Helping The Story Shine Through: Behind The Scenes With A Production Of West Side Story

The fateful gunshot that closes the show presented a dilemma both creative and technical: with such a well-known show (based on the even more well-known Romeo and Juliet), most of the audience is familiar with the play’s tragic ending. The moment still needed to be shocking and impactful, even though everyone knows what’s about to happen.

All the previous playback cues in the show were set to a relatively low level, reaching the audience only via indirect sound from the loudspeakers buried behind set walls. The gunshot, by contrast, came from a loudspeaker placed on a backstage rigging access landing, positioned to have direct line of sight to the majority of the audience seats. The effect was quite loud – on par with a real gunshot – and the direct loudspeaker aim created a sharp, harsh sound that the audience would localize towards the actor holding the gun. The result was quite startling, even to someone who is expecting it.

The Deck Sound position on stage left, incorporating RF, digital IO, and actor miking, was managed by Henry, the author’s workstudy.

Another concern was tackling 24 frequencies of RF in a decidedly hostile environment, with multiple DTV stations transmitted just miles from the theater. Since the rig was entirely Shure ULX-D, we were able to connect all the receivers to a network switch and wireless router.

The units all popped up in Wireless Workbench 6, and a live scan allowed us to coordinate our frequencies around the local TV and other RF sources of nefarious origin. I made use of the program’s ability to “prioritize” channels, making sure the frequencies assigned to lead characters were the most stable. I then pushed our coordination results out to all the receivers and sync’d the packs via IR, thus making quick work out of what would otherwise have been a tedious couple of hours.

The Process

I made a decision early in the process to stick to theater audio best practices as much as possible so my student A2s – Jane, Henry, and Sophia – could get some relevant experience should they choose to pursue audio careers. For me, best practices are all about achieving consistency and preventing problems before they occur. The four of us developed a daily routine that consisted of fresh batteries, checking the physical condition of each mic pack and element, and “wargaming” the RF system to detect any frequency interlopers.

About 10 minutes before actors showed up to get into mic, the team on stage would switch on and line check each pack while I monitored the audio via headphones at front of house. This process allowed us to catch any mic elements that might have been damaged or broken during the show’s extensive fighting and tumbling choreography, and quickly swap in a new element.

Our last step before the actors arrived was to review photos of the mic placements from the previous night and discuss any placement changes I wanted to make going forward.
We wanted to get the actors into mics, checked, and offstage quickly as possible so the venue could open doors, but I also didn’t want to rush through check only to discover an issue during the performance.

Jane and Henry would help the actors fit their mics, checking placements and making sure the tape was comfortable, while Sophia would tell me via comms which actors had been fitted and were making their way to the stage for check.

A2 Jane mixed the “wedding shop” scene each night.

The actors would come out and run a few lines while I made any necessary tweaks to EQ, and then we sent them on their way. By the second performance, we had become a well-oiled machine, getting the entire process down to about 15 minutes.