Pippin

‘Join us’ for the musical journey of Pippin, the son of a powerful king who wants to be extraordinary. Through battlefields, orgies, revolution, and finally love, Pippin seeks a place for his ‘spirit to run free’ and his own ‘corner of the sky.’ This coming-of-age story features captivating music from the award-winning composer of Wicked.

The first musical design of my career, and it was such a good one. The concept for the show was that the ‘magic’ of the players was created using vocal effects on their microphones. Pippin’s effects changed throughout the show depending on how willing he was to participate in the Players’ show. The idea that the Players are the villains in the show was what led me to push for slightly unsettling effects, as if they were inside the audience’s heads as well as Pippin’s, so some of the ensemble’s voices moved through the house for very specific moments. The use of reverb and delay on all the Players, specifically the Leading Player, also fed into this concept, this idea of magic, and it all came to a head at the end of the show when the entire cast except Pippin, Catherine, and Theo were drenched in magical reverb and a bit of delay. The idea to completely turn off Pippin and Catherine’s mics at the end of the show when all the other tech elements are “gone” came during tech, and following that, the idea to have Theo’s Corner slowly pick up all the ‘magic’ vocal effects as it becomes clear that Theo is repeating the cycle came to fruition.

One of the best parts of this show was the collaboration and resilience of the production team. We had many weird things go wrong very close to opening, including a broken ankle for a fly rail operator, and the team came together to get the show on its feet and performed as it was designed. The sound team I had was incredibly strong, and Renata Finamore’s mix was fantastic. The camaraderie during tech and the dedication from everyone made the entire process very enjoyable, and I will remember this one for years to come.

This show was designed on a DigiCo SD10, with sound effects in QLab 4. The main speaker system and subs were Meyer speakers, with EAW sound effects and source speakers, and two Yamaha MRX-7D signal processors. The vocal effects were done using internal effects on the DigiCo, as well as outboard effects of two DBX 1066-1 compressors and a TC M-2000 digital reverb.