Friday, July 05, 2019
6 Productions That Pushed the Sonic Envelope
AMERICAN THEATRE: Last Halloween in Austin, Shakespeare in the Dark: Macbeth took the stage at the historic and allegedly haunted Driskill Hotel. Adding to the spookiness—and giving special power to its sound designer, Emily Duncan Wilson—the show was performed in pitch blackness, with the audience seated in the middle of moving actors and four audio speakers.
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The use of sound in theater has changed dramatically since it was first introduced to the industry. From simple effects to relying on audible cues to guide the imagination through the story of Macbeth in a pitch black theater, "shines a brighter light" on the sound designers to truly showcase their visions. By letting the audience "see what they want to see" in their own heads simply guided by the audio of the environment around them creates a more memorable experience and may spark a creative or artistic quality.
Another interesting way to use sound in immersive plays was demonstrated in "Hello My Name Is..." where the designer would use sound coming from different rooms in a house to guide the audience to the next scene. Of course because equipment is limited the production staff had to figure out changing things without being seen by the audience. A convenient scene placed outside gave the crew enough time to switch up speakers and other equipment.
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