The San Diego Union-Tribune: It sounds as if it could be some kind of mystical mantra for a theatrical sound designer: Listen to the crickets.
In fact, it is literally what Melanie Chen Cole found herself doing late one night not long ago at the lip of a canyon in Mira Mesa, as she was working up ideas for the soundscape of La Jolla Playhouse’s world-premiere work “At the Old Place.”
2 comments:
This is such an interesting article and bio to be reading as essentially perspective student for all the design fields. Its interesting to see the different jobs and ideas of a true sound designer and the different approaches that she takes to her different tasks/jobs. It's cool to hear someone talk about the different parts of the mind and ideas that they have for so many different aspects of something that aren't always thought through. Another refreshing thing about the article is the attention to detail and the amount of work that she puts into her craft to make it to the best of her ability. Know I understand that this isn't her first attempt at any of this having an MFA in design but seeing how someone moved from biology undergraduate degree is cool to see the effort and work that she put into to make her self as successful designer as she could.
Cole lives and works in my hometown, San Diego. It is so interesting learning about the theater and the artists and professionals in San Diego because when I was there I wasn’t very connected to the regional theater scene right in my backyard. I know all of the places that were mentioned in this piece, La Jolla Playhouse, Cygnet, Ion, and the Globe. They are all such amazing theaters and they each have their own unique thing that they bring to the wider San Diego theater community. To hear about a woman is sound in San Diego is also really inspiring because from what I’ve seen at CMU undergraduate and graduate level woman are underrepresented in the discipline. Regarding the design and responsibilities of a sound designer, it is interesting to hear about how Cole breaks up the job. It is also interesting how she considers herself to have the personality for sound design. I think every design and management position has the special type of person for the specific job. I look around my class, potential designers and managers who are undeclared, and think about the personalities in the room and how these personalities that I am surrounded with could be theater professionals someday.
Post a Comment