This is probably hopefully maybe the first in a series of posts that spiral through my head on a bi-weekly basis of things I’ve learned/gleaned/stolen from mentors and peers on particular topics, niche topics where information and opinions are less readily available than “how to make scrambled eggs”. Nothing in this post has any value other than what you give it, and it mostly serves as a palette for me to word vomit to myself. Stick around, it might be fun.
I’d be remiss if at this point I didn’t acknowledge that I don’t really have anything unique to say, and there’s many people in my world who put out much better versed thoughts than I do, some non-exhaustive examples being Kai Harada’s Sound Handbook, anything from Daniel Lundberg’s blog, or any of Heather Augustine’s blogs available via SoundGirls.
This post is a topic that has grown and evolved with me over the course of my career, advancing for the sound department on Broadway-style tours.
In some venues, running cables between backstage and the position in the audience seats where the audio console goes (which we call “front of house”, or FOH), is very easy. Some places less so. It can take anywhere from 15-20 minutes to multiple hours to run FOH snakes, depending on the theatre’s architecture and restrictions.
Advancing exists to make loading a show into and out of a theatre easier. It’s 100% possible to just.. not advance information at all and still do a show, but depending on the theatre and the show, you may unearth major (and potentially show threatening) issues during load-in that could have been alleviated by a couple of emails a few weeks earlier. Particularly for venues I’ve never visited, I find advancing to be an essential tool for success on load-in.
Complicated dock/trucking situations can absolutely define a load in or load out. Pictured above is the Tennessee Performing Arts Center and the Ottawa National Centre for the Arts, both of which have unique challenges that require extra time for trucks to swap in and out of the loading dock.
I break advancing down into two fundamental paths, “What information does the venue need from me?” and “What information do I need from the venue?”. The answers to these questions become a sort of checklist of items I need to figure out. It may not work out that I get every question I have answered off of this checklist, but the goal is always to address as many items as possible to catch potential headaches early.
sometimes venues have ramps
Early on in advancing, I tried to address the information that I needed from the venue and the information the venue needed from me as one unit rather than treating them separately, but I never found a cohesive way to address both things with clarity without things becoming wordy, messy, and confusing. I opted instead to split my advancing into two parts, so that I provide information about my show through one avenue, and ask questions about the venue on a separate form. Separating these documents, I’ve found, makes everything easier to manage.
A “static pit” is an orchestra pit that doesn’t move up or down, it’s fixed in place. Shows will often have truss or speakers hung above the orchestra pit, so not being able to have the pit at stage level makes hanging this equipment difficult. In addition, all equipment and instruments that live in the pit have to be lowered into the pit by hand or using a motor.
At this point, I solve “what information does the venue need from me?” with a short PDF “cheat sheet” that highlights the basics of my show, particularly noting things that may be different from other tours, such as band position or weird bundle lengths. I approach this sheet like I’d approach a resume, short and pointed. If the sheet gets too long, over-descriptive, or boring, nobody is gonna read it. I find ensuring that I include the things that I personally wanted answers to in my time as a house head makes folks a lot more likely to stay engaged.
This was an early version of my “cheat sheet” for Pretty Woman, as the tour continued I ended up tweaking out some of this language to make things more clear and less confusing. It seems odd to include things like “we don’t have an iso and will use your neutral” and “we don’t carry fiber reels” but these are examples of things that were abnormal about this show compared to other tours, so they were mentionable. Ultimately there’s no right or wrong answers for what should be included in this tech sheet, as long as it serves to be helpful for someone who doesn’t know the system to get a broad general overview.
The question of “what do I need from the venue” is answered by a Google form, for me. I build a basic Google Form with questions like “What bundle lengths are required to reach your balcony rail from the location shows typically use for ampland?” and “Are your tower points rated for up to 2800lbs?” Questions have to be phrased in a way that can be understood by any venue, so saying things like “How far away is your balcony rail?” or “Can you handle 2 ton towers?” are often not specific enough to pull useful information from. It’s also really easy to get answers to questions you’re not asking if your wording is vague, so I’m constantly tweaking how I word or phrase things if the responses I get seem to be answering a question I’m not asking, or are speaking to a loose interpretation of what I’ve asked.
In Houston, sound towers are floated while the orchestra pit goes down, so a temporary platform (pictured) can be slid and bolted into place. Helpful to know in advance when your normally ground supported very heavy objects are suspended for periods of the load in and load out.
From here, for me, I like to whittle this information back down to the essentials and get it into an easy to disseminate format for the rest of my team to consume as needed. I do this in a single page PDF city sheet, which lists everything from venue, show schedule, show crew, load in information, bundle lengths and extension needs, notes, lunch spots, etc.. I keep this sheet fairly standard and try to get as much information as I can. For example, the venue name is listed but is also a hyperlink to the google maps page if a specific address or phone number is needed. I list scheduled show times as well as any foreseen work calls or rehearsals, and describe generally annoying things like loading dock, FOH push, and crossover cable paths to the best of my ability. The idea is that any member of my audio load in team can look at this sheet and have a good idea what’s going on for the week and significantly cut down on the number of questions I get. The sheet also works great as a single page archive for “what did I do the last time I was here??”. The sheet then gets thrown in the sound department’s DropBox, alongside whatever tech packet the venue sends along, photos I have from friends or prior trips, and as always, relevant memes.
This sheet has minor tweaks and changes that happen tour to tour depending on what information is helpful for the particulars of the system.
As I said earlier, the purpose of advancing is to make load in easier. This is a system I’ve found to be effective for me, providing me the information I need to make my life and lives of my team easier, but it’s by no means exhaustive nor is it all essential to make a show happen. It makes everyone’s lives easier when we walk in the door, and establishes a line of communication with my venue head prior to arrival.