A Christmas Carol: A Live Radio Play at Third Avenue PlayWorks in Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin, is a unique, family-friendly production, with a talented team of artists creating an authentic 1940’s radio experience in front of a live studio audience.
DIRECTED BY ELYSE EDELMAN
The WBFR Radio Players are back!
With the assistance of a gifted musician and foley artist, the five WBFR players bring scores of colorful characters, inventive sound effects, and musical underscoring to vivid life. In this refreshed version with all new staging, our talented team of artists creates an authentic 1940’s radio experience in front of a live studio audience. You’ve never experienced Charles Dickens’ holiday classic quite like this, so plan to join us for this unique, family-friendly production!
Cast: Cassandra Bissell – Sally Applewhite Neil Brookshire – Jake Laurents Ray Jivoff – Freddie Filmore Dan Klarer – Harry Rána Roman – Lana Sherwood Brian Grimm – “Chet, the intern” Foley Artist & Musician
Director – Elyse Edelman Set Design – Alex Polzin Lighting Design – Colin Gawronski Costume Design – Karin Kopischke Sound Design/MD – Brian Grimm Production Stage Manager – Kelsey Brennan York Properties Master – Haley Cranstoun
Check out my interview write up on TAP’s website about the Art of Foley! >>
Scroll to the bottom of the post to see 3 Reels of all the Foley sounds in this show!!
Remount with a Different Approach to Foley and Microphones
Though we were remounting the 2022 production of “Christmas Carol: A Live Radio Play” at Third Avenue Playworks, there ended up being many significant changes this time around. Director Elyse Gorens Edelman, who had performed as Lana Sherwood in both the 2022 “Christmas Carol” and 2023 “It’s a Wonderful Life” Radio Plays, had three really big concept shifts based on her previous experiences on stage.
The biggest shift was having the actors do all of their own Foley sounds! In the first production, I handled all foley sound making, unless there was a music cue happening concurrently; which did happen a fair number of times, especially around scene transitions. However, during longer dialogue scenes like the opening at Scrooge’s counting house and Old Joe’s shop, I was making all the foley sounds at my table. As you can imagine this kept me quite busy!! It was a head spin to perform the show the first time, it was non-stop for me. Even just handling mostly music this time, I am still incredibly busy on stage; switching between various mallets, bows, and instruments.
One big thing we learned over the last two radio plays is that if the audience can See it, they can Hear it. Musically, we made sure I wasn’t hiding any instruments in the back, having me stand the whole time. Foley wise, by having the actors doing their own sound effects, it would bring visual attention to the sound so the audience knew where to put their focus. So what does it mean for the actors to do their own foley?… well it’s not easy either! The actors are holding scripts and executing a lot more blocking to go back and forth between their microphones and the foley tables. For instance in the counting house scene, Fred, the Gentlewoman, and the Caroling Boy characters all perform their own door knocks and door open/closes when entering the scene. So now instead of the actor just being stationary at the microphone while I perform their foley door sounds – they must go to the table with the door, perform the foley and then step to the mic to start the dialogue. Or for instance, one character was responsible for all of the clock chimes in the play. This meant they must get all the way upstage to grab the bell chime and mallet, hurry to the mic downstage, and while holding the script perform the foley sound, then immediately start speaking their lines. No small feat!! It is very challenging and dynamic, kudos and bravi to all the actors on stage for stepping up to this demanding task!
A grand change was Alex Polzin’s updated set design. The first production had a more narrow and tall stage setup, as there were 5 microphones and a lot less blocking. I was doing foley and music at one single, long table and the actors were performing lines at the mic. However, this year Alex opened the set all the way wide, with three lovely archways and red curtains. One big table for me, which now has more music instruments set upon and a few smaller foley objects, and two smaller break out foley tables spread around the stage for devices like the wind machine and doors. I love the mid century art deco mural Alex painted on this set!! It turned out wonderfully!
Another enormous difference between the first production and this remount is the type of microphones we are using, how many, and the way they are set up in the live mix. In the first production we used a Shure 55SH microphone. Dynamic, dark tone, classic look and a very tight pick up pattern. This was period appropriate and had a lot of isolation from feedback, requiring the actors to get up close on mic. If they were 3″ off mic there started to be a big drop off in level, by time they got 6″ off mic, it was quite distant and not really coming through the speakers so well. Style wise it looked really good, because the actors really were leaning in and on mic. But it actually created actor issues when they wanted to play the line to their scene partners on another mic across stage. It was hard to make eye contact or change their body position without going off axis and getting lost in the mix. The tight pick up radius was a major advantage for me as the mixing engineer, because I’ve set this show up as a static mix. Which is a big challenge, and honestly a risk on a show like this, it has to be dialed in very carefully. Eliminating feedback frequencies while still keeping a natural sound, and setting up precise gates & compressor settings. There are 7 to 8 completely live microphones, all with faders up and the gain wide open… no board operator or live mixer to mute channels or throw faders! It is a very live mix with a lot of stage noise between the actors, music instruments, and foley. So I had to set up a mix that can stay wide open and not feedback during the run of the show with no one at the board… oh yeah and have it sound good too! Honestly this is the part of the show that goes completely unnoticed and uncredited – because it is so dialed in. It would only be noticed if it was going wrong and there was constant feedback or a bad sounding mix. The more invisible it is, the better I’ve done my job. But because I’m not credited as “mix engineer” in the program, it goes over people’s heads that I have also set up this live mix, and that there is no one at the board live mixing.
This year we went with an condenser mic to allow for a more wide open set up. This way the actors could stand further back from the mic and play the scenes more open to their partners. Also we went down from 5 vocal mics to 3; often times there are 2-3 actors sharing a microphone. We worked in 3 “zones”, 1) full standing upright a foot or two back for the more distant scene hubub background noises, 2) leaning and stepping in for the all purpose main line performing, and 3) up close on the mic only for special effect voices and foley. The mic I chose is the MXL V67G in the absolutely lovely green body, gold grill colorway. Though it is a solid state large diaphragm condenser microphone, it is actually modeled off of the design of the tube classic Neumann 67. It is meant to give the rich tone and response of tube microphones in a solid state form factor. I must say at this price point the MXL V67 is an absolute steal, I have been so impressed with the results. I have the compression set up to really work hard only if the actors get right up close to the mic, and wow it is such a smooth transition and swoop of proximity effect which I was able to pull out of this microphone. It sounds warm, rich and very natural for voice! The director and I were very happy, it performed exactly as we imagined it would and was a really easy mic to work with. Highly recommend as a price point condenser to add to your mic locker – I’d love to hear it on cello…
There were a few changes this time around with the music instrument setup! I added Harmonium to the table, which I was very excited about. It adds some rich, folksy flavor to the Christmas Present scenes with the Cratchit family. This time, instead of sitting and playing cello, I had my cello on a strap system, ala “Flying Lovers of Vitebsk”, with my trusty DPA4900 microphone and wireless mic pack system attached to the strap. I also switched from Tenor Viola da Gamba to the Treble Viola da Gamba!! This was to bring the weight of history and nostalgia to the Ghost of Christmas Past scenes. The Treble Viol sits fully in both the violin + viola range and is small enough that I can stand and play it on top of my music table! So people can actually see what I am playing! It is such a sweet and fun little instrument to play, I love it!!
Here’s a Photo tour of the instruments and foley setup!
The last major change is that I had a surprise acting role!! Cast as the Ghost of Christmas Future, living up to my Grimm namesake! This ghost of things which have not passed but may never speaks a word, but bows terrifying crunchy cello sounds (my favorite hehe) using my custom made Nakatani-Kobo bow! This giant bow made for a great visual of the spectre’s outstretched hand, always floating and in supple motion. Not only did we want me standing to play cello behind the music table so I could be more visually present this time (which if I only played stationary, I could do by fully extending the end pin), but we wanted me freely mobile to go anywhere on the stage so that I could lead Scrooge through the terrifying mists of a future that may be, if he doesn’t change his ways. The most difficult part was not the moving and playing cello or having an acting role, but rather not breaking character during any of the goofy shenanigans or ad libs from the cast!
Special Thanks to my bandmate Chad Canfield for borrowing/renting to us a huge amount of instruments, foley, and the wireless mic pack for this production!!
“Ryan’s Pub, Trivia Night” at Third Avenue PlayWorks in Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin, is a story about trivia night, cheaters in billowy khakis, bosses with big watches, and bartenders in tight t-shirts, and about coming face to face with demons. Marci and Richie are the best trivia team this side of the Monongahela River and have they got a story to tell! So, grab a seat, pop a can of Iron City, and enjoy Alec Silberblatt’s quirky, distinctive storytelling!
Trivia for Tickets! Leading up to the show, TAP partnered with Cherry Lanes Arcade Bar, Stone Harbor Resort, The Thirsty Cow Taphouse, and Buzz Social to give away tickets for Ryan’s Pub, Trivia Night. (all the events have passed)
Design Team
Director – Jacob Janssen Set Design – Alex Polzin Costume Design – Kotryna Hilko Lighting Design – Colin Gawronski Sound Design, Original Score – Brian Grimm Production Stage Manager – Kelsey Brennan York Properties Master – Haley Cranstoun Guest Artist, Percussion – Nick Lang
TAP’s Community Partner for “Ryan’s Pub, Trivia Night” is JAK’s Place, Lakeshore CAP’s unique local response to the shortage of mental health facilities and practitioners in rural Northeastern Wisconsin. JAK’s Place empowers adults with diagnosed mental illness as well as anyone with a mental health concern by building support and providing the resources to move toward recovery. JAK’s Place doors are open Monday through Thursday 12 p.m. to 5 p.m. and Friday 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Our Pay-What-You-Will Preview is the Wednesday prior to opening night at 7:30 p.m. Those interested in attending the preview to support this organization, may arrive as early as 6:30 p.m. on the evening of the performance for general admission seating. Space is available on a first come, first served basis. Donations may be made in cash or with checks made out to Third Avenue PlayWorks. Half of the proceeds will benefit this show’s Community Partner.
Larry Mohr Photography
Recording Session with our Guest Artist, Nick Lang
For years now, Jacob has been wanting to get his long time friend and fantastic Milwaukee based percussionist Nick Lang to be involved on a project with Third Avenue Playworks. When envisioning the music world and genre of this play, I knew it wanted to live in a rock territory. We’ve got a dive bar jukebox slinging hits from the 80’s, 90’s & today. Heck, just being set in a midwest dive bar made me think of my local dive, which always had metal playing. Plus, the story involves a deal with the devil, I mean come on – it’s gotta be rock’n roll baby. I knew that drums would really come in clutch as a centerpiece to the music sound that transitioned us between scenes. Jacob wanted short, snappy transitions infused with energy, and drums are perfect for that. So we reached out to Nick and he was down! I went over to his home studio in Milwaukee for a day and we had so much fun jamming out together on drums and bass. I really love playing this style of music, getting filthy mc nasty on the jazz bass is such a blast. Really made me want to play this music we created live!
Musically, the main concept for this show was to deconstruct Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin'” into its bits & pieces and rebuild from there. The song is mentioned a number of times in the script, and is a perfect theme tune or mantra for Marci’s journey to sobriety and conquering her demons. We started with having Nick record the main drum groove from the classic 80’s hit in a number of different styles and variations. I also transformed the original Journey song material through augmented chord structures, re-constructing the bass lines to fit my Devil Tonality (more below). We would shift back and forth between the original Journey bass lines, and the modified Devil versions, resulting in new chord progressions and melodic material. Jamming on different feels, tempos changes, cadences, articulations, dynamics, and exploring variations based on the energy of the moment.
Nick also put impletments on his drum kit so we could record the groove from Taylor Swift’s “Look What You Made Me Do” (also mentioned in the script for a very pivotal moment), but have an industrial, distorted, and literally augmented sort of feel to the drums. Here’s the instrumental version of that remake, with me layering bass, cello, piano, and pipa lute parts on top (plus the bonus demonic version of Taylor singing remix too…)
We also spent time recording new original tunes that explored the devil tonality through a couple of different rock styles: a slow Elliott Smith distorted strummer, a dusty Desert Rock style featuring reverse pipa, some Drum’n Bass industrial glitches, in your face Punk 16th notes, and an open descending bass line with augmented swirlies into hell, you get the picture. Here are a few examples to check out:
Pipa Desert Rock mega mix in 4 parts
Elliott Smith Style, Slow Strum Distorted Version
Long Descending Augmented Devil Line Rock
16th Note Nasty Bass Chuggalug
Moody Dark Tom Exploration
Huge Thanks to Nick Lang for his amazing contributions to this show!!
Set by Alex Polzin, Larry Mohr Photography
Devil Tonality concept (augmented vs diminished)
I started diving into Journey’s Don’t Stop Believin’ for note combos & chord progressions we could use. But I knew it would take some work to shift it towards a devilish soundscape or tonality. After some exploration I ended up playing Augmented chords for each chord of the song’s progression – and that is when it started to click for me. Traditionally, in western tonalities, the Devil is represented by the tri-tone. This is a diminished (lowered) 5th. For example, if your perfect 5th is from C to G, and you lowered that G to a Gb (or F#), you would then have a tri-tone, aka a diminished 5th. But as we all know, the Beast is also represented by the number 666. Well… when you stack augmented 5ths (raising the 5th instead of lowering it) on a cello, it sounds enharmonically as a grouping of minor 6ths… meaning that the chord structure is a stack of three minor 6ths, aka 666!! So this augmented chord ended up signifying the Devil for our show, 666 🤘.
Then it came down to which scale would I pair with the augmented chords. You can play a whole tone scale over any augmented chord and it will work. The whole tone scale is 6 notes comprising of all whole steps, or major seconds: 1 2 3 #4 #5/b6 b7 1′ (key of C = C D E F# G#/Ab Bb C). However, this scale tonality did not feel rock enough; sometimes it can sound too ethereal, or mysterious but in a lifted up to the sky sort of way. We needed something dirty and coming down from below. So I focused on a different type of augmented scale, still with 6 notes, but comprising of alternating 1/2 steps and minor 3rds: 1 b3 3 5 b6 7 1′ (key of C = C Eb E G Ab B C) . This version of a 6 note scale (666 🤘😛) unlocked everything I needed to Rock. All half steps and minor thirds just keeps lending itself to nasty patterns. So I spent some time recording ideas and parts on pipa and bass guitar in this scale; using rhythm, tempo, and rock feel inspirations from the Journey song, before coming to jam with Nick. Once we were together for the recording session, everything fell into place and it was a blast to jam out in this world. You can see from my notes here some of the tonal ideas and chord progressions that I was exploring (in the key of E)
The Jukebox!
In the script there is mention of a Jukebox in the bar. Hayley, our Props Master, was able to track down this fantastic vintage Wurlitzer jukebox for our show! (It’s got full stereo music y’all!) When we originally opened up the back panel to look at the insides, it reminded me of the original atomic bombs. A little brother to fat boy, the next machinery in line at the Manhattan project. After assessing the electronics on board (which did conveniently have an RCA input!) we decided to just gut all of the innards and hot-rod the wiring directly to the speakers. Better to pump in signal from a head amp and control that rather than try to rely on this old technology for the run of the show… if we could even get it working in the first place! And guess what, it sounds fantastic! I had a 9 speaker surround design going, but we specifically used the Jukebox on it’s own for 2 specific transition cues in the play. One of those transitions was a big highlight for me, I love how it played. Doug’s character goes over to the jukebox, punches a chunky button and Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin’ ” starts playing. The Jukebox it also is utilized as part of the speaker mix in the unsettling devil soundscape, specifically for all of the reverse pipa undulating in unsettling queasy dissonance, whenever the demon is present.
Friday, 10/18/2024 8pm, $15 tix Audio For The Arts recording studio 7 S Blair St # 1, Madison, WI 53703
Presented by BlueStem Jazz and Audio for the Arts. Brennan Connors & Stray Passage Jazz trio return to AFA studios once again to record their new album in front of a live studio audience! As any free-improviser will tell you, the audience is also a bandmate. You are crucial to the performance of improvised music! It is a feedback loop between the performer and the listener. Whatever energy you give to us we respond and give back to you. However you react to our music, in that moment changes what we play and which direction the improvisation moves in. It’s a give and take, so come be a part of that magic circle and inspire us with your presence! It’s just not the same without you.
Brennan Connors & Stray Passage has maintained a presence in Madison, Wisconsin as rugged experimental jazz trio for nearly a decade and a half. In 2016 we recorded our first album, which was released in 2017 on the Italian record label Setola Di Maiale. It’s time to make a new document of where we currently are with our music, and you are invited. This event will be a live in-studio recording at Audio for the Arts, and a ticket to the live show comes along with a CD and a digital download of the new album once it is officially released. – Brennan Connors (saxophones & flutes) continues his wide eyed, open eared journey exploring music, sound, and whatever is around such things. He has been leading the trio into spaces that reflect and express those explorations, here and now.
Brian Grimm (strings & effects) is currently composing musical scores and soundscapes full-time for professional live theatre throughout the Midwest.
Geoff Brady (drums, percussion, theremin) still brings his excellent drum work to the trio (Mr. Harvey Pekar wrote, “Brady is a fine, subtle percussionist.”). He has also been utilizing his virtuosity on the theremin as new staple in Stray Passage’s sonic lineup.
This event is BYOB.
Check out some clips from our March 2024 concert at Cafe Coda!
Our album “Emergence” (2017) was also recorded live with a live in-studio audience back in 2016 at Audio For The Arts. You can check it out here >>
A spirited homage to fandom, for sports and theater lovers alike.
“King” LeBron James was just the hero that Cleveland needed. One of the greatest NBA players to ever hit the court, his influence brought promise and renewal to an entire city. Set against the backdrop of James’ electrifying basketball career, this fast-paced comedy chronicles the turbulent bond between two die-hard fans, whose intertwined fortunes are tied to those of their idol. A hilarious and heartfelt exploration of loyalty, legacy, and the shared moments that define us. [from Forward Theater’s website]
Names of Actors and Design Team listed in Forward’s Post above!
Overall Concept
This is the only play I’ve worked on that when I read the script, I heard no music. This is extremely rare, normally when I read a script I will hear music in my head and get a lot of intuition information on where there could be music, underscore, or sound support (even if we don’t put any there in the actual show). So it was quite a remarkable reading for me to not have that happen at all; I thought, “hmmm, what exactly will I be doing on this one?…”. But as I started to understand the quick costume changes and huge amount of set transformations between scenes, it was pretty clear that sound would be crucial in supporting the transitions of this show. It was the fewest amount of cues I’ve ever had in my Qlab session! It’s also the first time I haven’t composed any original music for a show and worked exclusively with existing recordings. Even though there weren’t many music cues, the remixes I made were absolutely jam packed with action and a lot of work went into each one.
Besides helping with transitions, these music tracks played a big part in setting the year of each scene, as well as activating our cultural memories of that time. It also served a unique function in this show in that I was able to add a little more information and context of what was happening in LeBron’s career leading up to the scene. It’s not something that often happens, but it proved to be a powerful approach to how sound design can serve the story. It was always my goal to tee-up the ball for the actors, but to not reveal too much info, or give away any important bits that the actors are meant to unveil within the scene. I was just there to make the assist, tossing the ball up in the air so they could dunk it.
The main concept was to use popular songs from the year that each scene takes place to set the time period and remix it. This was in complement to the specific “vintage” cell phones (shout out Kaya) & basketball shoes (shout out Karen) used in each scene to set place and time. I specifically wanted to choose a song that had meaning either to the fans of that team or that was used a “theme song” for LeBron during that particular season. Something that would have been used at a sports game, something tied to that moment in time. I then remixed the track to include highlight reel sound bites of announcers calling big plays, crowd reactions, and newscasters discussing the hype or big events of that particular season. I really wanted to infuse the electric energy of what it’s like to be in the crowd at a sporting event or watching a big game with your friends. I wanted to hype up the audience and give the actors a bunch of energy to do the next scene!
I free-handed all of the remixes, nothing was “warped” to the tempo or on the beat “grid”. So when I was chopping up bits of the track & stems, I was lining everything up to the transients of where the next beat would start to splice things in (you can see examples in the photos below). Everything is heavily manipulated and chopped up, moved around, and twisted upside down, but the goal was for you not even to notice, for it just to flow. However, if you go back and listen to the original tracks compared to these remixes, you’ll hear how heavy handed I was and just how much has been changed. It also took a lot of finesse and experimentation placing all of the announcer game calls and newscaster clips. I worked carefully to line things up with a certain beat or match the phrase length of the music, all while telling a coherent story. These remixes were a blast to work on and an interesting puzzle to put together!
Here are some screenshots of my different Remix sessions in Ableton:
Q1 Jesus Walks – overviewQ2 All I Do Is Win – overviewQ2 All I Do Is Win – zoom in on Vocal Chops -not used in greyQ2 All I Do Is Win – lining up the beat chops free handQ2 All I Do Is Win – lining up the transients free hand zoom inQ4 Started From the Bottom – overviewQ4 Started from the Bottom – edits zoom inQ4 Started From the Bottom – fx automation
Of course, just the clip arrangement view doesn’t tell you the whole story of manipulation involving effect chains, and automation moves, etc. Even on individual clips themselves (like the highlighted ones in the 2nd to last photo), I’m changing the pitch or envelopes in certain ways so that “repeated” sounds are never quite the same twice.
2003-2004 – Pregame Warmup / Pre Show playlist
To set the time period, all of the pre show songs were chart topping hip-hop and club hits from 2003-2004. Millennials, this one’s for you: 50 Cent “In Da Club”, Eminem “Lose Yourself”, Snoop Dogg “Drop It Like It’s Hot”, Usher “Yeah!”, Beyonce “Crazy In Love”, etc, etc… you get the idea, it was basically our prom soundtrack hahaha.
2004 – Quarter 1 / Tip Off
“Jesus Walks” Remix – Original 1st Draft:
Kanye’s first lyrics place us in the heartland, “you know what the Midwest is, young and restless”, we hear the sound bite of the announcer and crowd reacting to LeBron’s first dunk of his first NBA game. Later the news pundet asks “Do you see anything that suggests, he might actually live up to the hype?” followed by Kanye saying “it’s kinda hard and” ending with “the only thing that I pray is that my feet don’t fail me now…”, as if coming from LeBron’s perspective.
In the 2nd Quarter, Shawn talks about sports “fans” being fanatics and that being the term’s origin word. He brings it around to religion, comparing the parallels of LeBron being “a savior” like Jesus. Shawn highlights all the things devoted followers are asked to do in order to please their “vengeful deity” and avoid suffering. So choosing “Jesus Walks” to kick things off this was both a nod to that moment in the script and serving up how much hype there was in the media surrounding LeBron James potentially becoming basketball’s new Messiah.
Top Of Show – “Jesus Walks” Coronation of King James Remix – Final Show Version:
Musically, you can hear in the final Show version, that only a little phrase of music got cut about 3/4 of the way through the track, we put a reverb sting to Kanye’s last vocal note, and added drums in under that final vocal line. Mikael had the idea to add a National Anthem to the start of this cue, since it was the Top of Show and that’s how we’d start the NBA game! I found a few different of clips of the full arena of CAVS fans singing the National Anthem during various playoff games! Here in an earlier draft of the cue, you can hear the full version of the intro where the Announcer asks the fans to join in the Cleveland tradition of singing the national anthem together. Even this bit of the Announcement is edited down, but it still ended up adding about 30 seconds to the top of show cue and that was just too long. Also, we were worried some audience members might stand up to start singing, instead of settling into their seat for the start of the show… So as much as we wanted to include that sound bite to let them know they were actually hearing CAVS fans sing the national anthem – it had to get cut for time.
“Jesus Walks” remix – Longest Intro version with original CAVS Announcer:
“Jesus Walks” remix – Shortest Singing Intro version with “By” moment:
In this shortest version of the singing, a really nice effect happened when the music track hits the downbeat and the CAVS fans are singing the word “By” in the anthem. It was such a cool sounding crowd sample that I wanted to add more of that into the track, but in the end, it felt like once we transitioned into the remix, we should just stay there and leave the anthem clips behind – on to setting up the story up.
2010 – Quarter 2
“All I Do Is Win” Miami Remix – Final Show Version:
In 2010 LeBron James left the Cavs to play for the Miami Heat, where they shortly went on to win 2 NBA championships. “All I Do Is Win” (2010) became one of the theme songs for that team and time period. It was so perfect to use, especially because Matt and Shawn spend most of Quarter 2 being sour and pissed off at LeBron for leaving the CAVS. Further antagonized by Ludacris’ line in the song about being the “South’s Champion, cause all I do, all I – all I – all I – all I do is WIN”!
There were 4 teams in the running trying to secure James for their roster in 2010 and LeBron famously sat down for a live interview on TV to unveil his decision. I added newscasters speculating whether this would be the end of LeBron’s career with the CAVS and actual audio of that live interview.
“The Decision Interview” clip that ends this cue leads with Jim Gray asking, “The answer to the question everybody wants to know… LeBron, what’s your decision?” and leaves LeBron saying “Umm.. In this Fall, man… this is very tough…” The very next sentence LeBron says in that interview is the now infamous line and Shawn’s first line of the scene: “I’m going to take my talents to South Beach…” . The sound design here sets up the actual moment right before Shawn’s first line and then the actor gets to finish it. I really liked how it became a super smooth continuation from the real life recording down into the world of the stage with the actors getting to play off of it start the scene.
2010-2014 – Halftime / Intermission
NBA Game Horn into “All of the Lights”
When looking through 2010 songs for this moment, I spotted “All of the Lights” by Kanye West. Originally, I just thought it would be a funny way to troll my friend, collaborator, and the lighting designer on this show, Colin Gawronski (Stones in His Pockets, Birds of North America, Garbologists, I Carry Your Heart With Me, and more!). How fun if the song lyrics would literally tell the lights what to do: dramatic end to the scene, we’re in black out, then out of the darkness – “Turn up the lights in here baby…” and then the lights would come up in the house for intermission, “Extra bright, I want y’all to see this!”. I was 100% expecting this to get cut, especially because it meant using a 2nd Ye song, but Mikael was down and we kept it in the show! Much to my delight.
During the Intermission, we move progressively from year to year between 2010 to 2014 with each track. This time highlighting the party atmosphere that pop music had shifted into during the 2010s, to contrast from the hip hop club vibes of the mid 2000’s pre show playlist. This again was to help us set the time period and feeling. It was important that these were all songs that might be heard in an NBA arena during a game too, I wanted to keep that high energy atmosphere up during the intermission. I still wanted the audience to feel like they were in a sports arena.
During intermission, there is a massive on stage transition where they rotate the entire back wall and transform the space from a minimal sleek wine bar to a cluttered old vintage store. Huge props to the backstage crew for making that all happen each night!!!
Here’s the Halftime Playlist: (2010) “All of the Lights” – Kanye West (2011) “Party Rock Anthem” (feat. Lauren Bennett & GoonRock) by LMFAO (2011) “We Found Love” (feat. Calvin Harris) by Rihanna (2012) “Call Me Maybe” by Carly Rae Jepsen (2012) “Don’t Stop the Party” (feat. TJR) by Pitbull (2013) “Get Lucky” by Daft Punk, Pharrell (2014) “Turn Down for What” by Lil Jon (2014) “Shake It Off” by Taylor Swift (2014) “Uptown Funk” (feat. Bruno Mars) by Marc Ronson
LeBron’s 1st Game Intro back with the Cavs – Classic NBA Intro Remix – Final Show Version:
Original Clip with Diddy “Comin’ Home” song in background…
This is the actual announcement bringing LeBron James onto the court for his first game back with the CAVS in 2014. And the theme song that was used to celebrate LeBron’s return was Diddy’s “Comin’ Home” track from 2014… As most of you know now, in 2024, Diddy has come under public scrutiny for abuse towards women caught on tape, as well as going to court with charges ranging from sexual abuse to potential sex trafficking. So I felt we should remove the Diddy track from this moment. It’s instead covered up with the Alan Parsons Project’s classic track “Sirius”, which has become synonymous in our zeitgeist with the introductions of players in an NBA game. Though simple in concept, it actually took some tricky finessing to achieve this by of adding extra crowd noises, lining up the two tracks perfectly together in a way that “Sirius” obscured what was left of the Diddy track after some vocal stem isolation. It took some fussy tweaking for it to sound natural and real. To be honest, I felt like there was a problematic nature to some of the other major artists I selected too. Kanye with his anti-semitic comments in recent years. And of course, Drake with all of the “pedo” child grooming allegations being thrown about during this year’s insane rap battle with Kendrick Lamar… to the point where I still debate with myself about whether I should have used their tracks or not. This is not the first time this sort of debate has happened, especially in our age of cancel culture. Simply look at Wagner, R. Kelly, or Michael Jackson… Do we keep listening to their music? Do we separate the Art from the Artist? Is it case by case? It’s especially tricky when these happen to be the biggest songs of an era and completely intertwined with the culture & memory of that time. This is the first time I haven’t composed any original music for a show and this is an issue I didn’t expect to be thinking about when using other people’s music for a show. I’m not claiming to have an answer here, but the Diddy situation was serious enough with the court case happening at the same time as the show, that I felt we at least needed to get rid of his track from that sound clip.
In the 3rd Quarter, Shawn (black) and Matt (white) fall into an argument over Matt’s off-handed, problematic statement that “LeBron should have known his place”. Shawn doesn’t let this slide and it brings up a tough and tricky confrontation over racism between the best friends. At one point, Shawn asks, “What’s my place Matt?”. Matt’s normally unchecked white privilege gets challenged head on, but instead of listening to Shawn explain how these racist remarks have impacted him in a negative way, Matt quickly becomes defensive. Like many white people do, Matt gets caught up about that ‘not being his intent’, rather than recognizing it’s not at all about his feelings and but rather the impact his words and actions do make on other people. Shawn even riffs on Matt’s frequent refrain that “this is (actually) the problem with America”.
I found this moment to be such a parallel with the recent sit down interview that Trump gave at the National Association of Black Journalists conference in Chicago. Trump made the remark that “… a lot of the journalists in this room are Black… coming from the border are millions and millions of people that happen to be taking Black jobs.”, to which the journalist cut in to ask, “What exactly is a “Black Job”, sir?”. Trump tries to wiggle out of it by saying, “A black job, that is anybody that has a job, that’s what it is…” It’s very clear in that moment that trump has an “idea” of what a “Black Job” should be (and is not saying it out loud), just as Shawn points out that it must be the case that Matt “has an idea of what LeBron’s place is”. When the ‘what did you mean by that’ push back comes, in both cases the person making the remark fumbles a bullshit response trying to recover the remark as ‘not really meaning anything’. In the play, when Matt tries to weasel out of the true racist meaning of his comment, he reasons that LeBron “stepped out of the place of being a decent person, and should have known to stay in that place”, Shawn fires back with, “That’s not what you meant, that’s slippery Matt – don’t get all slippery on me…” This moment with Trump was almost verbatim what that moment was in the play, very slippery.
In a recent talk back, one of the audience members pointed out that these statements written into Matt’s dialog, that “LeBron doesn’t know his place”, or that he “lacks class” were actual criticisms people were throwing at James during this time period.
2016 – Quarter 4
“Started From the Bottom” Championship Parade Remix – Final Show Version:
This transition exits us out of that huge, relationship changing argument over racism at the end of Quarter 3. It’s the button out of that scene and I wanted to capture the fracturing of that friendship into a low point of what comes after, being alone and apart from each other. So we hear the sound of a person playing basketball by themselves, without their friends. We hear them obviously bricking a shot off the rim, the ball miss the basket, then bounces on the floor a few times before it rolls away. Originally one of my concepts was to have each transition start with basketball sounds that mirrored the friendship arc in the story. This is one of those concepts that made the final cut and I love how the basketball sounds turned out over the remixed beat at the top of the track.
Drake’s “Started From the Bottom” (2013) was actually used by Miami Heat fans to celebrate their titles with LeBron and Wade, but in this case, it lyrically made more sense to use it for the CAVS. The fans were celebrating their first NBA championship title in 52 years with LeBron back on the team. After all they had been through, they “started from the bottom, and now we’re here”, champions at the top, “..the whole team’s here” including their MVP LeBron James. I tried to only use the chorus and a few small bits of rap sound bits (“story stayed the same through the money and the fame”), focusing more heavily on remixing the beat itself. We’re setting the context about the big parade that’s happening around Cleveland. I specifically left out any obvious remarks about the CAVS winning the championship, focusing more on how big the parade was going to be. I wanted the audience to be able to imagine that it could have been a parade for one of the big games in that Finals series happening in Cleveland. I felt it was important to let the characters reveal what the parade was actually about, that it was the Championship parade to celebrate the CAVS 1st NBA title. In the first half of the cue we hear a lot of news caster commentary about the parade and the fans excitement. Throughout the middle through the end of the cue, we hear some very special highlights from Game 7 of the 2016 NBA Championship against the Golden State Warriors. Including one of my favorite sound bites: the actual game sounds of LeBron’s enormous block on “Iggy” with the crowd and announcer’s huge reaction to that moment. I was hoping to get this into the cue if possible because Shawn recounts his courtside view of this very moment to Matt as the characters find their friendship again, bonding over their love of the game and mending old wounds.
I originally drafted all of these cues to about 35 seconds long, in the end there was so much stuff to clear off of the stage for this transition from Q3 to Q4 that I had to continue remixing the track and added 2 minutes more! This is the most manipulated of all the beats & I’m pretty stoked on how this remix turned out, I tried to match that energy that I had found for the “Jesus Walks” remix and carry that over to this one as well. There is a little nod to one of my favorite producers, J Dilla, in this track with the sweeping “siren” sounds to add hype, though a little different tone not as loud as Jay Dee’s. I also had the crowd noises get “chopped up” by the drum beat throughout this remix – which is a sound I love, it just has so much energy!
2016 – Buzzer Beater & Post Game / Post Show
End of Show – “We Are The Champions” Buzzer Beater Remix – Final Show Version
At the end of the show, Shawn and Matt play a one-on-one game to 11 with a ball of paper and the trash basket to decide whether they’ll go downtown to enjoy the parade or if they’ll stay and have some “baby time” for Matt’s potential phone break up. Here the script leaves a nice opening for basketball crowd and game noises to creep in under their impromptu game to bring us into the final silhouette moment.
The sound originally started a little earlier, first with some squeaking sneakers on the court of a friendly pick up game, followed by the ramping up of arena crowd cheers. This ended up lasting a little too long, so we tightened it up to start just after Matt makes his final basket. In both the original and final versions, you can hear the actual play call of the announcer counting down the final seconds of Game 7 of the 2016 Championship, to say “final seconds, it’s over, it’s over! Cleveland is a city of Champions once again!”. We go into blackout with Queen’s “We are the Champions” to bring us home for curtain bows. One of the nice touches that I loved about the moment of lights coming up for bows, is Marques and Greg are there holding each others hands up high, as champions together.
“We Are The Champions” the Post Game / Post Show Interview mix
If you listen to the original draft of the this cue, you’ll hear sound bites from the post game interview and team mates and crowd chanting “MVP!” to James. We cut this out of the curtain call itself, but then added it into a little “post game” cue which comes after the curtain call and announcement for talkback, which I thought worked very nicely.
“We Are The Champions” – Original Draft 1
There are no losers in this beautiful story of friendship.
It probably took you as long to read this post as it does to run the whole show! I always seem to have a lot to say about the design and process… Thanks so much for checking out my work. I am dyslexic, so it takes a very long time for me to put these posts together. Please make grace for my grammar and spelling errors!!! ❤️ Brian
