In this fully staged workshop production, we explored a woman’s journey to find her soulmate, a dog named Brownie, as she struggles to overcome the obstacles that society presents to her due to her race, gender, and history of incarceration.
– Link to 30 second sound teaser –
- Written By: Madeline George
- Directed By: Rich Rand
- Sound Design and Original Music By: Nathan McWilliams
- Lighting Design: Yun (Jessica) Lin
- Performed: October 2018, Carol and Gordon Mallet Theater, Purdue University
Taking place in New York City, a place with an indelible aural fingerprint, we explored the use multi-level surround designs to immerse the audience into the streets and subways of the city. As the woman searches she discovers many others, people and animals, connected to her struggle; connected to her through time and space. She encounters mystical supernatural forces with underscored original music, she encounters a riot that swallows the audience with sound, and that struggle is embodied in a movement and sound piece that explores her journey into the city after years in prison.
Notes on the Sound Design: Some links to deeper explorations of the way sound was used to tell the story.
Opening Scene: From Prison to the City
-insert clip-
We follow the protagonist from her cell in her first moments of freedom as she travels out into bustling New York City after being released. The scene begins in her own mind, and with her cell doors opening for the last time, she must move out into a sensory overload as she travels across the city.
Vernelle Encounters the Supernatural
-Coming Soon-
Notes on the Systems Engineering: All of the tracks in this design were played back on a 6.1.4 custom format surround system. There were 6 channels of audio in the main listening plane, 4 channels of overhead surround, and a subwoofer. Each of these tracks were rendered as independently mixed sources.
– The 4 main surround speakers were used to playback sounds that would have arrived at your ears in mostly the horizontal plane.
– The 4 overheads were used to playback additional reverb tracks, and also specially rendered sounds that would have only originated overhead
– The 2 main upstage stage left and right were used primarily as stage source speakers for when sound comes from the primary playing area
– Link to System Drawings –