Sound For Theatre

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 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. 

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.

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. 

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.