Pirates! This Blog is now a Pirate Ship!

Hello All!

Right off the bat you should know this is not your regular Blogger-ette. I decided to give Eliza a break. My name is Chris and I’M TAKING THINGS OVER (for a post).

Who am I?!?

I’m an actor with the festival. This season I’m playing Laertes in Hamlet, Viola (Eliza’s) twin, Sebastian, in Twelfth Night,

Who is who?

and Peter in our non-Shakespeare show, Peter and the Starcatcher. 

Meet Peter

(Click on this)

Someone doesn't like the dark...

That show is what I want to talk about today. I’ve had such a good time following Eliza’s posts about all the goings on of the festival, both the folks who are on stage and those that work the real magic behind the scenes. Now I want to share some of the craziness of the 2-hour rollercoaster that is Peter and the Starcatcher.

SO, quick overview: Peter and the Starcatcher is an prequel to Peter Pan. It follows a young boy as he discovers who he is and where his place is in the world, a young girl as she fights to have her voice heard and become the respected adult she’s always wanted to be, and a pirate captain searching for a true hero so he can finally fulfill his dream of becoming a ruthless villain. Along the way we encounter a crocodile who grows to a gigantic girth, a tiny yellow bird who lights up a room, boys who can’t seem to find their way and Smee, a trusty "right-hand man", there for you when you need one.

So how do we do it?

Well it starts with a cast of 11 men and one fierce little lady.

 

You talkin' about me?

We all play multiple parts, running around onstage and off, quickly changing costumes to fill out ships full of sailors, armies of islanders and some creatures that may not even exist in real life.

Add to that 2 musicians covering 51 instruments, providing live accompaniment and foley for the show. 

Boys with Toys

The play takes place at several locations including the docks at Portsmouth, 2 different ships at sea and a tropical island. How do we get all that on stage? Well we gotta get creative!

What is this? A ship for ants?

Smee-sus Take the Wheel!

Along with the different locales the show makes a lot of use of "found objects". These are things that we ask you to suspend your disbelief and imagine being something else. We make fabric into water, ribbons into whips and feather dusters into little birds.

Peter makes a friend

That's really kinda the most important thing about this play. We ask the audience to come along with us and use their imaginations, just like we are using ours'. As Shakespeare said in the prologue to Henry V: 

O for a Muse of fire, that would ascend
The brightest heaven of invention,
A kingdom for a stage, princes to act
And monarchs to behold the swelling scene!

                   But pardon, and gentles all,
The flat unraised spirits that have dared
On this unworthy scaffold to bring forth
So great an object: can this cockpit hold
The vasty fields of France? or may we cram
Within this wooden O the very casques
That did affright the air at Agincourt?

So we ask everyone to imagine that this Manor Theater can make room for a mountain.  Imagine it can harbor the high seas. Imagine it can furnish a forest.

We believe it. If you believe it too maybe, just maybe, by the end you'll believe that a boy can fly. 

You might even meet a mermaid too...

 

Music Oft Hath Such a Charm, To Make Bad Good and Good Provoke to Harm

Hello Everyone,

Sorry it has been so long since I posted - the past two weeks have been crazy busy and as a result, we are finally open!! I was very fortunate to be able to ask Kieran, our Sound Designer, some questions about the three very distinct soundscapes from the Festival this year. Kieran even shared some sound clips with us - although to hear the live music in Twelfth Night, you will just have to come see the show! 

ES: Do you have a consistent design process or is it different for every show?

KP: The way I start the design process is fairly consistent.  I like to first read the script and then talk to the director about their vision for the show before I start thinking about my part.  Unless a director has a specific desire to have live vs recorded music and sound effects, I let the script dictate my design choices.  From there I am influenced by watching rehearsals, other areas of the production design, and keeping an eye on the original intent of the playwright; designing in the best interest of the show.

ES: Where did you draw your inspiration from for Twelfth Night?

KP: The music for Twelfth Night was inspired by listening to the youtube channels of contemporary musicians.  I found so many beautiful love songs on guitar and piano that worked perfectly for our show.  Once I had a solid starting point, composing was easy.

ES: Where did you draw your inspiration from for Hamlet?

KP: I used no direct inspiration for the Hamlet sound design.  We were setting the designs in a non-specific time period and straying away from using any music at all.  That left me with a need to create a sound effects collection that complimented the text and action without drawing any focus.  Singing bowls, water phones, and atmospheric noises created the sound palette.

ES: Where did you draw your inspiration from for Peter and the Starcatcher?

KP: As the sound engineer on a semi-musical production my role was reinforcement.  Balancing the sound levels of the musicians and actors.  My inspiration came from working on QGents in the 2015 ISF season which was a show that used a concert rig to mic the actors and amplify the DJ.  This helped me understand how Ewing handles microphones and speakers and the relationship of the deck and above playing spaces.  Finding that balance in Peter has been tough.  Adding monitoring to the system for the actors use often times over powered, causing a lack of clarity in vocals and text.  It has been a good experience trying to figure out how to make that relationship work between the band location and action of the play.

ES: Hamlet and Peter have some non-live sound elements - did you create these or find these?

KP: The sound design elements in Peter were created or warped for the most part.  There were a couple animal sounds like a panther and owl that were stock sound effects, but the crocodile sounds were recorded and warped to create a scary monster effect.

ES: What went into creating the scary crocodile sound?

KP: A direct example of how I recorded the crocodile sound was a trick I learned from watching a documentary on The Lord of the Rings sound engineering team.  In order to create the Balrog sound they recorded a cement block being dragged across a wooden floor.  I did a similar technique using different surfaces to achieve a variety of sounds.  After that I put various EQ and reverb effects depending on what the moment called for in the script.

CLICK HERE for Sound Clips from Peter and Hamlet



ES: (Wow, it is so effective! That sound was terrifying!) What is your favorite part of your job?

KP: Working directly with actors.  Whether I am a music director or a sound designer, I really appreciate collaborating with actors to make the best production experience possible.  My work effects them and vise-versa and I believe that if we understand each other a little better, the production can only benefit from our experiences.

ES: What is the biggest challenge about designing sound? 

KP: The speaker system design.  Whether you need a special location for a speaker or just generally, the abilities of the sound system dictate how effective your design will be.  You need the right speakers in the right locations first, and then you have to make sure your sound effects and music sound exactly how they were intended too when you made your design choices in the first place.

ES: When was your first Design meeting for the Festival this year and when did you start communicating with Directors about the shows?

KP: I started working on the festival in February.  I had my first phone meetings with all the directors the day before the preliminary designs.  Coming late into the process gave me a solid idea on the direction the shows were headed already.

ES: What is Sound's relationship with Electrics - do you work hand in hand to set cues?

KP: A sound designer is only as good as their engineer.  We do work hand in hand to setup the system, test speakers and ensure all playback is working correctly.

ES: For Twelfth Night and Peter and the Starcatcher, there is a lot of live actor/musician sound - how do you approach a show like that?

KP: First you have to find out the abilities of the musicians.  After that you can compose or teach music that they are able to play.  If you compose/teach music that is really complicated but have musicians that are at a beginner level on their instrument, you will never achieve a great sound.

ES: Is there anything else you would like to add or tell us about?

KP: In my opinion a good sound design never diverts attention.  It should always compliment the action and only pull focus should the script call for it.  This is why I attend so many rehearsals and interact with everyone.  They have a rhythm and pattern to their actions, and a great sound design will reinforce that.

I have to say that I am so impressed that Kieran composed so much of the music and created so many of the sounds from scratch - the music in Twelfth Night always moves me, no matter how many times I have heard it and the sound in Hamlet always makes my hair stand on end because it is so effectively terrifying.