Ragtime
Music by Stephen Flaherty, Lyrics by Lynn Ahrens, Book by Terrence McNally
Directed by Zi Alikhan
Music by Stephen Flaherty, Lyrics by Lynn Ahrens, Book by Terrence McNally
Directed by Zi Alikhan
PlayMakers Repertory Company Paul Green Theatre November 20th December 15th, 2019 Scenic Design: Mark Wendland Costume Design: Lux Haac Lighting Designer: Masha Tsimring Sound Design: Eric Alexander Collins Audio Supervisor: Brandon Reed A1: Brandon Reed, Marisa Clemente |
Photos taken courtesy of Colin Huth Photography
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Set in the 20th century, Ragtime tells the story of three groups in the United States: African Americans, represented by Coalhouse Walker Jr., a Harlem musician; upper-class suburbanites, represented by Mother, the matriarch of a white upper-class family in New Rochelle, New York; and Eastern European immigrants, represented by Tateh, a Jewish immigrant from Lativa. The show also incorporates historical figures such as Harry Houdini, Evelyn Nesbit, Booker T. Washington, J. P. Morgan, Henry Ford, Standford White, Harry Kendall Thaw, Admiral Peary, Matthew Hensen, and Emma Goldman.
This production was unique in that it featured a lot of untraditional elements and sought to break the traditional ideas of what goes into making a musical. For example, the production had a lot of modern costume and scenic elements with more contemporary looks. The scenic design was placed in the round, with some acting platforms not only being in the center of the room, but also behind the audience members within the seating areas. Playing space was all around the audience trying to make them feel as if they also were in the world of the play. We also had untraditional types of actors playing roles that our normally reserved for stereotypical actors of the role.
Because of this scenic arrangement, we had to shift the rep speaker plot around to effectively cover the audience. We kept the rears and delay speakers in the same spots, but flipped our center cluster around to hit the audience behind on stage. We added three additional Turbosound IQ8s to hit the front facing audience. Subwoofers were kept in the grid. We added small powered Behringer monitors in the platforms in the audience in order to effectively provide fold back to the actors no matter where they were in the space. The band was placed underneath the audience risers in a room built by scenic that featured a lot of sound absorption material to really isolate them from the room. We miked them up and pumped the sound into the theatre. The show was mainly mixed on a Midas M32, but we pumped all the outputs into the house console a Soundcraft Vi1 which served as a Matrix mixer of sorts.
Sound effects were handled through QLab as our playback. We had over 20 channels of actor RF, a 7 piece band that was submixed on a Behringer X32 Rack and then output as groups to the M32 that was mixing the show. The band had the Behringer P16s to serve as the monitoring devices so that they could mix their own monitors and allow me to focus on mixing the show.
This production was unique in that it featured a lot of untraditional elements and sought to break the traditional ideas of what goes into making a musical. For example, the production had a lot of modern costume and scenic elements with more contemporary looks. The scenic design was placed in the round, with some acting platforms not only being in the center of the room, but also behind the audience members within the seating areas. Playing space was all around the audience trying to make them feel as if they also were in the world of the play. We also had untraditional types of actors playing roles that our normally reserved for stereotypical actors of the role.
Because of this scenic arrangement, we had to shift the rep speaker plot around to effectively cover the audience. We kept the rears and delay speakers in the same spots, but flipped our center cluster around to hit the audience behind on stage. We added three additional Turbosound IQ8s to hit the front facing audience. Subwoofers were kept in the grid. We added small powered Behringer monitors in the platforms in the audience in order to effectively provide fold back to the actors no matter where they were in the space. The band was placed underneath the audience risers in a room built by scenic that featured a lot of sound absorption material to really isolate them from the room. We miked them up and pumped the sound into the theatre. The show was mainly mixed on a Midas M32, but we pumped all the outputs into the house console a Soundcraft Vi1 which served as a Matrix mixer of sorts.
Sound effects were handled through QLab as our playback. We had over 20 channels of actor RF, a 7 piece band that was submixed on a Behringer X32 Rack and then output as groups to the M32 that was mixing the show. The band had the Behringer P16s to serve as the monitoring devices so that they could mix their own monitors and allow me to focus on mixing the show.