My theatre students have built a community over the last four years. When I arrived at my school, we only had 25 students auditioning for the play and musical and one theatre class. Now, we have three or four theatre classes a year and over 150 students involved in cast, crew, production staff, or pit band. Our students have taken on more and more responsibility and have sought professional development to enhance their theatre skills. For example, some of our tech students work at local community and professional theatres as apprentices learning how to do lights, sound, stagecraft, etc.
Our drama company and classes have become a second family to many of our students, which has brought together a diverse group of students, teachers, and parents that represent the the African-American, Hispanic, and LGBTQ+ communities just to name a few.
We will be performing the musical WEST SIDE STORY in Spring 2017. This show is not just another musical for our students. It's a reality that they see in the school and at home. It's important to tell this story to the larger community and start a conversation about some of the violence and aggression that has emerged over the last year.
My Project
After receiving many accolades for the drama company's production of HAIRSPRAY from various members of the community, a common concern about the sound quality of the current system arose. Many of our actors could not be heard during the production due to inadequate equipment or not enough training on borrowed equipment.
Our students are brimming with talent, and their voices should be heard.
We would like to mic as many students as possible, and we are only receiving enough materials from the county to mic only four students. The cast of WEST SIDE STORY alone requires almost 16 wireless microphones. It is imperative that our students are heard. They have beautiful voices and have worked hundreds of hours to perfect their craft. Unfortunately, sound is one of the easiest things to stick out like a sore thumb.
Anne Arundel County Public Schools is buying top of the line equipment, which we are certainly not complaining about! However, in order for us to give the best quality performance, we will also need to buy compatible equipment that is very expensive. Our wireless receiver system is called the Shure ULX. At this point, 10 Shure MX153 earsets (a mix of tan and cocoa), Shure ULXD1 bodypacks which are the actual transmitters that will be on our students, and finally the most costly of all the items, the Shure ULXD4Q Quad receivers. We have successfully raised enough money for one receiver, which costs about $5000...but we need to buy two more. For Phase 3, we would like to purchase the rest of the Shure MX153 earsets, Shure ULXD1 bodypacks, and 1 of the Shure ULXD4Q Receivers. Hopefully, if we can reach our goal, we will be able to create one final project to buy the final receiver.
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