# Sight and Sound Theater (Lancaster PA)



## JD (Apr 3, 2013)

Just caught a show out there (Noah) and have to say I was blown away. Doing my usual instrument count, I lost count at around 460, and was only about half way through. This somewhat jives with their website which notes it has one million watts of lighting and 60,000 watts of sound. ( Behind The Scenes at Sight & Sound Theatres ) 

Have to plead ignorant that I could have lived in this region for most of my life and never made it out there! (or stupid, maybe?) 
Don't know how this gem of a place didn't get visited before. They apparently do a behind the scenes tour, and I intend to make it back there this summer.

Anybody else know some more background, equipment info, etc. on this place? Somebody sold it a lot of stuff


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## Footer (Apr 3, 2013)

Never heard of it. Then again, I tend to try to stay away from anyone who says they are from a church and has those kind of budgets. Speaking of that, anyone know if the LDS conference center is still the largest ETC install in the world?


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## JD (Apr 3, 2013)

Footer said:


> Never heard of it. Then again, I tend to try to stay away from anyone who says they are from a church and has those kind of budgets. Speaking of that, anyone know if the LDS conference center is still the largest ETC install in the world?



It's not a church or associated with one. Not even a non-profit. I know they have a board of directors, so it is structured like a corp. They call themselves a "faith-based live theater." 
Facility itself is 2000 seat, with average annual attendance of 800,000. They apparently have a second theater of the same size in Branson, MO. 
The structure is awe inspiring.


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## bishopthomas (Apr 4, 2013)

Interesting. I never would have thought that to be in Lancaster. Then again, I've only ever been to one place in Lancaster, never explored the town. Here's a picture I found while doing a Google Images search: http://shows.sight-sound.com/StaticContent/images/pict/behind.jpg


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## JD (Apr 4, 2013)

bishopthomas said:


> Interesting. I never would have thought that to be in Lancaster. Then again, I've only ever been to one place in Lancaster, never explored the town. Here's a picture I found while doing a Google Images search: http://shows.sight-sound.com/StaticContent/images/pict/behind.jpg



Googling them is like googling Disney. Lots of ticket information and pictures, but very little technical info. 
From what I could gather (tricky because they used good blocking) the layout used 12 FOH follow spot locations, had a forty five foot stage height (some of the props needed it!) about 130 foot wide main stage. There are also two wrap-around stages, so at one point, the audience is surrounded by stage on three sides all of which have something going on. 

No idea where the sound was hidden but it was thunderous (pun.) There was an extensive catwalk system.

They made good use of a video server system and screens that kept the show going during stage set changes. All in all, they out Disney'ed Disney! 

I was reading "Noah", which they have mixed in with a number of other shows over the years, has had 3.2 million audience viewers over it's run, and grossed about 150 million in sales. (definitely, a "for profit" venture.) Best I can see is that it is a privately owned corporation. 

Someone sold them a heck of a lot of lighting equipment, so I was hoping it would ring a bell here.


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## StNic54 (Apr 4, 2013)

Sight and Sound has been around a long time, and it is one of those places that is more word-of-mouth than anything else. When I first chanced upon them, most of my church friends already had been there or at least knew about it. They have invested heavily in the technical side of things over the years, and it really is no different than any other regional theatre or summer stock. I feel like they may have a stock of shows that get repeated and revised, but they certainly are catering an extremely specific audience. They advertise with places like SETC and USITT, and I believe that Live Design / Lighting Dimensions has done a technical write-up for them in the past (or maybe Church Production, or LSA - all fuzzy to me). It's not unlike Holy Land in Orlando, or for that matter like any number of minor amusement parks that have existed under the radar through the years - Dollywood, Ghost Town in the Sky, Hershey Park, Kings Island, etc. If it's not Disney, Busch Gardens, Six Flags, odds are you may not know too much about it unless you're from those parts


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## STEVETERRY (Apr 4, 2013)

JD said:


> Googling them is like googling Disney. Lots of ticket information and pictures, but very little technical info.
> From what I could gather (tricky because they used good blocking) the layout used 12 FOH follow spot locations, had a forty five foot stage height (some of the props needed it!) about 130 foot wide main stage. There are also two wrap-around stages, so at one point, the audience is surrounded by stage on three sides all of which have something going on.
> 
> No idea where the sound was hidden but it was thunderous (pun.) There was an extensive catwalk system.
> ...



Errr....that would be me, at various points in time.

S&S was a great customer of Production Arts for many years. They bought various smallish systems as they opened smallish theatres in Lancaster.

Then one day their theatre burned down and they rebuilt it. Only at that point did I go to Lancaster and see their operation.

I was dumbfounded--somebody had built the Metropolitan Opera House and Bellagio showroom rolled into one---and it seemed to be well kept secret.

Joe Basinger is the lighting designer at the facility. He's doing stuff on the scale of a Vegas showroom. If I recall correctly, the proscenium is 110' wide, with two additional side stages. They have a full automation department. They produce all the media for their shows in house. They have live animals on stage. I think there are over 300 full time employees in the production department. They have very high standards.

Then they did it all over again in Branson, Missouri.

All in all, it's an amazing operation.

ST


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## JD (Apr 4, 2013)

Very impressive indeed Steve! 
I would take that as an indicator that there is a lot of ETC in use there.


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## BillConnerFASTC (Apr 4, 2013)

12 shows a week - brutal.


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## chausman (Apr 5, 2013)

> Mission Statement - Our purpose is to present the Gospel of Jesus Christ and sow the Word of God
> into the lives of our customers, guests and fellow workers by visualizing and dramatizing the scriptures
> through inspirational productions, encouraging others and seeking always to be dedicated and wise
> stewards of our God-given talents and resources.



"Like a church, but not really".

They're hiring. Sight & Sound Theatre Shows in Lancaster County, PA and Branson, MO

And the tour is cheap. $5 in Branson, $10 in Lancaster.


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## Cruiseduck (Apr 5, 2013)

chausman said:


> "Like a church, but not really".
> 
> They're hiring. Sight & Sound Theatre Shows in Lancaster County, PA and Branson, MO
> 
> And the tour is cheap. $5 in Branson, $10 in Lancaster.




I had a boss who worked for them. Said they do some interesting shows. Not a bad place to work apparently, if you can deal with a high Ned Flanders count. It is in Lancaster PA which makes central New York look cosmopolitan. You also can't argue with their budgets. Apparently it's one of those "oh you want that? Buy two, one might break." Outfits.


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## STEVETERRY (Apr 5, 2013)

JD said:


> Very impressive indeed Steve!
> I would take that as an indicator that there is a lot of ETC in use there.



Yes, indeed!

ST


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## kesowul (Apr 7, 2013)

Interesting that this thread has opened up here. I just left working for Sight & Sound after over 5 years and most recently as one of their Associate Lighting Designers. The team of people who work on the productions are amazing people who do awesome work. The lighting rigs typically consist of, on average, 1500 conventional lights and 100 moving lights (it is a Clay Paky house). As for Noah, there are around 500 lights just in the interior ark sets. BTW thanks ETC for v2.0 on the Eos. I created the magic sheets for this show and it helped to save an enormous amount of programming time.


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## STEVETERRY (Apr 7, 2013)

nelakluwos said:


> Interesting that this thread has opened up here. I just left working for Sight & Sound after over 5 years and most recently as one of their Associate Lighting Designers. The team of people who work on the productions are amazing people who do awesome work. The lighting rigs typically consist of, on average, 1500 conventional lights and 100 moving lights (it is a Clay Paky house). As for Noah, there are around 500 lights just in the interior ark sets. BTW thanks ETC for v2.0 on the Eos. I created the magic sheets for this show and it helped to save an enormous amount of programming time.



You are welcome! Glad to hear the Magic Sheets feature was useful to you. We are getting similar feedback from all over the industry.

Cheers

ST


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## sarahsliefie (Jun 11, 2013)

I am currently working for S&S as Mechanical/Structural Supervisor. If any one is in the local and wants to come see the place let me know. It is beyond belief and then so much more. There are 5 shops with a couple as large as a foot ball field. We do not waste money, but we do not pinch it ether. anyone who knows theater would be blown away by what we do each and every day back stage. Just wait for next years production. 25 shop crew working on one set for two years full time, and we still have to farm some of it out. Ya it is that big.


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## JD (Jun 11, 2013)

sarahsliefie said:


> I am currently working for S&S as Mechanical/Structural Supervisor. If any one is in the local and wants to come see the place let me know. It is beyond belief and then so much more. There are 5 shops with a couple as large as a foot ball field. We do not waste money, but we do not pinch it ether. anyone who knows theater would be blown away by what we do each and every day back stage. Just wait for next years production. 25 shop crew working on one set for two years full time, and we still have to farm some of it out. Ya it is that big.



My intent is to get up there (Lancaster) this summer to take the backstage tour. Would love to see things in a bit more of an extensive fashion. Was quite blown away when we came up earlier this year to see Noah. (And after 40 years in lighting and stage, that takes a lot!)


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## avkid (Jun 11, 2013)

Oh man, I was just in Lancaster last week...
If only I had kept up on my Controlbooth.


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## sarahsliefie (Jun 12, 2013)

JD said:


> My intent is to get up there (Lancaster) this summer to take the backstage tour. Would love to see things in a bit more of an extensive fashion. Was quite blown away when we came up earlier this year to see Noah. (And after 40 years in lighting and stage, that takes a lot!)



Let me know when you are coming you can email me at [email protected]


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## JD (Jun 14, 2013)

I most certainly will! Thank you.


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## museav (Jun 14, 2013)

JD said:


> Just caught a show out there (Noah) and have to say I was blown away. Doing my usual instrument count, I lost count at around 460, and was only about half way through. This somewhat jives with their website which notes it has one million watts of lighting and 60,000 watts of sound. ( Behind The Scenes at Sight & Sound Theatres )


I'm sure the lighting and sound systems are impressive, however all that tells you is that they potentially draw a lot of power, it says nothing about their performance or the associated results.

People always like to advertise how many watts of lighting or sound they have but I am personally much more impressed by someone being able to achieve the same results as efficiently as possible rather than potentially bragging about how inefficient the systems are.


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## JD (Jun 14, 2013)

museav said:


> I'm sure the lighting and sound systems are impressive, however all that tells you is that they potentially draw a lot of power, it says nothing about their performance or the associated results.
> 
> People always like to advertise how many watts of lighting or sound they have but I am personally much more impressed by someone being able to achieve the same results as efficiently as possible rather than potentially bragging about how inefficient the systems are.



Agreed. But, having witnessed the show I can vouch that in 40 years of doing lighting (as well as attending many shows), the artistic use of the equipment in this case was not hindered by its size. Generally, the best use of lighting produces a result in the observer that evokes the intended emotion while fitting in so well that the use of stage lighting is not even noticed. Although, there were some intended "wow" scenes, for the most part, the observer would not even think about the stage lighting. For me, I am always keenly aware of the logistics involved. To pull off the "inside the arc" scene, where the entire 2000 seat audience is surrounded by the arc on three sides, and all of its animal stalls, without any detail falling or lost in the shadow, was a true work of art.

Even those that do not have the slightest interest in the religious aspect of the show should try to venture out to see this one simply as an appreciation of the logistics of the design. Those of us who have spent our life banging our heads against the wall while working out a problematic scene will get the biggest kick!


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## JD (Jan 28, 2014)

Excellent video showing the lighting and sets change-out at the theater.


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## JohnD (Jan 28, 2014)

Thanks John for posting that. You know what I'm thinking.....Lancaster, PA would be a great place for a USITT convention, can you imagine tours of Sight and Sound, plus 20 minutes away you have Clair, Tait and Atomic.


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## SteveB (Jan 28, 2014)

JD said:


> Excellent video showing the lighting and sets change-out at the theater.




WOW !.

I have seen this theater from the highway, always seemed quiet. Who knew it's essentially Radio City PA. Every friggin ML gets broken down and cleaned ?. I can see that at change-over time and they must job in a ton of folks for this., they cannot keep or need all those people for the run, can they ? That's a lot pf crew for Lancaster, which otherwise has zip going on. 

Amazing is all I could say.


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## sarahsliefie (Jan 29, 2014)

There are a few contractors for some of the building modification jobs, but most all manpower is the shop teams, deck crew, Rigging teams and lighting. For a premier show we are down for 2 months. For a remount we can do it in as little as 2-3 weeks.


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## egilson1 (Jan 29, 2014)

I like seeing the Hard Hats.


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## JD (Jan 29, 2014)

Still really want to get out there and do a tour. It's -just- far enough away to be tricky to schedule! Was out for Noah and for Miracle of Christmas, and both were unbelievable for a technical viewpoint! Will be back out there for Moses as well. 

The place may look quiet when it is between shows, but when they are running, it's buses as far as the eye can see.


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## Brandofhawk (Jan 29, 2014)

Awhile back my grandmother sent me some information about S&S. She lives out in Lancaster... and now they are also building a rehearsal arena for Tait and Clair Bros. It seems that Lancaster is slowly becoming somewhat of an entertainment location.


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