Using delay-based Image Definition pan objects instead of just discrete level-pans around the speakers significantly enhanced the overall immersivity of the effect. TiMax’s internal hard-disk playback also provided spooky pre-show and interval atmos soundscapes with distant organ music, clanking chains, footsteps, rain, thunder and wind, all built up on separate tracks with level automation and immersive panning programmed in the TimeLine.įrankenfurter’s laboratory scenes were accompanied by variants of an atmos motif made up from 50’s sci-fi style bubbling and bleeping noises which would first be established on upstage Image Definitions then via a QLab MIDI Cue, then slowly panned out into the house and faded down by TiMax into a slow spatial- stereo spin so that it floated around the audience hence enveloping them in the lab space to varying degrees as the director wished.
Using the waveform as a template meant that movements of certain things like the finale space ship launch could be built graphically from several offset layered beds, each with groups of multiple pan objects which had been squeezed or stretched so that samples would spin around the room slowly at first and then speed up as the take-off happened.
This tended to muddy the band mix therefore these fills were faded up and down on Cue by TiMax in response to QLab triggers corresponding to the scenography movements.Ĭertain surround atmos and spot effects needing complex spatialisation were created in the TiMax SoundHub-S unit’s onboard Timeline environment, using Image Definition pan objects placed on the audio waveform of those particular effects, which themselves were played back off the TiMax unit’s internal harddrive. Other QLab Cues were used when mid-stage scenery flats were closed across in front of the band resulting in the upstage bandfill anchor speakers (see later) reflecting back down the band mics. These cues also sent MIDI Notes direct to the TiMax SoundHub unit to assign appropriate Upstage LR, Main LR or WideSurround LR localisations, or to trigger dynamic TimeLine pans on any of the six inputs allocated to QLab in the TiMax matrix. As some of the audio Cues were especially score-related (wedding bells, doorbell) or video-related (tyre burst, certain thunderclaps) these were played out of the QLab Mac, which also played the video clips, to allow collective manipulation and editing in rehearsals by Music Supervisor Charl-Johan Lingenfelder. To manage and sync the sound effects and spatialisation together effectively with the video playback, a hybrid showcontrol and playback system was created using a TiMax2 SoundHub matrix triggered via MIDI from a QLab3 workstation operated by the stage manager at front-of house. A central objective was to break the fourth wall with audience dress-up days and participation packs with glo-sticks, streamers and confetti, all supported by a high impact and immersive sound design. Founded by Eric Abrahams in the playwright’s honour, The Fugard’s home venue is located in Cape Town’s District 6 whose indigenous community were brutally evicted during apartheid to make way for gentrification of the area.Īs in Cape Town, Director Matthew Wild wanted to balance a suitably 50-‘s sci-fi feel with hi-tech production values so the gothically-detailed set and spooky laboratory props were complemented by elaborate lighting cues and animated comic-book style video mapping for many scenography elements. The Fugard Theatre’s namesake Athol Fugard is regarded as one of South Africa’s most significant playwrights, a fact recognised in 2011 by a Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement in Theatre for his emotive plays exploring the worst excesses and injustices of apartheid. The show is already booked to return to Cape Town in July and then again to Johannesburg for a further run up to Christmas.
Cape Town’s Fugard Theatre company has just moved its highly successful 40 th anniversary staging of Richard O’Brien’s cult musical Rocky Horror Show to Pieter Toerien’s Montecasino Theatre in Johannesburg where, with little more than “just a jump to the left.”, it had presold all available weekend tickets by opening night and a complete sell out of the scheduled nine week run is apparently imminent.