Fall ’19 – Rock of Ages
I’m so thrilled that in the final weeks of my run of “Two’s A Crowd” I was offered the A1/Head Audio position for the off-broadway 10th anniversary production of “Rock of Ages.” I’m replacing original A1 Brad Zuckerman as he hits the road with Mike Birbiglia’s “The New One” tour, and I’m really grateful to Brad for being such a great teacher and making the transition so smooth both for me and the entire company. No rest for the weary though: I started training 3 days after “Two’s A Crowd” closed, and am now mixing full time 8 shows a week! Come visit us at New World Stages through January 12th!
This show is definitely one of the most challenging I’ve ever learned to mix, as well as the most fun. Here’s my A1 script for the opening number for reference! (Original console programming by Brad Zuckerman)
Summer ’19 – “Two’s A Crowd”
My July and August were spent mixing the new musical “Two’s A Crowd” which ran at 59E59 Theaters in their largest space, Theater A. “Two’s A Crowd” is a new musical comedy starring standup legend Rita Rudner in her first return to the NY stage in decades!
It was also my first time working with LA-based designer Jonathan Burke and we had a fantastic time collaborating together, however brief! For the show, we augmented 59E59’s existing sound inventory with a rental package from Masque Sound, which was detailed further in ProSoundWeb. Link below!
Spring ’19 – Tour and Freelancing!
After “We Are The Tigers” closed on April 1st, I ran the strike crew and was able to get the audio package struck and returned to Sound Associates in 17 hours AND down one crew member our second day!
The rest of April I was out on the road for the first time as A2/Monitor Mixer on “Million Dollar Quartet.” I had a great time getting to work with our small but mighty road crew (5 of us traveled with the show), different local crews, and in a variety of venues to get our show up and running each night.
The rest of April, May and June I spent working on a variety of load-ins, shop preps, and one-off gigs, plus training to sub on two off-broadway productions and a regional theatre children’s show. They were: “The Waffle House Five” at the Milford Arts Council, “Antigone in Ferguson” at St. Ann’s Church, and “A Strange Loop” at Playwrights Horizons.
As if that didn’t keep me busy enough, I also prepared for and took the Local 1 Apprentice Test, in hopes of gaining access to membership in the union covering Broadway stagehands. I’ll hear back about my results in the next few weeks!
“We Are The Tigers” digital mix bible
One of the paperwork projects I pursed while mixing “We Are The Tigers” was creating my first digital A1 script. It was especially tough getting this started on a new musical, since I was constantly getting script changes right up until we froze, and I couldn’t commit to working out of just one word doc in case things changed but I’m pleased with the work I’ve been able to put in so far on developing my digital “style”, even if I am going to be mixing this one on the original paper script with “analog markup” for the remainder of the run.
I really want to make this a part of my process on every show I do going forward because it could potentially save me a lot of time (and paper and office supplies expenses) on future projects. I personally like to “white out” everything on the page that isn’t words that an actor says (stage directions, etc) for the sake of cleanliness. Being able to do this on the computer is making it much easier to maintain the SM’s original page numbers but also eliminate a lot of the clutter that I as the A1 don’t need.
Here’s some example pages below, plus a glossary (or, as I call it in my scripts, “The A1’s will”) which briefly explains my markup “language” and how to interpret it, plus some guidelines for whoever ends up mixing the show god forbid that bus finally hits me.
As you might be gathering, the vocal arrangements on this show are INSANE, and I mean that in the best way! Mad props due to writer Preston Max Allen and music supervisor Patrick Sulken. Come hear me mix this beast in person through April 1st!
Winter ’19 – Engagement Party and We Are The Tigers
After a great 4 years at Goodspeed, I have moved on to pursue freelance work based primarily in New York.
My first project of the new year was assisting Jane Shaw on the new play “The Engagement Party” which ran at Hartford Stage Company.
After that, I started work mixing the new musical “We Are The Tigers” which is playing at Theatre 80 St. Marks through April 1st!