THE SCHEDULE

The mixer has to be keenly aware of the schedule for the load-in. The typical Broadway load-in is three weeks. Usually the work days are Monday through Friday from 8 am until 5 pm. Even though that seems like a long time, Broadway shows are huge and get more complicated every year and time slips away very quickly. If the mixer does not stay on top of it, there can be major problems. The first thing that must be found out is when the last day in the shop is and make sure you are ready to put the system on the truck. It is most often the case that you will truck the system down to the theatre in several trucks over the course of several days. To accomplish this, you have to plan out what you will need when load-in starts and you will have to pack your boxes accordingly. You will also need to mark the boxes in the shop in such a way that it is very clear what is to be sent down on what day. Sometimes we color code boxes for different days, as well as labeling the boxes with the day they are to be sent. We also line up the boxes in the shop to coincide with the trucking schedule.

You have to coordinate the trucking with the production manager. On Broadway we use Teamsters to load and unload trucks. Teamsters are a union of workers who load and unload trucks and containers. This union is not specific to the entertainment industry. If you have a truck show up unscheduled, then there will be no Teamsters to unload the truck. The production manager is going to want to schedule the trucks to get the most benefit out of the Teamsters. The production manager, as an example, will want a sound truck at 8 am and a lighting truck at 8 am and a scenic truck at 9 am to best utilize the truck loaders. Once your equipment arrives at the theatre, you need to place it in the theatre in logical places. The equipment for FOH should all be marked to go to FOH and the stuff for Ampland, which is just a term used for the place backstage where most of the racks live, should be labeled to go to Ampland.

At this point the dates that matter are Lighting Focus, Dry Tech, Quiet Time, Cast Onstage, Pit Seating, Orchestra sound check, First Preview, and Opening Night. Lighting focus gives you the date on which you have to have the com system up and running. This is when the lighting design team is going to start programming cues. Dry tech is the day when carpenters and automation are going to work through the cues in the show. By this day you will need wireless com working for the deck crew and you will need the video system working so the automation operator can see what he needs from his console to be able to safely move the scenery. The next milestone is quiet time, which is when the designer will need the entire system on the output side to be working. The designer will also want to hear God mics and paging mics as well as the RF mics.

Probably a day or two later will be Cast Onstage, which is the first day the cast will be putting on the microphones. The actors typically come in at 1 pm to start this day and the first day will either be an “8 out of 10” or a “10 out of 12,” which means 8 hours of ACTOR rehearsal in a 10-hour block, or 10 hours of ACTOR rehearsal in a 12-hour block. Once you get to this stage the schedule for an “8 out of 10” is: Workcall from 8 am–12 pm, Lunch from 1 pm–2 pm, Afternoon session from 1 pm–5 pm, Dinner from 5 pm–6 pm, Workcall from 6 pm–7 pm, Evening Session from 7 pm–11 pm, Notes Session 11 pm–?. A “10 out of 12” moves lunch from 11 am–12 pm and actors in at noon. It also extends the evening session until 12 am. To be ready for Cast Onstage you need a fully functional system except for the pit. You will need the stage manager station to be fully functioning with com, video, and paging. You will also need some way of mic’ing the actors for rehearsal. Typically we use elastic string to create a halo for the mic, which allows the actors to quickly put the mic on. As rehearsal progresses we will move away from the halos, but this is a slow process. You will also need a temporary conductor camera setup as well as rehearsal mics for the piano and other instruments, which are usually not in the pit but in the house, so that the musical team can easily converse with everyone.

Even though you are now working between 15 and 17 hours a day, your load-in is not done. The next milestone is the Pit Seating. This will take place from 8 am–12 pm on a day during the workcall. This is the day when all of the musicians will go into the pit for the first time and fight for space and let you know what their needs are. To be ready for this, hopefully the music supervisor has been able to give the sound department a pit layout of where the musicians will need to sit. The Seating is what we call the session where the musicians come in and get seated in the pit for the first time. This is when we find out if there is enough space for the musicians and if they have special requirements. Before the Seating, the props department will place chairs and music stands in the pit. The carpentry department has installed a platform for the conductor. The electrics department will run power in for the music stand lights so they can control them from the light board. The sound department will run in any cables it can for the mic drop boxes and sub-snakes and the conductor camera and video monitors and also any Aviom or speaker runs.

The seating is run by the music contractor. The sound designer and music supervisor talk to the contractor about how they would like to load the pit. Loading the pit is what it is called when the musicians move to their seats. This is usually done by sections. The Reeds section will load into the pit and talk through their needs and then they will leave the pit and the next section will move in. After all sections have gone through this, the entire orchestra loads into the pit and they play a few songs to hear what the pit sounds like and to find out if they can see the conductor. The musicians are not always mic’ed for the seating.

Next up is the orchestra sound check. This is typically the day after the seating, which gives the sound department one day to mic up the pit. This is an all-hands on deck day. You get one shot at this and if you have mics not working, the designer will be less than pleased. Normally you get two four-hour sessions with the orchestra. After that it is time to hear the orchestra with the actors. It can’t be overstated enough that mistakes are not allowed on Broadway. If you get to the orchestra sound check and something isn’t working, then you are going to have a room full of people looking at you and annoyed that you are wasting their time. This is true for every step in this process. Nothing can be tested too many times. Every mic should be scratched to make sure it comes up at the board where it is supposed to. You don’t want to have the Overhead Left mic coming up where the designer expects the Overhead Right.

Once the orchestra sound check is over, the clock is ticking down to the first preview. Then Opening night. Then sleep. Well, after a big party. Then a hangover. Then hopefully a normal showcall schedule for the next 20 years.