Jesus Christ Superstar

When Taieri Musical staged Jesus Christ Superstar at Dunedin's historic Regent Theatre, the production demanded technical excellence to match its artistic ambition.

The Regent Theatre's 1,600-seat capacity and baroque-revival architecture present specific technical requirements. The ornate interior limits rigging positions, and the balcony overhang creates complex coverage challenges. The brief required full-range audio coverage across all seating areas while maintaining clear sightlines to the stage.

Strawberry Sound delivered a complete audio, lighting, and video solution that transformed one of New Zealand's most magnificent venues into an immersive theatrical experience.

Audio

The approach used a distributed configuration combining ground-stacked and flown arrays with targeted fill speakers.

Lead Sound Engineer Dave Bennet explains 

"In a theatre like the Regent, the challenge is covering all the seats while staying out of the sightlines… You can't just hang giant speaker arrays in front of the stage. We used a mix of flown and ground-stacked arrays, discreet under-balcony fills, and spot fills for specific coverage areas."

Main Arrays (L/R):

• 3x VTX B18 subwoofers per side
• 4x VTX A8 per side
• Ground-stacked beneath proscenium

Circle Coverage:

• 4x VTX A8 per side (flown)

Vocal Reinforcement:

• 8x Vertec VT4886 (centre cluster)

Under-Balcony Fill:

• 6x AC25 (mounted to circle front lighting rail)

Infill & Foldback:

• SRX712

Amplification:

• Crown I-Tech 4×3500

Lighting & Video Design

Lighting and video designer Alex Jones from Strawberry  integrated a video system incorporating projection mapping to create contextual visual content throughout the production. Guerrilla protest-style footage reinforced the political themes, while social media-inspired mobile phone projections transformed traditional scenes into contemporary commentary.

The lighting design worked in coordination with the video content, enhancing set elements and isolating lead performers as the narrative required. The integration of lighting and video systems allowed for rapid transitions between intimate character moments and large-scale ensemble scenes.