i’m working at tarragon theatre these days, sound designing a double bill of amazing plays by hanna mocovitch with john gzowski. as always in the theatre, i am struck by how the interplay of text and sound can go so right, and also so wrong.
we had a lot of ideas ready to go when we started, and then of course discarded most of them. this is a good sign — it makes me think we are doing something right, supporting the words instead of restricting them. the text of these plays is so natural, so perfect. every “uh” and pause, every change of thought is scripted (and the actors are doing a terrific job of executing them, by the way). there isn’t one superfluous utterance – every ellipsis in the script has a purpose. it is quite sublime.
apparently this post has wandered away from sound. but i betcha i’m going to think about this the next time i make an audio piece.