“I thought I had an opportunity to learn something new,” Martin said. “I’m already learning about lighting in class, so why not just sort of throw yourself into this new sort of world?”
At 7:30 p.m. Friday night at the Wells-Metz Theatre, soundboard operator Martin, along with his fellow cast and crew members, premiered the master of fine arts original play “Sing To Me Now.”
The performance was presented as part of the collaboration between IU Theatre and the IU Playwriting ?program.
The play follows Calliope, or Callie, the muse of epic poetry, who decides to hire a human intern named Yankee to help her with her overflowing workload. Callie, a serious and hard-working muse, finds Yankee to have a spunky but still intriguing personality. The two develop a complex working relationship in which Callie has to find a way to let someone not only into her office but also her life.
As people waited in the lobby for the theater doors to open, sophomore and IU theater student Adam Decker said he was excited to see something that was written by an IU student come to life on stage.
“I think that’s a really cool opportunity they get, because getting your show produced is something that you would really not get a chance to do otherwise at such a high level,” Decker said.
Iris Dauterman, the MFA playwright who wrote the show, said she only added a few lighting and sound cues while in the process of ?writing.
She said it was really the collaboration of her and the rest of the crew that was able to create a show with so many more.
There are nearly 500 cues in the show — Dauterman said most shows have around 200. The cues contribute to setting the tone and telling the story in a different way.
Lighting cues tell people specifically where they are in a literal way, but they also set a more emotional tone, Dauterman said.
She added that there are things about Callie’s mother’s room that feel confined or institutionalized, and that’s very separate from the meadow, which feels open and free.
Through this storytelling, Martin became the soundboard operator just two weeks before the show. With no prior training, Martin said he worked very closely with the sound designer of the show.
“You sort of get thrown into it, which is crazy but fun,” Martin said.
Throughout the show, Martin stood at his soundboard, located on the third balcony of the theater.
It was the stage manager’s job to give Martin a standby cue for each cue so when the time came, the cue popped up on his screen and Martin was sure he pressed it exactly when the stage manager said “Go.”
Martin said he was able to learn how to use the soundboard quickly, and it’s less about the mechanics of the board and more about the mechanics of the show.
“Anyone can press a space bar, or anyone can load up a cue,” Martin said. “That’s pretty simple, but doing it in time with the lighting with the stage manager’s “Go” and with the action on stage is the trouble.”
Martin said the pressure to get all the cues correctly during the show is high. But, he said he was glad he took the opportunity to be the soundboard operator because now he feels he has more awareness and patience as an actor onstage.
“Now having done sound and this lighting classes, I have a newfound respect, patience and understanding that they’re doing their darnedest to make the people on stage look the best,” Martin said. “That’s cool, and that should be valued.”
