My name is Andrew Fugle, and I work as a freelance sound engineer, although I have had a credible amount of experience in lighting and AV as well. I completed my final year of studies in 2008 at the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts (LIPA) and obtained a BA(Hons) in Sound Technology. I am based near Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, yet I’ve worked on several large-scale musical theatre tours and for theatres and PA companies across the whole of the UK and Europe.
My work is probably my main interest (I’m still young and keen at the moment!), but I also have other sporting hobbies such as squash, football, sailing, pool and swimming when I have the time for them – I also like to try to play the piano and guitar occasionally if I’m feeling confident!
At school, I completed 11 GCSEs, 2 AS-Levels and 3 A-Levels (including Maths, Physics and French). My interest for the technical side to the entertainment industry started from an early age of around 8, when I enjoyed checking out the disco equipment mobile DJs used to bring to friends’ and school parties. As a result, by the age of 10 I had done my first few “freebie” disco gigs for my primary school’s PTA with my own equipment made up of 2nd hand gear and constructions by my dad. It was very retro! My interest developed from DJ work into theatre etc by the age of 14 when I joined my first AmDram group – Brettenham and Thorpe Morieux Players. I did sound and lighting work for this drama group for many years, and it provided my first invaluable experience of putting on productions. I had also started to work in my school’s purpose built theatre at this time, where many hour was to be spent in years to come! By the age of 16, I started casual work at my local theatre – The Theatre Royal, Bury St Edmunds – where quite a lot of my early professional theatre experience was accomplished. I had also completed a week’s work experience at BBC Television Centre in London for LX – working on programmes such as Top of the Pops and Blue Peter. I continued to join many dramatic groups, stage schools and worked with a few bands. For most of these, I became the lead technician, as I did with my school where I designed all the technical aspects to our major productions and led a team of crew members. By 18, I was very busy with both professional and amateur productions in my area and had made quite a large collection of my own sound and lighting equipment that I used on some of the gigs.
After leaving school and starting at LIPA when I was nearly 19, in-between studies I became a self-employed sound engineer and started to make many great industry contacts and work on some high-profile gigs throughout the UK. After graduating, I continued to meet more and more great people and ended up touring on large-scale musical theatre productions across the UK and Europe.
I hope you enjoy looking around the site, and please make sure you check out my news/blog section to see my latest work activities.
Take care,
Andy F (04/04/2011)