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SOUND DESIGN

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Photo by Daniel James; Set Design by Dean Grosbard; Lighting Design by Sam Eisner

CORPUS CHRISTI
by Terrence McNally

Oberlin College Theater - November 2016
Directed by Em Westheimer

This production of Corpus Christi, a play telling the story of Jesus Christ and His disciples as gay men living in Texas during the 1990's AIDs crisis, was exploration of queerness, gender, and religion. Director Em Westheimer's approach to this show featured Joshua, the Christ figure, as a transgender woman. The sound design for this play centered on using ambient sound to emphasize the holiness (and lack thereof) of certain characters and scenes. 

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To the left is a selection of the cue that underscored one of the first scenes of the play when all the actors are in Heaven and are being baptized into their roles in the story about to play out on Earth. The goal was to create a sacred space where spiritually significant things could occur.

ANGELS IN AMERICA: PARTS I & II by Tony Kushner

Oberlin College Theater Department - April 2018
Directed by Matthew Wright
Co-Sound Designed with Janie Crooks

This show was the largest show I have designed to date, with a total of over 400 sound cues between both parts, which were performed in rep.  My favorite element from the design of this show was the microphone effects on the Angel. We miced only the four actors playing the Angel and processed their voices through a ring modulator and heavy reverb, making their voices sound distinctly inhuman and otherworldly. This contrasted with costume designer Chris Flaharty's very human costumes and served as a jarring reminder that these beings are not what they appear.

A group of seven actors stand on a set build of scaffolding

Photo: Daniel James; Set Design: Laura Carlson-Tarantwoski; Lighting Design: Jeremy Benjamin; Costume Design: Chris Flaharty

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Poster courtesy of Beck Center for the Arts

THE WIZARD OF OZ
By L. Frank Baum
With Music and Lyrics by Harold Arlen and E. Y. Harburg

Beck Center for the Arts - May 2024
Directed by Caroline Damanelis

Featuring a cast of children ages 5 through 18, this production included 14 wireless body mics, 3 floor mics, and a 7 piece pit orchestra. The original film was a sensory wonder as one of the first films to be released in Technicolor and one of the main goals of the sound design was to make the audience feel a similar level of immersive awe.

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The cue below played during the twister sequence, accompanying the musical score. It has been edited down to a stereo track and shortened for time. In context, the panning was passed around between all of the speakers in the space to give the audience the sense that they were part of the twister. The effects you hear throughout the wind were individual cues that were timed based on the action on stage.

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It is recommended to listen with headphones for best effect.

ANA LA HABIBI
by Jad Kaiss

Oberlin College Theater LabSeries - April 2019

Directed by Jad Kaiss

New Work Premiere

Ana La Habibi is a story of love, Arabic identity, and the power that our relationships have on our sense of self written by director Jad Kaiss. Sound plays a very important role in this script, as the music of Fairuz, a Lebanese musical icon, serves as a leitmotif and a metaphor for the main character's sense of identity. An old record player serves as another metaphor for a failing romantic relationship. 

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For this show, I utilized directionality to create a very cinematic speaker system design. There was a small wireless speaker in the record player, making it a practical, and speakers at multiple heights within the space. This allowed me to use space and directionality to emphasize diegetic music within scenes and non-diegetic transition music.

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The cue to the right is an original composition that played from the record player during one of the scene transitions. May Elder, a minor character, passes away in between scenes after a battle with terminal illness. The goal of the cue was to convey the emotional weight of a moment we never see.

Three people sitting on an armchair and couch

Photo: Sofie Rejto; Set Design: Jad Kaiss & Laura Carlson-Tarantwoski; Lighting Design: Kiera Saltz; Costume Design: Heather Leigh Brown

Poster for Oberlin Student Theater Association's The Santaland Diaries by David Sedaris, featuring a young man in an elf costume sitting and glaring

Poster curtesey of Oberlin Student Theatre Association

THE SANTALAND DIARIES
by David Sedaris

Oberlin Student Theater Association - December 2017
Directed by Nathan Carpenter

This play is a one man show based on an essay of the same name by David Sedaris about his experiences working as an elf at Macy's Santaland. The character drinks throughout the show and by intermission, is clearly a little tipsy. The goal of this cue was to underscore a particularly dark monologue comparing Santa and Satan and give the moment a different, more intense tone than the other tipsy but lighthearted rants in the show. 

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