Blog #4

from BATES

Matt Starritt | Sound Designer

During the drive from Boston (and our red-eye) to Jacob’s Pillow, was the first time I though to ask where we were going. The trees that line Mass Pike conceal the suburbs fading away from Boston (somehow in my west-coast mind, trees = we’re in the country now) but at some point it became apparent to me that we were headed somewhere remote. The highways that circle Boson become more infrequent, then non existent, and the exits from the turnpike get farther and farther.

“Where are we going?”
“Jacob’s Pillow.”
“I know, but it seems like it’s pretty far out here.”
“Yup, It’s super annoying, you actually have to back-track 15 miles from the turnpike exit to get there. It’s really close to the turnpike, but the nearest exit is 20 minutes down the road in the wrong way. You have to drive under it three times.”
“But, where does the audience come from?”
“I don’t know, New York, summer homes.”
“Humm.”

Juniper was pretty much right on track. The audience seemed like a typical modern dance audience, one that you’d find at any city in the country. Jacob’s Pillow has two professional dance companies, from all over in the world, each week, for ten weeks of the summer. We had 6 performances. They also have an educational component, a series of dance classes 2 weeks that happen at the same time. All this, I could have found out ahead of time on their website.

On the way to Bates, I didn’t even ask where we were headed– I knew. Lobster. I was going to eat 100.

As it tuns out, Bates is a college, and the festival is centered around education. 190 dance students take 4 (of the 32 offered) dance classes per week, and a professional company performs friday and saturday nights. This, I also could have found out on their website.

All this to say, the audience for our two performances at Bates had a lot more dance students that normal. As a sound designer, I feel like designing the sound is only about 1/3 of my job. The other 2/3 are talking about designing the show (lots of meetings and planning and more meetings), and watching the audience watch the show. At this point, I feel like I write a whole book about watching audiences watch shows. I can feel when they are happy, apprehensive, bored, or perplexed. I know when they are surprised in the good way, and surprised in the bad way. We talk about it after the show. “Oh, that audience was really into the show.” “Ya, they loved it”

All that to say, the audience at Bates was really fun to watch watch the show. There was an excitement and an edge of seat stillness that’s pretty hard to find. The audience is part of a feedback loop too, they more excited the audience is, the more excited the performers get. I have to say, I think the two performances at Bates have been our best yet.

Blog #3

Matt Starritt |Sound Designer

Notes on Sound

Mostly, I design sound for theatre. I’ve wanted to do more design work for dance but, generally, dance shows need composers more than sound designers, and technically sound for dance is usually pretty simple. Actually, it seems to me that Zoe | Juniper and A Crack in Everything is on the far end of the technical spectrum of modern dance. Projection isn’t necessarily a new idea in dance, but  the way Juniper has designed the set / video components is novel. The load-in load-out schedule reflects that. For a lights and tights legs and borders show, the technical staff can arrive in the morning, focus the lights before lunch, and have a full show run-through by dinner. Getting the sound installed is a matter of getting the CD out of your bag, putting it in, and pressing play.

Our load in is more complicated. It takes us almost a full 12 hour day to load in the scenery and video equipment. And another day to install / focus video, lights and sound. The sound for A Crack in Everything uses eight discreet channels of sound that all have to be rebalanced in the space for every que. Every space is different. On the Boards, for example, is pretty shallow, but wide. The audience rake is medium steep– the last seat is high and far away. The space at Jacob’s Pillow, was very very deep, the audience rake shallow with a low ceiling overhang, and they have almost no wing space . BATES has almost no audience rake, the smallest stage we’ve been on so far, but has 10x the wing space.

The playback system we use (QLAB) lets me push any sound to any speaker in the theater. I have control over how, when and where the sound happens. Everything is automated, I pre-program all the cross fades, ins, outs, plays, stops, and loops. I can play as many things I want at a time and can balance the sound between every speaker in the space. I can even program it to be responsive– the music plays, then when all the dancers fall down, I hit the space bar and it plays an explosion sound and cuts the music out.

BATES is the third space we’ve installed A Crack in Everything. Its been fun to watch ourselves get more efficient with our time– and having a similar schedule in each space has given us a sort repetition– knowing what we have ahead of us, and the pace we need to keep to get everything in on time.

The biggest factor in installing the sound comes during queing. Queing happens last– after we’ve fully loaded in and focused everything, and right before we are ready to rehearse with the dancers on the stage for the first time (that’s spacing). Queing is when lights and sound take a look at how the show looks, and make adjustments for the space. First I run some music, to get a sense of the space. I go through speaker by speaker and listen to the quality of the sound, the direction of the sound, how loud we can run the speakers, how quiet I can get the sound before I can’t hear it anymore. Then I do a quick balance for the space, just making an educated guess about where I think the level for each speaker should be set. Once we have a general overall mix, I play a couple of loud ques, then a couple of quiet ques, and make more adjustments. Then, (the hard part) I run step by step through each of the the show’s sound ques, play them all in the space while listening, and make little tiny changes to what each speaker is doing. Then we’re ready to bring in the dancers, have a spacing rehearsal, and then a tech run.

Blog #2

Mohawk

Matt Starritt | Sound Designer

It is my personal belief that everyone should have a funny haircut. I don’t know if Juniper agrees, but his haircut sure is funny. We’ve worked together for a while now, so we’re pretty used to the idea of having matching funny haircuts– mohawks both. When we got to Jacob’s Pillow we got the usual response, mild amusement and “you guys know you have the same haircut, right?” My response is usually, “well, everyone should have a mohawk.”

Then around day three something different than normal happened. The crew we were working with (fantastic crew) was still really interested. At lunch they had more mohawk questions for us. How long had we had them? Were they easy to maintain? Then right before the show, “Who cuts your hair?”, they asked both of us. Well, Juniper cuts his own mohawk and has a “it’s going to look awesome in two weeks” philosophy and my wife cuts mine in the kitchen, we explained. We found out that they had made a pact. Mohawks all. They let Juniper cut the first, and by the end of the next day two mohawks had become seven.

Our signature left behind

When we left the Doris Duke theater there is a tradition of the company signing the wall. We used the elements of the piece to create our signature; gold leaf, red marker and vinyl.

It is amazing to be in the dressing room there and to see the signatures of all the amazing dance companies that have come through there. We are honored to have our names there with so many other people.

Thanks Jacobs Pillow for bringing us and letting us premiere this work on the Doris Duke theater

Getting lobster in maine

Last day with a final break

We spent the afternoon at the pond. Now we are heading back to do our final performance of the tour. Nice to take a short day off from all the crazy activity.

Final night of the North East tour

Last night we opened our show at the Bates Dance Festival. The response was extraordinary and exciting.

I feel very excited by what we have been able to do. The questions at the talk backs have really indicated to me that we have accomplished what we set out to do with this piece. When I get a chance I will post the videos of theses talk backs because for me they are an exciting addition to the experience of the work.

I have to thank the efforts of all involved. The integration of all of the elements together feels seamless and it could not have happened without the great team of people we are working with. They all bring such wonderful strengths to the piece.

Thanks Robert and Matt for touring with us and thank you to Eric for the costumes. You all have done an amazing job to make this a full piece