Hobart’s Playhouse Theatre has a long and colourful history. Since it purchased the building in 1937, the Hobart Repertory Theatre Society has maintained The Playhouse, carrying out extensive renovations and improvements to this fine old building. The Playhouse has seen hundreds of productions and has been the training ground for dozens of actors, directors and playwrights who have gone on to national and international acclaim, and many hundreds more who have been able to provide for the Citizens of Hobart a regular program of live theatre for all these years.
The theatre is maintained and run almost entirely by volunteers although, earlier this year, David Szoka took on the role of Theatre Technician becoming their first-ever full-time employee.
David was relieved to discover that the venue had recently purchased an MA Lighting MA3 onPC command wing XT.
“To see the MA3 in a community theatre already was amazing,” he commented. “It was a good buy because why not get the latest, newest thing that’s going to last? Plus also it’s MA. I mean I’ve used Scan Commander, MA1, MA2 and now the MA3 has hit, you can’t beat it.”
David has thoroughly enjoyed using the MA3 software adding that the software releases are worth the wait as it’s not one feature at a time they release but a suite of updates and bug fixes – not a thousand updates a week!
Previously, David had tried out MA3 software on his computer but when he started this job, he jumped right in and off he went, never looking back.
“The hardest thing I found was hand movement because with MA2 I got so used to it and then jumping onto MA3, I kept hitting the wrong buttons,” he admitted. “I’m sure there are many lighting guys out there who have made the struggle too. It’s just a funny thing to get used to, you just don’t think about it and then suddenly you jump on it. So I was like, oh yeah, that’s just taking me ten times longer than it should have.”
David is impressed by the MA3’s update of the graphical interface, saying it’s a lot more user-friendly now with swipes. He believes that swipes are an absolute godsend whether it’s swipe to label, swipe to edit, swipe to move, swipe to copy, or swipe the store.
“Now, with V2.20, you can swipe the store on your views as well so you get rid of unnecessary extra button pushes because you can just touch on the screen and off you go,” he added. “Phasers are a different challenge but I think the control you have over every functionality is a lot more than we ever had in MA2. I’m guessing it’s probably going to get more and more as they keep going with the software. Software 2.0.2, is only just new software – just out of beta. So we’re only seeing the beginning of this software as far as I can tell.”
The Playhouse hosts a large variety of shows so the versatility of the console is imperative. It can handle everything and also offers expandability. If people want to hire extra lights, David knows the console and the parameter count can handle it.
Another important factor in choosing an MA console is that several other MA consoles in Tasmania can be hired for backup.
“There are at least three companies and now one venue, to my knowledge, who’ve got them available,” said David. “ I’ve been training our younger volunteers on it and they’re finding it very intuitive and they’re picking up on it.”
David takes a photo of the MA3 onPC command wing XT at every show, we’re not saying he is obsessed with his console … but wouldn’t blame him if he was!
