Makeup/Mic Meetings

Had the makeup meeting just after I posted last night, and after the disappointment of finding out I was only to be responsible for a significantly smaller portion of the makeup designs, I did feel quite relieved to know that all I need to do now is find a beard, a wig, some spirit gum, some latex and scar wax, and a few wheels of F/X and shadow and highlight creme (we're going to ask the actors to purchase their own foundation and other "everyday" makeup pieces, but we're going to get all the fancy and specifically "for-stage" stuff). I just finished up my sound tech meeting, too, and things are a bit up in the air right now, so much so that I feel perhaps better prepared than the sound rental people who have so far failed to contact my director. I was able to provide her with contact info for a number of different companies from whom we could rent, or whom we could hire to install our sound equipment. I just found out that last year they ran this show with a 12 channel board, with only 8 mics to pass between the actors. I tried as well as I could to put my foot down and ask for a 24 channel board, since the company is supposed to provide the equipment and it shouldn't cost any more than the 12 channel. That way, we would have 20 mic packs, 3 hanging mics, and one channel for backstage communication, which would solve a significant number of problems as far as passing mics between actors is concerned. I'm amazed how complex this whole sound system issue has become. It was never this bad when I've worked with sound before, even old in-house patch systems. But maybe the fact that the other systems I've worked with are in-house is the major problem here. Despite all the pain of those old patch systems, all the pieces were already there. With this show, we're having to bring every single element from the amps to the mixers, audio snakes, mics and packs, receivers, etc. ALL in from the outside. All I can say, is that no matter how much I feel like complaining about the untimeliness of the sound company we're working with, I have immense respect for people who can figure all this crap out!