Monday, August 28, 2023
Back to the Future's Gareth Owen Didn't Go to College For Sound Design, Now He Has a Tony Award
Playbill: Anything and everything one hears when entering the world of Back to the Future: The Musical at Broadway's Winter Garden—including the powerful vocals of Casey Likes, the many jokes delivered by Tony winner Roger Bart as well as the sounds of thunder, the opening of a beer can, and, of course, a time-traveling sequence that leads the audience to a roar of applause—is thanks to Gareth Owen.
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The paper ceiling is this concept in the modern workforce that employees are required to have some sort of higher education in order to get a job. Even bachelor's degrees can cost thousands of dollars and take years of someone’s life. People who are self taught or self trained are often overlooked for positions, especially in more specialized markets. Theatre is an interesting case, as is frequently both self-taught, and highly specialized. However, the ideas regarding higher education of the modern workforce are making their way into theatre as well, especially in root level positions. This article is an interview with a self-taught sound designer, Gareth Owen, explaining his duties and responsibilities as well as describing how he became an award winning sound designer in the first place. Regarding the history of his career, Owen said “I don’t think I can point at any one single thing that I would call my ‘big break,’ rather a series of ‘small breaks’ which eventually culminated in being a Broadway sound designer.” Doing smaller shows and building relationships with people is what ultimately led him to success. Success in this field is a series of smaller steps, and while a degree provides an amazing launching point with automatic skill acquisition, having hard work, dedication, and being able to build relationships is ultimately what decides a career.
I find it extraordinarily interesting how many successful people there currently are in the field who do not have college degrees and if they do they are degrees in different areas. Contrasting that with people trying to enter the field currently who are almost entirely required to have a degree just to get started, often cases being a prerequisite for job offers. While Gareth’s achievements are many and are not to be diminished, I feel as though more and more praise has been attributed to people who entered the field at a time when degrees weren’t such a requirement, simply because they are now and the people who don’t have them seem more impressive because they “got in” without it. Gareth Owen has done astounding work and certainly deserves praise, however I believe that praise should be for the work they’ve done; Not the fact that they did it without a degree.
In this interview, Gareth Owen discusses his experiences as a self-taught sound designer. I find it striking and impressive that he has risen to the same level or above the level of many other sound designers who may have gone through 4 or more years of formalized training and spent significant amounts of money. This story reminded me of when I saw Moulin Rouge on tour a few months ago, and I stuck around after the show to talk to the soundboard operator. He gave me a fascinating rundown of his duties during the show, and during our conversation, he mentioned that he dropped out of college after a year. While the information itself wasn't shocking, I was surprised that he said this with an almost proud tone. As I think back to this, that tone may not have been as strange as I initially thought. There is something commendable about paving your own path and taking only the opportunities that will help you the most. He was right to be proud that he had such an important and interesting job without being formally trained in it in school.
I think this piece points to a larger discussion harkening back to a world outside of academia that is so often forgotten when we live in our small college bubble. On one hand, a degree is helpful. It makes you “more employable” to some and for many people they need the experience to grow in their craft. Education, and the barrier of financial burden that is accompanied by higher education, is not a step that all people need to take. It makes me question what we need to be looking for in higher education as generations rise and enter college. What qualities are important to a student and in a particular field? For me, one of the more important things about higher education is the alumni network base that a person graduates into but it is fair that this is a limited resource when higher education can be as expensive as it is considering the projections of career salaries in the arts.
I had never heard of Madi Soto before this article and I wasn't expecting to connect with her story as much as I did. I have had a similar experience in regards to the death of a parent. Shortly after my father died, I connected with theatre as a form of escapism and expression for the grief that I held. It allowed me to connect with my innermost thoughts much like it did for Soto. Something I also appreciated about Soto’s story is her ability to take her grief and turn it into a passion for exploring her heritage, especially her fathers. Connecting with the earth and her heritage is a beautiful piece of not only art, but a kind of meditation. I love nature so looking at artists that explore the intersectionality of our roots through nature is something truly fascinating to me. I intend to look into her music and add songs to my meditation playlist.
I thought this article was interesting, especially as I start my first year in undergrad. When I was trying to figure out the path I wanted to take post high school I did consider the possibility of going straight into the work force and not getting a degree. A point I thought was particularly interesting was the comment about how he did not chose to become a sound designer, it just sort of happened. I think whatever path artists chose to follow should be one that happens naturally. For Owen the path of going straight into the work force happened naturally, but for others like me, the path of choosing to go to school and pursue a degree happened more naturally. I think what I take away from this article is the idea that there are many paths to success and whatever artists chose should be personal to them.
I always enjoy hearing stories about people finding success without a college degree, especially in our industry. I think there is absolutely value in a college degree, after all I am in fact pursuing one right now, but I think right now our society is trapped within the idea that you need a degree to have any value and that is so far from true. This idea that you need to have experience before getting your first job like that is even possible and the millions of other things that make it impossible to work. Yeah everyone should finish highschool I think but there are so many life paths available after high school that college does not have to be and should not have to be the only one. I think nowadays people in this industry forget about this but I think training at this level is not absolutely necessary in such a creative field and this guy is proof.
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