Who would imagine an 1890s heritage site, once used by Freemasons, providing the venue for a quaint dinner theatre in Cape Town’s trendiest suburbs? Chirstopher Dudgeon and Brendan van Rhyn, together with business partner Luanna Shonfeld, decided to pursue this ambitious project, with help from some of the country’s leading theatre installation specialists, Eastern Acoustics and Prosound. From the seed for the idea, which emanated in 2011, an extensive search for the right venue ensued. Finally, the pair settled on an interesting heritage building on Bree Street, Cape Town.
Converting a Heritage site into a “purple palace’, as Gate 69 is fondly nicknamed, was not without its challenges. Strict preservation regulations meant that only minor structural changes were permitted. The original ceilings and floors could not be altered in any way save for a coat of paint or varnish.
Further discoveries revealed outdated plans, crumbling wood and plaster walls, a slanting theatre floor, and a balcony that sits at a steep angle in relation to the stage which required creative seating solutions. The venue’s grand, old-fashioned proscenium arch had to be correctly placed to avoid creating the appearance of shallow and two-dimensional proportions.
“These are just a few of the issues we encountered but as it turns out all of these issues forced us to come up with solutions that have actually created the character of the place. In the end, we realised that without these difficulties, our original vision would never have come to pass,” says Dudgeon.
Gate69 is the proud realisation of Christopher Dudgeon and Brendan van Rhyn’s vision of a cabaret dinner theatre that would boast upmarket fantastical musicals within the embrace of an intimate theatre.
Achieving the Right Sound
Technical hurdles, inherent in an historical structure not designed for theatrical performances, were successfully negotiated by Eastern Acoustics and Prosound.
“One of the main challenges we had was creating a big, warm, cabaret-style sound in such a small venue”, says Dominique Adams, sound designer, from Eastern Acoustics. “We had to create the illusion that the sound was coming off the stage naturally and that no speakers were involved.” This ‘speaker-less illusion’ was achieved by delaying the PA transmission to backstage, thereby allowing the sound from the stage to reach the audience’s ears a mere millisecond before that of the PA.
In addition, the stereo signal was split to feed up to six speakers, each with its own graphic equaliser and delay settings, from the Midas Venice u32 mixing console into the EV DC-One Sound System Processor. This process included the placing of a reference speaker at the centre of the stage. Then, by playing a stripped song (just guitar and vocals), the front left and right speakers were delayed through the DC-One, until the sound was in-phase and coherent with the reference speaker.
The placement of the proscenium arch in front of the main front speakers meant that only those sitting to the sides would hear the sound perfectly. To rectify this Adams placed ‘front frills’, normally reserved for bigger and wider stages, at the side edges of the stage, angled slightly inwards to reach those in the front and centre of theatre.
The speaker situated at the top of the proscenium arch was re-angled to fill the centre back of the theatre, and 8-inch Maestro’s on a support cross beam filled the third audio pocket on the balcony. Delay adjustments were implemented to ensure that all speakers remained in phase with each other.
A palace of pizzazz goes hand-in-hand with reflective surfaces a-plenty causing challenges for the bass end of the sound register. To achieve a tight, natural sounding bass response, Adams crossed the subs over at 80Hz and cleaned out the 60Hz bandwidth on the graphic equaliser. “Being a bass head, I did a 2dB boost at 40Hz (my favourite frequency) just to put more emphasis on the low-end rumble. This was particularly enjoyable during a scene in ‘Cathy and the Trolly Dollies’ when the audience is transported right into the airport by the feeling of the aeroplane taking off,” Adams states.
As the stage is very small, a stereo analogue Klark Teknik Graphic EQ and only two monitors are used to reduce any bleed through of sound to the audience. “I was quite surprised to hear how the on-stage monitors added a subtle warmth to the FOH mix,” Adams points out.
Far from a mere veneer of perfection and polish, every detail, hidden or not, receives the attention necessary to create a performance of ’wow ’, even if it means running cables through the roof. “I was told not to step on the roof itself, but go from beam to beam as it is an old building. All things audio had to remain hidden, which helped my sound design illusion of no speakers,” said Adams.
The only visible speakers are those of the balcony but even there, the Eastern Acoustics team hung them to favour discretion. Subwoofers under the stage allowed the artists to truly “feel” the show as well as double as bass monitors. The main and centre PAs are well hidden within the Proscenium Arch as are the stage monitors in the wings.
All these extensive processes meant that the sound challenges caused by the quirks inherent in a building of this nature were cleverly addressed.
“One of the main challenges we had was creating a big, warm, cabaret-style sound in such a small venue.”
– Dominique Adams, sound designer, from Eastern Acoustics
Adding the Dazzle
From a lighting perspective, the vintage aesthetic that is so much a part of Gate69 was further enhanced through the use of LED PAR Cans with various colours added to them, which highlighted the original 130-year-old ceiling.
Lighting bars were strapped to existing structural beams with care taken not to overload them. This included the FOH bar where lighting designer Lamont Williams hung two Martin Mac250s, controlled remotely from the Martin Zero 88 lighting console. An extra four Martin Mac250s on stage eliminated the need to focus LED PAR Cans and Profile 750s to cover any dark spots.
Co-founder Dudgeon believes that the patient and generous expertise and guidance from Eastern Acoustics and Prosound has been central to the success of Gate69.
“It’s a very busy little theatre,” he says, “we’ve mounted a Broadway hit, hosted internationally acclaimed performers, showcased the country’s very best comedy line-ups, re-introduced the fine art of Burlesque to these shores and we write and produce a minimum of three proudly South African, original musical theatre productions every year.” Included in the line-up of artists who have performed in the ‘palace’ are Christina Bianco, Ceri Dupree, Paul du Toit, and Genna Galloway.
“We believe in performance as therapy, and with every second we spend in our Purple Palace with our customers, we give the performance of our lives,” he says. “We wanted a theatre in which we could create and produce content that is not being seen on these shores.” An example of this is their opening show, the Broadway production, Hedwig and the Angry Inch which debuted in South Africa at Gate 69.
Dudgeon adds, “Gate 69 prides itself on its culture of inclusion that we worked so hard to cultivate. No matter who you are, or where you come from; who you love and what you do – you feel safe, at home and appreciated when you walk through our doors.”
