Q: What is your position with Charleston Stage?
I am the Resident Sound Designer and Audio Engineer at Charleston Stage. This position encompasses two jobs, one of which is primarily creative and the other primarily technical. As the Sound Designer, I am responsible for everything you hear in a show. I find, create, and arrange sound effects. I compose incidental music for most of our non-musical plays. I am also responsible for designing the physical sound system – what microphones are used, how they are used, where speakers are placed, etc. As Audio Engineer, I implement that design. I program the computer that plays back the sound effects. I prepare, set up, and maintain all of the microphones and speakers. And I set up, program, and operate the mixing board. I also teach a sound design class for high school students as part of our TheatreWings program.
Q: Charleston Stage has officially moved into the West Ashley Theatre Center. What are you most excited about that this new facility offers?
I am excited that we are able to bring a performance and rehearsal space of this size and capability to West Ashley. We are able to provide the space and technical capabilities for community groups of all types to present performances that they may not have been able to do before, at least not easily or affordably. More than that, I am excited for the opportunities this space gives us to expand our educational offerings. The education program is one of the main things that distinguished Charleston Stage for me during the job search that brought me here. In this building, not only do we simply have more space for everything, we have a fully functional theatre space that will allow me to give my students direct, hands-on experience with the kinds of theatrical sound equipment that is in use throughout the professional theatre world.
As a Sound Designer, this new space has allowed me to have my own office/studio where I can compose and create sound effects in a comfortable, professional environment without bothering my coworkers! In the past, all of my work had to be either at home or in the office using headphones. Now I have all my equipment, including keyboards, microphones, and high-quality monitoring speakers, in one place with a door I can close.
Q: You are also the Original Music and Sound Designer for The Curious Incident. Please discuss your process and what is involved with writing music for a production such as The Curious Incident.
My main goal with the sound design and music for The Curious Incident is to help the audience understand how Christopher, the main character, experiences the world. The first challenge with this, of course, is that I personally don’t have the same experiences that someone like Christopher would. Fortunately, the script and the novel both give ample clues in their descriptions and writing styles.
Christopher is very talented in math, and in large part he uses math to interpret the world around him. When he begins to get overwhelmed, he calms himself by reciting complex sets of numbers like primes or “the cubes of the cardinal numbers.” As a composer this gives me the opportunity to highlight the math that is inherent in music, in particular through complex rhythms created from many simpler patterns set against one another.
Christopher is also very interested in science, technology, and computers. To reflect this, not only am I using largely electronic instruments but there will also be certain aspects of some of the music that are computer generated. In particular, I have created a computer program that converts text into chord progressions. I can give the program a line or two from the script and it will convert the letters into numbers. From there, the numbers are fed through an algorithm, or set of rules, that generates a series of chords that follow traditional Western compositional guidelines. I can then use those chords as a base to build upon. For all of this I am also drawing on inspiration from a number of artists such as Radiohead, Aphex Twin, Olafur Arnalds, and Boards of Canada.
The sound effects design for The Curious Incident will be integrated tightly with the music. It mainly consists of atmospheric sound that will give the audience a sense of what Christopher’s surroundings are. The realism of the surroundings will be slightly heightened to reflect Christopher’s hyper-awareness of everything around him. When Christopher gets overwhelmed, I want the audience to experience the same thing. To achieve this, there will be speakers placed all around the theatre for true immersion in Christopher’s world.
Performances of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time continue running Feb. 14 – 24 at the Historic Dock Street Theatre. For tickets, click here.