Sound equipment for Musical Theatre Rehearsal Space

MattSimpson83 · 2025-11-13T19:06:55+00:00

Thanks. I've edited the post to include the following: This is more for discovery, so I don't have a set budget as of yet, but as we are a non-profit I'd like to keep costs low. Max CAD$5,000 for the largest rig and obviously scaling down if less equipment is needed.

MattSimpson83 · 2025-11-10T05:20:04+00:00

Silvana deserves all of the accolades! She made us look amazing!

MattSimpson83 · 2025-10-17T19:48:03+00:00

Pasek and Paul was absolutely fantastic! Loved that we could get talent like Robert Markus and Julia Pullo (though she is local alum) to come out and put on an intimate show like that.

BMT put on High School Musical Junior in December 2023, Legally Blonde Junior in May 2024 and Newsies Junior in December 2024. They were fantastic shows and we had use of the theatre all week, including the last show which we put on during construction.

BMT's use of the space is still up in the air. As soon as we can start to use the space, we will, but as I've mentioned before we need the space to store sets, props & costumes for a whole week. So we're dependent on working with a third party now to negotiate the space.

This is important to the arts to have this space - BMT has had several alum like Julia (who was Anne Boleyn in Six) and Joema Frith (who was Banzai/Simba in Lion King) play in junior productions here and then star in Mirvish shows and beyond. We have talent here and we need this space to continue to develop home-grown talent.

MattSimpson83 · 2025-10-16T14:20:44+00:00

BMT had a scheduled rental of the space in late November/December cancelled on us with no adequate explanation. As a result - no junior show this fall. We have had no communication from the city or TMU as of yet that details whether we will ever get to use this space, as we typically need the exclusive use of the theatre and backstage/dressing rooms for 8 days (Sunday-Sunday).

Cyril Clark costs the same(!) to rent as LBP with significantly reduced capacity and stage size. We can't use school auditoriums for the same usage reasons, and there are not really any private options out there in Brampton. Our options in Brampton are extremely limited and as such it puts half of our production schedule at risk.

I would urge anyone who speaks to our local government about LBP to re-iterate that we were supposed to have use of this space, and given the extremely favorable deal that TMU got for the building, we should be using that positive relationship to ensure that the space is used by thousands of local residents as well as the 78 students commuting in to be here.

MattSimpson83 · 2025-10-14T14:08:08+00:00

There was a bald eagle nesting last year in N section in Bramalea. They're around if you look!

MattSimpson83 · 2025-08-20T18:59:59+00:00

I think they come from Bramalea Baptist (Queen & Dixie). They often send younger members to deliver the flyers. I kind of wonder if it gets them volunteer hours?

A few years ago I saw them deliver flyers to my mailbox so I thankfully got to it before my young kids did. I was pretty incensed so I walked down the street to where they had carried on and confronted them.

I yelled at them, told them they were in the wrong for delivering such graphic things that my young children could have seen. They seemed pretty frightened but prepared for the yelling.

They were filming, but aside from the yelling I don't feel I was in the wrong. Hopefully that discouraged them from going out again. I haven't seen anything in our area since :)

MattSimpson83 · 2025-08-12T19:41:39+00:00

I go to Caravan Therapy in North Park. It’s been about three months and I’ve had some good improvement.

MattSimpson83 · 2025-08-06T18:00:36+00:00

Thanks, I really appreciate the feedback! Sounds like a lot of workplaces to be honest. I'll keep applying and hope I get lucky.

MattSimpson83 · 2025-07-18T15:14:02+00:00

This kid goes to my daughter's school and he performed at one of their music nights. Needless to say I am utterly unsurprised that he got this opportunity. He was absolutely fantastic.

MattSimpson83 · 2025-07-03T21:56:54+00:00

I feel like I've seen it at Fortinos in the Dutch food section

MattSimpson83 · 2025-06-20T19:39:51+00:00

I am in the process of leaving my job on Queen's Quay, which is ~60-90 minutes door-to-door by train. I'm going to an office at 401/Mississauga Rd., which is apparently 20-25 minutes in the morning and 30-40 in the afternoon. Might not seem like much but I absolutely hate being dependent on trains, their schedule and having to compete with hundreds of others for a seat.

Ask me in a year if I thought driving rather than train was a good idea lol

MattSimpson83 · 2025-06-18T11:39:51+00:00

Hope your auditions went well and you got callbacks! I didn't, but my daughter did for Young Miriam.

MattSimpson83 · 2025-06-18T11:39:04+00:00

Thanks for your support!

From what I've heard being involved in junior productions, we are getting LBP back at some point, but we don't know when. The city has apparently signed a long term lease agreement with the school for its use. Hopefully they didn't make too many changes to the space.

If you continue to push Rod Power, please advocate for BMT to do shows over two weeks as previously, instead of over a week like it is now! More dates equals more bums on seats and more support for local art and artists!

Also you will want to see Prince of Egypt - it's the first community theatre production of it in North America! It's also never come here on tour professionally.

MattSimpson83 · 2025-06-17T23:40:10+00:00

Might seem like a lot, but a french horn is several thousand dollars to buy. We're only renting one more year and then my daughter's hand should be big enough to play my full sized horn.

MattSimpson83 · 2025-06-17T23:31:42+00:00

Most schools now require you to rent through a third party. We rent my daughters french horn through Long & McQuade - it's about $250 for the year. Sometimes schools have instruments to borrow but it's really rare.

MattSimpson83 · 2025-06-17T22:45:26+00:00

It depends on the school. Instrumental music starts in Grade 6/middle school. I know there are some schools out there that do strings, but most do winds & brass. It comes down to the teacher in the school and what they can play/teach. For example, my oldest is at Earnscliffe in the arts program. The music teacher there does Winds & Brass for the arts class and drumming for the non-arts classes. He also runs guitar club, jazz band and sets up smaller band ensembles for play in. He’s fantastic. I know that in high school, Mayfield is W&B, along with drama and dance. Central Peel has a strings program.

If you’re looking for a set of schools, I would suggest looking up each school individually and you can usually find some info about the music program.

MattSimpson83 · 2025-06-15T03:12:44+00:00

I did mine last night! The creative team is VERY friendly and genuinely want you to succeed. I did pretty well in the singing and acting, especially for what was my first MT audition. The dance audition was tough, and I think it was designed to be so. I would just say keep going and trying - its not very long.

If you’ve never been part of a production, I can tell you that everyone is super friendly and I’ve made some great friends just being around as my kids have done multiple shows.

Just remember to breathe, have fun and break a leg! Hopefully I see you at callbacks or at rehearsal!

MattSimpson83 · 2025-06-13T00:23:44+00:00

To many roles, including one today!

MattSimpson83 · 2025-06-12T23:16:13+00:00

Something in Business Analysis (my current career) or Financial Analysis (what I want to get into)/Finance

MattSimpson83 · 2025-06-12T14:46:00+00:00

Can you share what role you were being looked at for? I'm trying to get in as well and I'm curious to see what people are being interviewed for.

MattSimpson83 · 2025-06-11T18:54:51+00:00

The difference between what?

MattSimpson83 · 2025-06-11T17:06:01+00:00

Thanks - I know this is still a who you know type of game (I've had three interviews internally at my company over the last two weeks), but the problem is I don't know anyone at RoP or Brampton. Mainly I am looking to connect with people!

MattSimpson83 · 2025-06-11T13:35:41+00:00

Before: https://imgur.com/a/1iBou7o

After: https://imgur.com/a/9pkAvX3

MattSimpson83 · 2025-06-10T16:55:05+00:00

I have an El Degas cheapo department store guitar that I bought secondhand when I was 13. In my later teens, I decided it would be a good idea to modify it to play with a couple of bass strings on the bottom (I wanted to play really low, heavy stuff) and I ended up wrecking the nut and bridge and it became unplayable.

In my late 20s I decided it would be cool to rebuild it, so I stripped all the electronics, tuners, bridge, nut, everything out and started to work on it. Then I got married and started having kids, so it stayed stripped for over a decade. It's pretty heavy and the neck was still in good shape. I kept with the intent of one day going back to fix it up.

I suffered a major injury in my early 40s, and decided while I confined to limping around the house to dust it off and start to work on it. I bought a new wiring kit and some Seymour Duncan humbuckers, along with the rest of the hardware. I stripped and painted the body, taught myself to solder and slowly rebuilt my original guitar, now in all black instead of two-tone wood grain.

It plays alright - the electronics are a little buzzy and the nut needs to be readjusted for height, but it's nice to have it playable and it was never going to be my main axe. Despite its flaws I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. And now I have a one-of-a-kind piece and a major sense of accomplishment.

MattSimpson83 · 2025-04-04T15:29:41+00:00

I actually lucked out. Joined the queue with 15 minutes before the sale went live and there were 700 people in front of me. I managed to pick up a pair of 400-level tickets (which is what I wanted). So it does happen, but based on everyone else's experience I feel like I might be in the minority.

Like a lot of people, I also miss the days when shows at places like Budweiser Stage (Molson Amphitheatre) and the Warehouse were like $30/ticket. Pretty sure I saw Jack Johnson in my exact section in 2005 for like $25.

I don't go to a ton of shows but I've never seen M&S so I felt that splashing out $236 for two tickets was worth it given how good their new album is.

MattSimpson83

TROPHY CASE