Weathervane Playhouse

June 30 – July 9, 2016

Directed by:  Kevin Connell

Scenic Designer:  Jeremy Hollis

Costume Designer:  Renee Bell

Lighting Designer:  Jennifer Sansfacon

 

 

The Music Man is one of the most recognizable parts of the musical theatre literature.  The story tells us of a travelling salesman who seeks to try and sell a kids band to the town of River City, Iowa.  Standing in his way is the suspicious Mayor and the town librarian.  Harold Hill soon involves himself into the town, unintentionally creating a whole new community spirit.  When the time comes for him to escape with the money, he finds that he has fallen in love with Marian and cannot flee.

 

I was in this musical several years ago, and it was fascinating approaching the story from a designer perspective.  My research focused on creating an overall balanced sound product from the ensemble and the orchestra.  This was family-friendly entertainment, needing just the right balance of the large ensemble and dance numbers to the rich and beautiful sounds of the orchestra.  Sound effects used in this show were minimal but important, providing just enough enhancement of the scenes.  An ingenious set design helped us shift locations from one to the next in moments, providing just enough placement.

 

I also got to indulge myself in an experiment that ended up working out exceptionally well.  The opening song of the show is ‘Rock Island’, in which the various travelling salesman discuss selling things in the modern era.  Eventually the song serves to introduce the Harold Hill character to our audience.  The entirety of this song takes place on the train ride between towns, ending in River City.  Traditionally, there is no accompaniment underneath this song.  Ever since the production I was in, I’d wanted to provide the sound of the train in some creative way, since the song is performed to the rhythm of the train moving. 

 

To accomplish this, I took samples of a steam train at 3 different running speeds, using the 4-stroke sounds of the engine at work.  I broke the samples down into small segments and used them to create a virtual music instrument within a sampler program.  Using the score of the musical, I programmed the samples to emulate the cycle of the train speeding up and slowing down, and backed the sounds with the hiss of steam and the noise of running along the rails.  By timing it precisely with the indicated tempo of the song, I was able to give the performers the necessary rhythm track to follow along, while creating a realistic train environment.  It remains one of my favorite uses of this technique.