Pairing one of most prestigious theatre programmes in the Houston, Texas region with its Performing Arts Center (PAC), the Seven Lakes High School hosts out-of-house productions alongside it sown.
The Seven Lakes Theatre Program rents out its PAC to numerous out-of-house groups because it is widely known as the most professional venue in the area. ‘Most out-of-house groups rent our PAC because they know we run a professional space and the students I train are professional-grade student technicians that no one will find anywhere else,’ explains Joshua Heerssen, the school’s Production Designer and Technical Theatre Teacher.
Heerssen teaches technical theatre classes, which include hands-on training with everything that entails a theatrical production, including lighting and sound engineering. The theatre programme performs four to six large productions a year and shares the PAC with in-house groups, such as the school band or choir, as well as rents to out-of-house groups.
Keeping up with the forefront of technology, Heerssen looked to upgrade Seven Lakes’ analogue audio console. ‘I looked into Soundcraft because we already owned a Spirit 8, so I understood the terminology and I really liked the way Soundcraft consoles are set up,’ he says. ‘After I saw the Si Performer 3, I knew it would be the perfect board for our space and a great teaching tool as well.’
He replaced the PAC’s Soundcraft Spirit 8 soundboard with the Si Performer 3 after attending the TETA (Texas Educational Theatre Association) conference: ‘I saw the Si Performer on display and demo’d at the conference, and the first thing I noticed were the colored faders, and then to a have digital sound board at this price range with 32 channels of control made me look more intently.
‘I chose it because my goal as a teacher is to make sure students learn the tools that will not only serve them well in college, but what they’ll need for professional theatre,’ he adds.
Heerssen notes that the Si Performer’s DMX interface, which allows lighting control, was a key purchasing factor: ‘It definitely put a smile on my face when I brought up a channel for lighting on the sound board the first time in our PAC,’ he says.
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