I'm often asked about getting started in the theatre sound business.

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Let me start by saying that to be successful in the theatrical sound business, you'll need a passion for theater, music and the science and art of sound. You'll also have to do a lot of hard work and long hours! If you can endure this you'll be rewarded with a fulfilling and flexible career, which can also pay quite well.

As for getting started, I would recommend learning as much as possible of the science of sound and electronics, preferably in a strong engineering environment. This doesn't necessarily mean you have to go to college. I gained most of my experience working in a variety of audio shops, as well as lots of reading on my own. My first fall in college as a theatre major I ran a show at the local repertory theatre as the operator and made $50.00 for the two month run of the show. I ran a HUGE 8 ch. Yamaha mixer, two reel to reel decks and two cassette decks. Looking back on that it's hard to believe I was nervous when I first saw the equipment because now I could run that stuff in my sleep.

That first job only lasted two months but I learned a lot about sound, theatre and politics. One of the things I learned is that the rate of pay is not so important as long as you find yourself loving what you're doing day after day. Well, after that one show, I was hooked. The summer after that year I got a full time job doing hotel AV work for a sound company (SAVI) and when fall came, I tried to stay at work full time and go to college too. It was to stressful, so I slowly dropped out of college. I then spent four years working my way up through the SAVI ranks, which meant doing a ton of crappy work. It all paid off because it put me in a lot of situations that taught me a solid base of knowledge concerning live sound. It also paid off when they offered me a job on a non union bus & truck tour with the Troika organization. There are other ways to do it though. Certainly these days there ar a lot of colleges that have sound programs. Either way you'll also need a very strong knowledge of music and theater -- not only the music and theater of the current trends, but its "literature". By literature, I mean you need to know and have a feeling for all sorts of theatrical and musical values, practices, and situations, so that as you work on a show, you can react creatively to what everyone else on the production is trying to do.

If this sounds like a lot of study and work, it is. To be good at it over the long haul, you need to be so involved in it that it becomes most of your life! To make that kind of commitment and be happy after having done so, you have to love every aspect of it. In other words, this kind of career is not a 9 to 5 job. It is definitely the kind of career that you pursue because you love the work, and the work gives you major satisfaction! A lot of the best theatre tech people are work-aholics. Most of us work very hard for months and months at a time. The more motivated ones go right back to work on another show for months at a time. The less greedy ones usually spend several weeks or months on vacation while they rest up and prepare for the next gig.

The technical background is just as important as the theatrical and music background because there are so many people working in music and the theater that don't have a lot of technical knowledge and if you learn only from them without a solid technical background of your own, you can learn a lot of very wrong things. In other words, having a technical background can give you an effective BS filter! And, in any field, there is a huge amount of BS floating around to be filtered! One thing you should know right off the bat is that the CADAC is not the only theatrical console there is. Most of it starts out with folks trying to sell things or themselves, but a lot also comes from ignorance.

Possibly the best tip I can give you to get started with the technical side is to get your hands on a copy of "The Sound Reinforcement Handbook" It's a great book for learning. It starts out very easy and simple but it gets very hard and complex. After ten years in the business I still pick it up and read it from time to time to brush up. Other books recomended are:

George C. Izenour's "Theater Design"

Phillip Giddings "Sound System Design and Installation"

Don and Carolyn Davis "Sound System Engineering"

EV PA Bible (EV or Mark 4)

Tony Moscal's "Sound Check"