Heritage Theatre Festival

Ruth Caplin Theatre

June 25 – July 8, 2015

Directed by:  Bryan Garey

Scenic Designer:  Tom Bloom

Costume Designer:  Amy Goffman

Lighting Designer:  Steven Spera

 

 

Luv takes place in the mid 60s in New York on a bridge.  Two college friends meet again after several years when one stops the other from jumping off the bridge.  Each has tales of woe that they relate.  One pawns his wife onto the other so he can run away with his mistress.  In act 2, they again meet with equal tales of woe, as the wife swap and mistress have brought further misery upon them both.

 

The play is set in a natural setting, but features very absurdist humor, particularly with the idea of the wife being willing to just swap between the two.  The absurdist humor leads to some very silly moments of discussion, particularly around the highs and lows of love.  My design would remain rooted in the natural setting, but would punctuate the humorous moments with sound effects that erred on the silly side.

 

My research began with the sound of a New York harbor bridge, building a tapestry of the water and incidental sounds.  These sounds were set to randomly fire, creating an audio texture that was different each time.  This helped ground the realism of the piece.  Within this audio tapestry, I created humorous splashes in the water, and the sound of knives being thrown and sticking into a wooden box on the bridge, all done in a comedic fashion.  In addition, the play referenced a particular song, and I researched several versions of it to provide the cast with the one that would best influence their performance.

 

Blending of comedic sounds with natural sounds is occasionally a very straightforward thing.  What made this one important was the timing of things.  This included making sure that the pause between a jump and a splash was correct for the right humorous feel.  Timing out the knife sound with the mechanism was important to not only portray the moment but to add the right comedic sting to it.  These were fun challenges, and I enjoyed them immensely.