As the co-leading sound designer for the Purdue University version of the Thorton Wilder classic, Our Town, I guided the sound creation and music composition process with fellow designer Nicholas Ponti.
This process was driven by a series of ideas I had early in the production. The word I returned to was "tactile". I wanted to bolster this subtley beautiful play through physically tangible sounds and compositions.
The sound effects in this production were driven by sounds I created myself. Most were recorded using vintage foley techniques.
The compositional work I did for this play was moody, sparce and mostly composed of live instrumentation.
The Train Sound effects were created by recording an aerosol can and harmonica. The harmonica became a returning sonic motif
The thunder sound effect proved to successful. I purchased a piece of aluminum sheet metal and hit it with a hammer.
The Harmonica was also incorporated into full compostions, with the surreal third act being lead by it, piano, and a wall of orchestration.
Due to much of Our Town's design being ambient and expansive, Nicholas and I decided to forgo installing point source speakers. We instead focused on getting better coverage from the main speakers in the upper grid.
The below composition is one of my compositions which benefited from this orientation.
The 2025 spring works for the Purdue Contemporary Dance Company (PCDC) entailed my compostion for modern dance. It was an experience filled with collaboration, as I took on the responsibility of lead sound design for the seasons work. What this leading role entailed was guiding the 6 other designers, including putting the pieces in 7.1 surround sound.
My personal composition was done in collaboration with the lead production engineer, Zachary Schoensiegel and choreographer Kendal Clay.
We created a cold, synthesized landscape that slowly morphs into something warmer. I achieved my end of this compositionally through three sections, varying in key, tempo, and instrumentation.
We constructed the the overall design in both Ableton Live and Logic Pro.
This is the most in depth of my work in AutoCAD. Under the direction of Mercer M. Aplin from Purdue University, my group and I (Zachary Schoensiegel, Nicholas Ponti) redesigned Purdue's Mallett theatre audio system from the ground up.
While we all had a hand in each part of the process, I did the draft-work on the signal flow diagram. This included both Audio (above), and Video/Network connectivity (below)
The second time I worked with the PCDC was for the spring works of the subsequent year.
This design took a more naturalistic approach, incorporating live instrumentation like my work on Our Town. My choreographer, Joy McEwen, wanted someone able to compose and perform something with acoustic guitar, so I used that as the primary driving force of the piece.
My improvisational approach to guitar required a level of manipulation. I found myself pouring over every note, automating effects, looping and reversing sections, and warping it in every way I could.
The Snow is a play written by Finnegan Kruckmeyer. As a play intended for a younger audience, it required some different design principles. As assistant designer, my job was mostly creating sound effects, but I also assisted in cue sheet creation and did some light composition work.
The lead sound designer, Sujin Kim, was a great mentor during the process, giving me the guidance necessary to create sound effects.
This was created via warped microphone feedback from the built in Macbook micropohone in Ableton Live. It was for a chase scene, and was part way inspired by war films. The intensity aided the absurd comedy.
*1st variation
*2nd variation
This was an amusing "warrior," motif, with the second variation being a comedic subversion early in the play.