Kicking off our 2016-2017 season, Professor Thomas Ellis directed Hands Up, a play consisting of seven short plays by seven up-and-coming African-American playwrights, voicing their reactions to recent events in Ferguson, MO and living in a culture of institutionalized profiling. In collaboration with the director, we chose to keep the sound design minimal, so as not to interfere with the power of the spoken words.  There were, however, a few moments that required sound effects to enhance the theatrical text.

The soundscape of a city and approaching sirens placed one piece in an urban landscape.  The set was minimal, so the sound enabled the audience to recognize the location of a city street.

 

Another interesting opportunity for sound occurred when a character listens to music in his headphones, and then the music moves out of his headphones into the space, where the rest of the cast joins him dancing.  Initially, the sound was supposed to sound as it would to someone standing next to a person in headphones with the volume up too loud- the sound of headphones from the outside.  This effect was created by manipulating the EQ of the song and playing only out a speaker placed by the actor in headphones.  Then, the song was cross-faded into the original version playing through the house sound system.

Here is the manipulated version of the song:

 

And, to hear the contrast, here is the original version of the song:

 

For this show, a unique preshow announcement was created.  As the director suggested, I used the introduction to Gil Scott Heron’s track, “The Revolution will not be Televised,” followed by a loop of his beats layered with a live recording from an actor in the show.

 

A lot of the effort in the design was spent finding poignant pre-show and intermission music that was also used to cover the transitions between the individual plays.  The wealth of music speaking to issues of racism and police violence in America is vast and it took some time to find the right music to serve this play.  Here are a few selections: