Page 47 - Lighting & Sound America (December 2019) Magazine

gear from d&b audiotechnik’s V-Series and Y-Series, tion electrician), Mike Wojchik (production sound), Julie
including V10P, V7P, V8, and Y12, Y8, Y7P, and E8 boxes, Sloan (head sound), Scott “Gus” Poitras (head
plus J-SUBs and J-INFRAs, for the lower end, and Alcons carpenter/deck automation), Alex Joans (head electrician),
Audio VR8, VR5, and SR9 cabinets serving as the delays. Chelsea Zalikowski (production video), Zach Peletz,
Loudspeaker processing is handled by a d&b DS100 sys- Matthew Mellinger (video programmers), Jon Rodriguez
tem. Sound gear was supplied by Sound Associates. (assistant carpenter), Reece Nunez (assistant sound), Buist
The cast members are miked using DPA d:screet CORE Bickley (production properties), Alison Mantilla (assistant
6061 lavalier mics connected to Sennheiser Digital 6000 production properties), Christopher DeLuise (head props),
wireless systems. As the action moves across nearly four Zack Tomilo (assistant props).
decades, with their consequent changes of costume, the Officially posting blockbuster numbers on a weekly
wardrobe and sound crews have their work cut out for basis, Tina has settled in at the Lunt-Fontanne; all signs
them keeping the mics in place, but “the team does a great point to a lengthy run.
job,” Steinberg says, adding that the complications of
dealing with the star’s changing looks—especially her
increasingly outrageous wigs—were smoothed out during
the Hamburg and London runs. The band is fitted out with
a variety of mics from AKG Audio, Beyerdynamic, DPA,
Radial Engineering, and Shure.
Sound is controlled using a DiGiCo SD7T console, with
a Waves SoundGrid server for reverb and other effects.
Steinberg notes that he uses reverb strategically: “The
reverbs tell you where and when you are. They’re a good
way of tipping off the era and location of a scene, helping
to place you in a studio or an arena. It gives you a sense
of the period, whether it is something shiny from the ‘80s
or some big mechanical plate from the ‘70s. They can help
the audience understand the sound of an era.” Sound
effects—including radio broadcasts, cheering crowds, and
a disturbing collage of traffic noises and police sirens at
the end of Act I—are delivered using QLab 4. “The show is
synchronized using time code from the music department,
using a QLab system set up backstage,” he says. “It is
part of the music department and it generates the click
track. Our QLab system does the sound effects and drives
the DS100.”
The big mixing challenge of the show, Steinberg says,
involves “managing the dynamics, going from the play to
the concert and everything in between. You can get easily
lulled into approaching the middle of the thing rather than
constantly scratching at the extremes, which is what we
want to do here. From an operational point of view, it’s a
kind of discipline to make sure you’re stretching the show
as much as possible on both the book scene side and the
concert side.”
Other key personnel on Tina include Kristen Harris (pro-
duction stage manager), Glynn David Turner (stage man-
ager), Sharika Niles (assistant stage manager), Brian Webb
(associate scenic designer), John Viesta (associate lighting
designer), Jason Crystal (associate sound designer),
Simon Harding (associate projection designer), Alex
Mannix (assistant lighting designer), Z Worthington (assis-
tant sound designer), Lisa Renkel (assistant projection
designer), George Reeve (additional animation), Erik E.
Hansen (production carpenter), Jeremy Wahlers (produc-

www.lightingandsoundamerica.com • December 2019 • 47