Sister Act
Music by Alan Menken, Lyrics by Glen Slater, Book by Cheri and Bill Steinkellner
Directed by West Hyler
Cape Fear Regional Theatre
The Olga B. & Herbert H. Thorp Theatre
May 2nd - May 26th, 2024
Production Team:
Choreographer: Lisa “L-Boogie” Bauford
Music Director: James Clark Jr.
Scenic Design: Riw Rakkulchon
Costume Design: Harri Jorsley
Hair & Makeup Design: Kiara Kirkland
Lighting Design: Karen Spahn
Sound Design: Brandon Reed
About The Play
Deloris Van Cartier is an aspiring singer in Philadelphia, where she is auditioning to perform at her gangster boyfriends nightclub. Deloris believes that Curtis is going to introduce her to a big producer, but is upset when he tells her she is not ready. Hurt and rejected, Deloris decides to break up with him, but when she goes to find him she accidentally sees him kill one of his cronies. Deloris runs to the police, who place her in hiding at a convent until Curtis is brought to trial. At first, Deloris feels as though it will be the worst thing in the world, chafing against the constraints of convent life and an immovable Reverend Mother, but once she is introduced to the struggling choir at the convent, everything changes. She finds that many of the nuns at the convent are not that different from her. They help give her a bigger purpose in her life, showing her a genuine love and affection that was missing prior to her arrival at the convent.
Audio clips of the live mix are not included due to actor’s equity restrictions as well as recordings not accurately representing the theatre space.
Please check with the producing organization if interested in quality of the mix, which I proudly stand behind.
Photos taken courtesy of Rubiera Studios
This production was a perfect example of a classic musical theatre reinforcement based sound design. West our director wanted a straight forward show that was able to swell in volume when needed, but be able to be intimate for several songs as well as accommodating actors moving on and off stage and into the house.
The system design was straight forward with an L’Acoustics Rig featuring a Center Array made up of Kiva II speakers. We also had two point source X12 speakers for the Main Left and Right that primarily featured the band in addition to vocals. There were four 5XT front fills embedded into the stage for the first couple of rows, as well as two SB18 subwoofers under the stage for our low end. For the back half of the audience we had two delay speakers that were X15 and X8s. We also had two additional X12 speakers and two Turbosound IQ8s for side fills. For onstage monitoring we had two JBL AM4212 speakers for downstage and two Meyer UPJs for overhead monitoring.
The band was below the stage in the pit that was closed off which allowed for excellent separation acoustically providing a better balance for the audience. We had a small but mighty pit including a drummer, two keyboards, a bass player, a guitar player, a trumpet player, and finally a reed player. The band was mixed on a smaller Behringer X18 mixer and then output into groups for the main Behringer X32 mixer, which saved on channel count. The drums were all close mic’ed with an EV RE20 on the kick, SM57 on the snare, with two overhead AKG P17 mics, he also had a drum pad with a DI Box for additional percussion sounds as well as a glockenspiel mic’ed with a SM57. The two keyboards were direct from their Mainstage rigs into DI boxes. The bass player played both electric and acoustic, which were both direct into DI boxes. The guitar player was a direct out of an amplifier. The trumpet was mic’ed using a Shure SM57. The reed player due to channel count only had a single AKG P420 condenser. To makeup for the missing orchestra members, we had an additional QLab computer the music director sent into a direct box with tracks and a click to fill out the score.
The cast used a combination of forehead, hairline and cheekbone mic placements using Pointsource CO-8WL lavs into the theatre’s in-house Shure ULXD transmitters.
This production was my first time mixing tracks with a live band and I enjoyed the challenge.
The Sound Design
