The Laramie Project
About This Production: |
Position: Sound Designer
Location: Penn State Downtown Theater Date: Spring 2018 |
This show was my first design at Penn State and my second experience with composition for theater. All of the music in the production was composed in Logic and played back in Qlab. All said and done, there ended up being over 1000 Qlab commands to facilitate the immersive score.
Audio Samples
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The Fence: The Fence stands as a reminder of the cruelty Matthew Shepard endured. In the play, the characters tell of how they discovered Matthew's bloody body lying helpless bound to the fence. In this moment, the sound has to form a cloudy atmosphere that puts the audience in an uneasy state. This was accomplished through the gradual growth of a thick soundscape including recordings from a corn field, eerie string and artificial drones, and the flutes (signifying Matthew throughout the play) that slide around and become out-of-tune with each other adding to the tension created in the play.
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Homecoming: The Homecoming Parade signifies some of the early hope that the world is recognizing the injustice and standing up for Matthew. The sound in the play follows the evolution of the world's thoughts towards Matthew. The play begins with a hollow guitar and slowly builds to a large string section that first truly erupts in this moment of hope. The image of masses of people marching for Matthew created a very vivid image in my mind. The sound seeks to give the impression of the heaviness of the masses marching for Matthew as well as the glimmering hope.
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Final Scene: The Final Scene seeks to inflict the feeling of "hope" into the audience. It only seems suiting for the scene to follow the path of the show and end in a full orchestra. The scene begins with a solo viola and slowly builds to a full orchestra that surrounds the audience. Finally, the "twinkling lights of Laramie Wyoming" sounds from the distance as the lights once again appear on the fence. The lights fade as a single chord of hope envelopes the audience.
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Amazing Grace: The scene begins with the protesters chanting "God Hates Fags" along with a solo violin playing Amazing Grace. This chant along with crowd noises grow to a climax until the center character puts in her "angel earplugs." Once inserted, we enter her head where the protesters disappear and the world is full of hope with Amazing Grace playing confidently. The scene then moves to the courthouse where the song fades to a solo violin where the melody is then transferred gradually to humming actors onstage.
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Hope: The "Hope" scene takes place at the end of Act 2. Here, I wanted to emphasize the idea of "Hope" that is very present in the dialog. To emphasize it, a bell is played in the distance signifying each letter of "Hope." The bells then serve as a inward revelation in the actor that pushes them to respond with "H...O...P...E." While this is a strong and joyous moment, the play is not yet over. To bring in a slight sense of uneasiness, the bells descend and slowly begin to modulate adding just the right amount of discomfort.
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The Church: The Church scene shows us the beliefs of different congregations. Their "traditional" beliefs are supposed to make us uncomfortable. The seriousness and uneasiness of this scene is accomplished primarily through a church organ melody with a steady, low drone that plays throughout the scene. The score alternates between a flute organ and a solo plucked guitar as the narration changes between the priest and the other characters.
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A free limited version of Qlab can be downloaded from the link below for viewing the above file:
https://figure53.com/qlab/
https://figure53.com/qlab/