Live!

[I'm going to leave a few details out since some of my friends who are coming to see the show also read my blog.]

I am running the only spotlight for Tommy from the booth (more on all that later). Which means that I will be hearing the show through monitors. While having fun being a spot op on this show, I'm still a sound engineer at heart. I wanted to hear it all live - band and all.

The set up for the pit is rather interesting because they are completely covered by the stage. The conductor has a live video feed of the stage that he watches in the pit. There is a camera on him which feeds video monitors out in the house that face the actors so they can pick up their cues. One conductor tv backstage for when people are singing from the wings. And one in the booth for the stage manager. During tech we had keyboards and occasionally drums. Then came sitzprobe. First time with the full band. Note: band, not orchestra. Two keyboards, two guitars, bass, drums, and french horn. For fun, the band usually gives themselves a name, something from the show. Suggested from one of the guitar players, they are The What. Since it is a covered pit, they came up with an inventive way to acknowledge the band during curtain call.

I didn't even have to be at the theatre for this - but there was no way I was going to miss it!! This would be the only time I could hear it live, the way the audience does, instead of through booth monitors.
I came as a fan, not an employee. Sat in the third row. There was this excitement when the guitar started to play for the first time. Everyone's faces just lit up - devil-horn hand signs, applause, stomping, and fists in the air, too. Goosebumps! We were finally hearing it the way it was meant to be.

Here is the cast singing the finale, Listening to You. My eyes almost started to well up as I listened to it. Not just from the song itself, because that can get me on it's own, esp. hearing it like this, but also the thought that I get to work with such amazing talents. People who have also become my friends. And I get to be there as they perform some of my favorite songs night after night.