Question: What's it like working in a theater?

Rob Temperton answered on 21 Jun 2015:

I love it! It is important to love it because no one really does it for the money…. It is very hard to make your fortune in the theatre industry (I could get paid more than twice as much as I currently do as a technician in other parts of the entertainment industry).

I used to do a fair bit of lighting which is OK. I find it a good challenge – it is very rewarding and it is something people notice. I however specialise in sound – the rule of thumb is that very few people notice it if you are doing your job well. (How often do you do go a gig/concert and say “I couldn’t hear all the lyrics” vs “it was great – I could clearly hear every note played by the second bassoon!”)

Sound in theatre, particularly musical theatre, is a great challenge. If you do a band gig, you have the band and at most a handful of vocal mics (most of which doing background vocals). In musical theatre you generally have an even bigger band and ~20 vocal mics (and I do small shows…). These mics need to be concealed in hair and costume. I work as both as a sound number 1 (mixing the show) and as a sound number 2 (dealing with all the mics backstage, fitting them to the cast and ensuring they are well concealed but still in a good position to pick up what they need to).

Non musical theatre is also fun. I recently did sound for some Shakespeare where we needed to set up a crazy surround sound system as some lines needed to bounce all around the theatre space. Sound design like that is equally fun and rewarding – plus people notice it!!

In general, it is great working in theatre. Everyone is really friendly and good fun. It can be hard work – but, I find doing physically hard work every now and again enjoyable as it is so contrasting to my normal science work. I haven’t tried to get involved in any big touring shows etc because the hours would not be compatible with my day job as a scientist so can’t really comment on that.

Rob