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Now that I've had a breather, the shows last weekend were terrific — the audio turned out really well and I had a blast. Despite being brought in last-minute and scrambling a bit on mic cue books, the whole thing came off well and the kids had a wonderful time. It was great to accept kudos from the parents about the sound on their way out of the hall, too!

Lessons learned:
* Working as a second on sound was WAY more fun, and the other engineer really appreciated it, too. Having someone knowledgeable to work with (and commiserate with) made the whole experience less stressful and much more enjoyable.
* Along similar lines, having a second engineer on the console during the show was a HUGE improvement. It meant one of us could focus on hitting every mic cue, while the other could actually listen to the audio and make adjustments to EQ, levels, and reverb without worrying about missing a cue. It also meant that each of us could catch things the other missed, further ironing out issues during the run.
* Sadly, having a digital mixer was really the key here. I *love* analog mixers and the ability to push faders around, but the combination of pre-loaded mic cues and mute groups made the show eminently more manageable. It was suddenly possible to do even quick dialog scenes and only have a few mics open on stage, which meant not chasing feedback problems even in a small theater with the monitors close to the stage. With digital, instead of climbing over each other on the mixer console, we could both be on the same console from two different devices at the same time.
* Dammit, I'm going to have to spend $$$$$$$$ upgrading wireless. The mics we had for this show were fantastic, and having bullet-proof body-packs and headsets meant we weren't scrambling (much) to replace things that went out during performances or worrying about radio interference.