BAG END PLAYS MAJOR ROLE IN THEATER AT NATION'S LARGEST CATHOLIC COLLEGE FOR WOMEN

It may not be a household name, but the College of St. Catherine in Minneapolis/St. Paul - affectionately known locally as “St. Kate's” - boasts a performing arts center of extraordinary quality.

St. Catherine's, with an enrollment of 4,000 divided between campuses in Minneapolis and St. Paul, is the largest Catholic college for women in the nation. And its theater - the O'Shaughnessy - is the only performing arts center in the Twin Cities focused on female performers. The center is a gathering place for the community that features live music, dance, and theater, highlighted by its acclaimed “Women of Substance” series. Performers featured this season have included Joan Baez, Ronan Tynan and Raffi.
Located at 2004 Randolph Avenue on the college's St. Paul campus, the O'Shaughnessy was built in 1970 as part of the Mother Antonia McHugh Fine Arts Center. The complex includes an attached music building and theater wing housing the 200-seat Mabel Frey Theatre as well as the O'Shaughnessy.

The 1,800-seat O'Shaughnessy, named for a major benefactor of the college, boasts a Broadway-scale stage, 26 movable sets and an audio and lighting system that would do justice to any performing arts venue anywhere.

House sound is controlled by a 32-channel Crest Century Vx VCA mixing console, with eight matrices, 8 audio groups, 8 auxiliary bus, 4 bands of overlapping, sweepable EQ. There are separate sound systems for monitoring, production communications and a stand-alone recording system.

Speaker arrays include a center array dead hung above a movable ceiling, portable front-fill speakers, fold-back speakers, and a balcony delay system. The center array consists of two BAG END TA5000 15-inch, two-way ported Time-Aligned loudspeaker systems.

The balcony delay system includes six TA5000 speaker systems, four covering the rear of the balcony and one each for left and right sidefill in the balcony area.

On stage, the O'Shaughnessy features four BAG END S18-E subwoofer enclosures for a total of eight 18-inch subwoofers, four state left and four stage right of stage controlled by a BAG END ELF extended low frequency processor capable of delivering a powerful bass signal down to 8 Hz. In addition two more BAG END TA5000 cabinets are available for a portable sound source onstage.

The College of St. Catherine, founded in 1905 in St. Paul by the Sisters of St. Joseph of Cardondlet, was named in honor of St. Catherine of Alexandria, a fourth century Egyptian lay philosopher who was martyred for her faith. The school's Minneapolis campus includes the St. Mary's School of Nursing. St. Catherine's offers bachelor's degrees in a variety of liberal arts and professional fields.

More information about St. Catherine's and the O'Shaughnessy theater can be obtained at the school's web site, www.stkate.edu or by calling 1-800-945-4599.