hen the Stratford Festival announced its 2016 season lineup , one show in particular caught the eye of lot of theatre fans and critics : A Chorus Line . The Broadway show – originally conceived , choreographed , and directed by Michael Bennett with music by Marvin Hamlisch and lyrics by Edward Kleban – was an unprecedented smash hit when it debuted in 1975 . It ’ s the story of 17 dancers auditioning for limited spots in a fictional Broadway show , but it goes much deeper than that . Intimate conversations between the dancers and the show ’ s main character , the fictional show ’ s director known only as Zach , tackle homophobia , alienation , sexism , money , and marriage – heavy topics for the 1970s , but fans and critics loved it . A Chorus Line won nine Tony Awards in 1976 and the production became the longest-running Broadway show ever until Cats broke the record in the late ‘ 90s .
Why it was a surprise to see A Chorus Line on the Stratford bill this summer is because the estate of Michael Bennett has , understandably , been very protective of the show , only licencing to those in whom they have absolute faith – a testament to the Stratford Festival ’ s excellent international reputation . But there is something else that makes the Stratford production unique : a thrust stage .
The 1,800-seat Festival Theatre ’ s thrust stage provides an intimate , three-dimensional experience for every audience member , but it meant that A Chorus Line would have to be reimagined , having only ever been performed in proscenium theatres . A Chorus Line ’ s pop-oriented music in an already acousticallychallenging room meant additional challenges for sound designer Peter McBoyle , assistant sound designer William Fallon , and the team at Stratford .
“ We knew Chorus Line was going to be the loudest show we ’ ve ever done in here because it ’ s pop music ; it just wants to be presented that way ,” says McBoyle , speaking with Professional Sound in the Festival Theatre with the sound team before a Saturday afternoon show . “ I ’ ve been designing shows here , mostly musicals , for over 20 years now and it is by far the hardest venue that I ’ ve worked at . The two big challenges are that it ’ s semi-circular , so your normal system design ideas for a proscenium stage , a left and right , don ’ t work in here . Everything has to emanate from the centre in order for it to be as least distracting as possible . Also , because the whole back wall and everything is circular , the energy all returns to the stage . So your gain before feedback on a musical becomes a challenge because even though we have diffusers and some acoustic treatment on the back wall , there ’ s still an amazing amount of energy that returns to the stage . So you get 30 open radio mics on stage and all that energy is coming back .”
Knowing this , and with A Chorus Line specifically in mind , McBoyle and associate TD David Campbell decided it was time for two significant investments : a new centre array cluster of d & b T10s , as well as a complement of Lectrosonics SSM micro belt-pack transmitters .
The new centre cluster is made up of three arrays , each consisting of 10 d & b T10 passive two-way loudspeakers . With A Chorus Line scheduled for the spring of 2016 , last fall , McBoyle and Scott Matthews , head of sound for the Festival Theatre , held a shootout in the venue to find the best option for a new array system , which would replace the 20-year-old Meyer Sound UPA system above the stage .
“ It became apparent over the last couple of years , with shows generally requiring more headroom , that we were under powered ,” says Campbell . “ We knew that we had to go to something bigger , more powerful , and that it didn ’ t sound like we were running out of room .”
When conducting the shootout , sound was a concern , obviously , but so was size . “ We were looking for the smallest box possible and we did a shootout . This was actually the smallest of the three [ we auditioned ], and we found that the clarity and the power were just remarkable for such a small box ,” says McBoyle of the T10s . “ The form factor was good , too . It looked the cleanest and tidiest and there aren ’ t a lot of reflective things on it to reflect light and such . But the biggest thing , obviously , was the sound and the power . We had a lot more power than we ’ ve ever had in here for a vocal system .”
Being a deep thrust stage , McBoyle emphasizes that a lot of energy is needed coming from the centre “ in order to feel like the image is superimposed on the centre of the stage rather than off to one side or the other .”
The other benefit of the T10s ’ improved power is that it has breathed new life into the 32 distributed EAW UB12s that have provided under-balcony coverage around the theatre for 21 years and made the over-balcony complement of 10 Meyer UPM 2s unnecessary . The T10s are able to send more energy under the balcony and to the top of the theatre than the old UPA system , meaning less is required of the UB12s and UPMs .
“ From that point of view , the line array did exactly what I hoped it would do . That piecemeal approach in a round room is problematic ,” says McBoyle about overcompensating with the fills . “ The straight line approach of proscenium theatres doesn ’ t work in here , so you end up with time-of-arrival issues no matter what you do . And having big guns that are all departing at the same time and arriving with a united wave front has really helped everything . The [ UB12s ], we ’ ve had to rely on them less and they are just more cohesive because
Members of the company in A Chorus Line .
Photo : David Hou
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