Approach:

When approaching this design, I came up with three core features I wanted to focus on.

1. Practical Speakers

2. Answering Machine Vocal FX

3. Utilizing the system

Practical Speakers:

Rent takes place in a grimy, lived in New York. This is a city that is alive, and Director Lisa Gaye Dixon made it apparent that this city needed to be felt in the show. My first thought to draw the audience into this stage version of New York: practical speakers. Utilizing practical speakers in the space would make certain sound effects feel like they’re coming from the stage, not from the speakers of the theater itself.

Answering Machine Vocal FX:

Rent is interrupted periodically with calls from the loved ones of characters. Some of these characters exist solely through the answering machine where their messages are heard and never appear onstage as their real life counterparts. With a good chunk of exposition and humor told through these answering machine messages, I wanted to put a spin on them. My goal was to create a vocal effect to enhance the vocals of these actors. This would also aide in immersing the audience into the world presented on stage.

Utilizing the system:

Illinois Theatre’s production of Rent was produced at The Virginia Theatre, a local theatre in Champaign, presenting stage productions as well as movies. The sound system used for theatrical productions onsisted of LR mains, subs, delays, and underbalcony speakers. The movie sound system consisted of portable speakers hidden behind the film screen, as well as surround sound speakers present on both the main floor and balcony. After hearing this, I formulated my design to include these surround sound speakers.