Heritage Theatre Festival

Culbreth Theatre

June 30 – July 3, 2015

Directed by:  Robert Chapel

Musical Direction:  Greg Harris

Scenic Designer:  Brian C. Barker

Costume Designer:  Allison Atmore and Dorothy Smith

Lighting Designer:  Nick Belley

 

 

The tale of King Arthur is a familiar heroic tale that has endured through the ages.  Some clever and funny British men took the story and created Monty Python and the Holy Grail, another enduring story, both for its subject matter and the comedic lens they viewed it through.  The wit and talent of Eric Idle would see this movie transformed into a stage musical.  For anyone familiar with the original story, there is an epic sword, a quest ordained by God, and brave knights fighting the forces of evil.  For anyone familiar with the movie, there are coconuts, politically active peasants, Knights who say Ni, and a lot of running away.

 

When researching this piece, I had to look no further than the amazing BBC sound effects library, where so many of our famous British shows and movies got the incidental sound effects they used.  Many of these effects are straightforward, while others are comedic.  The nature of this piece is a comedic view of a famous legend, and it needed to have the right comedic bend to the sound.

 

The nature of the show allowed me to select sound effects that were comedic and even a bit cartoonish.  Several of the bits were very direct, very on-the-nose, and I loved creating them.  Even creating the thick ambience of the forests and bleak lands were exaggerated for the piece, and it was a true joy.

 

Because we had projections in the show to help tell certain parts of the story, some of the sound was linked to these projections.  In particular, the voice of God delivering the quest to King Arthur and his Knights needed to balance with the projections.  For the end of Act 1, the projections displayed a very old ‘Intermission’ card, very much like the movie did.  During this moment, I composed a quick loopable organ piece that added another link to the movie and earned several laughs from our audience.

 

In some productions, a designer gets to go right for the belt, do all the tongue-in-cheek bits and everything.  This was one of those pieces, and it was an absolute joy to create.