theatre mom friend

still haven’t figured out what this one means

I can't imagine Les Mis or Wicked without one (although Les Mis is abnormally long anyhow) given the sheer power and finality of Defying Gravity and One Day More, but I think many shows with subtler Act I finales could be done continuously without anyone batting an eye.

I also do think intermissions can be quite helpful in emphasizing time skips between the two acts, but shows without a time skip between the two acts could work well continuously.

ID: tags that read THE INTERMISSION ISNT FOR U ITS FOR THE CAST AND CREW (via @spacelazarwolf) /end ID

Acting is emotional, mental, and physical labor. Actors need to remember and perform their lines, remember and perform blocking (where and when an actor moves onstage), remember and safely perform stage combat, remember and perform choreography (dancing) if it’s a musical, and remember and perform songs if it’s a musical, while staying in character the whole time, all in front of a live audience with no redos if you mess up. Acting is HARD. Performing is HARD. It is TIRING, and that 10-20 minute break is what gives actors the energy and ability to finish the show.

Being a member of the crew is physical and mental labor. Depending on the show, there might be hundreds of cues (for changes of scenery, lighting changes, costume changes, etc.) that must be executed immediately and flawlessly, as soon as the stage manager calls for them. There is manual labor in the changing of set pieces and changes of costume, some of which must happen in as short a time as 30 seconds before the character has to go back onstage. A member of the run crew may need to bring props onto the stage at just the right moment, or fly in or out a large set piece (something I’ve done myself - pulling a rope at just the right speed so that the set piece goes out quickly but not too fast in a way that becomes dangerous, and making sure to stop the momentum of the rope so that the piece doesn’t fly up into the rafters). Someone has to keep sound levels balanced so that singers can be heard over the orchestra in a musical, and that a sound effect is the right volume with the right timing so it is believable. All of this is STRESSFUL and it is HARD and it can even be DANGEROUS if not done correctly. You know who doesn’t do things correctly? People who haven’t gotten enough rest.

If you have seen Ted Lasso you may have noticed these unusual microphones used by the football commentators.

Despite being a microphone nerd, I had never seen anything like them before. So I decided to go into research mode and discovered these microphones are quite fascinating.

They are called "Lip-Ribbon" or "Commentator's" microphones.

They were specially designed by the BBC in the 1950s for extremely noisy environments. Soccer Football stadiums have peaked at 130 decibels so they needed something that would not get overwhelmed in that circumstance.

They use several very clever techniques to make sure only the voice is picked up and everything else is rejected.

First, they use a bidirectional polar pattern.

That means it will accept sound from two directions, but reject any sound coming in from the sides. And since the diaphragm is only exposed on one side, that helps reject sound coming from the other direction.

Next, the microphone is not very sensitive so you literally have to hold it up to your lips (hence "lip-ribbon") in order for your voice to have enough sound energy to vibrate the diaphragm.

That top part rests directly on your lip and there is a little pop filter to keep your plosives in check.

There is a built-in high pass filter so it rejects any sound below the frequencies typically used by the human voice.

But my favorite trick... a labyrinthian internal baffle system.

(I found a diagram of this when researching but then I lost the tab and I cannot find it again. So you'll just have to accept this crude photoshop I did in 30 seconds to help you understand.)

Sound is energy. And that energy is diminished the farther it travels. The inverse square law for sound states that the intensity of sound decreases by approximately 6 dB for each doubling of distance from the sound source. Sound also diminishes when it reflects off a surface.

That is a very sciency way of saying... make sounds go through a tiny maze and only sounds with the most energy will prevail.

So if you have your lip pressed up against the front of the mic, your voice's energy will make it through the labyrinth of baffles without issue. But every other sound in the stadium will have a much harder time getting through.

These mics may even be vuvuzela-proof.

And even more amazing... this microphone was designed in the 1950s and they have yet to create anything better for incredibly noisy environments.

Isn't that neat?

I think it is neat.