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still haven’t figured out what this one means

yeah i have no clue

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cant talk rn obsessed over the design concept of this 2017 production of pinocchio as a stage play where pinocchio is the only character played by a human actor and the rest of the cast are portrayed as puppets ,,,

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Unpopular theatre opinion: intermissions are bad and I wish we could just have a 2.5 hour performance uninterrupted, like people manage perfectly well at movie theaters. It always just kills my emotional immersion. Set changes and costume changes valid, but the art form could adapt in other ways. Or making the intermission experience somehow also part of the performance? Just something more interesting and intentional than dumping people out into the lobby to buy m&ms.

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I did a show in undergrad in the basement of a house off campus. My “light board” looked like that. There was a scene that needed a strobe effect. I literally just toggled the switch on the power strip. It was beautiful and it was heinous. I loved that show.

im stacking extension cords on each other like theyre tinker toys. constructing a tower of babel in the name of the god of electricity. there'll be at least 100 outlets when ive hooked these boys up nice and good. ill never run out again

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The Fourth Wall: A Rare View of Famous European Theater Auditoriums Photographed from the Stage

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Imagine actually being so evil that you'd rather make sure your writers suffer financially instead of just paying them the pay they deserve. Hell truly has some seats reserved already, holy shit.

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god ryan murphy really doesn't give a shit huh. truly so fucking sick of this dude

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If you have seen Ted Lasso you may have noticed these unusual microphones used by the football commentators.

Despite being a microphone nerd, I had never seen anything like them before. So I decided to go into research mode and discovered these microphones are quite fascinating.

They are called "Lip-Ribbon" or "Commentator's" microphones.

They were specially designed by the BBC in the 1950s for extremely noisy environments. Soccer Football stadiums have peaked at 130 decibels so they needed something that would not get overwhelmed in that circumstance.

They use several very clever techniques to make sure only the voice is picked up and everything else is rejected.

First, they use a bidirectional polar pattern.

That means it will accept sound from two directions, but reject any sound coming in from the sides. And since the diaphragm is only exposed on one side, that helps reject sound coming from the other direction.

Next, the microphone is not very sensitive so you literally have to hold it up to your lips (hence "lip-ribbon") in order for your voice to have enough sound energy to vibrate the diaphragm.

That top part rests directly on your lip and there is a little pop filter to keep your plosives in check.

There is a built-in high pass filter so it rejects any sound below the frequencies typically used by the human voice.

But my favorite trick... a labyrinthian internal baffle system.

(I found a diagram of this when researching but then I lost the tab and I cannot find it again. So you'll just have to accept this crude photoshop I did in 30 seconds to help you understand.)

Sound is energy. And that energy is diminished the farther it travels. The inverse square law for sound states that the intensity of sound decreases by approximately 6 dB for each doubling of distance from the sound source. Sound also diminishes when it reflects off a surface.

That is a very sciency way of saying... make sounds go through a tiny maze and only sounds with the most energy will prevail.

So if you have your lip pressed up against the front of the mic, your voice's energy will make it through the labyrinth of baffles without issue. But every other sound in the stadium will have a much harder time getting through.

These mics may even be vuvuzela-proof.

And even more amazing... this microphone was designed in the 1950s and they have yet to create anything better for incredibly noisy environments.

Isn't that neat?

I think it is neat.

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Some of your favorite movie SFX and how they were inspired

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new fave night vale bit dropped

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I sat across from Rupi Kaur in a production meeting for a staged reading of milk & honey in summer 2018 and explained to her what a tech rehearsal was

who is the most famous person you’ve interacted with either online or in person?

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movies peaked when sets had unmoving painted skies and rocks carved out of styrofoam

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oh wow this blog turns 6 today which is crazy! I know I’ve been AWOL but a lot has happened and changed lately (no shit?)

I am currently putting my SM/PM career on hold while I pursue a law degree. during peak covid, I had a chat with my dad, who works in broadcasting, and we talked about how his career is one that will always be needed even if the world shuts down. Unfortunately, an arts career is one that is not needed when the world shuts down but people will always need lawyers. I’ve always had an interest in the law, mostly from reading, licensing agreements and labor contracts. When I made the choice to pivot to law, it was always with the intention of practicing entertainment law, and specifically theater entertainment law.

Though I’ll be spending the next, however many years as a lawyer, I hope that I can pick back up as a stage manager, or production manager, or hell – even a producer at some point when my legal career allows. In the meantime, I’ll get to be a lawyer for theater people, my favorite kind of people.

And I’m keeping this blog active because my heart yearns for the wings, for the booth, for the pit, for the fly loft, and everywhere in between.