High School Musical 2022 at Abbotsholme

In 2021, High School Musical was chosen as the senior performance at school. I was appointed as Technical Director for the production, and I was tasked with managing all the technical aspects of the show. I set up both lighting and sound, programmed lighting, and operated sound successfully. Just 3 weeks before, the previous Technical Director had left, so I had to take over the role at short notice. I was tasked with finding a quote for and purchasing a new sound console (X32) and some new subs. This use of an X32 was a learning curve for me as I had never used a digital sound console before. However, I quickly became familiar with the console as I taught myself everything I could in my free time. I used YouTube tutorials to increase my knowledge and understanding. We then faced issues with the ETC Element; it had suddenly changed the intensities of all cues on any showfile loaded onto it. This was a serious problem and set me a personal challenge! To add to this, I contracted COVID meaning I had to isolate. This did not deter me, and I needed to keep busy! I had a problem to solve and knew that there was no one else available to do this. This meant that a large proportion of the production was programmed on my laptop using the AUGMENT 3D software that is built into EOS V3.00. This allowed me to pre-vis the show during the time I was not able to access the theatre. After a few days, I was brought the ETC Element, and in order to resolve the problem, I had to update the bios and reflash the firmware onto the hard drive. Once this was complete, the board was back to normal. Once I had finished quarantine (just 4 days before the show), I began to carry on with the prep of the show, setting up all the mics and rigging the specials. Before running through the lighting and amending any mistakes and adjusting levels I made during the augment programming. After this was complete, I ran a tech run of the show to ensure everything was ready for the live performances. Finally, thanks to a fantastic team of volunteers, we managed the week of productions. This was a time of working under immense pressure, but I enjoyed it, and once everything was sorted, I felt a massive sense of achievement!