Legally Blonde

Ending Scene of Want You Want

I had wanted to music direct two shows in one semester, this one along with The Marvelous Wonderettes, but decided not to due to scheduling and this being massive workload on top of school and other organizations. I was still in a position of leadership due to my experience within ISM and pit orchestras, so I was in charge of the orchestrating the Mainstage for myself and the other two pianists.

This score being a Laurence O’Keefe score, it relies heavily on quick patch changes especially for the other keys to create a large texture in combination with the acoustic instruments. I taught the other pianists about Mainstage from a complete beginner’s perspective, covering keyboard shortcuts, aliases, balancing, and effects on top of selecting the correct patch to fill the timbre.

During tech week, I also worked closely with the Senior Sound Designer to help mic and wire all the instruments given the small space for our pit behind the stage. We also worked to balance the large 15 person pit alongside the 3 Mainstage pianists with the cast, which proved to be difficult given the acoustics and board limitations.

Freeze Frame!

The Pit Orchestra of Legally Blonde

Photography by Emily Naud