‘Brigadoon’ is a musical, originally written by Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe, which tells the story of two Americans who decide to escape big city life and take a trip to the Scottish highlands. Here they stumble upon a magical village which appears only once every 100 years – Brigadoon. Tommy, one of the Americans must then make the choice of whether to return to New York life and the woman he’s engaged to marry or stay with the Scottish girl he has fallen in love with from this mysterious place. However, as the original plot line is felt by some to be very stereotypical and represents Scottish culture in a cartoony light, director Phillip Howard has decided to cut and change the script for his RCS performance, changing the location to an abandoned fairground run by a mysterious man named Mr Murdoch and changing the storyline to revolve around a literal storybook idea of what a perfect society should look and function like.
Due to this artistic change, the design of the show is based around a collapsing fairground with designer Siiri Korhonen using the red metalwork present in the Chandler Studio theatre and expanding it into a rollercoaster. She also employs two large ramps, a broken cart and a lightbulb sign that is snapped in half hanging from the back wall. In all, the design looks like a mishmash of how someone would imagine a fairground attraction based on Scotland to look – which is the idea the creative team seemed to be pursuing with this production.
Following independent learning week I was excited to begin work on Brigadoon. The first meeting we had been invited to with the Heads of Department before the break had given me an insight into what the show would look like and, as I had been assigned a Sound 3 role, my remit had already been detailed to me by my H.O.D. – a role which, at first, appeared challenging as I had never undertaken any sound work before.
The first week began with a preparation session prior to the rig getting underway on the Tuesday morning. During this session the crew were split into smaller groups, each taking a small section of the rig to prepare with myself and Daryl assigned to moving the scaff bars between the upper catwalk and the back wall. At first this appeared a simple task but it soon became clear that it would be more challenging as each bar needed to be in exactly the correct position in order to be useable. To achieve this I had to take measurements from the Vectorworks plan and translate them onto my catwalk position, ensuring the bar was straight before we tightened it off. This experience also showed me the challenges of working in The Chandler, as the low position of the air vents meant we needed to underhang a couple of the bars in order to place them correctly.
On the Tuesday we began the rig, initially starting with the rollercoaster sections to be mounted to the centre catwalk. This involved us installing pulleys and hemp lines in order to lift the segments into their position, ensuring that those tying off would need to move the structure as little as possible. Getting the pieces into the venue proved slightly challenging as, due to the building work, we only had a short amount of time to load everything in and space was constrained, to the point where some sections needed to be adapted by the construction team so as to fit through the doors. Once the sections were in the venue, we raised them up to the catwalks, at which point one appeared to be too long on one side. The designer was brought in to consult about the possibility of cutting a section off to allow the piece to fit better before it was discovered that it had been finished on the wrong side and should be put up the other way around. This highlighted for me the importance of meticulousness checks whilst rigging pieces of set as this mistake meant we had to spend time taking the section down again, re-tying it off and raising it back up – time that could have been spent assembling other components of the set. In the afternoon, myself and Reece – the DTSM – installed the gate section for the fireman’s pole. This was made of scaff bars and clamps and had been pre assembled as it had been used during the previous week’s show. However, as we tried to install it, we realised it would be easier to disassemble it and start again so as to ensure it fitted properly. Once the gate and fence had been installed we planned out where the pole was going to drop from and installed the top bracket for it to attach on to. The position of this was very important as, if it was too far away from the opening, the cast risked falling down the open gap when over-reaching. If it was too close then the cast would hit their backs off the metal edge of the hole. This was another example of how precise we needed to be when installing equipment to make sure no issues would arise from its use.
The next morning we continued to rig elements of set, putting the two gauzes in position and tying them off to the scaff poles above them. At first we secured them with clove hitch knots to ensure they wouldn’t slip around, though we soon realised these could not be made tight enough to prevent the gauzes falling downstage at the top. We were then shown a tension knot that could be tightened along the cable once it had been put up, meaning the wire could be tight and hold the gauze at the right angle – something which I found very useful to learn. In the afternoon a few of us were given the responsibility of rigging the sheet of corrugated plastic which would be used for the rain effect in the show, with my job being to tie the sheet off to the catwalk above it. On the first attempt, once raised and tied off by one point, the sheet was lowered into position. However, this meant I could not access the other sash cords which I required to tie the sheet off with, something I should have ensured I had a hold of. As it stood, the sheet needed to be raised and lowered in again once the cords had been gathered. After the sheet had been rigged, Fee conducted a trial with the rice that was to be used for the rain effect, resulting in a very realistic appearing rainfall, though it was noted that the spill of rice onto the floor may pose an issue during the run of the show as not all of it fell into the grate on top of the ramp. This would pose a risk to the cast as they cold slip on any excess rice when moving about the stage.
On Thursday, members of the team, including myself, went up to Wallace Studios in order to load up a van with certain components of set in order for it to be used in the venue for an LX focus that evening. Whilst most set pieces fitted through the door easily, the large ramp would not fit through the fire door and so needed to be taken out through the adjoining dance studio. This was a frustrating experience as it took a lengthy amount of time to complete a task that should have been done quite quickly, but it allowed us to work out how to transport this bit of set in and out of the rehearsal room as we were told we would be required to do this twice more before the end of the week. Later on that day I completed my first job with the sound department, making up wig clips matching the actors hair colours as it was explained that the microphone capsules will be run through their hair and sit at the top of their foreheads. This was an initially fiddly and time-consuming job though, the more I made up, the quicker and more efficient I felt myself become at them. This is important as, should a microphone break during the show, I should be able to make up a set of necessary clips quickly to allow the microphone to be switched out quickly and ensure the actor is properly mic’d.
On Friday, I was given a walk through of the sound system by Jamie – Sound 1 – who explained to me all of the equipment he was using and the basics of how radio mics worked, which I found very useful as this would be important to myself during the running of the show as I would be dealing with cast member’s microphones. I proceeded to assist Steven – Sound 2 – in mic’ing up the band prior to the sitzprobe in the afternoon. This was interesting as it gave me an introduction to the different kinds of microphones used to amplify different instruments and why they may not be good at mic’ing others,. It also showed me how to perform a tap through mic check of a band without any of the performers present. Following this, the remainder of the set came down from Wallace Studios, using what we had learned about transporting the large ramp earlier in the week to ensure an easier transfer out of the building on this run. When we had unloaded into The Chandler we marked up the floor with provisional spike marks for scenic elements so the director and designer could see where they had positioned it on the floor plan and make changes should they want to. This involved taking measurements from the Vectorworks plan as we had done earlier in the week, using a scale rule to transfer these to real-sized floor measurements. However, on measuring some of our marks again we found some to be out of place by as much as 200mm, stressing to me the importance of being accurate with plan reading, as set may have ended up being placed incorrectly. Once the large ramp had been placed it was re-positioned slightly further upstage resulting in us having to retie certain lines from the rain sheet in order for the effect to continue to work. This tested our team communication as we had to be very precise in where to move it to in order to ensure the angle was correct for the rice to run off properly.
The second half of my Brigadoon allocation proved to be a lot slower than the first. This was something which I had expected to happen but, as I was in a sound assignment, the tech process did not leave me with very many tasks to complete – except from ensuring the cast were put into and removed from their microphones properly so as to prevent damage; a process that myself and Steven honed to a fine art.
One experience that I felt I personally handled poorly came when one of the actors microphones stopped working during the tech run, resulting in the team having to stop in order for the pack to be swapped out. I had previously been briefed on how to manage a situation like this but, as I wasn’t fully comfortable having never done something like this before, I found myself getting more flustered with the situation than I would usually be comfortable with. Thankfully I was guided through the process by Steven who showed me exactly what to do and what to look for should such a thing happen again – as it did later on in the week. This was useful to me as it showed that I need to work harder at remaining calm under pressure, something that I had never seen as one of my weaknesses before.
Through this allocation I also picked up some tips and tricks of how to deal with microphones and other sound equipment, notably the correct way to clean them in order to prevent them getting clogged up with makeup, and how to disguise them properly when running them through a performers’ real hair. This was demonstrated by Jamie during the cast mic fitting session which gave me a chance to see how he would like each performer to be mic’d, with some having their capsules run to the side of their faces so that the hats they were wearing would not interfere with the sound pickup. By watching this process, I became confident in how to put in hair clips and how to tape off mics to best avoid performers sweating through the adhesive of the Transpore. This is also where I was informed of the casts’ allergies and how a certain cast member cannot come into contact with the mic tape used on the others as it will cause an allergic reaction. This was very important to remember for the running of the show as, when this performer needed to be re-taped or have his mic altered during the show, I had to make sure I remembered not to use the incorrect product on him and cause him to become ill.
Overall I found my Brigadoon experience challenging but very informative, as it has given me an opportunity to put into practice a lot of the things I had learnt over the previous weeks in a high pressure production context. It opened my eyes to the shortfalls in my own ability – especially coping with high pressure situations, yet gave me the opportunity to experience those repeatedly to the point where I now feel a lot more comfortable dealing with similar situations in the future. It has also been beneficial to learn from the H.O.D.s and the second year students who have been very helpful in making us understand why we are completing whatever task we are given and how doing it right will improve the show – whether that be the structural stability of the set or how the show sounds to an audience.