Words by Youth Music NextGen writer, Sarah Victoria.

I came to the theatre world with a dream to help tell stories of the underrepresented through music and sound, particularly women. At university I was part of a dance group of 50 young women aged 18-23, who were self-choreographing and creating dance pieces using sound design and music edits. I quickly saw the disconnect between the man in the black t-shirt at the back, not knowing what a jeté is, and the young, female choreographers brimming with creative, sonic ideas without the music technology skills to convey them. This is truly why I got into theatre sound design - having studied music technology since 16, I was suddenly mixing, writing, editing and designing all the creative audio pieces, helping bridge the clear disconnect between artists on stage and the live tech teams staging them.

I started working at local venues to learn the ropes, from some really kind men who'd given me a shot knowing my studio background. This was my journey - but of course there are incredible women who study technical theatre specifically, and graduated with an incredible skillset. Yet, often when they enter a space, it's assumed they have little technical knowledge. Even at university for technical sound, one Woman, 'B', told me she was badly bullied by her male professor as the only girl on the course: “I found out two years later he'd had to leave due to female sound specialists in the years below me also experiencing this behaviour... . I still have no idea why he'd pick on all the female sound specialists, other than he was misogynistic." 

To seek to learn live audio signal flow and mixing desks, whether it's for audio engineering/technician as a valuable role in its own right, or because you want to become a sound designer/live theatre composer, are all valid pursuits. We are all one audio technical team, but what I have found to be consistent about live audio teams, is the misogyny.

There are different levels to it - the ingrained stuff like, 'oh don't carry that speaker, let me take that off your hands,' is meant in a gentlemanly way, but can be incredibly frustrating and damaging. Having worked over 100 shifts as an audio technician in live venues, I  have the data to prove that I am taken more seriously with makeup. Perhaps because it makes me look older, or more professional, or conventionally attractive. ‘Were you the same girl last week working the fit up? Oh sh*t I didn't recognise you with the makeup.’ There is also blatant misogyny. When a mic cuts out on stage it's an assumption that's my fault - 'what did you do? What did you press?' It's hard enough in studios when music technology is so masculine in design - can't tell you how much I love sitting with male producers laughing at the Mackie 'big knob'? But in live audio spaces, the physicality is an added oppression. I have been physically bodied off sound desks. Language like, 'stick that in there', 'push it in harder', 'more', 'male to female XLRs' etc all might seem funny in boy banter, but consider how it makes a 22-year-old-woman feel on her hands and knees rigging cable.

One technician fitting up a big show told me: "My wife worked at the top but she quit ‘cause it’s quite sexist at the top. I think you have to be the type of woman like a hard woman who don't take s**t to do it, or you just can't really".

One female Lighting Designer and Technician, 'A', shared with me that she experiences misogyny, scoffs and devaluing of her skills when she's wearing fake nails, typing on an eos desk. Appearance is a consideration every single day for women in technical roles. In a role where black clothes should be uniform, I've had cargos that are too long, 'distractingly' tight on my bum, T-shirts that are too baggy and too tight... Does wearing a hoodie make it seem like I haven't tried? Does wearing a black strappy top in 30 degrees in a 200 year-old London theatre venue with no air conditioning inappropriately distract from the work? Safe, breathable and comfortable clothing is a young woman's right in any workplace. 

Having stage 4 endometriosis, comfortable clothing is essential, and I'm not always able to lift heavy objects. It feels like bringing my chronic illness to attention in an all-male team is not only taken as an excuse at times instead of a difference, but further separates us in an already gendered environment. Working as an Associate, I was once told 'oh you've got that cysts thing? Well if you're not up to it or whatever just don't come in then'. There is a culture that there is no time for this kind of inconvenience. It's a 60 hour work week, we're fitting up this show no matter what and you're just not up to the job.

Timetabling of tech periods is a long-standing issue all creative technical teams are facing. I'm expected to use 'Sound Quiet Time' to mix during my lunch and dinner hours frequently. Sound is often the last thing in shows to get the time it deserves, it's even harder as a young woman sound designer to be heard on this. For women with children, there are no affordances with school pick up or community-led working hours. As my university research (Head of School awarded and published) suggested, the individualist culture music technology is founded in, rooted from video games and electric guitars in boys' bedrooms from the 80s and 90s, Blair's building of music technology education for working-class white boys to go to newly recognised universities from 'polys') is the current, cultural foundation of live venue audio systems. At the detriment of the Head of Technical (usually white male) venue manager, working 60 hours a week, individualist tech culture is unhealthy and unhelpful. Male technical teams inherently want to help artists, tell stories and platform music, theatre and art. So, opening up the culture to be one of inclusion, collaboration, mutual respect for everybody part of the team, (on-stage glittering in drag or in the booth cooking up a snare mix in blacks) will be progressive for everyone.

You absolutely can teach yourself QLab, girls. You absolutely can bring creativity and femininity to a technological space. I exclusively refer to equipment with she/her pronouns and it's the micro-feminism the tech world needs right now.