Widely considered one of Australia’s most ground-breaking production houses, Dead Puppet Society is known for combining timeless craftsmanship with cutting-edge technologies and collaborating with world class arts companies and creatives to produce large-scale design-led theatre works that shake up genres, incorporate contemporary forms of puppetry, and push the boundaries of live performance.
Opening in February at Sydney’s iconic Capitol Theatre, Dead Puppet’s latest production is a new version of the five-time Tony Award-winning Broadway hit ‘Peter and the Startcatcher’.
For this much-loved musical, Dead Puppet’s Creative Director David Morton and the team engaged the services of Gold Coast-based sound, light and production technology specialists Captivate AV to design and deploy a sound system that would ensure audiences enjoy the full experience of the show’s ambitious sound design.
“The Capitol Theatre is a 2000 seat venue with stalls and a dress circle level” reports Captivate AV Audio Engineer Isaac Ogilvie.
“Being a shell venue means that we needed to bring in all of the speakers required to put on the show. In a large venue like this speaker cohesion is so important so, from the front field to the main hangs to the delay speakers, we knew that we wanted one manufacturer to cover the lot. For this production, we’re using an entirely NEXO rig.
“We’ve got NEXO GEO M12 for upper left and right and lower left and right coupled with MSUB18 subs. We’ve got NEXO P18s running infill left and right and double stacked L20s running subfield left and right, then NEXO P8s for our singular delay ring under the balcony.
“We also have a fleet of NEXO ID14s and ID24s providing a surround sound experience for the audience both in the stalls and in the balcony” continues Isaac.
“We had no doubt that GEO M12 was the box of choice for this venue. Running active we knew that we were going to have the coverage we needed horizontally and coupled vertically to cover the room from the front row to the very back. Running the box in active mode gives us the ability control the crossover at the amplifier rather than inside the box.”
Taking up the story for Dead Puppet Society, David says; “One of the things that this version of the production does that’s not like others that have come before is we take that sort of actor and musician-driven playfulness on stage to build the story in the minds of the audience.
“Then working with our creative and technical team we make that a physical reality in the theatre. So, we might imagine Tinkerbell as a tiny glowing light that then becomes this fully articulated puppet.
“The same is true of the sound world where we get these Foley instrumentations that set us in the depths of the jungle but then the work of Matt Erskine our sound designer suddenly wraps around us in the theatre using the surround system, so we actually feel like we’re sitting in the middle of a tropical rainforest.
“You’re sort of unsure where it begins and ends, but you just realise at some point that you’re actually inhabiting the same place in the story as the characters we’re following on the journey.”
“When designing a speaker system for a theatre show there are three things that we’re primarily concerned about: coverage, image and tone” comments Isaac, returning to the subject of the sound system.
“When choosing the surround package for this venue, we knew the NEXO ID series was going to be perfect for this room. We needed a lightweight, small profile box that was still going to have the punch necessary to cover in the room.
“In this room we’re using flown MSUB18s coupled with the M12 to provide some low frequency extension and the L20s on the forestage are designed for sound effect and special effect purposes.
“The P18s on the forestage are being used to bring the image down a little so that we can locate the performer’s voice from the stage and the front fill also contributes to that whilst also providing some high frequency clarity for the audience sitting in those front few rows.
“The M12 centre cluster helps to bring the image in and allows the actor’s voice to be centrally located. In the back of the stalls, we have a ring of NEXO P8s which are providing some vocal clarity to those sitting in the back few rows.
“This is the first time a GEO M12 system has been flown in this venue, and we have been blown away by the results.
“Not only is NEXO the speaker of choice for those watching the show but we’re also using some NEXO speakers on stage too. We’ve got a series of P8s flown in pairs for cast foldback and two ID24s flown for onstage special effects.”
Isaac is equally complimentary about NEXO’s NeMo remote control and system monitoring app.
“With a system of this size it wouldn’t be possible to control all of that information without using some sort of control software and we have been very, very happy with NEXO’s NeMo control interface. This has allowed us to talk to each amplifier individually and then create zones across each cluster of speakers.
“Matt couldn’t be happier with the system and package that we provided and is very much looking forward to using this system again.”
For further information on Captivate AV, visit: captivateav.com.au
For further information on Dead Puppet Society, visit: deadpuppetsociety.com.au
For information about NEXO in Australia, visit: grouptechnologies.com.au
