The Matchbox Children’s Theatre was able to install a two-channel, four-station communications system in the Paramount Theatre thanks to a nearly $5,000-grant from The Hormel Foundation.

MCT worked with Erik Schindler, an Austin native, at Minneapolis based Norcostco to select a system that would best fit their needs in the Paramount, where Matchbox presents four plays each year.

Schindler worked with Scott Anderson, advisor for this project and Lighting/Sound Designer for 45 MCT productions in the Paramount, to get the new system operating just in time for their recent February production, “There’s an Alligator Under My Bed, A Nightmare in My Closet, and Something in My Attic.”

MCT is now able to communicate from the light and sound booth to two locations backstage and the follow spot operator in the projection booth.

“The clarity is great,” Anderson said in a press release. “It sounds like you’re standing right next to the people on the other headsets. This is a tremendous asset.”

Before receiving the grant, the only way to communicate with tech crew was via cell phone or actually sending someone to deliver a message in person. At the Paramount that can require actually walking out the front door and around the building to get to back stage door or walking upstairs through the balcony to get to the projection booth.

Matchbox Children’s Theatre will share this communications system with other users of the Paramount Theatre to maximize the benefits of this new system and value of The Hormel Foundation grant.