University of Oklahoma School of Drama

Reynolds Performing Arts Center

October 20 - 29, 2017

Directed by:  Tom Houston Orr

Scenic Designer:  Nathan Hatfield

Costume Designer:  Erin Lavespeare

Lighting Designer:  Caitlin Coffin

 

 

Noises Off is the story of a theatre ensemble seeking to put on a production of the play Nothing On.  In Act 1 we are in the rehearsal just before opening night, and tensions are already straining just to get to the first performance.  Act 2 features a view from backstage at another performance, one that is marred by infighting amongst the cast.  Act 3 is one of the final performances of the run, and at this point the entire cast has just given up.  Oh, and sardines.

 

At our first designer meeting, the director indicated he wanted to make it clear that this was a British farce, that the sound environment and music needed to be grounded in the world of the piece.  Herb Alpert would serve as inspiration for the music.  Such music would serve to introduce the ‘play within a play’ in performance, and would frame the transitions between the acts.

 

All the sounds were intended to be farcical.  This included the practical telephone.  Because of the action of the phone on stage, the ringer itself had to be concealed close by in a safe way.  We worked with the operator to humorously punctuate the moments when it would be used.  For act 2, the director wanted the audience announcement mic to be on a very creaky gooseneck, which we delighted in creating from a brand new one.

 

All the cast were wearing microphones.  During acts 1 and 3, their sound was reinforced normally into the performance hall.  During act 2, we redirected their sound so that the perspective was them being reinforced to an audience that is now said to be at the upstage wall.  I punctuated this further by adding audience reactions to the stage action that came from upstage.  The programming was complex to switch the microphone routing from upstage to normal every time a performer came in and out of a door during the ‘performance’.  The effect, however, was fantastic, and it really created the effective illusion of the performance.