First off, having been doing sound for theater for over 10 years I hate WLS body mics. However they are a nessesary evil. If your actors can do the show with out mics in a 750 seat
house with ok acustic then no mics are neaded. I have meet people who are insulted at using a mic for any thing under 2000 seats . However since we are dealing with HS age actors and typicaly directors and
vox ccoaches that dont know how to project themselvs much less teach others how to do it we need mics. Last year I did a show where the projecton was so nonexistant that even with the mic almost touching the mouth there was not enough
vox to get over the very quite pit music.
Experiment with placement on each actor. Keep in mind that the voice comes from the
face and chest, not just the mouth. I have used mics in every place posible on the
face. Lots depends on the costume changes. I had one show where a guy never takes off his glases. I mouted a mic to the bow. He could come right out in the audience and no one know he had it on.
WLS mics take lots of care. They are fragile. And they are expensive to keep in batteries. This is key DONT USE CHEEP BATTIERIES. I get Procells from
www.prodav.com and use a new one each performance. THat is the cheepest way to get good ones. If you can rent them from a local place maybe they have some one who can come out and show you some tricks to using them.
And as others have said, taps with wls are not a problem at all, unless you have some strange acustic thing going. It is also posible that the director has been burned by WLS mics. Mics are good if you know how to use them. They can also be very bad if you dont, very bad.
TJB
