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Learn Sound Online—Free! (or really cheap) 

Over the years, I’ve met many people that felt limited in their sound careers either because of their limited training or inability to continue training/education.  I completely get it. Trying to stay current is extremely difficult, especially if you have a full-time job, kids, limited funds, or freelance/tour work that keeps you out of the running for regular university coursework.  Thankfully, the internet saves us again. Check out these excellent resources, because in this ever-changing industry, knowledge is power, and power isn’t cheap!

Skillshare

Skillshare is a super cool website that hosts thousands of online classes in all kinds of fields, including Sound Engineering, Sound Design for Theatre, Gaming, Film, Mixing, Producing, Editing, and more!  There are many videos available for free, and way more if you sign up for a premium account, which costs $99 a year + a free trial month. If that’s a fee you can’t swing, there are also scholarships available.  If you are already a super expert, you can sign up to be a teacher and make some extra cash.

Coursera

Coursera partners with top universities like Berklee, CalARTS, and Carnegie Mellon to offer different levels of online learning, and every course is taught by instructors from these universities.  There are hundreds of free courses available, and even more that come with a fee. Paid courses provide a shareable course certificate upon completion, which is an excellent resume item. Like Skillshare, financial aid is available for qualified individuals.  Coursea puts their training into different tiers, including:

Specializations- for mastering a skill in 4-6 months for a starting price of $39 per month

Professional Certificates- for getting job-ready in less than a year for a starting price of $39 per month

MasterTrack Certificates- for receiving a Master’s degree level learning in less than a year for a starting price of $2,000 with an option to pay in installments.  This certificate also counts toward a master’s degree if you decide to pursue that later.

Online Degrees- for earning a Bachelor’s or Master’s degree over 1-4 years (you choose your schedule) starting at $15,000 with the option to pay in installments.

MIT Open Courseware 

This is a super cool way to gain access to the material taught in MIT’s classes—completely free! Some course titles include:

While you won’t earn a degree or certificate through this open courseware, you will gain a ton of knowledge from one of the country’s most cutting edge technology schools.  What’s not to love?

SoundGirls Note:

The Production Academy

The Production Academy is an online resource that provides clear and reliable information on all the technical things you need to know to work in Live Sound or the Touring industry. SoundGirls uses The Production Academy for our Live Sound Camps for Girls and recommends The Production Academy to all our members.

SoundGym

I think this is probably the 400th time I’ve mentioned SoundGym in a blog…clearly, I’m a fan.  They now offer a completely free online course called Synthesis & Sound Design.  This is an advanced course to help take experienced producers to the next level. The course was curated from free content by sound experts and educators, and some of the subjects touched on include sound synthesis methods, modular synthesis, and samplers.  The course takes 12 hours to complete, and then you get big brain bragging rights when you’re done! SoundGirls also offers free subscriptions to SoundGym. Check the Member Benefits

Khan Academy

Much like MIT OCW, Khan Academy provides completely free courses online in all kinds of disciplines.  These courses are super user-friendly—even kids can do it! For this reason, Khan Academy courses make an excellent teaching supplement.  While much of KA’s coursework is geared toward regular academic training like math, English, and science, get creative with your search language to find exercises like:

Whether you’re just trying to brush up your skills, learn a new skill, or earn a new degree, training doesn’t have to completely halt your life plans.  These six resources are only scratching the surface of what is available. The most important thing is to keep learning. There is no ceiling and never too much information.

 

An Open Letter to Theatre Reviewers

The play includes more than the actors on the stage

Dear theatre critics and reviewers worldwide,

First off, I’d like to say thank you for the love and enthusiasm you have for live theatre.  While the general population launches forward to keep up with technological trends such as virtual reality, wearable gaming, augmented reality, high-def displays, and holographic video, some of us, yourselves included, are desperately clinging to the lost art of live performance.  While technological leaders spend billions of dollars trying to invent the next piece of equipment that will make that game or movie look so real you can touch it, theatres everywhere are struggling to get people into their auditoriums to witness what can only be described as the pinnacle of reality, and no, the irony is not lost on me.  We theatre-makers appreciate you because you still believe in the magic of theatre. You still come to the shows, you put your phones away, you pay attention, and most importantly, you report. We rely on these reports to get the word out about this beautiful piece of REAL magic that’s happening in the readers’ very same city. There’s just one little thing I want to discuss, though: There’s more to the play than just the actors on stage.

I’m a sound designer working mostly in regional theatre, and I would say 85% of the reviews I read don’t even mention designers or technical crew.  Now, I know that there is a lot that happens in this industry that people on the outside just don’t know about, so I get that, but if you are reading your program before the show starts, you’ve probably noticed that there’s an entire page dedicated to production.  There’s probably an artistic director, production manager, scenic designer, costume designer, lighting designer, and sound designer. There’s sometimes a projection designer, wig designer, music director, pit musicians, composer, choreographer, fight director, and honestly, probably some other designers/directors that I didn’t even know existed.  You will also most likely find a stage manager and sound engineer, a light board operator, spotlight operators, deck crew, wardrobe crew, audio crew, and all of the artisans that built, sewed, and painted all of the physical aspects of the show. At the level of theatre, I work on; I’d say there’s generally an additional 40-50 people contributing to the show that are never seen on stage.  Isn’t that also worth reporting on? The actors do an amazing job of taking audiences out of their worlds for a few hours, but would it even be possible to make that journey in a dark, empty, silent room?

This is not the first letter to theatre reviewers that I have written.  Several years ago, I kept reading review after review of shows that my colleagues and I had designed the sound for and never read even a mention of those designs.  All of those shows were reviewed by the same person, and I emailed him asking why he never reported on what the show sounded like. Given that most of those shows were musicals, I’d say the aural response was a pretty significant one.  His reply to me was that he didn’t know what sound design was, or that it was even a thing. I get that, I really do, but as a newspaper writer, aren’t you something of a journalist? Haven’t you been taught to investigate, research, and find out the whole story?  I gave him some enlightening information on the practice of sound design and waited on pins and needles for an improvement in his next review. I’m sad to report that I never received that satisfaction.

It’s not just sound designers that get this treatment, even though, as a sound designer, it is the area where I am the most sensitive.  Many of the reviews I have read of theatres in my area over the past year have had little to no mention of design or crew. Instead, the reviews have consisted of a paragraph or two sending glowing praise to leading actors in the show, the occasional shout-out to supporting ensemble members, and then the rest of the review reads like a book report telling us what the story is about.  Sometimes there is the rare and seemingly obligatory list of designer names at the bottom of the review like their editor told them they had to say something about design, so they mentioned the designers’ existence to appease the boss. I’m not a reviewer, so maybe I’m wrong, but I just don’t think that dedicating 75% of the column to writing the show’s Cliff’s Notes is a review of what actually happened in that room.

As I mentioned before, I know that what we do is mysterious, and sometimes difficult to understand, so here are some facts about regional theatre and the kinds of questions you should be trying to answer:

  1. Making a play takes a lot of planning!  The design team of a regional show will probably start that planning process 4-6 months ahead of the show’s opening, and meet every 1-2 weeks to discuss the show’s progress.
  2. Making a play also takes money!  A large-scale musical on the regional theatre level could cost $30k-$60k to get the show looking and sounding spectacular.
  3. Making a play takes research!  The next time you’re reviewing a show, take a look at the details.  Do those civil war era costumes match what you remember from history books?  Where did they come from? Did this theatre make them in-house? What about that authentic-looking Mid-Century Modern furniture that is so popular now.  That chair alone would go for $5000, so how did this theatre get it?
  4. Making a play takes technical knowledge!  See all of those lights moving, changing colors, and making interesting patterns on the stage?  Do you hear all of those sound effects swirling around the space? Can you hear the amplified voices blending with the music? This is not a My-First-System kind of thing.  Someone went to a lot of trouble to make that cool stuff work.
  5. Making a play takes coordination!  There are so many moving parts to a play, and once it starts, it has to keep going.  We can’t just skip over the hard parts, and if something goes wrong, someone has to make a quick decision on what to do to keep the train moving.  Who’s doing that, and how? How do the people on the ground know what do to? How much practice does all of this take?

So, reviewers of theatre, again, thank you for your dedication and love.  We really do appreciate it. But please, the next time you go to the theatre, try to answer the not so easy questions, because for this dying art, “the actors were great, and this story is a lot of fun,” is just not enough anymore.  We need you to help expose this world to those who don’t know what they’re missing, and this world has some pretty stiff competition in this modern and highly technical society.

Us VS Them?

 

With all of the forward motion in the entertainment industry over the past few years, I just can’t believe that we still live in a culture of  “Us vs. Them.” I’m talking about actors, musicians, “the talent,” vs. technicians. Even in my list, I’ve used a term I’m used to hearing: The Talent.  Here’s the thing, I am also the talent. The spot ops are also “the talent.” The stage manager is also “the talent.” The deck crew, the A2, the board ops, the wardrobe techs, etc. are all “the talent.”

We’ve stopped thinking about what language that has been used for generations actually means. I cringe every time I hear “actors on a ten” during tech rehearsals. What about technicians and designers?  Should we just power through? Obviously, this announcement actually means that this is the time everyone should take a break, but the language just needs to change. What about the rehearsal report that refers to the actor as “Mr. Smith” but refers to the technician as “the board op?” It only perpetuates an already unspoken and uncomfortable divide between those that work on the stage and those that work just off the stage.

This is not a one-way street; the sentiment goes both ways.  We always hear about “actor-proofing” gear for the stage. What does that even mean?  Does an actor suddenly lose all ability to think logically about the thing they are holding, or sitting on, or walking over once they hit the stage?  I mean, we’re not actor-proofing an actor’s day-to-day life, are we? If what we mean is we are going to make sure a cable is run properly and taped down so that it can be crossed over many times without being a trip hazard, we should probably just say that instead.

The theatre conservatory that I taught for the better part of a decade has a policy that all acting students must serve as a technician on at least one show during their training.  I love this policy, and honestly, a few of my best A2s were actors. Why just hear about the other side when you can actually experience it? The benefits are massive. The actor learns a bit about a technical trade, will be able to incorporate that new knowledge into their craft, and hopefully has a newfound respect for the life and work of the technician.

The tech crew also benefits from working with the actor-tech. One of the coolest and most functional homemade mic belts I’ve ever used was made by an actor-tech who used his prior experience of uncomfortable mic placement to develop a beneficial design. Also, an actor’s knack for memorization has come in super handy when I’ve had to rattle off a list of instructions that needed to be performed in a timely fashion.  And let’s face it, actors almost always know every character and every word to every song way earlier in the process than a technician. It is so much easier to be able to say, “Fix that mic on Sibella” without having to add, “She’s the girl that’s always dressed in pink.”

Acting conservatory classes often feature a lot of exercises that include self-reflection, group trust, and team-building.  Over the years, I’ve heard tech students talk about how awesome it was that they didn’t have to take classes like those, and that has always boggled my mind!  Why wouldn’t you want to take advantage of free therapy? I know (possibly more than anyone) how uncomfortable and difficult it is to open up about feelings and stuff, but think of the personal growth!  If we were all taking team-building classes together, actors and techs, US and THEM, just think of all of the positivity that would come from it. If nothing else, it would let us get to know one another. Maybe get coffee together, maybe collaborate, maybe learn from each other. My challenge to you all is simple: Cut this phrase in half. There is no Us vs. Them; There is only US. It takes all of us to make a show.

I wanted to say something here about symbiosis, and my first Google search turned up this definition:

“Symbiotic relationships are a special type of interaction between species.  Sometimes beneficial, sometimes harmful, these relationships are essential to many organisms and ecosystems, and they provide a balance that can only be achieved by working together.”

I really can’t do better than that.  So just keep reading that definition, and thanks for coming to my Ted Talk.

 

Audio Tips For The Top High School Musicals Of 2019

NPR Ed has just published a database of the most popular high school plays and musicals in the U.S. for 2019.  Upon reading this list, I realized that I have designed all but two of these musicals, so I thought I’d share a few experiences I encountered with each.  I’m only touching on the musicals, but here’s the link to the original article if you’d like to follow along at home, and also read about the most popular high school plays in 2019.

Alright, here we go!  (I feel like David Letterman…digital high-five if you get the reference.

#10 Shrek, The Musical & The Wizard of Oz

No, this is not a weird mashup (but that would be hilarious, someone write this right now).  These two musicals have tied for 10th place. I’ll start with Shrek.  

I loved this musical, it was so much fun, and it’s a great option for high school casts.  The biggest hurdle I faced with this show was makeup. As you probably know, Shrek is green, Fiona turns green, and donkey is grey.  There’s also a giant dragon puppet. Shrek almost never leaves the stage. He also has a pretty complicated costume and heavy face makeup, so my first piece of advice is to double-mic Shrek.

Our Shrek wore a little beanie that was never removed, so I integrated microphone elements into that beanie. I asked the costumes department to sew a few small, elastic loops into the inside of the beanie, and threaded two microphone elements (which were Hellermaned together) through the inside of the beanie that popped out the front, landing in a nice little forehead position.  Shrek’s makeup was airbrushed on him each day, and our costume department was nice enough to give me a little bit of that green so that I could paint the elements in the same color.

This paint job had to be touched up about 2 times a week. Also, if your Shrek is wearing a fat suit, I recommend placing his transmitter on the outside of that rig. Depending on the transmitter and the fabric of the suit, they can have some difficulty cutting through all of those layers.  Fiona is a little easier, but has one very important scene to consider—her transformation scene. The transformation, including green makeup and prosthetics, needs to happen super quickly.

Since I could foresee green makeup flying all over that microphone element, I made the decision to have a second element prepped and ready for this quick change. This element was also painted in the Shrek green makeup. Human Fiona wore her element in a forehead position that ran under her wig (but not under the wig cap, which I would normally do), and during the quick change, the Human Fiona wig and element would come off, disconnect from the transmitter, her face was quickly painted green, and then the green element would replace the previous one and run under Ogre Fiona’s wig.  My A2 would handle all of the element work, including holding the capsule in place while the wig was being attached, and dressers took care of the rest of the change around the A2.

Our Donkey wore a head-to-toe bodysuit, so running his element under the hood of the bodysuit to the top of the forehead was my preferred method. Finally, the dragon. The dragon is a puppet that is manipulated by several operators. We had a separate actor voicing the dragon for her very fabulous song, Forever. Our vocalist was visible onstage, so I decided to match her R&B goodness with a gold-grilled handheld wireless mic.

#9 Into The Woods

I have never designed this show, but I really want to, so if you’re reading this blog and you are a producer, call me.

# 8 Seussical 

I designed this show over a decade ago, and it was for a high school company.  In fact, I’m willing to bet that 85% of the companies producing this show nowadays are middle and high school companies.  My biggest challenges on this show were the gear and personnel.

There are 12 principals, and an endless possibility for the ensemble.  I think my total cast size was between 50-60, plus we had an 18 piece orchestra. The school chose to provide their own gear as opposed to renting from my theater, so I had to work with what they had.

For the orchestra, I was given 5 pencil condenser microphones, 1 SM57, 1 SM58, and a handful of DI boxes. Luckily, I had enough DI boxes for guitars, keyboards, and bass. I ended up mic’ing sections instead of individual instruments, as would normally be my choice.  So, I put a condenser microphone on the reed section, brass section, string section, percussion section, and used one as overhead for the drumset. I used the 57 on the snare and the 58 on the kick. Some careful EQ really helped with this skimpy choice of mics.

For actor mics, I was given 12 wireless transmitters, 9 lavs, and 3 choir mics.  Yep, you read that right. Remember, this is a cast of about 55. I put all 12 transmitters on the principals, and 7 lavs permanently on those principals that had the most stage time. Now, I really, REALLY hate microphone swapping and avoid it whenever possible, but for this show, it just had to be done. Luckily we were only swapping 2 lavs between actors.  I put together a mic swap sheet and walked my high school student A2 through the process step by step.

Since I had 12 transmitters, the packs could all stay on their dedicated actor, and the A2 would just have to attach the lav as needed. For the ensemble, I had to bargain with the director a bit. The ensemble blocking was all over the place, and the director was hoping I would just hang those 3 choir mics evenly distributed over the stage, and they would produce the same sound as the principals in lavs.  I told her that one choice mic hanging 6 ft over the head of one tiny 13 year old was not going to give her the sound she was looking for, but 3 choir mics positioned in one area over a group of 40 13 years olds would get her closer. She was not willing to forfeit all of her blocking and make the ensemble completely stationary, so we chose 3 locations where large groups of the ensemble would land for musical numbers, and I hung a choir mic over each location. On the rare occasion that an ensemble member had a pop-out solo, we made sure they were standing next to a principal so that we could get a little more gain from that open mic.

I also had a high school student mixing at front of house, so I preprogrammed the show for him, made it as user-friendly as possible, and walked him through the scenes one by one. Designing this show was the first time that I realized student production does not necessarily equal easy. Given all of the constraints and restrictions, I’m happy with the way the show turned out, and I DEFINITELY learned a lot from that production.

#7 Little Shop of Horrors

Again, I have never designed this show, but it’s one of my FAVES, so if you need a sound designer for this, you know who to call!

#6 Newsies

I did this show a few years ago, and I absolutely loved it.  The cast was phenomenal, the music was great, my biggest and only enemy during this production was sweat.  If you don’t know the show, it basically features a group of stupidly talented dancing newsboys. If the show is done right, and I’d like to think ours was, they are dancing their little hearts out for the majority of the show.  That means lots and lots of sweat.

My regular transmitter protection protocol is to put the transmitter in a non-lubricated condom rolled all the way up with a cotton ball sitting between the connector and antenna. Most of the transmitters were in a neoprene mic belt, which is super protective against a sweaty body.  Because only a few of our mic belts had flaps on them for extra transmitter security, the excessive amount of dancing would sometimes cause my cotton balls to jump out of the mic belt, and onto the ground. I decided to add a rubber band around the length of the transmitter to hold the cotton ball in. In a few cases, I found that transmitters were still getting sweated out, despite the neoprene mic belt and latex protection.  For these few microphones, I added a layer of glad wrap around the transmitter. The sticky seal on this wrap really helps to keep the transmitter dry and happy. Remember to let the seal extend above the microphone connector and antenna. I then put the glad-wrapped transmitter in the un-lubricated condom and added the cotton ball.

I also had a few situations in which the microphone element that was rigged over the ear of the actors picked up an extreme amount of sweat regularly.  One of my favorite solutions for this issue is to add a tiny, rubber washer to the element that sits just above the capsule. The idea is that the washer will help distribute accumulated sweat out instead of down into the capsule. I got mine in a pack of 100 for less than $10 from McMaster-Carr.

#5 Mary Poppins

The most important thing to remember for this show is that Mary Poppins=FLYING!  This is important to remember because

#1:  In addition to her heavy costume, corset, and mic belt, Mary Poppins also wears a flying harness.

#2: Depending on where her take-off and landing zones are, you may not have as much off-stage access to Mary as you might like.

This becomes problematic when microphone troubleshooting becomes necessary. There are also very few moments that Mary Poppins is off stage, so I decided to double mic her.  I originally had her two transmitters on her mic belt under her corset, but I found that their antennas were having a difficult time cutting through all of the layers of heavy fabrics.  It was also quite uncomfortable for our Mary Poppins, given the extra belt of the fly harness.

I ended up moving one transmitter to inside her wig, and the other clipped to the front, outside of her corset.  The wigged transmitter was a Shure UR1M. I think this position would have been too uncomfortable with anything other than a micro-transmitter. The costume department helped by making a wig cap sandwich to help keep the transmitter secure, yet still accessible.  The actor playing Mary Poppins would pin curl her hair and wear a wig cap

#1 over the curls. On top of this wig cap was an added pocket for the transmitter. She then added a wig cap

#2, which was held on with 2 hairpins. The wig was then applied. There were many times throughout this run when we had to switch to the backup mic mid-show, so I’m glad we made the choice to double mic.

#4 Beauty and the Beast   

This is a BEAST of a show!  As we all know, there are many enchanted objects that live in the beasts castle.  If the mouth and/or majority of the face are obstructed by costumes, my advice is to build the microphone into the costume in such a way that it has better access to the mouth.

I chose a forehead microphone placement for our beast, but his hair/mane was worn so low on his forehead that it became necessary to place the capsule of his mic just above his brow line, which was fine, just required a bit of a different EQ.  Most productions, including ours, feature a Beast double for the final battle between Beast and Gaston. This is to facilitate the transformation of Beast to Prince.

There are several Beast lines that occur while the double is on stage, so as not to let on about our theatre magic, I chose to record those lines and have them played back.  There is a lot happening in this scene, and it should be pretty dark and scary, so there’s no need to worry about lip sync lining up. We had a second microphone element mounted on an ear rig for Beast’s transformation to the Prince, so during that costume change, we switched to the second element.

#3 The Little Mermaid

I am currently contracted to design this show, but will not begin the process for another few months.  So far, my biggest concern is, again, flying. While our production does not feature true flying, we will be using a few silks and ropes that actors will climb and swing on.  They will be harnessed, so I will be thinking of careful transmitter placement to guard against the actor or the equipment getting damaged.

# 2 Mamma Mia! 

Mamma Mia!  seems like it would be a pretty straightforward show, and it is.  The thing that required some extra thought for me was the large number of backup vocals.  We did not use pit or offstage singers, so I chose to record our ensemble singing all of the backup vocals.  Our production also features lots of dancing, so we did record some ensemble vocal overdubs to playback and sweeten those very heavy dance moments.

The curtain call of this show features what is basically an Abba concert. For this moment, I had originally planned on our music director and his assistant to be wheeled out on stage while playing live keyboards, but because of a personnel change very close to the opening of this show, we had to scrap that idea.  I’m telling everyone this tidbit because I’m hoping someone out there is able to up the stakes of this glimmering disco concert! I also insisted that the main six use handheld wireless microphones during the concert, and we even managed to add some blingy handle covers for good measure!

 

#1 The Addams Family   

 

It seems only right that this show is in the number one slot, it is definitely in my top three favorite designs.  If I’m being perfectly honest, I didn’t encounter too many issues I needed a creative solution for on this show.  I did get to play with a few fun effects, though. I don’t know if this is the typical casting, but our Cousin It also played the monster in Pugsley’s room.

Both of these characters featured a costume that completely covered the actor’s head. The monster costume was literally built on top of a motorcycle helmet worn by the actor.  As you can imagine, these are not ideal microphone situations. I chose to cover the echo chamber that these pieces created with effects. Since both characters made only sounds and not words, I was able to be pretty heavy-handed with the effects, as I was not worried about intelligibility or tedious balance.

For both characters, I used a dual pitch. I dialed both of It’s pitches extremely high, and both of the monster’s pitches extremely low. We gave the actor some time during tech to experiment with different sounds to see what could be produced through these effects. The outcome was very exciting, and a crowd favorite!

The opening number of the show features ensemble “ah’s,” which were sung offstage for our production. To give this an “other-worldly” feel, I basically drowned them in a large chamber reverb with a shockingly long 9-second decay. The same effect was applied to the women’s ensemble final “ah’s” in The Moon and Me.

Whatever musical you may be working on, remember that you do not always have to be beholden to budget, inventory, or personnel.  Creative solutions are out there, you just have to think outside the box. Also, remember your community if you get stuck! There is nothing wrong with reaching out to your hive, analog or digital, to discover just the right trick!     

Teaching Kids about Sound

For the past ten years, I’ve been the sound faculty for a technical theatre conservatory.  Students spend two years in this conservatory learning as many elements of technical theatre as possible, and generally, can declare one area as their focus.  I can count on my two hands, the number of students that have come in with sound as their focus, and, by the way, less than half were women. I was always told by my students that sound is scary, or too hard, or wasn’t ever taught in high school and middle school when these students first burst into the theatre world.

“Who ran sound for all of these musicals that you did in middle and high school,” I would ask. The number one answer? Someone’s dad. Someone’s dad would watch some YouTube videos, come in while the kids were in class, and throw together some kind of sound system that would be enough to get by. A dad and maybe the school’s technical director would run sound for the shows during the performance, and maybe let a kid stand behind the console, hit “GO” in QLab, or help put mics on other kids.

I suppose this exposure is better than nothing, but what we need to do is get kids hooked on sound from the very beginning of the process so they can understand what they’re doing instead of mimicking the few motions that they’ve been taught. This blog will feature some great resources for teaching sound to kids. If you’re the drama teacher for your school and also live in a world of “sound is scary, don’t make me do it,” this blog is for you. You don’t really need to understand everything about sound to use these resources, but checking them out might also teach you a thing or two….so, BONUS!

Elementary Years

If you’ve read any of my blogs before, you know how I feel about music and sound—they’re in a deeply committed relationship, and will be FOR-E-VER!  If you want to start kids on the track to audio, get them excited about music as early as you can.

One of my favorite activities to spark a budding music mind is the “Pictures at an Exhibition” project.  Modest Mussorgsky wrote this brilliant Suite in honor of his artist friend, Viktor Hartmann. The ten movement Suite was to be an aural representation of Hartmann’s work. So here’s the project: Give the kids some paper and crayons, play each of the ten movements of the Suite for them one at a time, and tell them to draw what they hear.  I first did this project with 30 kindergarteners, and the results were astonishing. Without knowing the titles of the movements, they were mostly able to accurately portray what Mussorgsky was looking at when he wrote his music. This project introduces a very crucial element. It teaches kids to not only hear music but to listen. Music is a super-easy way to introduce active listening skills.

A great next step is to introduce the concept of a sonic field. Turn the lights off and clap. Now move a few steps back, and clap again. Ask your students to tell you if you were closer or further away the second time. Rinse and repeat these steps several times, and before you know it, you’ll have a room of 30 little sound engineers in the making. Check out these other great projects for tiny technicians:

Sound Experiments for Kids

Science Snacks

Middle School Years

Middle school is the perfect time to start introducing kids to the nuts and bolts of sound.  Building XLR cables is a fun and engaging project that also lets kids see the basics up close and personal.  I know soldering with kids seems like a scary prospect, but if I can teach my ten-year-going-on-sixteen-year-old how to solder, so can you.  Sometimes it feels impossible to teach a skill that you’ve seemingly just known forever, so remember to keep it simple, go slow, and over-explain everything.  I stumbled upon this great blog about teaching kids to solder. It features lots of resources for project kits and lists everything you’ll need to get started.

You Should Teach Your Kids to Solder

Once you have successfully built your cables, let your kids experiment with connecting a microphone to a speaker, and then introduce a small analog mixer.  I love to use my adorable little Yamaha MG10 for beginner projects. It’s small enough to keep kids from being overwhelmed but has enough start teaching the ins and outs of the mixing console.

A key ingredient to teaching middle school kids is being able to connect to them on their level. Incorporating their interests into your lesson will help you successfully plant those tiny seeds of knowledge.  What better way to connect with middle school kids than with a cell phone? There’s a great game app called Aux B that lets users patch a sound system bit by bit. It starts simple, and throughout 40 free levels, gets pretty complicated.  The game does not allow you to advance to the next level until you have successfully passed the current level and achieved blaring music through your speakers. This is a super fun way to introduce signal flow. I like to have my students race against each other on this game, and then the winner gets the glory of being the ultimate Patch Master!  Here’s the link:

Aux B

High School Years

High school.  Here’s where we get to start having some fun with audio.  SoundGym is a super fun and useful ear training program. (SoundGirls has free subscriptions, email us at soundgirls@soundgirls to receive yours) It helps users identify frequencies and the differences between them, panning, and gain differences.  It’s very user-friendly, so it’s easy just to plug and play. The free version of this program does have some limitations on how much you can do, but it’s enough to be useful.  I find this program the most beneficial when used on a regular basis. After all, practice makes perfect! Here’s the link:

SoundGym

The folks at Figure53 (the makers of QLab) have some great (and free) resources.  Their instructional videos are fun and user friendly, and you can follow along on a free version of QLab, as long as you have a Mac computer.  Another super great Figure53 resource is the Figure53 Studio. There is a link on their website where they share experimental software for free!  It should be noted that there is no support for these programs, so if you get stuck or have questions, you’re on your own. One of my favorite resources for learning and teaching QLab is the QLab Cook Book.  This is a collection of QLab programming techniques and tricks developed by real-life QLab users! All three links are right here:

Figure53 Qlab

Figure53 Studio

Qlab Cookbook

If you are located in or near Southern California, you will be able to take advantage of a super cool Yamaha resource I discovered about ten years ago.  Yamaha has a program called “Audioversity” that offers all kinds of professional audio education and training activities. There is a healthy mix of self-paced training and instructor-led training.  The folks at Yamaha are invested in education, and will happily give student tours of the Yamaha Corporation in Buena Park. It’s great for students to see new equipment that is being developed, and all of the cool things going on inside Yamaha.  Check out this link for more info:

Yamaha Training

Whatever path you choose to use to introduce kids to audio, the important thing is to keep talking about it.  It’s one of the technical areas of entertainment that often fades into the background, and that’s what makes it so scary to beginners.  Audio is very accessible, and anyone can learn it. All it takes is a little patience and a great sense of adventure!

 

The Power of an All Women Team

I just got home from a load-in that I’ve been dreading for months. To my surprise, I don’t feel exhausted, I don’t have any harrowing stories of woe to share, and I’m not annoyed, frustrated, or angry. Instead, what I feel is proud, accomplished, and satisfied. I’m not immediately sure what is different about this load-in, and then it hits me: There was not one man on this team. The power of the all-women team is real, and I’m about to tell you why.

Yes, I am a feminist. No, I do not hate men. Yes, I work with great guys all the time. So why has my experience with this all-women team been so remarkable? I’m really not sure, and to be honest, I never expected myself to be the person attributing a smooth process to the lack of testosterone in the room, but here we are. Let me start with a little back story on the project.

This load-in was at my resident theatre company. The load-in was for a musical theatre show featuring a six-piece live band on stage. The Sound Designer (also a woman) is a guest, so the rest of the team has been prepping in advance of her arrival. All along, we have checked with her on patching preferences, microphone choices, speaker placement, etc., and she’s been very relaxed and happy with the choices that we’ve made. We haven’t had to deal with any ego or power trip. We haven’t encountered the “only brown M&Ms” on the rider just to make sure we’re paying attention. Easy and efficient is how I would describe the process of advancing this Sound Designer.

Because this show is just a two-hour long concert, we agreed to let the majority of the gear (monitors, FOH console + engineer, microphones, keyboard, etc.) be in the rehearsal room. The intention was that monitor levels, mixes and scenes could be dialed in during the rehearsal process, and save us some valuable tech time. Because all of our gear was sitting in rehearsal during our usual load-in time, we had a finite amount of change over time from rehearsal to stage in preparation for upcoming sound levels time and tech.

The last rehearsal ended at 3:30 pm. My crew, which consisted of the show’s A1, A2, and Assistant Sound Designer, started loading out the rehearsal room at 5:00 pm. We got to the stage around 6:30 pm and began mapping out our setup. Everything must be ready and working by 1:00 pm the next day for the Sound Designer’s designated sound levels time. This process isn’t entirely as cut and dry as it might sound. In addition to making sure everything looks and sounds great on this stage, we have to consider the outdoor theater this show will travel to in two weeks. We need to make sure we have enough resources set aside to support a significant orchestra recording that is coming up at the end of the week and the next musical that will be on this stage.

In addition to the band on stage, we also have two speaker specials hidden in the scenery, 2 Rio stage boxes 50 feet apart, and a wireless microphone rack used for actor body mics, and three of the instruments on stage. We also have eight channels of QLab and an external audio interface. All of this has to be networked in our Dante system. As the load-in progressed, some plans had to change, different runs needed to be made and troubleshooting gear.  This was the part when I noticed a difference in many of my past load-ins. These young women, basically fresh out of college, were very smart, keeping all of the pieces tracked through their plans, and working efficiently and calmly.

As a woman working in a male-dominated field, I have been undermined, discounted, and “little-lady’ed” more times than I can count. This regular kind of interaction or expectation has made me permanently defensive, not only for myself but for my fellow SoundGirls in the industry. I have found myself on various calls watching the interaction between women and men, wondering if I’m going to have to drop what I’m doing to come to the defense of another woman who is being railroaded. When I’m juggling all kinds of various technical elements in my brain during a time-sensitive load-in, the last thing I need to be thinking about is whether or not (or how many times) I’m going to have to defend my position to a man who thinks he knows better. Whether or not that situation occurs, the possibility of its existence automatically puts me in defense mode every time.

Here’s the thing about all of this subconscious self-protection: I didn’t know I was doing that until I didn’t have to do it anymore. As I said, I was dreading this load-in. I knew so much was riding on my planning. When my expected stress never arrived at the onset of the load-in, I had to actively think about what was different. All of us on that project were able to focus on the task at hand and nothing else. What a luxury I didn’t know I was missing. Because of this cohesive team and everyone’s smart and careful planning, we walked out of the space at 10:30 pm, hours ahead of what I was expecting. I drove home beaming with pride. Why can’t every job be this way?

The moral of this story is not that we should kick all of the men out of our industry. The moral is that we ALL need to be able to work on an equal and cohesive team. I do not want to see the new generation developing the same defensive complex that I have. To the men reading this blog, pay attention at your next gig. Pay attention to your interactions and the interactions of your fellow male team members. Do you notice a difference in how you interact with the women on your team?  Does your voice change? Do your facial expressions vary? What about your body language? All of these things are second nature to all of us, so much I wasn’t even aware I was missing the serenity of working on an all-women team, you might not even be aware that your responses change for no other reason than the gender of the other party. If you see it, when you see it, change it. Make yourself aware. Stopping the cycle starts with you. It’s a fight the women of this industry have been fighting forever. Be an ally, be supportive, be on our team.

Interview Tips for the Theatre Technician

 

Interviewing for a new job has always been a source of anxiety for me.  I did not choose a behind-the-scenes career just so I could talk to strangers about myself, but it seems that the job interview is a necessary evil.  Over the years, I’ve learned that interviewing doesn’t have to be scary. You can prepare for an interview without feeling like you’re cramming for a final, and there is a bit of a formula that can be applied so that it doesn’t feel like you’re shooting in the dark or starting from scratch with each interview.

Admittedly, it’s been a while since I’ve had an interview.  That’s the good part of being in a residency for many years.  I am, however, in the position of interviewing several people every year, and I have definitely learned what makes me happy and what turns me off after an interview.  Even if an applicant has a good resume, it’s hard to justify moving them forward if they don’t interview well. It’s true what they say about first impressions, and the bigger the applicant pool, the more memorable an applicant needs to be.  No pressure.

Step one:  Do your research.

A very typical interview question is, “Why this company.”  You need to be able to answer that, and my pro tip here is, make the answer be about the company.  If you tell your interviewer that you’re just trying to find a job or that you apply to every job you see posted, that can be a mark against you.  They also do not want to hear that their company is a great stepping stone along the path to the job you really want. The theatre world is a very small one, and if you put some feelers out, you might find that you know someone, or have a friend of a friend who has worked with this company.  Pick their brain, and find out how their experience was. What aspects resonate with you? Also, the internet is your friend. Use it to learn everything you can about the company. They will likely have their mission statement posted and probably an “about us” section on their website. Do you have like views?  How so? These will be great talking points. If you don’t agree with their mission or don’t like how the company operates, stop right there and reconsider applying for this job.

Step two:  Know your resume.

Your interviewer will most definitely have your resume in front of them, so that is going to be a source of questions from them.  I know I have several different resumes I use depending on the job I’m applying for, and they don’t all contain all of the same information.  I don’t know how many times I have referenced something from an applicant’s resume, and they didn’t know what I was talking about, because they couldn’t remember the specific resume they sent me.  If I’m applying to several companies at once, I will immediately print out the resume I submitted and staple it to a sheet of paper with the company’s name on it. Looking at the same thing the interviewer is looking at will help keep your head clear when you’re searching for just the right answer to their questions.  Btw, that blank sheet of paper is also the thing you should use to write notes on.

Step three:  Be yourself.

Something about your application materials drew this company to you, so don’t mess it up by trying to sound more important, or professional, or what have you.  These people are very likely just looking for a human that is good at their craft. That’s you. Be a human. It’s ok to laugh or crack a joke here and there, that stuff lets the interviewer know that you can be relaxed in high-stress situations.  Be careful, though; you don’t want to push this point. Don’t go out of your way to sound extra funny, or extra cool, or just plain extra. It’s awkward and uncomfortable to listen to, and it’s also not an accurate representation of who you are. So again, just be yourself.

Step four:  Create a stress-free environment.  

Many of my interviews are conducted over the phone, and I have heard it all, so let me start by saying that a busy loading dock, the subway, your car in rush hour traffic, the airport, the bar (yes, I have called someone for an interview while they were at the bar) are not considered a stress free environment.  If it’s hard to hear you because of background noise, or if you’re driving in and out of cell service, or I guess if you’re wasted at the bar, it is going to be very frustrating for your interviewer, and they are likely going to skip some questions just to be finished with that phone call sooner, and you’re going to miss out an opportunity to show this company how awesome you are.  Also, make sure you have plenty of time available before and after the interview. Your interview could be 20 minutes, or it could be 2 hours. It’s also possible that you might get a call a little early, so be prepared, and just block out a good chunk of time. Choose a quiet, good phone service area. If you’re doing a video interview, look at the world around you. Are your interviewers looking at your dirty laundry or watching cartoons in the background of your camera?  “No” should be the answer here.

Step five:  Take notes.

Before your interview, write down some questions you have about the company or the job.  Even the question, “Do you have any questions for us” is a test. They want to know that you have standards, and you’ve done your homework.  Indifference is not a good quality to have in an interview, or in life, really, so having some opinions about how you would like to potentially be fit into this new company is a good thing.  Also, write down the questions you are asked. If you get a little rambly or need a second to think about the questions, having them written down in front of you will help you keep your thoughts collected.

Step six:  Be polite and gracious.  

Manners go a long way.  This company has gone into a lot of trouble to work you into their busy schedule, so thank them for their time at the end of the interview.  I think a follow-up email within the hour thanking them again is a really nice touch, and I definitely always take note when I get that email.  Also, remember that your interviewer works for the company for which you are applying, so it stands to reason that they probably like the company.  Don’t bash it during your interview. I know this seems like strange advice, but I wrote it because I’ve encountered it. Also, this person is also probably a department head or production manager, so keep that in mind, and don’t tell this person everything you hate about production managers.  Trust me; it won’t go over well.

Step seven:  Stay engaged, not pushy.  

You have no idea what your interviewer’s schedule is like, so don’t expect to hear from them the next day.  It’s fair to ask during your interview when they expect to get back to you and if you’ll hear back whether or not you get the job.  If the date that you were expecting a call has gone by, feel free to follow up with a friendly email, but I would suggest stopping at one email.  Not everyone gets back to applicants if they didn’t get the job, so if you haven’t heard anything even after you sent a follow-up email, you probably have your answer.

All in all, confidence, genuine personality, and organization are going to be your best lines of defense during your interview.  If you feel good about how your interview went, then remember what you did, and make it your base formula that adjusts based on the company.  If you didn’t get the job, but you truly thought your interview went well, don’t blame the interview. There are a myriad of reasons why you might not have been chosen, and you don’t want to psych yourself out before the next interview, so just know that you have done your best work, and you can do it again.


Being A Musician Makes Me A Better Sound Designer and Engineer

I have been a musician for almost my entire life.  At four years old, I could sing every word of Annie without skipping a note.  When I was in the third grade, I got a piano for my birthday and started the first of many private lessons.  In the fourth grade, I started playing the viola in my school orchestra. I don’t usually count that as one of my instruments because, in orchestra class, I was more interested in talking to my best friend, who played the cello and sat right next to me.  Because of this, I never learned how to read alto clef fluently, and so I faked the viola until I was in the 7th grade and had to quit when my rouse caught up with me. In the 6th grade, I started playing flute and piccolo in the school band. In the 8th grade, the jazz band needed a tenor saxophone player, so I did that for a year since it was a smooth transition from the flute.  Somewhere in middle school, my dad got me a Fender California Series acoustic guitar, and in high school, he got me a Gibson SG. I can play the guitar well enough to be entertaining at a campfire. I was a music major in college, and while there, I took private piano and flute lessons. Most of my music school friends were percussionists, so halfway through my college career, I started taking private percussion lessons, and somehow became the principal percussionist in Campus Band.  So, as you can see, I have a pretty diverse background in music. Music has driven every of my life decisions. So why, when I started my studio recording private lessons, did I not want to play any music?

My degree is in Commercial Music.  My focus in that area was on engineering and producing.  As part of this focus, I was required to write, record, and produce a song once a week.  I would then have a one-hour lesson where my professor would respond to my latest creation.  The expectation was that I would absorb these notes, and my next project would be better. The thing is, it took me a while to get better because I did not want to write or play my own music.  For some reason, once I began the Commercial Music program, I decided I only wanted to be an engineer and producer, and I did not want to be a musician anymore. I asked my professor if I could hire musicians to play for me.  I told him I would do two lessons a week instead of one; I just did not want to play anymore. He did not bend–not even a little. Then he told me something that I have never forgotten. It’s a phrase I use with my students all the time.  He said, “My engineers are not just button pushers.” He is a graduate of the Eastman School of Music, and he is a fantastic trumpet player. He has a wealth of musical knowledge, so it frustrates him when sound engineers don’t feel the music the way he does.  He told me a story about a sound engineer that worked for him in the past. He said this guy did not have a musical bone in his body. He was a button pusher. Mics would come on; mics would go off. That’s it. My professor decided that he did not want anyone coming out of his program to perform like that.  I fought it for a while, but eventually, I gave in, and I’m glad I did. It was the best decision I ever made.

Now I’m a sound designer for theatre, and my musicianship helps inform many of my decisions.  I know to push the music during a big musical swell or interlude. I know that a little reverb in the back makes a small orchestra sound more prominent and lusher.  I know to fade down to underscoring, and I know to gracefully fade up to transition music. It’s not something I think about. It’s something I feel in my body, and my hands just follow.  I know it’s easy for me to say though. I’m a musician, and I have been for most of my life. So what if you’re not a musician? What if you can’t read music, you’ve never touched a musical instrument, but you are a sound engineer?  You don’t have to be a musician to be musical. You don’t have to be a musician to feel the music in your body, and I have a few exercises to help bring the music out of a non-musician’s soul.

First, make playlist of ten songs.  These should be some of your favorite songs, and if they’re contrasting genres, even better.  Next, get some headphones, and head to a quiet room where you can be alone. If it doesn’t creep you out too much, turn off the lights.  Now put on your headphones, and listen to your entire playlist. Note the parts that give you the warm fuzzies, or make the hair on your arms stand up, or force tears to flow from your eyes.  What is happening musically in those moments? Did the instruments crescendo? Was there a vocal effect? Did the reverb ring out after the final note? What about that music made it an experience as opposed to an exercise.  Remember that stuff, and carry it with you into your next gig.

After you’ve done the headphones task, do it again, but this time listen through the best speakers you have access to.  Even if that’s in your car, that’s ok. Listen to the same playlist, and remember those spots you loved. Keep your hand on the volume knob, and gently follow the musical line.  Turn up the volume slightly with that swell. Fade it back down when the line does. This will start to help you attach your warm fuzzy feelings to your technical hands. This is an exercise I love, so I always encourage people to do make multiple playlists and practice this regiment often.  It really does help train your brain and your body to work together.

Another great exercise I like to have my interns and students work on is shadow mixing a movie.  My suggestion is to choose a few movie musicals like Les Miserables, Moulin Rouge, or literally any Disney movie.  Now, sit on your couch, and put 8 pennies on the coffee table in front of you.  For the first movie, keep your pointer and middle finger on your right hand on two of those pennies.  Those are your music faders. Just like the volume knob exercise, move those penny faders with the music.  If you want to add a level of precision, mark a piece of paper with decibel markings to put under the pennies and keep track of the relationship of your pennies to unity.  Do not note things like “Now I am at -10, now I am at -12.” Once you start relying on the numbers, you stop using your ears, and they are your most valuable tool. The muscle memory and relationship between your ears and fingers is what is most important.  After you’re comfortable with the music, watch the movie again, and this time, assign characters to the other 6 faders. This part you will probably have to practice scene by scene, and if there are more than 6 characters per scene, you can assign groups to one DCA, or penny, in your case.  So now, you just repeat the process but adding vocals. When you hear voices get big, follow them with your pennies, and keep doing what you were doing on the first round with the music. If you’re going scene by scene, try filming your hands, and repeat the scene twice. Do your hands have basically the same relationship each time? Are there long stretches of time where you have forgotten to consider music changes? Review the footage, and repeat the practice. The next time you are mixing or designing a show, you just might find that your natural inclination will now be to enhance the musical line with subtle fader movements, thus giving an otherwise flat sound some body and life.  This will be the difference between an acceptable show and an impressively beautiful show.

 

An Interview With Rising Sound Technicians

I’ve been a part of the sound industry since 2000, and I have been working professionally since 2005.  The industry was different back then, at least for me. I didn’t have any women as role models. I didn’t even have many women as contemporaries, so my experience at the beginning was pretty daunting.  That’s not true. At first, I had no worries. I was confident in my chosen degree program in Commercial Music. I was learning how to combine my first true love, music, with my newly found interest, sound.

I remember my very first moment of recognition that being a woman in the sound industry was not the norm. I was working in the recital halls at my university as a sound technician and live recording technician.  It was my regular practice to discuss the logistics of the concert with the artist before we began so that I would know what to expect for the day. A particularly high profile artist was invited to give a concert at my college one year, and I was the lead technician on that show.  I approached his manager to ask my regular questions, and he just stared at me like I had nine heads. I thought to myself, ”I’m only 19 years old, he must be freaked out because I’m so young.” To break the awkward silence, I asked one more question, and his response was, “Who’s in charge here?”  As the lead technician, I was in charge, so I told him I would be leading this event. Again, we stood in silence, staring at each other, until he finally decided to respond. I will never forget his words. “Just go get your boss, sweetheart, and I’ll tell him everything he needs to know.” That’s when I knew that it wasn’t just my age that would make things difficult; it was my gender.  I was mortified. I honestly did not know how to respond. Everything after that is mostly a fury-fueled blur, but I think, in my agitation, I just quietly walked away and did my job the best way I knew how.

Women in this industry still struggle with situations like mine every single day.  The thing that is different now is the steadily growing show of support and representation.  I wanted to know how young women breaking into the sound industry were feeling about it all, so I went straight to the source.  For this month’s blog, I decided to interview my current 9-month intern, Kate Russell, and one of my two-year conservatory students, Lilly Martinez.  Here’s what they had to say:

What is your name, age, and employment/education status?

KR: Kate Russell, 20, Assistant Sound Design Intern at PCPA-Pacific Conservatory Theatre

LM: I am Lilly Martinez. I am an 18-year-old full-time student.

When did you first become interested in sound?

KR: We were doing a production of Annie at my middle school when I was in the 7th grade, and I wanted to be the one to play the music and work with the mics.

LM: That’s a tricky question… I suppose my first interest in sound sparked in high school theatre. My interest deepened toward the end of high school when I began dating a musician who was an involved member of my hometown’s local music community, however, my first serious interest in sound was more recent in my academic endeavors when I actually was able to get my hands on some of the tech used in sound.

What are your career goals?

KR: I want to be a post-production sound engineer for film and television.

LM: I think my career goals focus more on involvement.  I want to work in dynamic areas that challenge skill and set-up. In my career, I want most to help promote culture and diversity. As a Hispanic woman raised in Southern California, I grew up in a heavily diverse community that fostered much of my own culture. I also had the privilege of studying ASL and interacting with the Deaf community. They inspired me to look into Deaf theatre and performances.  I hope that I can help amplify the voices and experiences of those lesser heard or known, regardless of company or title.

What does it mean to you to be a woman in sound?

KR:  To me being a woman in sound means that I am helping to bring about a change in the demographic of an entire industry. Just as theatre is for everyone, the realms of production behind the scenes should not, and cannot be exclusive.

LM:  To be a woman in sound is to be an artist that perseveres in expression regardless of surrounding social stagnancy.

Who are your role models?

KR:  My teachers and mentors:  Elisabeth Weidner (PCPA Sound Director), Abby Hogan (PCPA Scenic Charge), Zoia Wiseman (PCPA Staff Stage Manager), as well as Marisha Ray (Creative Director of Critical Role).

LM:  My role models are the dedicated and passionate artists who constantly show me the limitations others and myself create, are false. This includes Sound Designer Elisabeth Weidner for all her inspiring work, and Sound Designer and Engineer Talitha G. Blackwell.

Do you feel the weight of being underrepresented as a woman in sound?  

KR:  I have been fortunate early in my career to have teachers and mentors who are women, so it hasn’t really hit me yet, but I’m sure the more I travel and gain experience, that weight will become heavier.

LM:  In my experience, the majority of people I have had conversations about sound with have been white men. In high school, a male drama teacher and arts coordinator were the only people I had to rely on and ask questions regarding sound. Past students in my position were boys as well. It wasn’t until I began my studies at PCPA-Pacific Conservatory Theatre that I met women and people of color in sound. I never felt like I could connect or relate to the people around me who would get excited about sound until I met another woman in this field. This is probably the reason it took me so long to take a serious interest in it. There is a silent added pressure to be outstanding and firm as a woman in sound. Sound already tends to be swept aside in conversations about technical theatre. Voices of women have an added fight to be both heard and accepted.

How would you like to see the industry change?

KR:  I would like to see more women in leadership roles in sound, such as department director or producer.

LM:  I would like to see outreach to diverse groups in younger ages. I was swept into sound much like Dorothy and Toto once I left home. If I’d had that same exposure, if I’d had the conversations about sound in my youth that I have in my adult life, It would have been life-changing.

Describe your proudest sound moment.

KR:  My proudest theatrical sound moment was getting to run sound for a show at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

LM:  Surprisingly, my proudest sound moment happened outside of theatre. I had struck up a conversation with a more distant friend of mine who is a musician, and as we talked, I realized just how much my knowledge had grown. I felt well-armed for this conversation.

What is the best piece of advice you’ve ever been given?

KR: “You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.”  I grew up playing various sports, as well as involving myself in theatre, so this quote became very prevalent in my life at an early age.  It applies to almost every aspect of life and is a great motivator for me to just sit down and do the thing.

LM:  A smart person takes critique. A wise person knows when to listen to it.

What advice do you have for young women starting out in the sound industry?

KR:  Don’t be afraid to fail.  Failure is how we learn and grow, both as artists and people. Failure can be intimidating, especially if you are the minority entering into a field, but don’t let that stop you from pursuing your goals.  Let it fuel you to surpass those who would try to keep you down.

LM:  Believe in your capability to grow, and live for the moments when your work gives you goosebumps.

 

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