Loading in Rent
By: Kerrie Mondy originally posted 2/15/14Today my rental guy and I did the lion’s share of my load-in for a small company I work fors production of “Rent”. The theater is a quirky little space. It’s a 200 seat venue with a steep seating rake and a flat, sort of triangular stage floor that’s maybe 30 feet at its widest point. The whole thing is brown and green. No wing space, squeaky stairs, plenty of insect inhabitants, and no exit to the bathroom for patrons during the show except to walk across the front of the stage! But it’s got a few things that make my job great – a company and artistic director that really, REALLY care about what they’re doing, and about each other, and the fact that the whole theater is shaped like a megaphone. It’s a pretty easy room to work in because it doesn’t need a ton of reinforcement (I typically run the mains between -5 and -10 and have plenty of juice), and the music director is a pro, so balancing actors with the un-mic’d band goes better than you’d expect.
I’m excited because it’s the biggest show I’ve done with them so far, and, with the blessing of our supportive artistic director, we’re beefing up audio world accordingly. We usually just use the console that’s in the space already, hook up a L & R and a monitor for the band, set up our actor mics and playback stuff, and we’re rolling. This show has 16 actors, all wearing headset mics, and I’ve been with them long enough now to know that it is going to be loud as hell in there! I really didn’t think our normal setup was up to the task. So we’re actually flying a couple of center speakers this time, as well, and I’m taking inputs from the band. I have a rack that gives me the two FX units I need as well as a couple of compressors and GEQs for my mains. And we even brought in a different console, a Midas Venice 320, to handle the extra inputs and give me some more routing options. We got everything hooked up today and it sounds great on first listens.
I’m pretty excited. I love working for this company and I think the rig we put in is going to do justice to the great work they’re putting into this show. And truthfully, I kind of need this. More specifically, I need it to go as well as I’m planning it to. I recently got some pretty negative feedback on some of the work I’m doing from a person whose opinion means a lot to me. I was a little blindsided by it, and honestly, it shook my confidence. But I’m trying to get back to work, with some new insights, and keep moving forward. I get my first peek at their run-throughs this week. Feeling good and ready to work!