Richelle Thompson's Blog (9)

Until the last few years, if you wanted to do theatre sound and get a degree or emphasis in audio, you had to make due in undergrad with special projects style courses and practical experience, and then apply to one of the theatre masters programs with an audio emphasis, or find a fine arts program that offered audio instruction. Sound is just beginning to be taught in general undergraduate programs as a mainstay of the curriculum, and it will be a long while yet before it's as basic as…

During the tech of one of our last shows, a guest designer and I were discussing the computer playback system ASF owns and bemoaning that my budget doesn't have enough leeway to upgrade or replace it, since in the way of programming the software is out of date.

One of my operators (who is only a few years my junior) popped off that at least we were computerized and not having to deal with CD or MiniDisc. This led to me to my own tirade about when I was an engineer and my…

I write this blog on a break during a 10 out of 12. Originally I'd thought I'd write a post about the differences between designing for a published work, versus designing for a new work. But instead I'm finding the challanges of period music more on my mind.

My current project at ASF is a sound design for a "The Flag Maker of Market Street," a new play by Elyzabeth Gregory Wilder. The play is set in Montgomery Alabama in 1860 in the months leading up to the Civil War.…

No matter how much time you've invested in setting up your wireless mic systems - planning layout, tuning frequencies, tweaking gain structure, EQing actors, never mind making your system sound good - it's all for not if you loose a mic mid performance due to a sweat out.

As mentioned in an earlier chapter, the two areas most susceptible to sweat are at the connection of the mic transmitter (or belt pack) and the lavaliere element, and the head of the lavaliere element that…

Instead of carrying on to the next installment on the care and feeding of wireless mics, (which I'll get back to, I promise) I'm going to enter an interlude blog about remounting productions.

In the last few years, I've done several remounts in different circumstances. Each experience has presented a unique challenge for me - either as a supervisor or as the designer - in some cases my own design, in others that of other artists.

The first (and perhaps easiest as it was…

To condom or not to condom, that is the question. No.. this has nothing to do with sex... I'm talking about wireless mic packs.

This is a much bickered over topic, and both sides have points, but in my experience of the musical, weather you prefer condoms, choose to construct gortex sleeves, or rig mic belts with plastic wrap or sandwich bags, you've go to take some protective measures where mic packs are concerned, because sweat kills. So - bag that puppy -…

Happy New Year, ya'll!

Last time I talked about set-up and tuning of your wireless system to get the best results. The next step is making sure the mic pack and accompanying element are placed correctly on your actor.

Starting with the mic pack... There are lots of places a mic…

I’m sitting to write this blog between projects – cleaning up holiday gunk and writing a strike list. When this blog posts, the ASF Christmas musical, Peter…

I'm a theatre professional - mostly sound. I write. I spend a lot of time on the net. So I'm going to combine the three, and write about theatre sound via a TheatreFace blog. To introduce myself (in a nutshell): My bachelor's is in technical theatre from Southern Utah University with emphasis in sound, electrics, and stage management. I joined the Alabama Shakespeare Festival as resident sound designer in 2007. I've designed sound for over 20 productions in my tenure at ASF, and have also…