Last Show: High School Musical

The last work I did for media was High School Musical presented by JET Productions. Taking on the wave of hype from the big Disney Hit movie, it was turned into a musical that for a while only was allowed to be produced by a select group. Having never actually seen the musical else where and absolutely despising the movie due to horrible acting and over-rated vocalists, I was slightly skeptical going into this production.

The musical was performed at the Historic Dixon Theater in Dixon, IL. This Theater is very old and perfect for plays but musicals tend to push the limits of the room and the under par audio reinforcement. To improve this I was able to borrow a Drive Rack PA to better split the signal for the main house speakers, the center fill self powered mackies and the under balcony delay speakers. The built-in feedback detection was a great help in destroying feedback on the 16+ wireless mics ranging in age from just a couple of years old to almost 10. But the biggest benefit is the built in RTA (Real Time Analyzer) feature that allowed me to properly EQ the room to boost the vocal presence for both speech and singing.

When I got into town after driving the 12+ hours from Greenwood Village, CO and being re-routed through Iowa...I pretty much got to sleep and wake up to the first Dress Rehearsal on Sunday afternoon. Anyway being tired I sat in on the rehearsal instead of running audio to get a feel for the performance and all of the musical scenes. I was impressed...Really Really impressed. The rehearsal was run from the accompaniment cd (the pit director backed out at the last minute...but the cd was better anyway and let me control all of the volume of the stage!) The 2 big leads of Gabriella and Troy did better vocally then the Gab and Troy in the movie...Actually Gabriella (Monique Vos) has one of the most phenomenal voices I've heard in a while let alone for community theater, it puts Vanessa Hudgens to shame, of course such a nasally singing voice as hers should have never made it into the movie. I know its harsh but if people with no vocals like that make money while vocalists with much more talent and less opportunity don't get squat...Anyway, The other leads Ryan And Sharpay were played by my family Ryan Elmendorf who also took the lead for the JET productions performance of "Jekyll & Hyde" and Ashley Elmendorf who has been in many other shows as well. I mention these 4 over the other 3 leads mostly because their either family, soon to be family (maybe), and sort of like family but not really?...

The other leads did an amazing Job as well along with the rest of the cast. This show although according to the script is the same as all others, but in production and performance differs in a way that incorporates and entire town. My Aunt, who is kinda the head honcho of JET...although Tom would beg to differ (He's the T in JET)...She tends to enhance big numbers or even dull boring numbers with more stand-ins then called for. This means that back up vocals are boosted, which helps the leads to sing to their potential...but the best part is the complicated mess of coordinating so much choreography pay's off by making the performance unforgettable...in a good way. For the cheer scenes and big group scenes she incorporated a bunch of young kids middle school aged and younger. Firstly from a pure performance stand-point this makes each number look bigger and excite the audience...Of Course their even more excited when their kids are in those numbers. How else to bring the community together then to incorporate the community?!?!

Ok theres a lot of useless writing here already so I'll stop, next time around I'll be posting better updates as I actually am working the events!