Behind the sounds and voices of this year’s musical, “Legally Blonde” is a sound crew. Sound crew is one of the lesser known and recognized aspects of the production of a theatrical work. MTHS’s sound crew has been rehearsing for the musical since early March.

This specialized nine-student crew works to do many tasks before, during and after the musical. Their primary goal before and after the production is to “mic” actors and actresses. This involves switching the batteries in transmitters and connecting them to the microphone cord which gets connected to the actors in different ways, depending on their microphone cord, to pick up their singing and lines to be broadcasted to the audience.

Other specific roles in this crew include working sound boards and adjusting faders for individual characters’ microphones or larger ensembles. Similarly to the sound board, a student is also in charge of cueing foley, or sound effects, during the show. One student will be in the pit with the orchestra, completing tasks related to them and at one point, controlling the volume of a background singer for one of the solo songs. Finally, many sound crew members are backstage during the production. They carry around batteries of different types as well as spare microphone tape. They stand on call near where characters come off stage, in case trouble would happen to arise with their mics. This would either be the mics coming loose in some way, or the battery inside dying. Whether it’s in front of the sound board, in the pit or backstage, all members of sound crew play an important role in the running of this production

School previews for the musical took place Wednesday afternoon. The show will occur in the high school auditorium at 7 p.m. from Thursday through Saturday, March 26 through 28.