Audio

Audio, Music, and Sound

I started out my theatrical life as a lighting designer. Then I was called into sound design, and I never looked back (well, hardly ever).

SOUND FOR IMPROV

See Improv.

SOUND FOR THEATER

Symbols:
🔈 = Sound designer
🎵 = Composer
✏️ = Lyricist
🎛️ = Sound board operator

Grey Golem 🎵🔈🎛️ (✏️)
Ghostlight Theatricals, April 2018 — Dir. Dani Dodge

A campy old-school super hero struggles to cope with the dark age of comics.

I wrote a complete original score for the show, including a campy 60's TV theme, and the same tune as it might have appeared in the "gritty reboot", underscoring and incidental music throughout.

I did write lyrics for that theme song, but they didn't make it into the final show.

The Sending Stone 🎵✏️
By The Seat of Our Theatre, December 2017 — Dir. Aaron Ussery

Choose-your-own adventure fantasy show.

I worked on two songs for this one:

When You're In Love [arrangement only]
The Philanthropist [music and lyrics]

Depending on which of the branching paths the audience chose, the bard character might play one, both, or neither.

Neighborhood 3: Requisition of Doom 🎵🔈
Theater Schmeater, September 2017 — Dir. Andrew Shanks

All the kids in the neighborhood would kill for the latest video game... or maybe they've already started...

A welcome return to composing video game music for the theatre. The titular game is a horror-shooter, and my underscore was inspired by horror game soundtracks, and the music that horrifies parents—Marilyn Manson, Nine Inch Nails, etc.

An Awfully Big Adventure 🎵✏️
Dacha Theatre, July-August 2017 — Dir. Mike Lion

Ensemble-devised, interactive, outdoor show based on J. M. Barrie's Peter Pan.

I consulted on various sound questions, and wrote music and lyrics for six songs, mostly to be performed by the pirates:

Pull, Lads, Pull [some lyrics from J. M. Barrie]
Talk Like A Pirate
Volunteers' Song [verses improvised by the actors]
Twice Shy-o
Darlings' Lullaby
Mutiny In The Devil's Den [cut from the final production]

I was given one scripted line ("string up the devil and the game is won") and tasked with writing a song around it, which became the shanty "Mutiny in the Devil's Den". However, it is very hard for actors to memorize new songs when they're also getting multiple pages of new dialogue at every rehearsal (that's devised theater for you), so we had them reprise a song they'd already learned, and "Mutiny" was cut.

To Burn 🔈
By The Seat of Our Theatre, June 2017 — Dir. Kendall Uyeji

Shakespeare Dice: Twelfth Night 🎵🔈
Dacha Theatre, March-April 2017 — Dir. Kate Drummond

In Shakespeare Dice shows, roles are assigned at random every night, so every cast member has to memorize the entire play.

The clown Feste has several songs in the script (words provided by Shakespeare, but no tunes), all of which needed simple, memorable, and flexible enough to be sung by any cast member. I ended up writing music for four of them:

O Mistress Mine [2.3.38]
Come Away, Death [2.4.54]
I Am Gone, Sir [4.2.115]
The Wind and Rain [5.1.397]

Instrumental arrangements of the songs were also used as transition music throughout, including an extended overture/shipwreck sequence that opened the show.

Trump The King 🎵🔈✏️
Theater Schmeater, September 2016 — Dir. Joel Waage

A very complex show, which was being constantly re-written in rehearsals to keep up with events in the then-current election cycle, although it technically doesn't take place in the United States. According to the script, it takes place nowhere in particular, or just "Nowhere" for short.

When I signed on to sound design, the script called for two songs, but included no lyrics and only breif notes about the desired tone/style. So in addition to the complex and ever-changing sound design. I wrote music and lyrics for two original songs:

Over The Top
The 50 Regions of Nowhere [cut from the final production]

The first was a show-stopping musical number in the vein of "Ya Got Trouble (Right Here In River City)", which had to be taught to and performed by the (otherwise non-singing) ensemble. The second was a list song in the style of the Animaniacs' "Countries of the World", using the show's joke names for the 50 states. So I basically had to finagle consistent rhyme and meter from 50 functionally random nonsense words. I finally succeeded—and then the song got cut.

From Kings To Controllers 🎵🔈🎛️
Ghostlight Theatricals, March 2016 — Dir. Jennifer Crooks

The show centers around a fictional video game called Lucrece's Revenge, a fantasy hack-n-slash. So in addition to my larger sound design, I composed a hypothetical soundtrack for the game to underscore most of the play.

You can find the songs I wrote HERE.

In addition to the fantasy musical elements, at one point, the show's protagonist starts work on a cheesy VR game, so I got to write a silly little theme song for that game as well.

Macbeth 🔈
Pacific Lutheran University, May 2014 — Dir. Lori Lee Wallace

Cowboy Mouth 🎵
Pacific Lutheran University, May 2014 — Dir. Evan Hildebrand

We could have tracked down the music originally used for the play, but the director opted to instead have me write new tunes for the play's two songs:

Have No Fear
Loose Ends

In The Garden Of Live Flowers 🔈
Pacific Lutheran University, February 2014 — Dir. Ali Rose Schultz

One of the most technically complex sound designs I've ever done, the play tells the life story of environmentalist Rachel Carson in a surreal, fantastical way, portraying each period of her life through different period-appropriate media styles (e.g. a radio drama for her childhood in the 40's) and a long-form homage to Alice in Wonderland.

Inspecting Carol 🔈
Pacific Lutheran University, December 2013 — Dir. Lori Lee Wallace

Night of Musical Theatre 🔈🎛️
Pacific Lutheran University, October 2013 — Dir. Corissa DeVerse

A Midsummer Night's Dream 🎵🔈🎛️
Pacific Lutheran University, December 2011 — Dir. Corissa DeVerse

In addition to my other duties as a sound designer, the script includes a lullaby for the fairies to sing [2.2.9], but unfortunately Shakespeare neglected to give us the tune—so I wrote one for us.

MUSIC, Misc.

I also make music that isn't in any way related to the theater.

ALAS EARWAX! (No comma, yes exclamation point.)
If you've heard of my music, it's almost certainly because of Alas Earwax! That's my wizard rock band—music about Harry Potter—playing in libraries and bookstores since 2007.

For more, check out the Alas Earwax! official Bandcamp page.

COMMISSIONS:

"Good Boy (The Dog Song)"
"Don't Go Creepin'"
"Maddy's Sandwich"
"D&D Podcast Theme"

SKETCH COMEDY:

Three-And-A-Half-Minute Musical
WWE: The Musical

RHYMES WITH BOREDOM:
A few years ago for my birthday, I challenged my friends to write a song in 15 minutes. Then I took all of their lyrics and wrote music for them in as little time as possible.

The resulting album, Rhymes With Boredom, is up on Bandcamp if you'd like to hear the results.

(My rendition of Puff the Magic Dragon is pretty good too, if I do say so myself.)

PS This down here is something I made in high school (both the song and the Flash animation) based on a Japanese folk song. It's kind of terrible, but it still makes me smile: