When Theater Works, a community theatre in Peoria, Arizona, decided to produce Bram Stoker's Dracula as part of their 2007-2008 season, they knew the sound engineering would involve an unprecedented challenge. The show required 72 music cues and 58 sound effects which needed to be overlapped and layered into 157 sound cues during the show. The production team decided that, in order to create the auditory atmosphere necessary for this eerie play, they would need to hire four sound engineers and procure extra sound boards, running sound effects simultaneously to engulf the theatre in a unique sensory experience that would complement the performance on stage. This approach presented a financial and technical challenge for the non-profit theatre company.
Scott Siegwald, the sound designer for the show, was desperate to honour the director's vision of immersing the audience in the Gothic ambiance of Dracula without overextending the production budget, so he resorted to problem-solving techniques that have served him well in the past: He searched the internet for some solution to his dilemma. The rest, as they say, is history.
"SM-Designer came to the rescue," stated Siegwald. "I was able to use the program to automate all the music and sound effects cues into a simple 'GO' button which would play the cue. We used eight speakers to form an envelope of sound surrounding the audience. SM-Designer was able to adjust the volume and delay the placement of each sound to create the environment that the director desired. I was able to learn the program in a hurry, thanks to the great technical support provided by Richmond Sound Design Ltd, the authors of this amazing program."
Using this software, Siegwald was able to create exactly the complex, brooding layers of sound the director had hoped for - and only one sound engineer was necessary to run the computerized cues! The sound was effective, the show was a huge success, and Scott Siegwald was honoured recently with a prestigious AriZoni Award for his efforts.
The AriZoni Theater Awards is a not-for-profit organisation devoted to promoting the visibility and growth of theatre in central Arizona. Participating theatres submit productions they want to be considered for Zonis, and, after completion of an exhaustive judging process involving close to 100 adjudicators, nominations are announced and Awards of Excellence are presented to those individuals who have excelled in performance and production during the recently completed season. Thanks to this complex yet user-friendly software, Scott Siegwald took home the trophy in the sound design category.
(Lee Baldock)
