Assassins

Assassins
Summary
Dates 23rd - 29th November 2019
Performance Course Musical Theatre
Location Chandler
Creative Team
Director Emily Reutlinger
Musical Director Sarah de Tute
Movement Director Jim Manganello
Designer Erin Dougherty
Sound Designer Neal Clark
Lighting Designer Benny Goodman
Assistant Musical Director Jacob Jones
Voice and Dialect Coach Hilary Jones
Production Team
Production Manager Kevin Murray
Stage Manager Fiona Elliott
Deputy Stage Manager Andrew Swarbrigg
Assistant Stage Managers Rhiannon Mitchell & Lea Meloee
Stage Supervisor Cameron Kerr
Deputy Stage Supervisor Ewan Sullivan
Stage Technicians Joseph Liddle & Rory Gilmore
Lighting Programmer and Operator Louisa Craig
Production Electrician Ross McCrone
Lighting Technicians Nicholas Ruebenacker, Mark Sillett, Marjorlaine Demaude & Euan Dyer
Production Sound Engineer and AV Designer Stuart Henderson
Sound 1 Neal Clark
Sound 3 India Kilbride
Lead Propmaker Nicky Baillie
Propmaker Kieran McGill
Scenic Artists Lisa Graef, Finn Newton, Becci Shepherd, Rebekka Richter, Lilli-Ella Rowe, Dylan Ross & Kate Thwaites
Assistant Scenic Artist Vincent Roe

Summary

Stephen Sondheim & John Weidman’s theatrical debate about the motivations driving the characters who’ve attempted to assassinate the President of the USA.

Company

The Proprietor - Jack Heydon
The Balladeer - Georgie Buckland

Sarah Jane Moore - Jessica Donnelly
Charles J. Guiteau - Alistair Fitton
Lynette 'Squeaky' Fromme - Bailey Grey
John Hinkley - Robin MacKenzie
John Wilkes Booth - Jonathan O'Neill
Leon Czolgosz - Isaac Savage
Sam Byck - Lydia Stevenson
Giuseppe Zangara - Joy Tannen
Lee Harvey Oswald - Lewis Winter Petrie

Ensemble - MaKenna DeMers
Ensemble - Conor Downey Quinn
Ensemble - Dylan Evans
Ensemble - Michaela Fenech
Ensemble - Julia Murray
Ensemble - Melinda Orengo
Ensemble - Elizabeth Coverdale

Sound

The Team

Sound Designer/Sound no.1 - Neal Clark

Production Sound Engineer - Stuart Henderson

Sound No.3 - India Kilbride

Networking

From the very start of the planning period, it was decided to implement a fully networked audio system for this show using the Dante Audio networking protocol. This was possible due to the equipment available in the chandler being Dante enabled. Due to the complexities of the show, it was essential that every member of the sound team had an understanding of what was getting plugged in where and how the power on procedure would be implemented.

The Equipment

For Assassins, we used a Yamaha QL5 digital mixing console with a RIO 32/16 stage box. During the planing stage, we made the decision to use the Shure Axient Rack, which consists of 5 AD4Q receivers, Antenna Distro, and 3 Battery Chargers. The decision to use this equipment was an easy one due to the Shure Axient equipment being Dante enabled which meant we were able to add the equipment into the existing network with ease.

We used the Chandler MacBook Pro to run Qlab 4. This was also added into our network via DVS (Dante Virtual Soundcard).

OSC

Due to the complexity of the Cueing of the sound effects along with Lighting effects. The decision was made between the Sound designer and the DSM to implement an idea which would make it much easier to ensure effects were cued at the same time. We added OSC (Open Sound Control) into the system which was able to solve the issue. Open Sound Control (OSC) is a protocol for networking sound synthesizers, computers, and other multimedia devices for purposes such as musical performance or show control. Having OSC as part of the system allowed us to have flexibility but the DSM to have an enhanced organization of their cuing which assisted the production to be as smooth running as possible. The below link directs you to a page which teaches how to use different show control systems

https://paperclip.rcs.ac.uk/index.php/Show_Control_Systems

Technical Stage Department

For this show, the Technical Stage Department consisted of Cameron Kerr as Stage Supervisor, Ewan Sullivan as Deputy Stage Supervisor and Joseph Liddle and Rory Gilmore as Stage Crew. I started the production process by making the stage plan from the designer on vectorworks.

Noose One of the main challenges in the production was to produce a Noose swing (not a functioning one), for a cast member to swing on, hang on and climb around. This had to be dropped in and the height of it changed 3 times throughout the movement piece. This would be easy in a venue that had the capabilities of Automation etc but in the Chandler, we had to use human manual movement. I used thin Dyneema to make a prusick around the thick 26mm rope which made an anchor point of which we could attach to the karabiner on the catwalks. 3 of these prusicks made moving the rope between 3 different deads very simple.

Stage Management

The stage management department consisted of Stage Manager Fiona Elliott, Deputy Stage Manager Andrew Swarbrigg and Assistant Stage Managers Rhiannon Mitchell and Lea Meloee.

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