SHOESTRING THEATRE STANDISH

                  creating Drama for a Crisis

Presenting

First thing that has to be said is that people were  pretty good in helping us to stage the first productions and some credits will therefore be given in this section The first mention goes to the Blue-Room ( http://blue-room.org.uk ) a terrific forum with a number of qualified members who offer help on technical matters such as lighting and sound.

All of the sound and lighting equipment available to Shoestring has been (is still is being) purchased, mainly second-hand, from private funds so the stock is limited but is building slowly. 

The technical side of things is not only limited by money but also by the venue. A local church hall is all we can use (and believe me we are grateful!) and that means constraints of the power available (three 13 amp sockets via two distribution boards) and the lack of a stage or places to hang lamps! The following picture will give you an idea of the setting.

The PA system currently comprises a Warrior DA1000 Amp which gives us about 300W per channel when driving the 8 Ohm speakers + Prosound 1000 backup delivering about 250W per side , a couple of mixing desks ( Studiomaster Club 2000 (142) or Yamaha MG12/4).

The lights which are mounted on 4 metre stands, or on the roof linking bar close to the stage are a mixture of  650w PC/Fresnel spots, a couple of 16/30 profiles, 2 x 575W MultiPars, several 1000w units, some Par cans (64 & 56) and some birdies (240v & 12V with transformers) and now, 4 LED Par 56s. Even second hand, lanterns are far from cheap so it is a case of little by little. The angles FOH and side (stage left) are a bit limited as is the 13 Amp loads available on the ring mains.  

We have managed to get hold of 3 analogue dimmer units

2 Pulsar 6 channel units (2 x 5 Amps per channel)

1 Zero 88 6 channel unit

1 ' cheapo' Soundlab 4 channel unit

To date, generics have been controlled through a couple of simple, six channel, faders but we now have a Scene Setter 24 which will, in future, control all generics and DMX lamps (last time out DMX lamps were controlled separately via Magic Q PC. We now need more DMX controllable dimmers or even a demux so if you can help ....

Seriously, if you  think you can help with any free or very , very cheap used kit etc, please email using the  Contact form. Whilst most AmDram groups have some funding I can only say again that we have none (other than our own personal funds) so whatever you can donate will benefit the group and therefore, the charities and causes we support.

Regards

Erik

Technical Aspects ........