a day in the life of a sound engineer

i'm home from a 14 hour day spent at the theatre, so the brain is more than fried.  i had children's show, children's workshop, two mainstage shows, and coffee house.  i hope things make sense.

i work in a theatre-in-the-round.  the seats are arranged into 4 sections.  1 is in front of me, 2 is one of the larger sections, 3 is the smallest, and 4 is the other larger one and the one that the stage is generally "facing".  aisle 2 is part of the stage, while the other aisles are entry ways to the stage, leading to the sound booth (a1), the pit (a3), and the offices (a4).  the producer paid an "expert" to place the speakers.  whomever did it is an idiot.  there is no center cluster in any section, just single speakers on the left and the right sides of the two larger sections.  there is no speaker in section three while section one and four appear to be joined with the two speakers one either side.  and there are 3 speakers above the stage, one of which the music comes from and the other pair is supposed to be vox.  vox... above the stage... where people wear mics... and you want the mics to come from that... without feedback?  uh huh.  i am unable to change anything necessary to make is sound "proper".  there is really no "good" seat.  section 3 is the worst, obviously.  back of 2 is bad as well.  the way i have made things work, be it correct or not, it's my system so i'll do as i please, is there are vox coming from the 4 house speakers and music from the stage, making the two other speakers above the stage useless due to feedback.  there is no other way to do it really.  so if you're in the front few rows, you hear nothing but music.  and no one seems to understand the logistics of sound.  it kills me really, because i see it to be common sense.  guess not.  i often get told by audience that they can't hear the vox.  i just smile and nod and say i'll do what i can to fix it so they will walk away.  i miss proscenium.  i don't remember how to work a proscenium any more though.  but it's probably like riding a bike, once you do a little it'll come back to you.  right?  (i never learned how to ride a bike, so i never have understood that expression.)   i am next to never mentioned in a review, i'm used to it.  the reviews mention how shitty the synthesizer keyboards and virtual drums sound, but that has nothing to do with me.  however, in our most recent review, the guy ripped everything imaginable apart, including me.  he said that he couldn't hear the horrible sounding keyboards.  really dude?  because i had three audience members come up to me tonight telling me they couldn't hear the vox.  i didn't do anything different from when the reviewer was there.  and to be fair, the jackass came to our first public showing, which we still have notes after.  douche.  it all depends on where you sit.  like i said, there is no good seat in this theatre-in-the round.  especially when it's in a barn on a coffee table build by farmers.