SOUND DESIGNS
School For Lies
"Adapted from Le Misanthrope by Molière. It’s 1666 and the brightest, wittiest salon in Paris is that of Celimene, a beautiful young widow so known for her satiric tongue she’s being sued for it. Surrounded by shallow suitors, whom she lives off of without surrendering to, Celimene has managed to evade love since her beloved husband died—until today, when Frank appears. A traveler from England known for his own coruscating wit and acidic misanthropy, Frank turns Celimene’s world upside-down, taking on her suitors, matching her barb for barb, and teaching her how to live again. (Never mind that their love affair has been engineered by a couple of well-placed lies.) This wild farce of furious tempo and stunning verbal display, all in very contemporary couplets, runs variations on Molière’s The Misanthrope, which inspired it."
The Laramie Project
"In October 1998, a twenty-one-year-old student at the University of Wyoming was kidnapped, severely beaten, and left tied to a fence in the middle of the prairie outside Laramie, Wyoming. His bloody, bruised, and battered body was not discovered until the next day, and he died several days later in an area hospital. His name was Matthew Shepard, and he was the victim of this assault because he was gay. Moisés Kaufman and fellow members of the Tectonic Theater Project made six trips to Laramie over the course of a year and a half, in the aftermath of the beating and during the trial of the two young men accused of killing Shepard. They conducted more than 200 interviews with the people of the town. Some people interviewed were directly connected to the case, while others were citizens of Laramie, and the breadth of the reactions to the crime is fascinating. Kaufman and Tectonic Theater members have constructed a deeply moving theatrical experience from these interviews and their own experiences in Laramie. THE LARAMIE PROJECT is a breathtaking collage that explores the depths to which humanity can sink and the heights of compassion of which we are capable." -Dramtists
Photo Credit - Hannah Campbell
Set Design - Jason Foreman
Lighting Design - Landry Strickland
Costume Design - Emma Hendren
Prop Master - Emorie Mansur
Projection Designer - Rick Reeves
Photo Credit - Bryan Cardinale-Powell
Set Design - Sydney Hagen
Lighting Design - Nicholas Villemarette
Costume Design - Alix Phelan
Prop Master - Audrey Mantia
Arcadia
"Arcadia moves back and forth between 1809 and the present at the elegant estate owned by the Coverly family. The 1809 scenes reveal a household in transition. As the Arcadian landscape is being transformed into picturesque Gothic gardens, complete with a hermitage, thirteen year-old Lady Thomasina and her tutor delve into intellectual and romantic issues. Present day scenes depict the Coverly descendants and two competing scholars who are researching a possible scandal at the estate in 1809 involving Lord Byron. This brilliant play moves smoothly between the centuries and explores the nature of truth and time, the difference between classical and romantic temperaments, and the disruptive influence of sex on our life orbits- the attraction Newton left out." - Concord Theatricals
Photo Credit - Andrea Bilkey
Set Design - Josh Whitte
Lighting Design - Adam Honore
Costume Design - Leanne Crandall
Lobby Preshow Commercial Video - Abby Bugh
Voice - Melissa Miller
Music - Jacob Henry
The Nether
"The Nether is a virtual wonderland that provides total sensory immersion. Just log in, choose an identity and indulge your every desire. But when a young detective uncovers a disturbing brand of entertainment, she triggers an interrogation into the darkest corners of the imagination." - Samuel French
Photo Credit - Andrea Bilkey
Set Design - Nicole Laiben
Lighting Design - Andrea Bilkey
Costume Design - Cassandra Trautman
Much Ado About Nothing
This Shakespeare classic is placed in the post civil war south as the men return home from war. For this production, I focused on creating musical arrangements for live and recorded musicians. The pieces were all from an old songbook published in the 1820's, The Missouri Harmony. Originally written for vocals, I arranged the pieces in a new way to better fit our concept. The examples below were made with virtual instruments to finalize my arrangement before it was sent to the musicians.
Photo Credit - Andrea Bilkey
Set Design - Rick Reeves
Lighting Design - Rick Reeves
Costume Design - Amanda Staats
Rathbone
Rathbone is a historical fiction that revolves around the life of Henry and Clara, the couple in attendance with President Lincoln the night he was assassinated. Eighteen years later, they are both still suffering from post traumatic stress disorder. The following clip is from the opening of the show in which we are introduced to Henry and Clara as they experience a reoccurring nightmare. The samples used are meant to immediately thrust the audience into the minds of our two main characters as they experience their own personal hell.
Smudge
Smudge is a dark comedy revolving around a young couple that just gave birth to what they describe as a "smudge". The following clip is from a scene in which the mother of the smudge starts connecting to her daughter for the first time through hallucinated music. For this arrangement of Que Sera, I wanted to give the audience an uneasy and creepy feeling while watching this first real and raw interaction between mother and daughter. The ending of the piece is meant to create a sense of longing, and desire for more, to reflect the daughter's relationship with the mother.
Mr. Marmalade
In this quirky, R-rated play about Lucy and her imaginary friend Mr. Marmalade, we see that our imaginations are powerful things.
After Lucy and Mr. Marmalade get "married", they decide to honeymoon in Mexico. The audio clip below is the transition between the honeymoon phase and real life after marriage for Lucy and her new abusive husband.
Set Design - Jacob Henry
Lighting Design - Dylan Rocomora
Costume Design - Kathleen Ludwig
Set Design - Phil Johnson
Lighting Design - William Dean
Costume Design - Kathleen Ludwig
The Last Days of Judas Iscariot
This trial play tells the story of a court case over Judas Iscariot's fate. The story takes place in downtown purgatory, which we set as a steam driven machine underworld. The following clip is the machine that I created using simple sound recordings which included an aerosol can, an elevator, a washing machine and the chain of a bicycle.