As much as I love being part of the Genesis of a new work, creating and implementing audio for an original script is often one of the most challenging creative processes of sound designing for me. The play that I'm working on - a play titled In the Book Of (based on the biblical Book of Ruth) (that will be two days open when this blog posts) is no exception to that rule.

All sound designs (or any design element, for that matter) are going to go through their own evolution from inception, through rehearsal, staging, and opening of a production - but the design for a new work often starts as one animal, then stretches, morphs, or explodes into something that is a completely different species - and that transformation is a direct reflection of the process a script goes through - it's growth process. This is not a bad thing - but it often means that as I designer I have to be ready for the possibility (if not probability) of the story we set out to tell on day one changing. In short - I have to be prepared for growing pains. Something I may love conceptually about the script in it's first draft may never make it through rehearsal much less get to the theatre - never mind a piece of music I imagine or a sound I hear in my head at the first table session.

With this particular play - more than some new works - we have a little more of a guideline since we're based on a biblical book. Our overall structure is already set out, and the arc of the story is a given - if the details, lines, and details may change. This is not always the case. Scenes or entire acts may shift or change, swap places or order, disappear for a few days to reappear, or get cut for good. This may mean that I pull, create, record, or edit an effect (or 10) that never go beyond rehearsal hall, pull create record edit 10 more that will get used once in the early days of tech never to be presented to the audience. And that's the nature of the beast. I can't be so in love with my own work that I mourn when a play changes to no longer need an effect - never mind the usual need to not be attached to a version of a cue - a danger of any designer on any production. There's also the possibility that a play may not need me at all or very little - a play I did two or three years ago started with a minimalist design (25-30 cues) after the first rehearsal that when it opened just under a month later only had two recorded sound cues.

Another different facet of a new work, is that there are more fingers in the pot, so to speak. Theatre is already a collaborative art with several hands/voices/eyes/ears involved in the final product. With a new work, you often add several more to the already full kitchen. This can be great - getting other perspectives, reactions, and other feedback - or it can mean you have three or four additional people to please or create for, stretching the design (if not the entire production) into dimensions or directions that were initially unintended. It's something you have to be prepared for. Generally speaking, a director is the main person at the helm of production - with a new work that role becomes shared with the play wright. I've often also found that with a new work, the playwright and director may agree on 99% of the show, but inevitably at least one percent they will be at odds - and as a designer you can be a the center of those differences. It's a fine wire to walk to express your own opinion without "taking sides."

Sometimes as a result of the extra eyes on the play, or perhaps as just as part of the nature of a new work, productions of original scripts also seem to require more "note" time. Instead of 15-30 minutes of technical notes at the end of the day, a new work can require hour long (or better) note sessions. After that discussion, there's also a lot more work outside of rehearsal for the designer - making already long tech days even longer - but 9 times out of 10, those extra hours in the theatre or behind the computer are worth it.

So - what all this means for me. There has to be a lot more flexibility on my part when I begin, work on, and throughout the process of mounting a new work - something I'm not always so great at. But I like the stretch - I like being pushed to accommodate script changes or scenes that are re-imagined - being pushed to realms outside my own standard or comfort. .