Somewhere during the late 90’s the framed picture of Doris Day was an opening night gift to the Festival Theatre’s head sound technician. It was an acknowledgement of her distinctive choice of music for sound checks before each show.
Over the years various religious icons were gifted to the technicians, a battery operated lotus, a clapping Jesus, a plaster Buddah and the sacred cow. All icons to ward against evils in audio from radio frequency interference to blown up speakers. Doris and her icon friends would be positioned around the sound control room in their most potent position.
The framed Doris Day picture, known as Doris S/LARES*, a Russian take on the Sputnik, is a homage to the dated technology used in the venue. For the technically curious out there, note that the text in the speech bubble is pure nonsense.
*Developed in the 80’s the Lexicon Acoustic Reinforcement and Enhancement System (LARES) was introduced to the Festival Theatre for the Ring Cycle and proved to be a controversial new technology creating a reverberant space where the architectural materials couldn’t.