Oliver!

I recently served in the pit orchestra for a local production of Oliver! "Pit" is a misnomer, for although we were positioned in front of the stage, the audience members could see the tops of our heads. As the percussionist, I had a corner all to myself, but it was a very small corner! If you know anything about the score for Oliver! you will realize there are quite a few timpani parts. I really wanted to use real live timpani, but space (and money!) constraints forced me to think of alternatives. MIDI, anyone?