As you all may have heard, the 1st showcase of the Newton Musical has already passed! In my opinion, I’m proud to say it was much of a success. But now, I’ll let you into a world people don’t normally talk about, to the world many may want to hide. Welcome to the backstage.
To begin with, I doubt you even know what a technical director is— some of you probably don't even know this job exists. But don’t worry, I’m here to tell you all about my role and my experiences in this production. A definition from Berklee College of Music states “a Technical director is responsible for operating, protecting, and maintaining the theatre's technical assets, while also managing and overseeing the different technical departments, including set, lighting, costumes, props, sound, and effects.”
From the start of our production, I began searching for a suitable spot to showcase our musicals. It was tough, as we have little to no budget. We had to consider many aspects of a particular location before we could settle with one. I started wandering around the school, trying my best to find a perfect spot. It took me some time until I came across the school’s auditorium on the 11th floor. It was a normal afternoon, when the sun didn't shine in through the windows, that millions of stage design ideas started rushing through my mind. At that very moment, I knew it was the perfect place for the show. I could imagine our actors walking up and down the auditorium, adding levels of depth to the visual aspect of the play. When I pictured the actors singing and dancing before me, I was certain our musical would be showcased here.
After deciding on the location, I started to look into lighting. As our creative drama supervisors have said many times, “Use what we have to its fullest potential first.” so I tried experimenting with the school auditorium’s down light and stage light, and I found out that they were usable. Along with P’Oam’s help, I was able to come up with a lighting chart (basically a lighting design plan but documented). However, there was one issue that I couldn’t disregard— the actors’ faces. They were dark. They were so dark, I was hardly able to see their facial expressions. I tried to make the actors stand adjacent to the light, but that shifted the mood we were trying to convey. Though, it all worked out in the end, all thanks to our creative drama master, P’Joob. He brought a team of light and design students from OpenSchool to help us operate the led light that serves a purpose of shining into the actors’ faces. Finally, their faces and expressions could be seen.
In an effort to ensure that everyone in the audience gets to enjoy the show, regardless of how far back they are, we used two particular tools: the platforms and the TV. We predicted that those in the front row would block those in the back, so we elevated the stage to make it easier for the audience in the rear zone to watch the show. But that wouldn’t be enough to give them the greatest experience possible, so we added a live TV in zones C and D to help the audience in those zones to watch the show and not simply see the heads and shoulders of people sitting in front of them.
Now, everyone could see the actors, but how about hearing them clearly? Actors projecting their voices wouldn’t be enough to reach everyone sitting in a long, weird shaped chamber, especially on top of the fact that the room doesn’t support nor promote the echoing of voices at all. So, we decided to mic the casts. Though, due to lack of communication on my side, we experienced certain difficulties. We didn’t get to do a runthrough with the mics before the real show. For some actors, it was their first time using a mic on the real stage, and with that comes problems. Since some mics weren’t tested beforehand, they malfunctioned on the stage, leaving those in the audience confused. It was during this one sentence that the mic suddenly didn’t pick up. It was the sentence that revealed the death of Connor Murphy. Since this was one of the main points of the plot, some people were left confused throughout the entire show. Luckily, we were able to troubleshoot the problem during showtime and so we fixed the mics in time.
In the category of sound control, we mustn’t forget music. Needless to say, I didn’t need to worry much about that department thanks to P’Oam, our music director. Although, it is indeed my job to deal with how the instruments will connect to the main mixer, the volume of the music being played, and how much space the band will take. At first I thought that venue planning wouldn’t be hard, but after I started it, I soon realised that this was not the case. I had to ask myself many questions along the line of “How much space will this take?”, “How much space will that take?”', or “How many seats can we fit into the chamber?”. In no time, I came up with a proper floor plan.
Other aspects of technical design include props, costumes and queues. For props and costumes, the musical directors had a meeting with our props and costume designer, P’Mimi. She was brilliant, as she was able to come up with a design for props and costumes for each and every scene in just a couple of days. For the queues, P’Oam and I created a technique chart in which we documented the actions that should occur in the settings after certain actions are carried out by the actors.
I have to thank each and every person in the Newton Musical Team for contributing to this project; thanks to E-Studio for helping us out with sound control; thanks to OpenSchool for the light control; thanks to all of our creative drama supervisors for helping and supporting us throughout journey, we wouldn’t have been able to come this far without you; and lastly, thanks to the executive teams for supporting us. Without any one of you, the show wouldn't be where it is today. Thank you.
Sincerely,
Me.
(Technical Director of the Newton Musical)