Modern Sound Design

What Is the State of modern sound design in theatre? Is anyone breaking new grounds in this area?

Well, recently I acted as an assistant to a budding young sound designer (or should I say musical genius!) Bernie Minge. His unconventional use of speakers and their positioning within the auditorium (not just out of sight, but sometimes just outside of the range of hearing to create an unusual ephermeral surround effect (like astral travelling whilst on a toilet asleep on a trans-atlantic flight). His application of musical greats such as Steeley Dan (and his own remix of "Babylon Sister", Hall and Oates, Sylavange, and old backwards-run tapes of Patsy Biscoe in the show, in addition to his own personal compositions of harsh, grinding electronica and durge-core (resulting in his own genre - "slum-core") created an experience quite unlike any other. You've done it again, boy! Bernie is also the frontman in a band "Wigapnenia": premier exponents of slum-core and electro-follicle metal. Check them out at wigapneia@trappedwind.net.org. Awesome.

Thanks Montego. You have just jolted my memories of a very prominent sound designer in Adelaide called Drewan Wardhow. His ground breaking work on several major shows has given me new hope in modern theatre sound design. His spacial imaging And aural sound scapes have been a integeral part of several productions in the last couple of years. Do you know what has become of him I heard he went over seas or maybe even changed his name....

Hello again strand530, Ah, yes! How could I forget "the Doctor". His efforts in the art (yes, i say ART. I know many detractors out say it's the work of knob-twiddlers and chin-fondlers, but what do they know!). I know many a theatre company here who've used the young gent as a designer for their shows, and been enthralled at the audience responses (even when the rest of the show has been lacking to say the least!). But he's very underground, quite elusive. He's known to do one show for a company, then move on, often without even accepting payment for his efforts. Like an aural philanthropist! Or the Littlest Hobo! I've heard on good authority that he's changed his name to Warfman Stenglein, and is currently working in Berlin with Kraftwerk on a massive secret installation. I hold my breath!

Thankyou good man i have been wondering of his whereabouts for a while. It is refreshing to find like minded thesbians on this forum. I am also looking forward to Listening to Dr Howards new designs for local theatre productions. Have you or anyone else come across this master of sound wave manipulation in your theatre travels. His work on Attempts was utterly ground breaking.

I bumped into this shy young gentleman the other day and I have it on good authority that he is retiring from theatre and moving to the fijian islands to study the way of islander drumming. He told me he had been inspired by some buskers he saw in London just around the corner from the Tate Modern after listening to Christian Marclay give a lecture. Anyway to cut a story short, i'm sure the likes of Drewan will be missed, as will his irish sense of humour.

I guess this is slightly off topic, but I've been working as sound designer on a new audio drama called Nova Star Hunters. We've just launched the first episode and I was taking a break from producing episode 2 when I came across this thread. We really want to develop this thing into a stage play, but with a grand budget of £0.00 we've stuck to audio and done everything ourselves - from recording, to production, even the website (god bless wordpress!) If anyone fancies having a listen, you can find episode one (free to listen or download) at www.novastarhunters.com I'd love for you guys to give us some feedback trough the 'contact us' page.

Maybe you should contact someone in the UK - we're Aussies (I'm just guessing from your use of the pound sign) Round head foam puppet pattern at Puppets in Melbourne