Doing the Road Her Way

September Issue - PLSN Interview

Written by Rob Ludwig

Audra Breyer integrates the "boy's club."

Audra Breyer is a Jill-of-all-trades, who just happens to be the master of integration on John Mayer’s current tour. We caught up with her long enough to find out what it’s like being a woman in a boy’s club, how she got to be where she is today and the thing she likes least about our industry.

PLSN: What is your show day schedule?
Audra Breyer: Out on this tour, we start load-in at 9:00 (in the morning), and we’re usually up and running by 1:00 or 1:30 at the latest. Today, it took a little bit longer because we had to dump the P.A. truck first, before we dumped the truss truck and light truck. We were done at 2:30, so it wasn’t that bad.

And then what is your next task?
And then I fix anything that’s broken. Hopefully, nothing’s going to break today. John does sound check at 4:00 p.m. everyday, and the openers do sound check at 5:00. James Morrison and Ben Folds are opening for John on this leg. Doors are usually at 6:00 and James goes on around 7:00 or 7:30 for a half-hour, and then I run lights for Ben’s hour-long show. And then John goes on at about 9:15 and gets done at 11:00. We’re usually done with getting everything in the truck no later than 1:00 (a.m.).

And then it’s time for some shut eye…
Usually around 1:30 or 2:00.

And then you’re back at it in the morning.
Around 8:15 or 8:30, we try to figure out where everything is at and where it’s coming from.

What is your role on this tour?
I’m the first electrician/Syncro-tech. We’ve got six Syncrolites. I did a little school for that down in Dallas in January — and then I fix the moving lights with everyone else out here.

You’re also the board op for Ben Folds.
I’m happy when I get an hour nap in. [Laughs.]

Do you get to use most of the rig for Ben Folds?
I get to use all of the (Vari*Lite) VL-3000s in the truss and most of the VL-500s — none of the Syncros or any of the floor stuff. But it’s plenty for him because he only has three people in his band.

What kind of board are you using?
It’s a (Martin) Maxxyz with a wing.

Basically, you hang lights, fix lights, run lights and do whatever you have to do to make them dance.
Yeah.

How did you get into this line of work?
I went to school to work in a recording studio. [Laughs.] Some of the guys from TMS, the company I work for now, came in to talk to us. One of the guys, Heath Marrinan, had just gotten off a Harry Connick Jr. tour. I was thinking that would be kind of cool to do instead (of working in a recording studio), so I changed my mind and decided to do lighting. I pretty much called the guy who is my boss now, Mark Huber, every day until he hired me. [Laughs.] He finally said, “If I hire you, are you going to quit calling me two or three times a day?” That was in 1994.

Did you ever graduate?
I didn’t. It was a two-year program, and I was going to go back the next year and finish all my generals — we had to take math, science and electronics classes — and I didn’t have time for everything. I ended up working at TMS and never went back to finish.

Some people go through the school route, and some people go the shop route; you did both. What worked best for you?
I learned a lot about power and electronics there (at school) so it was a good thing either way.

What kind of things did you start working on at TMS?
I just did a bunch of local stuff and worked in the shop at first, because, at that point, I didn’t even know what a PAR can was. [Laughs.] I pretty much learned what everything was and how it went together. They do a bunch of state fairs, so then I started going out on stuff like that.

What were you doing on those shows?
Pretty much what I am doing now…loading everything in and running lights if the band didn’t have an LD. If they did, I was making sure the LD was happy and just making sure everything worked.

And then?
The first tour I did was in ’97 or ’98, and I think it was Harry Belafonte.

So you worked there roughly three to four years before you went out on the road?
Yeah. I’ve been doing tours, but at the same time, I’m full-time with TMS. When I go home, I’ll go out and do roofs, 180K, 120K, corpo-rates, or whatever they need me to do.

What shows have you done in the last couple of years?
I did John Mayer in 2004 and Alicia Keyes in 2005 and a Christmas tour we do every year. This tour started in January 2007 again, and I’ve been out with them ever since. They took March off, and we were in Canada in April, and this (the U.S. leg) started at the end of May.

How many people are on your crew right now?
There are four people on the lighting crew, and the carpenter helps out by building one of the moving light trusses.

What’s it like being on the road with a bunch of…<pause>…smelly guys?
[Laughs.] It’s actually not that bad. The first tour I went on was probably the worst because I didn’t know what to expect at all. I was used to the guys in the shop, who aren’t bad either. I can’t think of anything bad that’s ever happened, or where I was like, I can’t believe that just happened, or that kind of thing.

On our bus now, we’ve got the caterers, and three of them are women, so I’m not actually the only girl on the bus out here.

Didn’t you have any expectations going on the road and living in a tour bus the first time? What did you imagine it would be like? What was your worst fear and what was the reality?
I’m not sure if I had any expectations per se. I was hoping that I wouldn’t hate being on the bus with a bunch of guys, and that they wouldn’t hate the fact that I was on the bus with them. I really wanted them to accept me as one of them, and they did. I think my worst fear was that I wouldn’t be accepted, and looking back, that is so ironic because now it really doesn’t make a difference to me if people accept me or not. This is me, and I’m not going to change. Funny how things like that change.

Has your overall experience been good even though it’s often considered a boy’s club?
Yes, it is — definitely.

Do you mean it’s definitely a boy’s club or your experience has definitely been good?
I think it is still a boy’s club, especially sound and lighting. Production, merch, catering and accounting seem to be much more accepting of women, from what I have seen. But, at the same time, my experience has been great.

After all this time, I still haven’t seen a lot of women on the road. I remember the first two women I met were Vickie Claiborne when she was the LD for Kathy Mattea, and Jan who was the LD for Michelle Wright. That was the first year I worked at TMS. I still haven’t added a lot of women to that list with the exception of Libby from Styx. I know there are more, but those are the ones that really stick out in my head at the moment. I was the LD for B.B. King on the Blues Festival for two summers in ‘99 and ‘00, and I remember thinking that it was pretty awesome that I could be in the same category as these other women.

In the future, where do you see yourself working in the industry?
I would love to get an LD gig with somebody. Production manager would be a really cool job, too.

By LD you mean designer, director…
Designer, director, board op — any of the three or all three.

What is it about being a production manager that interests you?
I’m really fortunate. I’ve worked with two really good production managers: Chris Balogh and Chris Adamson. Chris Adamson is out with us now, and Chris Belogh was the production manager for John before (Adamson), and he was out with Alicia Keyes. They are just both awesome.

Do you think you have the same opportunities for advancement as a male, or is there somewhat of a glass ceiling?
I think there are the same opportunities for women as long as you don’t limit yourself to thinking “I’ll never get that gig because I’m a girl.” I’m sure some people won’t agree with that, but that wouldn’t be the first time.

Do you think you would approach the job of production manager the same or differently as a man?
Probably pretty much the same as a man.

Do the guys you work with treat you the same as another guy or do you think they treat you differently?
That depends; the guys I have known at the shop treat me like another guy. I have known some of them for so long they are like my broth-ers, and I can’t imagine not working with them. There are still days though, most of them out on tour or on a one-off, that I still find myself wondering what rock some of these guys crawled out from underneath, but that will never change, or at least not in my lifetime. But with that exception, most of them are pretty cool, and there isn’t any attitude.

What do you like most about what you are doing today?
Probably that it’s not the same everyday. It might be the same rig everyday, but it’s never the same thing twice.

What do like least?
Probably being away from my husband Chris because we just got married in September. He does the same thing — he works for TMS also — but he is doing a bunch of fairs and corporate stuff at home. That’s got to be my least favorite thing about it, right now.

If you had a daughter, would you encourage her or discourage her from following in your footsteps? Why?
Encourage? Absolutely, but only if she really wanted to. My parents never discouraged me from trying anything I wanted to do, within reason, and I can’t imagine telling my daughter anything different.

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