Month: December 2015

We recently sat down with DJ Edwards, Charleston Stage’s Audio Engineer and Sound Designer for A Christmas Story, asking him about the steps he takes in designing sound for particular scenes in this production. DJ responded, “To capture the ‘lost in the jungle’ feel for one of the Ralphie dream sequences in A Christmas Story, Director Julian Wiles asked me to create jungle noises that would introduce the sounds of exotic animals which might scare Ralphie and his friends in this particular scene. So, I designed an ambience which was announced with the sounds of a tiger’s roar, an elephant’s trumpet and growl and the call of a loon. As the animal noises fade out, the audience hears jungle birds and insects that play throughout the rest of the scene.”

“All of these cues are executed by Logan Teder, one of the TheatreWings apprentices in my sound class,” say Edwards. “Logan has used all of his knowledge from the past few months to be my right-hand-man, running the sound cues and fixing any problematic microphones throughout the show. I’m working behind the sound board during each performance of A Christmas Story, so having someone like Logan there to help is crucial. The TheatreWings program is as beneficial to me as it is to our high school apprentices.”

To experience DJ’s sound design firsthand, you can still catch a performance of A Christmas Story running this Thursday through Dec. 20th at the Dock! Click here to purchase tickets.

 

 

 

 

The iconic leg lamp from A Christmas Story has to be one of the most bizarre and recognizable props in movie history. The Christmas Story leg lamp first appeared in radio personality Jean Shepherd’s short story My Old Man and the Lascivious Special Award That Heralded the Birth of Pop Art -one of the many short stories in his best-selling book In God We Trust: All Other Pay Cash! – from which A Christmas Story the movie was based. Shepherd said he got the idea for the lamp after seeing an illuminated Nehi Soda commercial from the 1940’s.

When the Christmas Story movie was made, the task of bringing the leg lamp to life fell to movie production designer Reuben Freed. He made sketches of several possible designs and one caught the eye of author Jean Shepherd who, when he saw it, said “that’s it!” and the rest is history. Unfortunately none of the three original lamps made for the movie survived. All three were broken in the course of filming. But you can still buy replicas of the lamp and give yourself your very own “major award” – thousands of leg lamp replicas are sold each year. For more information on the legendary Christmas Story leg lamp and how you can order your very own visit achristmasstoryhouse.com.