Information
Seamless. The drama club and I were at a festival a number of years ago, and the backstage adjudicator used the word "seamless" to praise our production. We had worked very hard to incorporate lights and sound so that it flowed together with the acting on the stage. The students hit all their lighting cues and sound cues perfectly with the correct speed for fades and crossfades.This is the goal for any technical part of theatre. And this is very important for sound. You could almost think of sound as another character on the stage. The actors often interact with sound effects. Imagine a lightning and thunder sound cue and imagine how the actors will react to that sound cue. It is like another actor providing something to react to. Therefore, it is often necessary to create a sound track for the rehearsal process that will be very close to the sound track for the production.
To create a sound track, the sound designer will often work early with the director and stage-manager to come up with a theme and any possible sound effects required. They will go through the script, beat by beat, looking for cues for sound effects. They will spend time pondering and debating songs that will bring out the theme of the play. As a part of my process, I like to find that one song that embodies the play and listen to it during post-production.
Action
Exercise 1: Create a small 2 minutes story using sound effects and music. The story should be:- A space battle
- The beginning should have spaceships arriving with a red alert
- The middle should be a battle
- The end should have the "Last Post" playing
Exercise 2: Create a playlist for Small Actors. It should have:
- An opening song
- songs for transitions
- A closing song
Exercise 3: Go through Small Actors and find possible sound effects. Then create sound samplers for those sound effects using Audacity.
