When Lizard Boy, Justin Huertas’ critically acclaimed indie-rock musical took up residence Off-Broadway at Theatre Row, Sound Designer Kevin Heard called on Masque Sound to provide a custom audio equipment package.

Produced by the Prospect Theater Company, Lizard Boy tells the story of Trevor, a young man with green scaly skin. He feels like a monster, and rarely braves the city outside his apartment. But when a powerful voice calls to him in a dream, he impulsively finds a date and begins an adventure beyond his wildest apocalyptic nightmares.

Heard’s award-winning sound design work has been heard on and off Broadway, at regional theatres across the US, from London to Manila, and in spaces ranging from small bars and cabarets to 3,000-seat halls. He has worked as Associate or Assistant Sound Designer for six Broadway productions including and . He has a long list of credits, working as sound designer for various Off-Broadway productions including , , and , to name a few. Heard’s company, Heard Audio LLC, is a sound design and consulting firm specialising in live entertainment, theatre and immersive experiences.

‘I’ve been part of the New York City theatre community for about ten years now and over the years I’ve built a really great relationship with Masque Sound,’ he says. ‘Masque Sound has always been supportive of smaller shows like this. When I was named Sound Designer for the show, Scott Kalata at Masque Sound was my first call to help support this production and he once again came through for me with a great audio package.’

In designing the sound, Heard wanted to be sure he could get as big a sound as possible from the budget-conscious equipment package Masque Sound was providing. ‘Lizard Boy is a shockingly big, little show,’ Heard explains. ‘The show features a cast of three people who all sing and play many instruments including guitar, ukelele, cello, piano and percussion. Even though it’s a small Off-Broadway show and budgets were tight, we still needed the equipment that could deliver a powerful performance capable of capturing my design vision.’

For microphones, Heard chose DPA 4066 headset mics with Point Source backup elements attached to the DPAs for the cast. ‘DPA has always been my headset mic of choice,’ Heard says. ‘DPA is pretty much the Broadway standard, so to be able to use them was great. In addition, DPA 4099 instrument microphones sound amazing and were an excellent choice for this show.’

Heard also used Sennheiser MKH 40-P48 condenser microphoness, as well as AKG PCC160 boundary layer mics for moments when the stage floor is used as a percussion element in the sound. The wireless microphones use Sennheiser SK 5212 transmitters.

For PA, Masque Sound supplied a package primarily from Meyer Sound including UPQs, UPAs, and UPJs, and UPMs for actor foldback and monitoring. Masque Sound also provided Meyer Sound 900-LFC subwoofers, which Heard felt worked well in the space.

The audio package also included the new Avantis digital console from Allen & Heath. According to Heard, ‘Scott asked me if I would be interested in checking out a new console. I was intrigued so I went to the shop and played with it, and I was pleasantly surprised. The Avantis is perfect for this scale of show. It has 64 input channels at 96kHz with a ton of onboard effects that I used quite a bit. This show has moments where instruments are used as sound effects that coincide with elements of superpowers and the Avantis console’s effects worked well. It was a great choice and I’m glad Scott suggested it.’

In addition, Heard is using TC Electronic M3000 effects processors and QLab multimedia playback software.

‘One of the neat things about doing Off-Broadway shows in smaller venues is that you don’t necessarily need the most expensive equipment on the market to deliver an incredible sound experience for the audience,’ Heard says. ‘Working with Masque, you know you are in great hands, no matter the budget. In addition, my A1 Matt Karnatz was amazing. This being a small Off-Broadway show, Matt is the only person on the daily sound crew, and he has done an incredible job wrangling the show by himself. Mike Deyo also did a great job installing the sound system as our Production Sound Engineer.’

More: www.MasqueSound.com