and once the students are onstage, george waddell can control everything. he can change the venue.ce rooms we have, which tend to be a much drier sound. so when it's suddenly a much bigger space that you have to fill, its great to get a little bit of an experience of what it might sound like ahead of time. so there's the prep, there's the lights, there's the sound. but let's talk about that audience. it's a weird crowd in tonight, i can tell you. we want to test our performers' focus. we want to make sure they can hold it together. so that might be very subtle. a little cough, perhaps. mild coughing. and it might be more dramatic. shhh! phone rings. the performer is expected to ignore this, i guess. that's right. and even if there's a momentary lapse, it's about then continuing after that. i mean, performers make mistakes. it's how they react after that mistake that sets apart the professional. for many of our performers, it's not actually this full house that is the most intimidating to them. it's perhaps when the marketing hasn't gone so well... spencer chuckles. ..and there are