Nina Simone: Four Women

Nina Simone: Four Women is a musical written by Christina Ham and comprised of the music from Nina Simone’s Catalog. It uses the song by the same name to frame a story about these four archetypal women, Peaches, Aunt Sarah, Sephronia, and Sweet Thing during the civil rights movement in America. It covers themes of self identity, Stereotypes, racism, healing, and discovery. It is set in 1963 during the American Civil Rights movement and takes place immediately following the bombing of a church in Birmingham, Alabama.

Cast

Our band was directed by the incredible Dante Harrell and featuring the incomparable Diego Mongue on drums in the intimate space of the Unicorn Theatre in Stockbridge, MA.

It’s unsurprising that during preshow, while Dante was warming up the crowd with piano arrangements of well known church hymnals, the audience joined in to become an impromptu choir. It was among the more authentic acts of community, art, and theatre that I’ve been honored to see and be a part of.

The Technical & Design Bits

Working on a musical in the Unicorn Theatre is a real lesson in understanding dynamics. Putting microphones on anything in that space can feel like a futile attempt at balancing sources that were already plenty loud for the space at the onset. It can’t be understated how critical it is working in that environment how important having performers who understand blending without relying heavily on monitors and amplification. I had the great pleasure of having the best skill and talent on that stage that I could’ve asked for.

The rig was minimal, a main left/right with a singular subwoofer located under the audience seating to give a big rumble for the explosions and sound effects. There were some smaller effects speakers hidden offstage to create an ambience outside of the church that the show inhabited.

In creating the soundscapes for this show, I explored many archival recordings of the civil rights protests and marches. The sounds of hundreds and thousands of footsteps marching down the streets. The sounds of people chanting, yelling, shouting. The sounds of objects being thrown at buildings and people. The speeches and the profanities.

The best part about working on a Nina Simone Musical has to be the music of Nina Simone. The way the energy of the music matches the energy of the lyrics and melody. The way the piano harmonic structure creates space for the vocal melody to ride along it so effortlessly. Mixing music is always made easy when the music is arranged well to begin with. It can’t be understated how well the performers embodied the music as well.

The worst part about mixing a musical is when the mixing position is up in the corner of the balcony away from the audience and speaker coverage. In the never ending quest to fill as many seats as possible, sometimes a proper mix position is sacrificed. In these situations, the better you can set yourself up with proper monitoring that is reflective of the audience space, the better off you are.