Technical Information

The Sam Scripps Theater at The CENTER is among the best equipped stages in the region. You should find that most of your needs are met the moment you walk in the door, as opposed to a "road house" or "only-the-four-walls" venue where you need to bring, or at least set up, all your lighting, sound, and soft goods.

Our theater is a versatile room measuring 58 feet wide and 47 feet deep. The shape of your playing area is adjustable, but a typical thrust configuration is 32 feet wide and 26 feet deep. Using our orchestra pit reduces the depth to 21 feet. Our half-stage configuration is about 32 feet wide and 16 feet deep. The carpeted house seats 165 in comfortable vintage cinema seats. Seven rows of seats in a gentle 45 degree arc curve around a flexible orchestra pit and rise from stage level up to 8' high. The seventh and last row is only 25' from the plaster line. Four unobtrusive camera positions are located behind the last row to the left, left center, right center, and right. A local choreographer describes it as "A warm hug." Everything is set up for fast turn-arounds, which means the basic curtains, lights, and sound cannot be changed without special arrangement, but should already suit your needs. If your needs depart from our basic repertory arrangement you can add whatever you need from our own inventory or with outside equipment.

  • Lighting.

    Our lighting consists of nine areas each lit from the front 45°s with pink R33 and blue R65 key and fill, and downlight with an 16 color scroller. Three lanes across the front are lit with low angle amber R02 and cool R77 fronts, three lanes of high sidelight are also equipped with 16 color scrollers. Our cyc is lit with the primaries and white. We have 15 free circuits around the mezzanine and 8 to 9 on each of the 4 electrics. Our dimming consists of 2 Rosco scrimmers and an ETC Sensor48 rack with 44 empty 20 amp circuits. Control is provided by an ETC Express 48/96 Lighting Console, the manual can be found below. For technical rehearsals, a satellite monitor or the whole console may be moved to a production table in the house.

  • Rigging.

    The Scripps Theater is home to the first United States installation of the J. R. Clancy/Stage Technologies Juggler System. Six fixed speed and six variable speed dead-haul motorized winches with up to 1200lbs capacity are spread from the downstage seats to the upstage wall. The Juggler console allows manual and programmed moves of great complexity. Normally there are five empty pipes at your disposal, in addition to the repertory hang. The absence of counterweights allows an experienced fly crew to rig a show in record time.

    Our rope and sandbag system is operated from a pinrail on the stage left mezzanine. Standard uses are the teasers, legs, mid-stage black, and cyclorama. Equipment for 3 more pipes is on hand, but the configuration is subject to change. While the rope and sandbag system is more time-consuming to rig, our full grid allows you to add spot lines and temporary pipes almost anywhere.

  • Sound.

    Our House Sound is built around a Soundcraft 32 input/ 4x4-output matrix mixer. Standard inputs are 5 overhead choir mics, talkback, Lexicon ALEX reverb, cassette, CD, DVD player, and a 360 Systems Instant Replay with 24 hour capacity. 22 channels are free for your use. A 24 channel snake to stage left,and 12 tie lines to the pit, are provided to ease your routing. Crown amps power our center cluster, side fills, and 2 stage monitors. Our mic selection is not large; musicians should bring their own favorites.

    Additional sound equipment includes:

    1 Magnificently restored Steinway model "L" grand piano with original ivory keys

    5 Crown CM-700 instrument mics

    6 Shure SM58 vocal microphones

    1 Shure SM58S vocal mic with switch (talkback mic)

    3 Shure SM57 instrument microphones

    5 Microphone stands with booms

    1 Yamaha Clavinova CVP55

    1 Samson S-Com Audio Compressor

    1 Samson S-Com Plus Audio Compressor

    2 Bag End TA12 speakers (stage monitors)

    2 JBL EON10 powered monitor/effect speakers

    Microphone cable: 1 6', 2 10', 2 11', 3 20', 10 25', 1 34', 3 50', 3 100'