Home to the Madison Repertory Theatre as well as concerts and other events, the Playhouse is the Overture Center’s most intimate theatrical venue.

Completely rebuilt in the space occupied by the old Isthmus Playhouse, the new theater is expanded slightly to 350 seats, has better sightlines, a larger stage, greatly improved acoustics and a new sound system installed by Lewis Sound & Video. The new sound system includes:

• A center loudspeaker cluster mounted over the proscenium.
• 12 additional speakers mounted on catwalks and ceilings to reinforce the sound in balconies and back corners of the room.
• A 32-channel DDA mixing board in a production booth at the back of the theater.
• A CCTV system to bring video from a permanently mounted video camera into production areas, dressing rooms, green rooms, and administrative offices.
• A back-of-house sound system that brings pages and performance audio into these same areas.
• Soundweb digital signal processing.
• A production intercom system
• An assistive listening system for the hearing impaired
• Connection into the building-wide audio and video systems, to bring pages and theater audio into the lobby, administrative offices and other areas of the Overture Center.

Read about other sound systems we installed in the Overture Center’s Capitol Theater and MMoCA Film and Video Theater.

Read an interview of Henry Lewis about theatrical sound system design.