Theatre Design & Technology - Spring 2017 - Public - 14

Adafruit FX Soundboard with 2 MB flash showing
size relative to quarter and trigger pinouts. The 11
trigger pinouts are highlighted.
Wardrobe
Supervisor Jena
Goldberg (left) and
Costume Designer
Sabrina Bianca
Guillaume (right)
brainstorming ideas
for wearable sound
tech.

rigging of the audio components.
A snag occurred about two weeks before tech. Despite coaching from a professional stilt-walker, the actress playing Nell concluded that she was simply not
comfortable moving on the stilts that had been built.
With paramount concern for actor safety, Director Easley decided to scrap the stilts. She insisted, however, that
the sound still travel with Nell as she walked across the
space in the final scene. In fact, she stressed, "It's even
more critical to have this magical audio element now

that we are losing the stunning visual of Nell on stilts."
The design and build teams went back to the
drawing board to modify the wearable tech solution.
Guillaume partnered with the wardrobe supervisor to
determine how the speakers might be rigged to the rubber boots Nell would be wearing. After some quick trial
and error, they came up with an elegant solution: sewing
a small pouch (from cotton fabric found in-house) into
the upstage flap of each boot to hold the speaker, and
cutting a hole to run the black 18-gauge wire out each
pant leg to a female 1/8-inch (3.5mm) TRS (tip-ringsleeve) stereo connection. Meanwhile, the Technical Director devised an assemblage of the audio components
that would fit in the sound vest, enable quick speaker
connection by the wardrobe crew during quick change,
and, most importantly, be protected from the actor's
movements. Such a complex multi-department collaborative effect required diplomatic coordination, which
was provided by Niluka Hotaling, the department's production manager.

CHALLENGES
Costume Designer Guillaume says her biggest challenges were ensuring the sound vest would be hidden under Nell's work coat, and that all of the audio
cables could be easily attached during the quick-change
by novice student crew members. To ensure a smooth
change process in performance, holes
were cut in the pockets holding the
Budget for Audio Items to Build Wearable Tech Units
FX board, so the trigger cables could
PRODUCT
ITEM
VENDOR
PRICE
UNIT
X#
be quickly run down the sleeve of the
#
PER
#
coat to the actor's hand. Similarly,
UNIT
small holes were cut in the back of the
2133
Adafruit Audio FX Mini
www.adafruit.com
$19.95
2
$39.90
vest and in the pant legs of the overSound Board - WAV/
OGG Trigger - 2MB
alls so the speaker wires could be run
Flash
to a male-female 1/8-inch TRS junc1752
Stereo 20W Class
www.adafruit.com
$19.95
2
$19.95
tion to connect to the wires near the
D Audio Amplifier boots. Training the crew for this quick
MAX9744
change took an hour of practice during
1669
Stereo Enclosed Speak- www.adafruit.com
$9.95
1
$9.95
er Set - 3W 4 Ohm
technical rehearsal and an hour of additional time outside of rehearsal.
771
AA Battery Holders with www.adafruit.com
$3.95
2
$7.90
For Stiefel, the biggest impediOn/Off Switch
ment to creating a performance-ready
prototype was finding time to devote
64
Half-size Breadboard
www.adafruit.com
$5.00
2
$10.00
to the research, engineering, and costume integration on top of his duties
1/8" Stereo Mini- plug, www.amazon.com
$4.99
2
$9.98
male to male
to oversee construction of all scenic
elements. He estimates that he spent
40 hours on R&D and trial-and-error
assemblage before he was sure the
Translucent Project Box www.digikey.com
$2.95
2
$5.90
wearable tech would be ready for and
Enclosures
reliable in performance. Fortunately,
to aid in both the R&D for and wiring and programming of its FX board
SUB$ 103.58
and Class D Stereo Audio Amplifier,
TOTAL:

14

theatre design

& technology

S p r i n g   2 0 1 7
http://www.adafruit.com http://www.adafruit.com http://www.adafruit.com http://www.adafruit.com http://www.adafruit.com http://www.amazon.com http://www.digikey.com
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Theatre Design & Technology - Spring 2017 - Public
