Schools Rock On Stage
Brentwood Secondary College in Melbourne staged Andrew Lloyd Webber’s School of Rock in 2023. Jack Jones from Outlook Communications describes the challenge of setting up a huge production in a school gymnasium in a few days.
School of Rock is a very challenging musical to stage technically, because not only do the lead characters need microphones, but if the actors play live on stage, their instruments also need to be amplified and balanced with the backstage band. For this production we used 40 radio microphones for the cast and instruments.
Brentwood is a public school with a modest budget and no dedicated performing arts venue.
Outlook Communications threw ourselves into the challenge, with three days to convert their hall into a theatre.
To make it more difficult, the space has a terrible echo. Fortunately, international sound designer Julian Spink was available to help, in down time from his other gigs on professional tours of Chicago and & Juliet.
We managed to get just enough radio frequencies which did not have interference. To instal the 40 channels of fixed and hairline microphones, we trained students to assist us.
Brentwood’s Director of Performing Arts, Ash Bull, says, “Outlook turned our 55-year-old gym into a theatre with sound of the highest calibre.
“It was also great for students not comfortable on stage to participate in the performing arts program by teaching them to instal the microphones and connect the microphone packs.”
To mix the sound we used a new Allen and Heath Avantis console which can handle up to 64 channels and a Funktion-one speaker system. To allow the front rows of the audience to hear the musical we required extra smaller speakers (JBL Contorl 25) to boost sound.
Other technical elements included a vision link from the conductor backstage to the cast on-stage.
John Yanko (Dewey Finn) won a Music Theatre Guild Award for best lead performer in a male presenting role. The School of Rock band also won a Victorian Youth Lyrebird Award for best acting partnership.
Outlook Communications loves working with schools and offering extra resources for their productions.