The Glass Menagerie, starring Cherry Jones, Zachary Quinto, and Celia Keenan-Bolger, is directed by John Tiffany and the Tony Award-winning creative team behind ONCE, and tells the story of Amanda Wingfield, a Southern belle past her prime who lives with her two grown children in a small apartment in St. Louis.
For sound designer Clive Goodwin, there were two main goals: To make the play sound as natural as possible and to ensure that the whole audience, even members seated in the very back of the mezzanine, could clearly hear Nico Muhly's beautiful composition. "Nico's music sets the theme for the show," says Goodwin. "The Glass Menagerie is a memory play about the character Tom's recollections, and Nico's music beautifully creates that atmosphere. It makes it slightly surreal, so as the sound designer, I wanted to do justice to Nico's composition and try to make it sound even more exquisite than it already is, and Masque Sound helped make that possible."
Goodwin's biggest challenge was dispersing the sound on stage to the back of the theatre without it sounding mic'd. In order to do this, Masque Sound provided him with an array of Funktion-One speakers, an unorthodox speaker for the Broadway stage.
"The Funktion-One speakers that Masque Sound provided really allow me to control the dispersion, especially upstairs," adds Goodwin. "By using the Funktion-Ones, we have the most control possible and are able to minimize room reflections that would otherwise muddy the sound. Masque Sound does a wonderful job of providing me with these non-traditional speakers, even though they are different than the normal Broadway stock. They go out on a limb and are fantastic in supplying me with the rare equipment I like to use."
Masque Sound's custom equipment package also included a Midas Pro1 compact digital console, Rode RF-Bias Shotgun mics, Sennheiser wireless microphones, XTA DP428/448 audio management system, D&B E3 speakers, Meyer UMS-1P subwoofers and a Clear-Com Intercom system.
"Masque Sound has always been great to work with," adds Goodwin. "They work very hard and go the extra mile to make me, as a sound designer, happy."
(Jim Evans)
