CHICAGO CHILDREN’S CHOIR

Chicago Children’s Choir has held its Red Jacket Optional event at The Geraghty for six years. In 2021, they brought us an exciting challenge — explore a whole new room layout and staging concept to make the in-person a triumphant and unique return for their donors and sponsors while also making it creatively pleasing for the children performing as part of the choir.

The client envisioned a circular stage with the audience seated surrounding the performance, an ambitious production for this scale of an event. It was essential to make sure the set was big enough for all 100 kids on stage and that it was a safe structure with adequate entrances and exits. The results were unbelievable. A round stage had been the hope of the clients for years of producing this event, but the change in staging opened a whole different and dynamic choreography style than ever seen before in their performances.

Blending the virtual and in-person components was another challenge. The client formed two teams, one focusing on the in-person elements and the other on the virtual elements, which we then mirrored with our own crew to ensure both groups of attendees had the premium experience expected by the guests. We used instant replay and tape delay during the livestream to cut out the auction and dinner portion of the event for the virtual guests. The in-person guests had a fully immersive production where they were encompassed by music, empowering the children, and highlighting the impact of the organization.

We provided lighting, audio, video, livestreaming, a custom stage, and over 80 microphones. We designed the audio for the room to evenly cover 360 degrees around the stage versus one direction like a typical proscenium stage. This event is a marquee performance for the organization and the client was elated with the experience. The guests cheered on the choir with a vibrant and lively party in-person and an exciting live chat on the YouTube stream. We can’t wait to step it up again next year.