it must be the madness

The UHL program is in a much better place right now than it was two years ago.  Everybody is happier and the quality of our shows has increased immensely.  This year, we are producing Cinderella’s Glass Slipper, and the camp has been a lot of fun so far.  Sure, the children are demons and there is nasty mold growing on the walls, but I’ve enjoyed myself.

But this year has also been the epitome of “too good to be true”.  Our sound system is dying and we have no money to replace it.  Similarly, we have no sort of acceptable stage lighting system in place currently.  Well, actually, we do have money to replace it but we don’t actually have that money yet and only Kathy Griffin knows when that money is actually coming.  And we’re running out of time.

So, to take my mind off of the technical catastrophe that I am enduring, I have decided to dream up an ideal theater technical system to make myself feel better.  Here goes nothing:

Audio

• Behringer Eurodesk SL2442FX-PRO Mixer ($499.99) With more than 16 mic channels and a bunch of other cool crap that I don’t understand, this thing is an audio engineer’s dream.
• Nady U-81 Octavo LT Wireless Body Pack System ($799.95) Two Octavo systems would be fantastic.  16 mics that actually work…hallelujah!

Lighting

• Elation Stage Pak 2 ($399.99) A cool dimmer board and up to 12 DMX addresses WITH X- and Y-crossfaders?  Heaven!
• American DJ PAR-38B Can ($29.99) Ten of these PAR Cans (but five of these two-packs) would give pretty good lighting for the intimate spaces that we perform in.
• American DJ PAR-56 Can ($44.99) Two of these cans to fill the twelve dimmer switches would round out the fantasy of amazing, low-cost stage lighting.
• Musician’s Gear Lighting Stand with Truss ($129.99) Easy, effective way to provide effective foh lighting.
• American DJ LTS-6 Lighting Tripod Stand ($44.99) For on-stage lighting, would work best with a pentagonal stage.

So there you have it.  Minus the cost of lamps, speakers, and some misc. cables that are probably necessary, the cost comes to $3,089.77.  Not too shabby!  A full set of theater tech for under $4,000.