The process of putting a Broadway show on the road begins long before we ever get to the shop. However, outside of a few phone calls and some negotiating with general management, the shop prep is where a show starts for me. The designers submit a gear list for bid and once that bid is awarded the build is scheduled and staffed. Masque Sound holds the contract for this show and we began our three week build in East Rutherford on August 1, 2011.
The first couple days of the prep are all about cable. We are greeted by miles and miles of cable which is meticulously labeled and flagged (for direction) and sent to the cable department to be bundled.
Once all of the cable is sent away for bundling we start building racks. This process takes several days as all of the 20+ racks are custom built to the designer’s specification.
As the racks start to come together and we get bundles back from the cable department we will start to setup the system to test. This will include testing the extensive Com and video system, including a lot of extra Com for the production and tech rehearsal process. This will typically take two or three days at the beginning of week three, depending on how many problems we have to track down. For this particular show the last days of the build were spent finalizing the rigging for our center cluster and dividing the gear up to be packed a loaded onto a truck.
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