Technical Director of Klue, Doh! @ MapKL, Malaysia

I am currently working on a show in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in association with Terry and The Cuz (www.terryandthecuz.com). This is the first project for the newly formed The Rubix Cube (www.therubixcube.com) on board with Rob Stewart, an amazing Australian Sound Designer. My role on this project is Technical Director, and it is my job to bring together all the sound, lighting, set, venue and AV elements of the production. As an interesting side job, I am also designing (with Rob) a great amount of sound proofing for the space, to isolate our two playing spaces.

The show runs for two weeks from the 3rd of December at MapKL (Solarius Datamas) for more information about tickets and show times, visit www.tix.my

Tech Desk @ MapKL

Concept

The concept of this production is to present a family on the brink of collapse following the murder of the Datuk, Jackson Mo, a successful business man, with some questionable money lending practices. The cast consists of 8 characters, each very unique in their role in the story. There is the almost divorced Datin (former wife of the murdered man), her brother who is a seemly simple and dirty old guy, the hilarious Indonesian maid, the removed son returning to make up with the family, the mistress and fiancé of Datuk Jackson, the young police inspector, and the ASP (Assistant Inspector of Police).

The play is designed to present to two separate audiences simultaneously, one in the study, one in the living room; essentially perform the play in its entirety twice, swapping the audiences at interval. This poses some challenging but exciting problems for the lighting, sound & vision, not forgetting the cast, set, props and script. In the creative development earlier this year in March, I was positioned in the wings, using a series of mirrors to see both sides of the stage. During the creative development we were limited to one audience as we could not sound proof the theatre. This time though, we are playing both simultaneously, so a system of audio foldback and CCTV will give me the cue points for Lighting, Sound and AV.

Operations Desk for development of Klue, Doh! March 2011, MapKL

Lighting

Our lighting rig involves some very amazing practical fittings from ALFO (www.alfo.com.my), and makes use of the in house lighting stock. The venue is not exactly fitted out like a normal theatre, with no patching to speak of, and lights fitted with modified IEC plugs, which is interesting to say the least. The leads are then hard wired into the back of the dimmers, so no re-patching is possible.

Sound

Rob Stewart is the sound designer and is representing The Rubix Cube alongside myself. Rob is designing not only foley sound effects for the show, but a soundscape encompassing the two room concept. Control is to be done by Qlab with some customisation of the standard sound rig in the Black Box at MapKL, including repatching the sound system, much to the horror of the venue tech. We have assured him we know what he is doing.

Vision

There is also some vision that is quite cool, tho I am forbidden from discussing it (by the Director) until the show has launched. More info soon! And probably pics too!

It has been quite an experience so far, and we are about a week away from Bump In where I am guessing I will experience many more funny, horrifying and entertaining things.

Stay tuned folks!

P.S. Thought you all might find entertaining the little security buggy that patrols the centre that the Theatre is located in… I think people will be more scared that the security guards might cover them in pink… Not the most intimidating vehicle!