challenges 

Any seasoned director knows that 

no matter how well prepared you 

are, there are always going to be 

obstacles. Working with a musical 

director on a show isn’t always 

going to be a bed of roses — the 

trick is to persevere. 

“I directed Nine at a small 

theatre in 1991 and had a very 

difficult time working with the 

musical director,” recalls Vrattos. 

“I took over for another director who 

had quit, so I was coming onto a 

staff that I had no experience with or 

knowledge of. The musical director 

taught with a heavy hand and really 

wore the cast and musicians down. I 

was new to the process and was hesitant 

about taking charge, as I should 

have. I was unclear as to where and 

when I could step in. Eventually, I was 

forced to speak up when the orchestra 

all started to pack up and leave 

after a long, arduous rehearsal a few 

days before we were to open. It was 

an awful night, but we hashed everything 

out. The show ended up being 

a huge success, winning 10 EMACT 

(Eastern Massachusetts Association of 

“Understand that you can’t do 

it all by yourself; divide and 

conquer when possible.” 

—Kelly Ford 

Community Theatre) Awards.” 

McGarty’s toughest challenge was 

less personality-driven and more technically 

difficult. “City of Angels provided 

the largest vocal challenge for 

me,” he recounts. “I had to rely heavily 

on the talents of my musical director 

for that one to succeed. I gave her as 

much leeway as I could, because I realized 

early on that the actors needed 

much more vocal rehearsal to make 

the show a success. My instincts were 

correct, and on opening night, the 

actors felt so comfortable with their 

vocal roles that they could easily focus 

on the listening skills needed in the 

acting scenes.” 

Working on a musical is never a 

total breeze, but a director 

can make things easier by 

targeting a show’s problems 

with their musical director’s 

strengths and talents. 

By confronting problems 

head-on, and maintaining a 

respect for each other’s talents 

and abilities both can 

work in harmony. 

Lisa Mulcahy is the author of the book 

Building The Successful Theatre 

Company (Allworth Press). 


TD Talk 

By Dave McGinnis 

I Can Do It for This Much 

Does the bid system prove that you get what you pay for? 

Many theatre artists have found refuge in governmentally 

funded entities. These institutions, whether they’re universities, 

performing arts centers or community theatres, provide 

a relative haven in which to pursue your artistic goals. The pros to these 

entities are obvious, but there is one skeleton in the closet that loves 

to show its face whenever you open the door on a new project: the 

bid system. 

For those not familiar with the bid system, the governing body 

(state, county, etc.) will set a dollar amount below which the TD has 

the right to find whatever materials they need to get the job done. For 

anything above this amount, whoever is in charge must solicit bids 

(estimates) on the job from various contractors. Whoever submits the 

lowest bid gets the contract. This applies to construction projects and 

equipment purchases. 

Officially, contractors are bidding on exactly the same work — 

materials, equipment and labor/installation. This would lead you to 

believe that you are saving money on the job. However, according to 

a friend of mine, everybody in this business works with their friends 

because they know they can trust one another. This is where the bid 

system causes a clash. 

I once worked for a performing arts facility that had contracted 

some new wall pockets. These were not being set up to require DMX 

or anything, just simple hot-neutral-ground wiring. The contract had 

gone to the lowest bidder, and that contractor hired a sub-contractor 

to install the new wiring out of the dimmer racks and into the wall. 

When the job was supposedly completed, these pockets had no 

power. Only after numerous trips back to the facility did the pockets 

work…when the crew chief for the installation came out personally 

and alone. 

If you are operating on a bid system, how can you protect your 

space from this kind of incident? Here are a few suggestions: 

4. Hold the contractor and/or architect accountable. 

If a contractor bids on a large project, like the construction of your 

facility, they must be held to the blueprints on which they initially submitted 

the bid. If the initial bid involved two catwalks, then the building 

had better include two catwalks. If they bid on a 96-dimmer rack, then 

the rack had better end up being 96 dimmers, and it had better work. 

If not, then make sure the contract facilitates some means by which 

payment can be withheld until the requisite work is done. 

5. Be involved. 

If you have the option, make sure that you are involved in as many 

steps of the process as possible. When in conflict, the way the facility 

looks will likely trump the way the facility functions if left to administration. 

If you are involved, then the functionality of the space will always 

have at least one person “defending the faith.” 

Of course, every administration operates differently. Some have 

rules that prohibit some, or possibly all, of these guidelines. They want 

blind bids, and they believe that cheaper is always better. Always 

remember, though, that it is your crew who will shoulder the burden 

for whatever contract goes out. Try to explain to administration that 

the long-run costs of repairs on substandard equipment will outweigh 

the immediate costs of implementation of quality gear. 

Let me know how your install went: dmcginnis@stage-directions.com. 

1. Make sure companies you trust receive the bid request. 

I don’t even like to buy toothpaste that I haven’t tried out in a travel 

size, so why would I entrust my livelihood to some stranger whose 

work I have never seen before? Quality work that you can trust will save 

capital in the long run when you consider repairs and maintenance. 

2. Establish a requirement that the winning contractor performs 

the work personally. 

Many construction and installation issues fall apart because the 

lowest bid involves sub-contracting to a cheaper source. It begs the 

question, “Why is the sub-contractor so much cheaper?” Often, it’s 

because the sub-contractor may rely on day laborers who know little 

about working in entertainment venues. Depending on the complexity 

of the contract being offered, it might behoove you to specifically 

prohibit the use of day labor, either on specific portions of the contract 

or altogether. 

3. Specify everything. 

If you fail to specify what dimmer rack you want, you might get 

whatever came cheapest while still providing the contractor the 

widest profit margin on installation. Specify every possible piece of 

equipment, from the dock to the booth. Not every administration will 

allow this. They sometimes will want bids on equipment, too. If this is 

the case, then make sure that you specify every possible function that 

every piece of gear you want should have. Leave nothing to chance. 


Show Business 

By Jacob Coakley 

Let Them Eat Pie 

We all want a bigger slice, but does someone else’s audience mean fewer people for you? 

Theatre Communications Group — the leading advocate 

group of nonprofit theatre in America — closes its “Our 

Philosophy” statement with the phrase “We all benefit from 

one another’s presence.” On the other hand, their philosophy 

statement is also heavily slanted towards an idealistic view of 

theatre — could this rosy view possibly stand up against the cold, 

hard logic of cash? How do you reconcile the fact that a butt in 

somebody else’s theatre Friday night is a butt that’s not sitting in 

yours? This non-competition clause sounds like a nice philosophy, 

but do the actual numbers bear it out? 

According to Teresa Eyring, the new executive director of TCG, 

they do. She cited the Performing Arts Research Coalition reports 

available on the TCG Web site (http://www.tcg.org/tools/other/ 

projects.cfm#parc) as evidence. The reports were developed in a 

three-year collaborative research project TCG undertook with four 

national service organizations — American Symphony Orchestra 

League, the Association of Performing Arts Presenters, Dance/USA 

and Opera America — and were funded by The Pew Charitable 

Trusts. 

“That study was really quite enlightening to a lot of people in 

the field,” Eyring says, because the data it collected from the 10 

communities it studied helped develop a clear profile of an artsgoer. 

“There are people who do things, and there are people who 

don’t do things. And the people who do things — theatregoers 

and performing arts participaters — tend to be people who are 

engaged in the community in more than one thing.” 

Eyring says the report is clear on this fact. 

“People who attend theatre in general are engaged in community 

life, and so tend to not just focus on one thing and say 

‘I’m focused on this theatre and I don’t do anything else.’” So even 

if that audience member isn’t in your house Friday, they will be 

Saturday. 

Barry Grove, executive producer of Manhattan Theatre Club, 

agrees with Eyring, though he arrived at his conclusion through 

his own studies. 

“MTC has done a lot of focus groups and analytical studies 

of our subscriber base,” Grove says. “You find that people who 

are subscribers to MTC may be subscribers to three or four other 

theatres. They may be going to the theatre more often even than 

theatre professionals are going. And that leads me to believe that 

the real theatre fan is not making a decision between us and one 

other place. They may have four or five subscriptions and be buying 

single tickets as well.” 

This echoes the thoughts of Joan Channick, managing director 

of Long Wharf Theatre in New Haven, Conn., a lecturer on Theatre 

Management at Yale School of Drama and former managing director 

at TCG. Channick left TCG for her position at Long Wharf seven 

months ago, so she’s in the unique position of seeing first-hand 

how TCG’s big picture ideology gets applied to daily theatre management. 

She finds the TCG studies still bear out. 

“People who go to the arts go to a lot of arts. People who are 

interested in theatre go to a lot of theatre,” says Channick, who proposes 

cooperation between theatres as opposed to competition. 

“It’s not ‘how do I get a bigger piece of pie than you have’;it’s ‘how 

do we collectively create a bigger pie,’ so we all get bigger pieces.” 

So how can theatres of any size — not just nationally recognized 

behemoths — create this sort of cooperation? 

“I think what’s critical is having a distinctive identity,” says 

Channick. “You can have lots of theatres in one town, but as long as 

they’re doing different kinds of works, audiences can have different 

experiences and you’re not really competing.” 

Grove stresses that to create a larger audience you need “e-mail 

blasts and direct mail list cultivation so you have groups of people 

that you know are prone to be interested in the kind of work you’re 

doing.” 

And Channick promotes the idea of handling all of that cooperatively. 

“In Boston the arts organizations have collaborated in maintaining 

a centralized mailing list,” says Channick. “Rather than being 

possessive about their lists, there are efficiencies in having a shared 

database of arts-goers that they can all have access to. It’s probably 

improved their reach for all organizations.” 

So go ahead, reach out to your competitors. After all, can you 

ever have too much pie? 

Tell me how you collaborate: jcoakley@stage-directions.com 


Off The Shelf 

By Stephen Peithman 

BROADWAY 

ABY 

New books and CDs reflect the 

enduring vibrancy of the musical. 

If, as some say, the musical is an endangered species, no 

one seems to have told book and CD publishers, as this 

month’s column attests. 

Because musicals are more expensive to mount than 

straight plays, the role of the producer in securing funding 

is critical. The Commercial Theater Institute, now in its 25th 

year, provides resources and guidance for those interested 

in the various paths one can take to creating commercial 

productions for the stage. The new book, The Commercial 

Theater Institute Guide to Producing Plays and Musicals, is 

a distillation of advice presented at the CTI to students from 

agents, directors, production designers, general managers, 

fundraisers, marketing directors, producers and theatrical 

attorneys. Topics include the developmental process of producing 

plays and musicals, collaborations between not-forprofit 

and commercial theatres and investing and raising 

capital, among others, in the book’s 25 chapters. A resource 

directory and glossary are also included. [ISBN 1-55783-652-3, 

$19.95, Applause Books] 

The musical has changed greatly over the past several 

decades because popular music itself has changed. Thus, The 

Theater Will Rock: A History of the Rock Musical, from Hair 

to Hedwig, is a welcome addition to the musical theatre bookshelf. 

As author Elizabeth L. Wollman points out, even the 

success of shows like Rent hasn’t convinced theatre producers 

that rock musicals aren’t risky ventures. Wollman traces the 

genre’s evolution through such hit productions as Hair, The 

Who’s Tommy, Jesus Christ Superstar, The Rocky Horror Show, 

Little Shop of Horrors, Rent and Mamma Mia! — as well as such 

notable flops as Dude and The Capeman. She also explores 

the influences of sound and recording technology on these 

shows. This is serious scholarship, and long overdue. [ISBN 0- 

472-11576-6, $29.95, Univ. of Michigan Press] 

One of the chief criticisms leveled against the sungthrough 

musicals of Boublil and Schönberg (Les Misérables, 

Miss Saigon, Martin Guerre) is their use of recitative instead 

of spoken dialogue and the repetitive nature of many of 

their songs. But, as we learn in The Musical World of Boublil 

and Schönberg, they not only know what they’re doing, 

but believe their approach is the only way to go. Author 

Margaret Vermette does an outstanding job here of presenting 

interviews with these two intensely private writers, who 

talk openly about their methods and the creative processes 

involved in writing the book, music and lyrics. [ISBN 1-55783- 

715-5, $17.95, Applause Books] 

Recordings 

Company. For the new Broadway production of Stephen 

Sondheim and George Furth’s piece about a single man 

observing the benefits and follies of marriage, director John 

Doyle borrows the same controversial concept he used for 

his production of Sweeney Todd — with the actors playing 

instruments onstage. On CD that isn’t really an issue, other 

than “You Could Drive a Person Crazy,” in which the original 

trio’s vocal “doo-doos” are replaced by their solo saxophone 

lines, robbing the piece of its parody of 1940s girl groups. 

Most of the songs benefit from the reduced orchestrations, 

which make the words clearer. Raúl Esparza is head-andshoulders 

above Dean Jones’ pinched tones on the original 

1970 cast recording. All that, plus a song deleted from the 

original (“Marry Me a Little”) and some helpful dialogue 

bridges, make this one a winner. [Nonesuch/PS Classics] 

Spring Awakening. Boasting a rock score by Duncan 

Sheik, with book and lyrics by Steven Sater, this show is 

based on Franz Wedekind’s 1891 expressionist play, which 

was scandalous in its day for addressing sex, violence 

and suicide. The musical is still set in 1891, but the songs 

themselves are completely modern in sound. The music is 

energetic and engaging, in a variety of styles, and the performances 

on the cast CD are topnotch. [Decca Broadway] 


The Play’s The Thing By Stephen Peithman 

All 

Over 

The 

Map 

Diversity in subject matter and tone characterizes this month’s installment. 

This month’s roundup of recently released plays is all 

over the map — not geographically, but in terms of 

style, audience, and impact. 

An adaptation of Kafka’s Metamorphosis, Austin Tichenor’s 

one-act Dancing on the Ceiling is designed for young 

audiences. That’s because Tichenor believes that Kafka’s 

darkly comic tale of a man turned into a cockroach will 

strike a chord with adolescents who are often experiencing 

struggles with their own changing bodies. He’s most likely 

right on the mark here, for like his work for the Reduced 

Shakespeare Company, Dancing on the Ceiling is both smart 

and fun; it’s youth theatre that grownups will enjoy, too. Two 

males, three females. [Broadway Play Publishing] 

A.R. Gurney’s Post Mortem is set in the not-too-distant 

future, when the religious right holds sway. Alice, a lecturer 

in drama at a faith-based state university in the Midwest, 

and Dexter, an enthusiastic student more interested in his 

teacher than the theatre, discover a play by an obscure late 

20th century playwright. When the authorities destroy the 

script, the two work to piece the play together, and with it 

the future of a world seemingly gone mad. Gurney displays 

an earnest concern for our country’s well-being, but manages 

to keep the tone light most of the way, whether he’s on the 

attack against the current political situation or the lack of 

cell phone etiquette in the theatre. One male, two females. 

[Broadway Play Publishing] 

From Yale University Press comes Eugene O’Neill: Collected 

Shorter Plays, which includes The Hairy Ape, Hughie, The Long 

Voyage Home, Fog, Thirst, Bound East for Cardiff, Ile, The Moon of 

the Caribbees and In the Zone. As a group, they represent the 

broad span of O’Neill’s work. Hughie is a two-character play 

set in the lobby of a New York hotel, and received acclaimed 

productions starring Jason Robards (1964) and Al Pacino 

(1996). The expressionist masterwork The Hairy Ape (1922) 

tells the story of a brutish, unthinking laborer who searches 

for a sense of belonging in a world controlled by the rich. The 

Long Voyage Home is an intriguing early play about a Swedish 

sailor who is kidnapped in London and forced to sail on the 

worst ship on any sea. Interestingly enough, the 1940 film 

version of The Long Voyage Home also used elements of The 

Moon of the Caribees, In The Zone and Bound East for Cardiff — 

all of which can be found in this excellent collection, which 

includes a helpful introduction by Robert Brustein. [ISBN 

978-0-300-10779-1, $15.95] 

Many studies have shown that moving is one of the most 

traumatic events in life. That’s the starting point of Bernard 

Slade’s Moving, which covers the journey that 11 characters 

go through in one day that alters all their lives. Based on his 

script for the 1987 TV movie Moving Day (featuring Candice 

Bergen and Keanu Reeves), the stage version is touching, 

insightful and humorous, as one might expect from the 

author of Romantic Comedy, Tribute and Same Time, Next 

Year. Slade doesn’t work hard to create tension — comic 

or dramatic — but simply lets the story develop from the 

characters themselves. Six females, five males. [Samuel 

French] 

We end, as we began, with a play for young audiences. In 

Beckwourth: The Later Years, Mark Weston tells the story of 

frontiersman and scout James P. Beckwourth, who discovered 

the best route into northern California in 1850, known today 

as the Beckwourth Pass. Named a chief of the Crow Nation, 

the African-American Beckwourth’s accomplishments 

have gone largely unsung in American history. However, 

Weston’s single-act play makes this obscure but important 

historical character come alive, telling his tale with wit and 

honest emotion. That’s particularly so at the end, when 

Beckwourth contemplates his complex relationship with the 

Native American tribe he called his second family. This well 

constructed play may be done as a one-man performance, or 

with a cast of up to 15 supporting male players. 


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Answer Box 

By Jason Reberski 

All photography by Jason Rebersk 

Revisiting Tragedy 

How a lighting designer for a 

college production created a 

dramatic fog effect that didn’t 

steal focus. 

As both a theatrical design student 

and a freelance lighting designer, I’ve 

come across my fair share of difficult 

situations. The challenge posed in Deborah 

Brevoort’s play The Women of Lockerbie, at Lewis 

University in Romeoville, Ill., was no exception. 

The play takes place seven years after the 

crash of Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie, 

Scotland, and the script mandates that a few, 

very plot-specific, atmospheric effects be 

created. There was a lot of discussion early on 

regarding the subtlety of the fog effects that 

would appear throughout much of the show. 

As lighting and special effects designer 

for the production, I was charged with 

developing a versatile system capable of 

delivering both subtle and dramatic fog effects onstage. 

Since the audience was in very close proximity to the 

action taking place on the thrust stage, there was also 

some concern of fog drifting into the audience and 

pulling focus. 

There were many opportunities for the introduction of 

fog onstage with this set. However, most of the preliminary 

solutions looked great on paper but, in reality, proved to 

be far too visible in the intimate atmosphere of the Philip 

Lynch Theatre. 

The scenic design was done by Harold McCay, who is 

the technical director of the theatre. His abstract set was 

reminiscent of Scottish hills and the ruins of Greek theatres. 

Harold decided to use a type of burlap fabric, which he 

painted and textured, for the fascia of the platforms that 

composed the set. 

I realized that the burlap had a lot of open surface area 

and was actually porous enough to allow the movement of 

air through it. So I designed and developed a system in which 

A scene from the Lewis University production of The Women of Lockerbie 

the fog, from a Look Solutions Viper NT DMX fog generator, 

was drawn into an accumulator (stuffer) box by a 134 CFM 

centrifugal blower. The box acted as a plenum for fog and air, 

giving the aerosol time to expand. The blower pressurized 

the fog and sent it out through more than 50 feet of 4- 

inch ducting. After passing through several manifolds and 

subsequent sections of ducting, the fog emerged through 

the porous burlap fascia in six different locations on the 

set. The use of a quick dissipating fluid ensured that the fog 

didn’t drift into the audience or linger for any appreciable 

length of time once the cues were over. 

The final effect was subtle and diffused. I like to think of the 

solution as a “scrim” for fog effects. Most important, perhaps, 

is that the thematic and visual elements of the script were 

supported by a combination of various technologies. It truly 

is “better theatre through science.” 

Jason Reberski is a freelance lighting designer based out of 

Chicago. He can be contacted at JRLightingDesign@comcast.net.

May Issue - Stage Directions Magazine

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