Bastille Day

For five years, I designed the Bearded Ladies Cabaret's wildly historically-inaccurate politically-charged retelling of the storming of the Bastille in France. At this annual one-day-only event, we performed for an audience of up to 10,000 Philadelphians on the street in front of an abandoned prison (Eastern State Penitentiary), and on the roof of the prison itself. My job was to design the sound system that would allow the dialogue and musical arrangements to be heard by every audience member — for an audience that stretched for city blocks — and then to mix the show live. I also was responsible for making sure that the performers on the roof sang, played and danced in time with the band and performers on the street. Importantly, every joke needed to land, and the guillotine needed to sound terrifying as it "beheaded" a slew of watermelon.