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Illustration by Andy Au

Lady Roadie at Large

Touring Life on the Tech Crew (When You Don’t Look Like The Other Boys…)

My name is Becky Pell, and I am an anomaly. I’m a live sound engineer, and I’m a woman. It’s an unusual combination, but I’m rarely conscious of it until someone points it out. Usually the conversation goes something like: “Wow, a female monitor engineer, you don’t see that very often.” Me: “No, there aren’t many of us.” Them: “Why is that?” Well, here I have to confess ignorance; as I am one, I’m kind of the wrong person to ask! Why are we the unicorns of the touring world? And what’s life like as a woman on the road?

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On the 20th Century photo by Joan Marcus

Big Apple Wireless: Four Shows Linked by RC4 Wireless

Every Broadway production is unique, with its own engaging story to tell. But, whether it’s a comedy or a tragedy, a musical or a drama, there is one thing that four separate productions opening this month on Broadway have in common: Every one of them is using RC4 Wireless products to untether their props, costumes, and set pieces, creating the magic of theatre.

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Nook Shoenfeld

Earth-shaking? Hardly. Innovative? Definitely!

As I wandered the halls at 2015’s Prolight + Sound show in Frankfurt last month, I once again looked for the unusual items. I’ve come to expect the large manufacturers to show off some great stuff to augment their wide array of fixtures. But I am more impressed at these trade shows with the little things that are original. I’m talking about stuff so cool and simple that I have been wondering where this item has been my whole career. And it’s not necessarily something that everyone can use. I found three companies I was unfamiliar with, that showed me gear I can really use.

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Gigi on Broadway features a set design by Derek McLane. Photo by Margot Schulman.

Derek McLane: All The Worlds On Stage

Derek McLane has traveled to many different places through his scenic design work for Broadway and beyond. As he takes PLSN on a tour of the Manhattan studio space that he shares with director Doug Hughes and costume designer Catherine Zuber, the charming Tony Award winner waxes enthusiastic about his work in the theater. He shows us his wall-length library of art and design books that stands in the common conference room as well as the gallery of quarter scale models lining the shelves and the perimeter of his main work space where the drafting and model crafting happens. From the gloomy, decaying theater of Follies to the bright and cheery steamship of Anything Goes, McLane knows how to fully flesh out a set and draw audiences into the world of each story he helps to tell.

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Maroon 5 V tour photo by Todd Kaplan

Maroon 5 “V” Tour

“The whole idea of the show is essentially building from zero,” says lighting programmer Jason Baeri. “It begins without giving anything away — just a simple stage. Then as the show unfolds, there’s a little bit of Magic Blades, and then video, and then we lower the ‘V’ trussing, and then we push out to the B stage. It’s a linear progression upwards and forward, expanding in the space as the songs go by.”

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