Jim has been actively involved with community theatre since 2002, joining the St. Petersburg City Theatre (SPCT) family in 2012. He has been a director, actor, backstage hand, and even a dresser. Of course, if you are looking for Jim, you will almost always find him in the sound booth, for he has engineered and/or run sound for almost every mainstage show for the last 6 years.
“Running sound for musicals is the most challenging “, Jim says, “because most musical actors are used to live orchestral accompaniment. At SPCT, musicals are run with recorded tracks. So, my job is to modulate the recordings to match each actor’s singing style and technique. For something like ‘The Pirates of Penzance’, which we just performed, this required a great deal of attention and precise focus. ‘Driving Miss Daisy’ presents a different challenge, in which the sound presents as a fourth character in the play. It must convey mood, tension, and above all, the loving friendship that develops between Daisy and Hoke. The sound and music bind the various scenes into a cohesive and evolved show. It evokes a deep compassion in the audience, which is essential to the message.”
You may also be wondering about the pictures of Jim. Not many pictures are taken in the sound booth of productions. However, Jim has been on stage in the role of Scrooge for the last two years in SPCT's annual production of A Christmas Carol.
When not at SPCT, Jim works as an IT Engineer for a local, property-insurance based company. A man of many talents!