MOSINEE, WI – The last concert to be held at Wausau, WI’s Grand Theater which would gather toys for children at Christmas was in 1931. This year Joe.e, artist and owner of JoeEllisMusic, LLC and JEM Productions, partnered with the Marine Reserves and Toys for Tots to bring back this storied tradition in a huge production featuring 50 entertainers in a night that would generate hundreds of new toys for kids this season.
More details from JEM Productions/JoeEllisMusic, LLC (www.joeellismusic.com):
The complex production, spearheaded and co-presented by JEM Productions with the Performing Arts Foundation, worked with several partners to tie in all the elements needed to ensure a technically efficient and seamless performance. “As a smaller production house, we found ourselves a little in over our heads, gear wise, trying to keep pace with my vision for the show”, Ellis says. “So we reached out to some of our partners and friends in the industry who have been amazing to us during our growth”.
To help with the 22 channel wireless plot of instruments, microphones and IEM’s, Sennheiser overnighted several boxes of microphones equipped mostly with MMD-935 capsules and several EW172 G3 instrument systems with e908b microphones for the horn section. “We have primarily an inventory of all 900 series Sennheiser mics which I absolutely love mixing with, and I only pull other mics out if a client insists”. Ellis continued, “With so much movement in the cast for this show, we needed to step up our wireless capability and that can be a huge challenge if things aren’t coordinated properly, so integrating what Sennheiser sent us into our inventory of EW300 G3 IEMs and instrument/mic systems was awesome – it was flawless over two days of rehearsal and performance!”
Video was provided by Soundworks Systems of Stevens Point, WI, the same company who installed the FOH rig in the theater, which consists of RCF TTL33A boxes in L/R hangs of 8 each providing incredible coverage from the front row to the last in the balcony of the 1200 seat theater. Low end is plentiful with Db Technologies S30n dual 18” subwoofers. At FOH, engineer Robert Ulsh of Mastersound Studios in Virginia Beach worked on an Avid VENUE Profile provided by Intellasound Productions in Verona, WI while a total of ten onstage mixes (8 IEM and 2 Wedge) were handled via a Soundcraft Si Expression 3 by Monitor Engineer Jake Hall.
Summarizing the event, Ellis said “In the end we just wanted to generate a ton of toys for kids on Christmas morning. These are kids who would otherwise get nothing, and we did that so I am thrilled. There is no better feeling, however, than generating toys with great partners who can help provide a world class listening experience like we did here – this concert sounded absolutely amazing and I can’t wait until December 9th next year when we do it even bigger!”
For more information on the Broken Toy Show or Joe.e you can visit www.toysfortotsconcert.com or through social media @joesfrontporch
