ProSoundWeb: Life has moments that change everything. A chance encounter, an opportunity taken, a door opened, and suddenly life pivots and nothing is ever the same again.
An evening in 1988 was such a moment for me. As a very excited 12-year-old I went to my first gig, and as luck would have it I sat behind the front of house engineer. As the lights went down and it dawned on me what he was doing, my world shifted on its axis – this was a job? From that moment on, my mind was made up: I was going to be a live sound engineer and nothing and no one was going to stop me.
8 comments:
This was a very interesting article. I have been interested in touring theatre and had honestly assumed that it had all but shut down in the past year due to the pandemic. I also frequently hear that touring is something that a person can only do for so long in their life. Reading this perspective was refreshing, to see how someone can be so invested and also excited about their job. Especially since it is a job I am interested in myself. It also showed a profound love for the performing arts that hasn't so often been in the news recently. The places that Becky Pell has gone look exciting and having the opportunity to go to them seems even more so. Knowing that this is an option for a career after college reinvigorates my interest in the performing arts and my interest in theatre specifically. I hope to learn more about this kind of opportunity in the future and will definitely be looking into where to find them.
This was a really exciting article for me to read. I often hear many different perspectives on touring, most seem to be pretty negative, while others very positive. As someone who wants to tour eventually at some point in my life, it is very reassuring to see how positive her experience was in touring. It seems like an amazing way to see the world, develop friendships amongst the rest of the crew, and service the band, all while doing the thing you love every day. I would love to be immersed in this environment, as it seems like one that is exhilarating and full of energy. I appreciate the cons in this job though. She talks about how “precarious” the industry is and how fragile it could be like we are seeing with the pandemic shuttering live entertainment. However, I think the pros outweigh the costs here. I hope to tour at some point in my career in the future.
I love how much passion for the work is evident in this article. Even without the pictures, you can feel how happy Pell is to be working in the live music industry. Reading about that passion makes me miss the feeling of being in a life performance space and makes me feel sad for Pell in the times where that is not possible. I hope she can return soon and have it be bigger and better than ever when it can return to the old normal. The spaces she has worked in are amazing. It is hard to even imagine surpassing a performance in a mine, but everyday artists continue to push boundaries. Eventually surprises and ground breaking innovations become the expectation. This adds to the energy that Pell writes about and that is diminished by virtual performance. I miss the opening moments the most, and virtual substitutes do not have the same strength, even notifications are more obvious and easily pull you out of focus on watching a virtual performance. Touring brings so many new things to the table everyday, and I hope it can make its return soon.
Doing a touring show of any kind is a high job on my bucket list of theatre occupations. It seems like such a fun experience altogether. I would love to tour across the country (or even the world) while getting paid, doing what I love, and travel with my own little community. Becky Pell says “For me, it’s all about the energy” and I truly feel that. Yes, she is talking about touring for music but I have a feeling it is a similar sense when working on a touring theatre show too. There seems to be something so cathartic about creating a whole piece from the ground up, tearing it all down, and then doing that over again. As stated in the article, there is a certain sensation of magic. Her teenage dreams align with mine in a way and as a whole, the article feels both familiar and gives me hope.
Ever since I began exploring technical theater, I have wanted to live on tour. Reading her perspective on tour life has really been an inspiration, and made me genuinely happy. I have been told many times when I bring up my desire to tour that it is not what it seems, and many people have bad experiences. I've also been discouraged from roadie life because I am not a cis-male, and the struggles that come with that.
But hearing Becky Pell speak so positively on all the things I've imagined are great about tour life, feels like a confirmation that I can do it too.
I know there will always be bad experiences in every job, and that living on the road definitely takes its toll on you, as Becky mentioned. I felt especially sad when she said: "when you live and breathe this way of life for the majority of the time, it’s easy to feel like you are your job, and that obviously causes grief and suffering, even despair, when it’s taken away."
I have thought about all the roadies who have been displaced during the pandemic, it must be difficult to have everything come to a halt.
Back in high school, one of the drama teachers gave us a brief description of what it was like being on a touring company. It sounded like an incredible experience, but she did not really touch much on how it affected her life, without being tied down to one place and constantly hopping from city to city and country to country. This article gives a little bit of insight into that. It is understandable how home relationships can be stretched nearly to their breaking point and become very strained, especially relationships with those who are unfamiliar with and have never worked in the industry. That being said, it is also very refreshing to hear Pell’s experience on the road, as she has been hopping from place to place for over two and a half decades and still feels the excitement every time she sees the line of trucks waiting to load in. That, in turn, makes me excited, as I still get a similar feeling every time I begin work on a new production or load in… it just never gets old, and my fear that it will someday get old is lessened be Pell’s experience of over 25 years on the road. I hope that in twenty five years from now, I am still happy and invested in the industry, and that I still get that feeling of childlike joy every time I begin a new project.
The sheer amount of love and passion for live sound/entertainment in this article is unmatched. I can’t imagine knowing the answer to the classic “what do you want to be when you grow up?” question at 12; for some, that's just how life goes and it really is amazing. And specifically for Becky Pell’s line of work, there is a huge life decision involved. You are on the road, touring for a lot of your life, which can be very different from people’s ideas of the life of a working adult. I think it sounds phenomenal, and reading about Pell’s journey was a treat. It is so easy to see how much she loves the work she’s been doing for years, and I think that is something to be treasured. I’m sure the pandemic has rocked her world really hard, but hopefully she can go back to touring and live sound soon.
I love how honest she is about the touring life. Tour has been something I have wanted to do but have been questioning if it the type of lifestyle I want to have. The perks of meeting incredible people, traveling the world, and working on projects that I am passionate about sounds like an absolute dream :) As many theater and entertainment people know, there are many sacrifices that come with the job! Recently I have started to see this come into perspective. People outside of the industry don't understand the lifestyle and sacrifices we all make for the show. Late nights, wacky schedules, endless amounts of preps and editing, but we do it because we love it. There are pros and cons to everything but the world of live entertainment is so thrilling that the hard work is always worth it in the end. The biggest thing you can do for yourself is stay healthy. Do the best you can to take care of yourself so you can put your all into your "work". If it is what you want to be doing it should feel like work (although I will say that some of the tasks are cumbersome and as we all do I like to complain about the work)
Post a Comment