Point Source Audio’s SERIES9 headsets and lavaliers are providing the sound quality and flexibility to ensure the current international tour of Wicked is captivating audiences every night for its runs in Saudi Arabia (December 3 – January 3), Bahrain (January 13-17), UAE (January 28 – February 15), India (March 12 – 29) and Kuwait (April 21-25). The large-scale Broadway production presents a number of miking challenges, but for Sound Designer Shannon Slaton, Point Source Audio could provide all the answers.
“With all the masks, prosthetics and costumes, it was a challenge across the board trying to find a position where the mic sounded good and wasn’t being covered up by something,” recalls Shannon, with the character of Dr. Dillamond providing a prime example. “There was just no good place to put the mic. He had hair glued to the side of his face, a mask and a hat on top of all of it.” To overcome this challenge, Shannon worked with the wardrobe department to build the GO2-9WL dual element lavalier microphone and transmitter pack directly into the mask and hat to perfectly capture the performance.
A further challenge came from the rapid costume changes for performers in multiple roles. “There are five monkeys in the show and they wear balaclava style full head masks, which are, of course, quick changes,” Shannon explains. “Quick changes can be brutal on mic placement, so we ended up in a similar fashion having wardrobe sew the mic into the costume so it lived on the forehead of the monkey mask and then we actually built the pack into the mask so the actor could take it off and put it back on. The whole mic and pack were built into this giant head thing they wore, and it worked really well. Once they were dressed into the headpieces, the mics stayed put.”
Throughout the production, Shannon uses dual-element microphones across the full cast, a technique he has championed for years. The exception to this comes with the leads, Elphaba, Glinda, and Fiyero who all required headsets. “It started because Elphaba in this production literally flies into the house in front of the speakers, so I needed to get her onto a headset mic,” says Shannon. “I also had the feeling that with the way this show is, Elphaba, Glenda and Fierro were going to need to hear themselves on stage. And the only way you can really get away with putting any vocals in the monitors on stage is if you have headset mics, otherwise, they just don’t sound good. I worked with the music supervisor and the director and explained the situation, and we were able to put headset mics on those three people so that we could help with all of these different aspects.”
Of course, the extra challenge presented by Elphaba is the dense green paint that coats the actress’ face, hairline and neck. This would typically destroy microphone elements over time, but the SERIES9 GO2 omnidirectional lavaliers and headsets are IP57 rated so they can be color-matched as needed for camouflage. “There was a lot of back and forth to get the right shade of green,” he states. “Eventually, the wardrobe crew was able to match the mic perfectly to the makeup and wardrobe. Without the Point Source Audio mics, Elphaba would not have been nearly as compelling.”
The tour has already received rave reviews for its stops Bahrain and Dubai as well as the extended run in Saudi Arabia. As one of the first large-scale musical theatre productions to visit Riyadh, Wicked delivered a new experience to audiences in the Kingdom, and Point Source Audio enhanced the sound quality to make it a night to remember.
To learn more about SERIES9 and other Point Source Audio products, visit http://www.point-sourceaudio.com/
