Extra Criticum

Design for Readings

I have been designing sound for a lot of readings, lately.  I think that is due to an equal mix of the economy and how simple it is to bring sound to spaces big and small.

 It seems to me that these days people are more willing to put a little money into a reading before jumping headlong into a full production.  There have always been festivals where plays get either an almost-full-production, or a music-stand-and-chairs-production.  I have been contemplating how much these help or hinder a show.  I have no doubt that hearing a play on its feet, being read by people who have spent some time with the script is extremely helpful to all involved, the playwright, the actors, the director, the producers, as well as the audience.  Plays are meant to be heard, readings are the perfect venue for hearing them.

Funking It Up In Minneapolis

I have just returned from designing the sound for The Five Fingers of Funk at The Minneapolis Children's Theatre in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The show was written by Will Power with music by Justin Ellington and directed by Derrick Sanders.  I have not designed a lot of musicals like this, and it was a blast.  The show follows five kids from 1974 to 1978 through all four years of high school.  Each of the five characters have their own struggle; Poppo, the singer, has grown up in foster care and has fallen in with the drug dealer that his mother used to run with, and who has possibly killed her; Ruby, the piano player has an over-bearing father who is a preacher, and she "sneak for the funk"; DP, the drummer has to care for his grandmother while earning a living for the family; Falcon, the white member is forced to move after his father deems their area dangerous; and Cedric, who's basement they practice in, is a momma's boy who is a stand in for his father who abandoned them.  The story is a beautiful one, and the songs are in the style of some of the great musicians of the 70s, George Clinton, Sly and The Family Stone and James Brown.