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“King James” at Forward Theater @ Overture Center (Madison, WI) | Sound Designer’s Notes

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Written by Rajiv Joseph

Directed by Mikael Burke

September 12-29, 2024

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 – overview
Q2 All I Do Is Win – overview
Q2 All I Do Is Win – zoom in on Vocal Chops -not used in grey
Q2 All I Do Is Win – lining up the beat chops free hand
Q2 All I Do Is Win – lining up the transients free hand zoom in
Q4 Started From the Bottom – overview
Q4 Started from the Bottom – edits zoom in
Q4 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

2014 – Quarter 3

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

World Premiere of “OAK” by Terry Guest, dir by Mikael Burke @ Urbanite Theatre (Sarasota, FL) | Composer & Sound Designer’s Notes on Original Horror Score by Brian Grimm

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New Play “Oak” by Terry Guest, directed by Mikael Burke runs May 31st through June 30th at Urbanite Theatre in Sarasota, Florida! [ Get Tickets ]

It’s 7pm. Do you know where your children are? It’s snatching season, and town-wide curfew regulations have fostered a culture of fear in the community along Odella Creek. Too many have fallen victim to the freedoms promised by the red-eyed monster…Will cousins Suga, Big Man, and Pickle resist temptation, or become the next names in the morning news? Step into the darkness and experience the terror firsthand in the new Southern Gothic horror, OAK. (from Urbanite Theatre‘s site)

Oak’s Cast
Suga – Jaeda LaVonne
Pickle – Trezure B. Coles
Big Man – William Rose II
Peaches – DeAnna Wright*

Headshots and bios here
*Member of Actors Equity Association 

Creative Team
Playwright – Terry Guest
Director & Video Designer – Mikael Burke
Production Stage Manager/ Prop Designer – Tori Heikenfeld
Production Manager/Technical Director/Light Designer – Alex Pinchin
Assistant Stage Manager – Fiona Coffey
Composer and Sound Designer – Brian Grimm
Sound Engineer – Rew Tippin
Costume Designer – Adrienne Pitts
Scenic Designer – Frank Chavez
Master Carpenter – Eugene Alcorn
Scenic Charge – Anna Baldwin Lack
Graffiti Artist – Kaitlin Kelly
Production Photos – Sorcha Augustine

special thank yous section at the bottom of the post

“Oak” Urbanite Theatre production photos by Sorcha Augustine (c) 2024

Composer and Sound Designer’s Notes

First off, let me say that I’m a huge fan of both Terry Guest’s scripts and Mikael Burke’s directing.  As a lover of horror films and scary sounds, I was thrilled to be brought on board for this project. In preparation for Oak, I carefully selected a variety of modern horror classics that resonate with the themes of this play. You can expect to hear hints of iconic elements from recent horror hits such as the ‘IT’ and ‘Candyman’ series (both original and new), along with films like ‘Get Out,’ ‘Suspiria,’ ‘La Llorona’, and Prokofiev’s ‘Peter and the Wolf’ woven into the fabric of the sound design & score.

Looking for old ghost story traditions and songs with roots in Africa, I was drawn to the haunting legend of La Tunda.  This tale shares an eerie resemblance to the chilling swamp ghost featured in Oak. This living legend of the shape-shifting spectre La Tunda, who comes out from the woods after 7pm to snatch your children comes from within the African descendant communities in Ecuador and Colombia.  It’s also a direct parallel to the Mexican and Central American ghost story of La Llorona. All of the original music in this production, including the main themes for Odella, derive directly from the melodic motifs, chord progressions, and rhythms used in the folklore songs and dances which spin tales and warnings of La Tunda. 

Another unique feature of my design is that the immersive swamp sounds accompanying the ghost’s presence are all crafted from vocalizations by the cast.  I have manipulated their vocal noises and run them through custom made “animal filters” of frogs, snakes, alligators, cicadas, rain, thunder, and more! This technique aims to blur the boundaries between reality and imagination, offering a glimpse into the eerie auditory landscape experienced by the characters.

*warning, some plot and production spoilers below*

Odella’s Whistle Themes

La Tunda / Odella themes sketch board

Since this entire process was completely remote for me, I decided to record some guided audio walkthroughs of my ideas for the Whistle Themes to send to the director, Mikael Burke. It was my first time doing something like this and it unintentionally created little podcast episodes, explaining and documenting the Whistle Theme process. I thought I’d share a version of episodes 2, 3 and 4 stitched together, for those who like that medium. Everything in the score for Oak comes out of these whistle themes:

Throughout the play, we hear Odella’s ghost whistling her entrancing lullaby from the swamp. These whistles serve as a constant reminder that she lurks in the distance, deep within the trees, waiting and ready to snatch you! During my initial research for similar ghost stories and lullabies within African descendant communities of the diaspora, I happened to be visiting my older brother and his family. As I described the story of Oak to them, my brother remarked how similar Terry’s swamp ghost Odella was to the Hispanic ghost story of La Llorona. Then my sister-in-law, who is from Ecuador, shared the parallel ghost story from where she grew up, called La Tunda. La Tunda is essentially the African counterpart of La Llorona. In the La Llorona ghost story, a mother drowns herself in the creek after her children accidentally drown there. In the La Tunda version, the mother loses her daughter deep in the woods of the mountain. After the tragedy, the mother returns as a ghost, emerging from the waters (La Llorona) or mountains (La Tunda), and shapeshifts to appear to children as their mother or close relative, enticing them to come to the waters/mountains so she can take the children away with her. Both La Llorona and La Tunda put the children in a trance, promising that everything will be alright in the water/mountain if they come with her. The ghost haunts on, perpetually searching for her lost children.

I couldn’t believe it; this was exactly like Odella’s ghost story in Oak, you just had to swap the woods or waters for the creek in the swamp. The similarities didn’t end there! My sister-in-law shared that growing up, they were all afraid to be outside after 7 pm. Once it got dark, they would rush home, fearing that La Tunda was real and would come to get them! Similarly, in the world of Oak, there is a siren alarm that goes off at 7pm every day to remind parents of the curfew and ensure their children make it home safely. It turns out there are several different La Tunda songs that recount her ghostly tale and issue warnings to the listener—so I wanted to start with those songs to see what sort of material could work for Odella’s whistle theme.

There are two parts of Odella’s main Whistle Theme. The first part of the phrase | C D— | C E— | (in solfege: do re—, do mi —) come from the background vocals in this song. You can hear them singing “La Tunda—- (do re, re—) La Tunda—- (do mi, mi—-)”. Which I simplified to the phrase you see above. I love the main vocalist and story teller in this rendition of the La Tunda song:

Here is the 1st tune where I sourced Odella Whistle Theme notes from in the background vocals

Chord Progression: from this first tune I utilized the spooky and fun diminished to minor chord progression. This chord progression can be seen in two ways, G# diminished to A minor which gives us more of a ghostly flavor. Or if you add an E in the bass of the first G# diminished chord, it turns it into an E7 chord. This stabilizes the progression by both chords sharing the E in the bass note, becoming an E7 to A- chord progression. I mostly leaned into the dissonance of the G# diminished flavor throughout the production.

The second part of Odella’s main Whistle Theme comes from this video of a La Tunda dance. We hear again in the background vocals some lyrics about La Tunda; the musical phrase is ||: – EEEE | F D – :|| (mi mi mi mi fa re – in the first tune’s key). In this lively dance, we see the ghost entrances the kids on stage, then ventures out to the audience and scares the kids so bad they start running away!

Here is the 2nd tune I sourced Odella Whistle Theme notes from, also in the backing vocals. A dance where La Tunda chasing after children and scaring them!

When combined together the themes go as such:
| C D— | C E— | EEEE | F D —- |
When transformed to be a little more melodic, it goes like this:
| C D — | C E — | C E F D —- |
Here is another melodic variation in a 3 count:
| C D – | C E – | D E E | F D – |

Bass Line: There is also an amazing 1/2 step bass line in this second tune which sometimes leads from G# up to A on the last beat of a measure to the down beat, and sometimes leads from Bb down to A. I use both motions quite extensively throughout the score of Oak for tension. Sometimes in series | Bb A—-| G# A—-| and sometimes in parallel with a double stop of Bb and G# together, resolving in a pure A octave!

Olélé Moliba Makasi – a Congolese lullaby.
I also searched for some West African lullabies that could complement these La Tunda whistle themes. After delving into various lullabies, I stumbled upon one from the Congo, coming from slightly further south than my initial search area. However, it resonated so well with the existing La Tunda themes that it became the perfect way to begin the original version of Odella’s theme. In the opening of the play, we hear the origin story of Odella. She was an enslaved person in America during the 17 or 18 hundreds who became impregnated by her master, and subsequently punished for it. Determined to escape the plantation, she faces the toughest decision of her life: to remain a slave and care for her baby, or to make a run for freedom, albeit leaving her child behind. She ultimately chooses freedom, soothing the child with this lullaby as she flees, whistling it from a distance.

The main melody we hear fits exactly with the existing La Tunda phrases:
||: C—D E – | C—D E, DE | D—, CD | C—- :||

~ and how perfect that it has water sounds in the music and is on the water!

The entire score for Oak, including all chords, scales, rhythms, and melodic material, is derived directly from the main elements of these La Tunda and Olélé Lullaby tunes. Of course, I am breaking them down into basic music elements and then recombining or twisting them to fit the needs of the production, but everything originates from the wellspring of this source material. In my notebook pages above, you can see that I created some scary hybrid scales, combining all the various note combinations of La Tunda themes, Olélé themes, and some other whistle intervals I had independently been developing. The La Tunda material is used when Odella (or the Wolf) is more threatening or “snatching” a child, while the Olélé lullaby themes are utilized when Odella is attempting to hypnotize the children to come with her.

Odella’s Music

Accompanying Odella, Oak’s swamp ghost, you will hear scary vocalizations from the cast, along with Odella’s Snatching Theme. This theme is based on the E F D note motif from the 2nd La Tunda tune discussed above, played here on the guzheng zither. These snatching themes are sometimes played with dulcimer hammers to create an eerie piano sound, while other times they are plucked with steady rhythm during Odella’s “trances”. Throughout the production, variations of these trances are used when Odella is attempting to charm the children. In the later trance portion of this cue, you can especially hear the sweetness of the Olélé Lullaby themes, as Odella tries to persuade the main character that everything will be just right down in the swamp waters if she but comes with her.

Here is the original sketch of Variations on Odella’s “Snatching Theme”. Some of these sections were utilized as the top of show theme and at the moments of a child being snatched by Odella.

The 7pm Siren

“It is 7pm, do you know where your children are?…”

Heard everyday in Oak across the swamp, this siren cue is made entirely out musical instruments. It includes 12 string guitar played with brass slide and distortion, cello siren wails, and bawu flute manipulated to sound like the buzzing alarm. The siren voice features the haunting vocals talents of Rebecca Rose Mims. I really love how this cue turned out, one-and-done!

˄ Keep an ear out for her, hopefully recorded for a book on tape near you soon, cause her voice is amazing!

The Princess and the Wolf

This cue deals with the trauma of a young survivor of sexual assault. In the show it is narrated by the cast and accompanied by a video projection of a paper puppet show. (Mikael edited it together and it looks incredible!!) The use of a puppet show is mentioned in the script and our production’s vision for it was inspired by the recent Candyman film. In both cases, it serves as a way to present trauma and violence against Black bodies, but with a visual layer of removal, acting as a defensive storytelling barrier. This approach aims to tell the story and spark conversation without completely triggering audience members (or those performing). In Candyman, the subject matter is of public brutality against Black people, whereas in this production, it deals with rape by a family member.

Given the title and the orchestrated storytelling, I couldn’t help but draw inspiration from Prokofiev’s “Peter and the Wolf” for narrator and orchestra. This piece has several cartoon adaptations and is in spirit with the puppet show concept. It absolutely influenced the brass chords accompanied by cymbal roll crescendos during moments where the Wolf appears. This storytelling method also resonates with Little Red Riding Hood themes and it parallels the Odella snatching scene at the end of the play.

All the chords and melodies in this cue stem from the Odella (La Tunda) Whistle Themes variations.

As part of the Wolf’s growl sound, you will hear a man’s zipper unzipping.

1st Lady Temple’s Swamp Environment, Cast Vocalizations & Animal Filters

For the scene introducing the enigmatic character 1st Lady Temple, I envisioned a swamp environment built entirely out of pre-recorded vocalized sounds made by the cast. This concept drew inspiration from Terry’s idea of the playful diy theater we create as children. Terry wanted to capture the vast imagination we possess as kids and how immense that world felt. I asked the cast to individually record a set of vocalizations including sirens, vocal tones, grunts, whispers, various animal sounds, and swamp sounds mentioned in the script. I then edited and manipulated these sounds to create the majority of the textures for both Odella and 1st Lady Temple. I wanted emotions like the fear, suspense, and danger that the cast is feeling to be manifested externally from the sounds and voices in her own head, much like the psychological terror in IT. When a character’s imagination takes over, the audience hears the soundscapes that the characters themselves imagined.

This approach, combined with another technique I called “animal filters”, resulted in one of the show’s most distinctive sound profiles. I began by manipulating the cast’s vocalizations to sound as close as possible to the real animal and swamp sounds they imitated. Then, I processed these sounds through “animal filters.” I created these filters by feeding different sounds—snake hisses, alligator growls, cicada calls, frog and toad croaks, and even landscape elements like calm lakes and thunderstorms—into a convolution reverb. Instead of using a traditional reverb impulse-response file, I loaded these natural sounds, allowing the vocalizations to be filtered through these real animal or environmental sounds. Instead of putting the source sound into a hall or room or other space like a normal reverb would, I was putting it inside of a swamp sound or animal noise.

This process not only altered the sounic profile of the original audio but also imprinted a subtle “ghost” of the filter’s own animal sound, creating a more intriguing and layered auditory experience. I used this extensively throughout the show to craft a unique swamp soundscape. Not only were the cast’s vocalizations filtered like this, but I also applied this treatment to all of Odella’s whistles, as well as the music instrument parts for the cello, 12-string guitar, and guzheng zither. This gave everything a cohesive, swampy animal filter reverb effect and really filled out the environment around the individual sounds.

Here are some examples of what that filtering effect sounds like.

Jaeda’s distressed bird sound. First plays the original, then examples are filtered through: warning croak of a frog, baby crocodile sound, barking tree frog, pig frog, two different snake hiss noises, the sound of rain, and sound of a calm lake. You’ll notice that through the filter, not only do you get the bird sound, but it comes with an environment surrounding it, a very powerful sound effect:

Next up is another creative sound from Jaeda! It’s a mosquito sound which became a sort of “mosquito violin” during the 1st Lady Temple and Odella scenes. Again first the original sound that was recorded, and then examples of it being filtered through an alligator roar, pig frogs, fowler toad, two different cicada sounds, a chorus of frogs at night in a swamp, and two different rain and thunder sounds:

The Whispers I had the cast record display very well the effects of these animal/swamp filters. Here are two different whisper environments run through a bunch of these filters. It’s the same chunk of the track and the filter changes about every 20 seconds, so you can skip around to quickly sample some different filter sounds – or if you are freaky like me, put this on while you are working on emails, or doing chores…

Swamp Whispers 1 – 15 filters

Swamp Whispers 2 – 13 filters

Night Terrors (1912 Atlanta)

Here, the 1912 version of the 7pm siren goes off as we transition into Big Man’s nightmare. This time, the siren cue incorporates real siren and police car sounds. To create the night terror texture, I utilized and manipulated a recording of Louis Armstrong and his Hot 7 playing a tune called “You’re Next.” The title perfectly fit the scene’s theme, where Big Man has a nightmare about the “Atlanta Ripper,” and the original track itself has a spooky undertone.

Although I initially believed this track was recorded between 1912 and 1915, I later discovered it was actually recorded in 1926—about a decade and a half later than the 1912 mark. Despite this, it was the closest match to what I envisioned and the first sound that came to mind for this scene.

The soundscape includes Odella’s whistle theme, twisted low bass harmonics, 12-string guitar accents highlighting specific lines, and dramatic horror cellos at the end.

As always, I put a lot of effort, time and care into my work. My scores and sound design go deep and are full of many layers. I do intend to put this out as a soundtrack and along with many other scores from the recent productions over the last 3 years. So please don’t download any of these tracks just yet, kindly wait till I release them officially to buy them! There is a lot going on in my life right now that has delayed these soundtrack releases – so thank you for your patience.

Much more on the way!

❤️ Brian

Special Thank Yous

For the first time on any production, I was remote/virtual for the entire process. It was a tougher room to mix than I had anticipated being that it is an L shaped room with an 11 speaker setup. Plus, it was a room I have never been in before, on a setup I’ve never heard, so there was a limit to how much I could envision the room and rough mix or conceptualize ahead of time. Plus! Zoom did such a fantastic job of cancelling out “noise” (aka my design), so much so that everytime we played back my sound or music cues, I could not hear it… the only thing I could hear was the actor’s voices. On top of that, I couldn’t see any wave forms in the remote control / zoom screen shared view of Qlab…. so it was quite an interesting and difficult experience to neither hear or nor see any of my sounds and still make adjustments. Wild! So an EXTRA SPECIAL THANK YOU goes out to Rew Tippin, who was the onsite sound engineer helping me mix and make adjustments in Qlab. I absolutely could not have done this show without you!!! Thanks for your amazing collaboration, advice, adjustments and perspective on the sounds in the space. It was so easy to communicate and work with you!

Unrelated, it was an extra stressful process due to a tornado rolling through Madison two nights before Tech started. This left me without power for 4 days, which obviously doesn’t work if you are trying to Zoom into work all day long! So another big thank you goes out to my parents, Rick and Bea, who allowed me and Zelda dog to take over their basement in order to have power and internet to complete my tech duties for about 5 days.

Another special thanks to Alex Pinchin, who on top of his duties of Production Manager, Technical Director, and Light Designer, was super responsive to any needs that I had from a distance during Tech. Alex also helped as an on site operator after hours when we worked on the live mic vocal effects for both the Wolf and Odella. Thanks for all that you do! I think we both learned some things on that mixer setup for this show!

Thanks to everyone at Urbanite Theatre on this production, the cast and crew, Mikael and Terry – y’all are amazing and I wish I could have been there in person to work with you all! ~ much love!

*Bonus Material for anyone who made it this far… here are a few other of my favorite La Tunda jams I was listening to >>

“La Tunda ah AAAA!”
great marimba like opening and groove!

9/7-9/24 | Forward Theater’s THE GARBOLOGISTS runs at the Overture Center for the Arts (Madison, WI) w/ Designer’s Notes on Original Score

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Forward Theater Co. Presents:
THE GARBOLOGISTS
Playhouse Theater at the Overture Center for the Arts
TICKETS + dates & info

by Lindsay Joelle
September 7-24, 2023

Wisconsin Premiere

Directed by Jen Uphoff Gray

Featuring Alys Dickerson and Danny Jones

Scenic Designer: Sarah Ross
Lighting Designer: Colin Gawronski
Costume Designer: Karen Brown-Larimore
Sound Designer/Composer: Brian Grimm
Props Master/Asst. Scenic Designer: Pam Miles
Technical Director: Tony Lyons
Stage Manager: Tenley Pitonzo
Asst. Stage Manager: Abbi Hess

~ If you see the show and stay for the Talkback, be sure to ask the actors about their ride-along with the Madison Sanitation Department!!

~ Also, be sure get to the show early to check out the visual art exhibit in the gallery area outside of the Playhouse Theater. It’s hosted by Arts + Lit Laboratory and comprises of art pieces made out of trash and recycling!


Some details on the show from Forward Theater:
This off-beat buddy comedy pairs essential workers from two different worlds in the shared cab of a New York City garbage truck. Danny’s a white, blue-collar mansplainer hiding a heart of gold. Marlowe’s a Black, Ivy League-educated newbie learning the ropes from her old-school partner. When they’re thrown together to pick up what the world has discarded, they discover there’s more that binds them than taking out the trash.

“A surprisingly humane and honest play that’s filled with as much laughter as it is drama…and reminds us that we shouldn’t judge a book by its cover. We learn that if given a tattered, grimy old volume of text and illustrations, and you take the time to examine it carefully, its value can exceed your imagination.”
– Chicago Theatre Review

 ASL-Interpreted Performance: Saturday, Sept. 23 at 2pm – Reserve here for special pricing and unobstructed view of the interpreters.

 Audio Described Performance: Sunday, Sept. 24 at 2pm – Please email ssafarik@forwardtheater.com us to let us know you’re coming, so we can make sure you have the correct device and a great experience.

🤩 Playwright Lindsay Joelle to attend Wednesday, September 13th talkback!!

Notes on Sound Design and Original Score by Brian Grimm

** Please do not download these files, I’m streaming them here as a preview – if you want a copy of the album, wait for the official soundtrack to come out for purchase on GrimmusiK Records bandcamp. ** Thanks!!! ❤️ Brian

The Music is Trash…

That’s right! You heard me! You didn’t even have to hear it from a critic or local theater review – this is comin’ straight from the source! The original music in this production is entirely made from trash, garbage, and recycling that I recorded. It was an absolute blast to record all of these fascinating sounds to see what sort of grooves naturally presented themselves and then build music cues from there. These garbage grooves feature aluminum cans, milk cartons, yogurt containers, a broken margarita glass, cardboard boxes, paper and plastic cups, paper and plastic bags, velcro, olive oil and wine bottles, an old beat up carbon steel wok and more!

Stage Prop Sounds
I also had a very fun recording session at the Overture Center, where I recorded a bunch of the props that are featured as garbage on stage throughout the production. In the music, you’ll hear a ton of percussion created from a mannequin, cat crate, birdcage, campfire pot, bamboo steamer, suitcase, along with some plastic and metal fans that were in the dressing room!

Kalimba Theme
The one exception in this landscape of trash music is the kalimba thumb piano; which was a delightful Christmas gift from my parents this year! The kalimba theme that I recorded is tied to one character specifically and appears four times throughout the show. That’s all I’ll say to avoid any spoilers. But if you see the show, see if you can catch all of the times this theme appears!

Special Sound Design Moments from Trash
I utilized the trash, recycling and prop sounds a few times in the show that became a mix of sound design, field recording and musical elements. One example is a panic attack moment of anxiety that one of the characters suddenly finds themselves in. To heighten this uncomfortable feeling, I added a crescendo and accelerando of a heart beat sound, which was actually made by striking a cardboard box with my thumb (the sound turned out great!). The feeling grows as the city soundscape also crescendos, accompanied by unsettling birdcage sounds and a distorted and slowed down version of the kalimba theme in the background.

Another example is the lovely quiet Interlude that we get in the middle of the show. A winter storm comes rolling over New York City. To create the atmosphere of blowing winter wind between the buildings I blew on a wine bottle to get a few breathy pitches and I used the ringing sustained sound I got from the birdcage after I would strike it with one end down on the ground and one end up and slowly lower it all the way down as it rang out. It was one of the most fascinating sounds I captured. This is all set in the backdrop of actual sounds of snow falling. Eventually the truck starts moving and the city sounds take over again as we start the next scene and carry on with the play.

The way that the city sounds, and musical sounds interact are very similar to a piece I composed back in 2018 called “They’re Still Here”, a 30 minute long Musique Concrète élégie honoring loved ones who’d passed that year. This unique piece of music dealt with how we handle (or don’t handle) the grieving process our modern society – which actually ties back into one of the themes of this play.


Sound Design
Obviously, there are a lot of garbage truck sounds and city soundscapes throughout the play. It’s about a 50/50 mix of sounds that I recorded and sounds that I collected from archives elsewhere. I did spend an entire morning waiting in my driveway for the recycling and garbage trucks to come by so I could record them. One big mistake I made; I forgot to charge my field recorder the night before. So I had it plugged into the side of the garage to get some charge and then every time I heard a garbage truck making a turn down a nearby street in the neighborhood I quickly yanked my recorder out of the outlet and ran over to our fire hydrant (right next to the trash cans) and hurriedly whispered which take and what type of truck was coming by. Then tried to play it cool by hanging out with my dog in the front yard as Anne did some weeding in the garden. We would celebrate (silently) with big fist pumps everytime a big, loud, fun garbage truck sound was captured.

Similarly, the city street sounds & construction sounds were about a 50/50 mix of recorded and found. But in the bar scene, Anne and I went on an undercover field recording mission at a local bar! I won’t name the establishment, but I will say that for a 7pm on a Monday night, it was a lot more crowded and way more drunk than I anticipated…

One of the main issues we faced with all of the garbage truck sounds I recorded and collected is that they were the type of trash collection where the truck grabs the garbage can with an mechanical arm and dumps the trash into the hopper – whereas the NYC sanitation workers are manually loading bags into the hopper. This made it difficult to use the longer stretches of garbage trucks driving, because they all had frequent stops with mechanic arm and dumping/crushing sounds. It made for a lot of stitching, layering, and editing together individual pieces of many different sound clips to create the one fluid sound that you hear in the show from one garbage truck sound to the next.

A Nod to Inspirations from Recycled Music Makers Around the Globe

One of my starting points of inspiration for the music, knowing that it would be heavily percussive and utilizing trash was the famous percussion show on broadway called “Stomp!”. I thought of that vibe as a good launching off point. Something percussive, from NY, with a lot of energy that can move us forward from scene to scene. However, the true main inspiration for taking all of the trash and recycling and creating music exclusively from those items came from various ensembles around the world that have done just that. For instance the “Landfill Harmonic” in Cateura, Paraguay; which is a youth orchestra who built their instruments from trash in their local landfill. Making beautiful music from the ugly and discarded junk that finds its way to their home. In the play, the character Danny explains that you throw something away and it might be shipped to a landfill in India, etc, your discarded trash may see more of the world than you ever do in your whole life. And who knows how it affects the people where it ends up.


I had remembered this orchestra in the back of my head when we started this project and thought of them and how they use the trash of their landfill in such a positive way as a major point of inspiration. I also was thinking of the Eco-Afro-Futuristic punk ensemble Fulu Miziki @fulumusic (roughly translates to “music from garbage”) that I started following in recent years on instagram who also hand makes their instruments and performance outfits out of trash and recycling.

About the band:
Fulu Miziki is a collective of artists who comes straight from a future where humans have reconciled with mother earth and with themselves. This multidisciplinary collective of artists is based in the heart of the Congolese capital city Kinshasa and was founded by Pisko Crane. For several years now, it’s founder Pisko has spent an amount of time conceptualizing an orchestra made from objects found in the trash, constantly changing instruments, always in search of new sounds.

Making our own performance costumes, masks and instruments is essential to their approach of Fulu Miziki’s musical ideology. Their unique sound supports a pan-African message of artistic liberation, peace and a severe look at the ecological situation of the Democratic Republic of Congo and the whole world. For Fulu everything can be recovered and re-enchanted.


There’s also a singer who goes by Mc-Deive @mc.deive_ that I started following on instagram. I don’t know much about him other than he seems to sing about Brazil a lot and is maybe in Angola, Africa? Maybe someone can help me out here. All I know is that he sings super catchy songs while accompanying himself on an empty plastic water bottle with his camera man/hype man and that you should follow him!

As a follow up I’ll say that I wasn’t specifically trying to emulate the genre of music after any of these groups, it was purely the concept of trash music that I was taking as inspiration. All of the music genres I created for the show I let occur naturally. I let the trash tell me what grooves it wanted to play and went from there. There are some similarities to Fulu Miziki’s style, but that is more the nature of both projects exclusively using trash as it sounds, and being primarily percussive in nature – which will lead to some similarities. However, it was not my intention to copy their music style nor did I listen to them or any other groups when I was recording and composing this music.

5/12 – 5/28 | “I Carry Your Heart With Me” Opens at Third Avenue Playworks (Sturgeon Bay, WI) as part of the World Premiere Wisconsin Festival!

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I CARRY YOUR HEART WITH ME
a new one woman show
at Third Avenue Playworks (Sturgeon Bay, WI)

BY JENNIFER BLACKMER
feat. Karen Estrada as ‘Esther’
directed by Jacob Janssen

MAY 10 – 28, 2023

Wednesday, May 10: Pay-What-You-Will Preview
Thursday, May 11: Final Preview
Friday, May 12: Opening Night

Wednesday – Saturday evenings at 7:30pm
Friday matinee May 19th at 2:00pm
Sunday matinees at 2:00pm

A world premiere!

Esther Shannon (*Karen Estrada) is a government stenographer working for the US Air Force during the tempestuous Vietnam War. Lonely, conflicted, and haunted by voices from her past, Esther finds herself smack dab in the middle of a troubling investigation.

With plenty of twists and turns along the way, Jennifer Blackmer’s taut, suspenseful mystery packs a real emotional wallop at the end. This new play will be presented as part of World Premiere Wisconsin, an inaugural and ambitious statewide festival celebrating original works.

I CARRY YOUR HEART WITH ME is part of World Premiere Wisconsin, a statewide festival celebrating new plays and musicals from March 1 – June 30, 2023, presented by the Ten Chimneys Foundation. To learn more visit www.worldpremierewisconsin.com.

For More info on Jennifer Blackmer and Karen Estrada, please visit TAP’s website: https://thirdavenueplayworks.org/i-carry-your-heart-with-me/

ARTIST TEAM

Director: Jacob Janssen
Production Stage Manager: Kelsey York*
Set Design: Alex Polzin
Costume Design: Kärin Kopischke**
Lighting Design: Colin Gawronski
Sound Design: Brian Grimm

** denotes union members

Community Partner Program – Door County Farm for Vets

TAP has founded a wonderful tradition of partnering with local community organizations on each show of their season. All of the ticket sales from the pay-what-you-will preview show goes directly to the community partner. In this case it is Door County Farm for Vets, and truly needed and amazing organization whose mission is to eradicate veteran suicides through farming. I love this so much. What a needed cause and what a fantastic approach.

Since 9/11 we’ve lost roughly 5 times as many veterans to suicide than we have in combat. It is massive problem that needs to be tackled and supported!

From DC Farm for Vets website:

DC Farm for Vets is a rehabilitation farm that provides education and services to Veterans entering into agriculture. This service includes several different programs.  We have an available community gardening program along with scheduled training tailored to the specific time of the growing season. Our training program entails regenerative agriculture, sustainable chemical free produce production, livestock, and cherry and apple orchards.  We believe in Growing while Healing. 

The specific objectives and purpose of this organization is to work towards the elimination of veteran suicide.  We accomplish this through teaching skills of sustainability and consumption of nutrient dense produce and livestock.  Being able to grow your own food gives you a sense of control over your life and it is incredibly rewarding. Every dollar that gets donated to DC farm for Vets we donate back to our veterans or the community giving our veterans the opportunity to serve something bigger than themselves once again.  

Here’s how you can support:
→ https://www.dcfarmforvets.org/visit
→ https://www.dcfarmforvets.org/get-involved

Notes on the Sound Design and Score

“I Carry Your Heart With Me” Poem Cue (Curtain Bow) by Brian Grimm (feat. Emma Cifrino)

As always, there is the potential for some spoilers when talking about my design for the show, so reader beware! I’ll be honest, this was maybe the most difficult play and stressful Tech process that I’ve been through. Most of the time I show up to Tech with all of my cues composed, recorded and mixed – already arranged in my Qlab session with best guesses at timings and fades. But this show was a tough nut to crack. I spent 3 weeks working on melodic themes for the different characters and emotional moments. I would compose a theme and develop it into a cue, only to listen back to the recording while reading the script and thinking… hmmm – that’s not quite right. I think this is the most material I’ve ever developed and then immediately scrapped during the rehearsal and design process for a show.

It took me 3 weeks to realize that the reason all of my melodic material did not feel right, is that the character Esther is the melody! Because it is a one woman show, I needed to sink further into the background; purely be the accompaniment support and let Esther drive the show, let her be the melody. It was soooo different than doing even a two actor show. That is something I did not anticipate.

So the weekend before Tech, I made a HUGE design pivot and developed the idea of recording many variations of long tones. It was a tricky assignment – the director Jacob made it clear that we’d probably want sound under most of the show, but it couldn’t be melodic, and it couldn’t be rhythmic… hence the tones. But it made sense because we had the concept of there being fluorescent light tones for half of the play’s design – and these musical tones could be the color of the storytelling world outside of those fluorescent and cold deposition spaces.

On that Sunday, Monday and Tuesday before Tech (starting Wednesday) – I recorded Emma Cifrino on viola, Greg Smith on clarinet and bass clarinet, and myself on cello and guqin zither (individually) running through “the gauntlet” of tones. I’ve done this before on my own, it’s intense, so I definitely understood the process and what I was asking of these fine instrumentalists. I’m so glad Emma and Greg were down to complete this process. It wasn’t random notes, I created a scale built out of all of the notes needed for each chord progression and melody that I had developed throughout the whole process (even if I thought we were scrapping it). We went one note at a time, recording 5 styles of that note. Long straight tone, no vibrato. Long tone with vibrato. Crescendo to a sting. Sforzando to diminuendo. And my favorite, wobbly oscillating pressure dynamic pulsing long tones! Greg was a total champ, because we ran through the whole process on Clarinet, and then picked up the Bass Clarinet and said… ok here we go again. And then he went on to perform Carmina Burana with the Madison Symphony Orchestra later that evening … WOW!!

I made sure to have every player record every melodic theme as well, just so I had my bases covered for Tech. Even just my melodic and tones libraries were quite extensive for this show – because I knew I’d just have to build most of the cues on the spot. Jacob and I really couldn’t judge what would feel right until we were in the room and tried things out. So it was a slow, brutal process to build cues on the spot, and not at all my ideal scenario. Let’s just say there were a number of all nighters that needed to happen. This is something I try to avoid at all costs these days (by being over prepared), but that just shows you how different this show was and how much needed to be built, created or refined even outside of tech hours.

Besides the melodic and chord tone libraries, I had built up an even deeper library of Military Sounds from the Vietnam war including AK-47s, Air Bombers, Rocket Launchers, and very importantly the Huey Combat Helicopter. I also recorded the forced air heat sound from my vents at home, and the intensely loud buzzing of each fluorescent light in my basement. From these fluorescents and vent sounds I created many variations of tone clusters and chords that created a framework for the sonic tonal texture of the show (which I then replicated with the acoustic instruments).

Throughout the show, you’ll hear the Huey Helicopter as an intense heartbeat. You’ll hear Air Bomb drops and Rocket Launchers as a forced air vent rattling in the corner. You’ll hear Bass Clarinet as the persistent buzzing of the deposition room fluorescent lights. You’ll hear musical themes for the Military, and each individual character in the show. You’ll hear the USA’s actual Military Jazz Band playing dance party music. You’ll even hear clapping from a 1960’s video of people applauding for the IBM Selectric II World Champion Typist who could type 180 words per minute (deep cut!)!! You’ll also hear the iconic music sounds of the 1960’s! My absolute favorite era for popular music! This was one of the huge discoveries that Jacob and I made late at night trying to crack the code of this play. It’s been so much fun to revisit the music of that era, the music I grew up on. If you like this music of the late 60’s, you’ll enjoy the preshow!

Honestly, I felt like I came prepared for 4 different versions of this play, and none of those versions was the show we ended up doing!! So this one was a big learning process for me and I’m glad I had everyone record those melodic themes, because we ended up using most of them! Thank you to the whole production team, Karen, and Jacob for your patience with me on this tech. I know it was stressful for you too, and I appreciate your grace to let me figure out each cue on the spot.

The final two music cues in the show are two of the best cues I think I’ve ever composed and produced. I’m really happy with how those turned out (you can hear the “Poem Cue” above).

Special Shout Outs

In the end, the true star of this show is Karen Estrada who is absolutely fabulous in this piece of 1,000 transitions and micro-moments. I think audiences will love the performance she gives in this show. What a feat to memorize and perform and hour long show alone, all by yourself. So many lines!!! I could never, ever, ever do that. This performance really highlights Karen’s wide range as an actress. Not only that but she kept us all laughing deep belly laughs throughout tech, which I absolutely needed to keep me going! I hope you can come see the amazing work that Karen has put into this show!!

The other star of this show is Colin Gawronski‘s light design and how it interplays with the beautiful scrim paint job by Alex Polzin. The combo of those two elements is GORGEOUS. It’s like a watercolor painting and I love it. It’s worth coming to this show just to see the different worlds that Colin and Alex have created together with their designs.

Congratulation on the World Premiere to playwright Jennifer Blackmer and for building such a dynamic world for us to play in. It is a whirlwind of a play, and there is just so much contrast and emotion to dive into. I want to know more about her mother, who is the inspiration for the stenographer character Esther who is transcribing all of the Vietnam non-com depositions. I’m glad I could be a part of your premiere!

Thank you Thank you Thank you to Emma Cifrino (viola) and Greg Smith (clarinets) for performing and recording on this score!!! I love how both of your instruments support the story and add color to this world. The recordings turned out great and you both killed it in the studio sessions!