Recording for Lamplighter Theatre

Lamplighter Ministries, Mount Morris NY



I spent the week in upstate New York recording an audio drama at the sound studio at Lamplighter Ministries. It was a great experience. I prefer driving when I travel, so I drove four hours to Nashville and stayed the night with a friend, then stopped in Cincinnati to pick up Nato Jacobson (the lead actor in the production we worked on) and then ended up in Mount Morris, New York that evening.

 My first trip up was in February of 2019 to be in the Lamplighter Theatre audio drama "QUICKSAND" written and directed by Kathy Buchanan (I played the Dad and one of the Doctors), and also in "MY GOLDEN SHIP" written and directed by John Fornof (I played Black Darley, Mr Rivington, and a few other minor or unnamed characters). My second trip was in the summer of 2020 for THE HIDDEN HAND" also written and directed by Kathy Buchanan where I played Colonel LeNoir and a few smaller roles, and on my third trip I taught a class on commercial voice acting for some of the Lamplighter students. This was my fourth trip, and for this one I played Mr Burrows and a couple of side characters in "TIP LEWIS AND HIS LAMP".

The studio is located in the beautiful little town of Mount Morris, NY, and sits inside of a pipe organ in an old church building (see photo at the top). The church building also houses the bookbindery and warehouse. As you can see in the photo below, the recording booth sits underneath the pipe organ pipes (the organ having been removed) and is easily the coolest one I've ever seen. The door is really small and everyone has to stoop to get through it, so there's a little toy duck right above it as a reminder (you can see   it in the picture below - a yellow dot under the set of pipes to the far right)

Sound Designer Allen Hurley and Director Molly Mayo discuss the latest take, while voice actors Mitchell North and Luke David (through the window in the background) prepare for the next scene 

The sound treated recording space is rectangular shaped and can hold up to 5 microphone stands in a normal recording session. Everyone records their lines together, a scene at a time, and that makes it so much fun. During crowd scenes, they'll change the shotgun mics out for something else (not sure if they're cardioid or dynamic), pack as many people in there as can fit (usually 10-15) and start recording. So much fun!

It's funny how you can become really close to the other actors while recording. Not only because you're spending a lot of time together, but because you're "going through" the same situation emotionally (if that happens to be your acting process!) and it's the same principle of how you make friends lifelong friends out of tough situations.

Throughout the week we had great meals in the Lamplighter kitchen, great accommodations in their houses which are located in absolute paradise, and great fellowship with the cast and crew. It was truly a wonderful week.

Check out the Lamplighter web site, especially their "Audio Club" (which is like Netflix for audio dramas)

www.lamplighter.net

-Jake

www.theculturedbumpkin.com


Nato Jacobson
Nato Jacobson and myself

 

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