Transcript the PowerPoint Lecture

An Introduction to Our Workshop
 Both costumes and sound can
give us “signs” about the
characters in a play, for example:
 Gender (a doublet or a male
voice)
 Health (an arm in a cast or a
nagging cough)
 Age (a diaper or a baby’s cry)
 Like Shakespeare, we could
just tell the audience these
things, and dispense with much
of the need for costumes and
sound effects!
The country cocks do crow, the
clocks do toll, and the third
hour of drowsy morning name.
(Henry V, Act IV).
 But the power of theatre lies in our
ability to make our audience feel strong
emotions that change throughout the
course of the play.
 In our workshop we want to explore
how costumes and sound can work
together to take us on what we will call
the emotional journey of the play.
 The Emotional Journey of a Play:
 A journey that is more felt more than understood.
 A journey that is more lived than analyzed.
 A journey that is more experienced than thought.
 So in our workshop we won’t worry about developing a
strong plot or story.
 We won’t worry about the traditional ideas of character
analysis
 Instead, we’ll focus on…
 Using the tools and principles of design to instill
emotional responses in our audience;
 Exploring how we can use the similarities and differences
between auditory and visual design to provide a
stimulating experience for our audience.
 In the next couple of hours we will present some
introductory ideas about how we create these
emotional experiences for our audiences.
 First we’ll talk about some of the fundamental
principles of costumes and sound, and the key point
at which they intersect, how the characters move.
 And then we’ll talk more specifically about the
project you will create during this workshop.
Introduction, Part I:
Fundamental Principles
 We’ll start with Joel
Ebarb, who will talk to
you about the tools and
fundamental principles of
emotional communication
using costumes.
Introduction, Part I:
Fundamental Principles
 Carol Cunningham-
Sigman will then talk
about how a character
develops an inner
impulse, and translates
that into movement.
Introduction, Part I:
Fundamental Principles
 Finally, Rick Thomas will
talk about the tools and
fundamental principles of
developing emotional
responses in the listener
using sound.
Introduction, Part II:
Details of the Project
 In the second part of our
introduction, Rick will
describe our workshop
project in more detail.
Introduction, Part I:
Details of the Project
 Joel will make some
suggestions about how to
proceed in developing
your physical puppets.
Introduction, Part II:
Details of the Project
 Carol will talk about how
to bring them to life with
movement.
Introduction, Part II:
Details of the Project
 Kathy Evans will talk
about possible worlds in
which you might
immerse your puppets.
Introduction, Part II:
Details of the Project
 Michael McNamara will
show you some simple
lighting options for your
show.
Introduction, Part II:
Details of the Project
 And Rick will talk about
tying all of this together
using sound and music.
Some Introductory Ideas
Joel Ebarb
 Human beings are a collection of attributes
 We have our bodies and our minds
 We have our words and our deeds
 This is how we are known:
 How we appear to others
 What we say and what we do
 Our bodies are how we appear
 Our minds are our personality
 What do we mean by personality?
 For our purposes, let us define personality as:
The totality of an individual’s behavioral and
emotional characteristics
 Human beings are a collection of attributes
 We have our bodies and our minds
 We have our words and our deeds
 This is how we are known:
 How we appear to others
 What we say and we do
 Our bodies are how we appear
 Our minds are our personality
 “Characters” are created humans or human-like
beings, a collection of attributes assembled for a
specific purpose
 Masculine or feminine
 Indolent or industrious
 Introverted or extroverted
 Romantic or realistic
 Wild or tame
 Sensitivity or indifference
 Nervous or calm
 Elegant or garish
 Simple or complex
 Powerful or meek
 Playful or serious
 Neurotic or confident
 Fast or slow
 Impulsive or methodical
 Angry or happy
 Pessimistic or Optimistic
 Strong or weak
 Simple or complex
 Sexual or sexless
 Intelligent or ignorant
 Usually, in a theatrical event, the attributes of the
character are provided by the playwright
 For this project, you will create your own character,
with a unique set of attributes that define the
personality of the character
 Please note: It is not important that your character be
anthropomorphic, or have a human form
 What is important is that the character have a unique
and distinctive personality
 Normally, costume design communicates personality,
or character, through the clothing worn by an actor
 For this project, we have no “actors” in the traditional
sense
 Instead, we will create very simple puppets that will
communicate a specific personality, or character,
through selected elements of design and the
manipulation of associative values
 COLOR: the hue of an object
 TEXTURE: the manner in which an object reflects
light
 SHAPE: the inner and outer forms and silhouette
created by an object
 WEIGHT: the perceived weight, or lack thereof, of an
object
 LINE QUALITY: the rhythm and tempo created by the
inner and outer lines that define an object
 COLOR: the hue of an




object
TEXTURE: the manner in
which an object reflects
light
SHAPE: the inner and outer
forms and silhouette
created by an object
WEIGHT: the perceived
weight, or lack thereof, of
an object
LINE QUALITY: the rhythm
and tempo created by the
inner and outer lines that
define an object
 COLOR: the hue of an




object
TEXTURE: the manner in
which an object reflects
light
SHAPE: the inner and outer
forms and silhouette
created by an object
WEIGHT: the perceived
weight, or lack thereof, of
an object
LINE QUALITY: the rhythm
and tempo created by the
inner and outer lines that
define an object
 COLOR: the hue of an




object
TEXTURE: the manner in
which an object reflects
light
SHAPE: the inner and outer
forms and silhouette
created by an object
WEIGHT: the perceived
weight, or lack thereof, of
an object
LINE QUALITY: the rhythm
and tempo created by the
inner and outer lines that
define an object
 We associate different
colors, textures, shapes,
weights, and line qualities
with certain personality
traits and characteristics
 This is an example of
subjective thinking, not
objective thinking
 A chair is not a human, but it has a personality
 For example:




It does not have health, but communicates condition
It does not have gender, but communicates sexuality
It is not alive, but it communicates age (a “life lived”)
It does not speak or move, but communicates rhythm
 Look at the following images of chairs. What is the
personality of each? How does each chair
communicate character through the elements of
design and our personal associate values?
 You will create characters with
distinct personalities
 You will communicate the attributes
of the characters using associative, or
subjective values
 The personalities of the characters
will be expressed through color,
texture, shape, weight, and line
quality
 The characters need not be
anthropomorphic (or human in form)
Carol Cunningham-Sigman
The Four Basic Principles of Laban Movement:
1.
2.
3.
4.
Effort Flow: the ongoingness of movement; the baseline
for the other three “efforts”;
Weight Effort: the quality of the exertion in force from
light to strong;
Time Effort: the quality of the exertion in time from
sustained to sudden;
Space Effort: the focus of one’s attention in space from
direct to indirect.
Think: “Effort Flow”, and then, “Weight—Time—Space Effort!”
 The use of any of these dynamics in
everyday life is dependent on our
motivation together with our body
structure.
 The use of a single dynamic or mixture of
dynamics in relation to playing a character,
means the need to know or find how much
of one’s own dynamic has to be adjusted to
bring about the state of being the
character.
 The use of any of these dynamics in
everyday life is dependent on our
motivation together with our body
structure.
 The use of a single dynamic or mixture of
dynamics in relation to playing a character,
means the need to know or find how much
of one’s own dynamic has to be adjusted to
bring about the state of being the
character.
Rick Thomas
 What Is Theatre Sound
Design?
 The Organization of the
Auditory Experience of a
Theatre Audience.
Note that I use the terms “music”
and “sound design”
interchangeably.
 What Are the Two Most
 To organize and control
Important Functions
of Music/Sound
Design in Theatre?
the experience of time in
the audience’s
perception,
 To instill emotion in the
listener.
 What About Sound
Effects?!!?!
 Sound is notoriously bad at
communicating ideas.
 Consider communicating
this simple event using just
sound, and without spoken
language:
“My American Wirehair cat
climbed up a large birch
tree.”
 What About Sound
Effects?!!?!
 This is quite easy to do
visually, however:
If a picture is worth a thousand words…
Then how long does it take to communicate a picture using just
words?
Now, let’s talk about the tools we use to instill emotions…
The visual
elements Joel
introduced to you
have very real
correlates in
sound.
Visual
Auditory
Color
Frequency, Pitch
Texture
Timbre
Shape
Envelope
Weight
Loudness,
Dynamics
Space
Localization,
Reverberation
Time
Tactus, Tempo,
Meter, Rhythm
Line
Line, Melody
 Sonic color is very similar to visual color, just the
frequencies are different.
Frequencies Perceived
Light: 311,000 to 737,000 Gigacycles/second
Sound: 20 to 20,000 Cycles/second
Visual
Auditory
Color
Frequency,
Pitch
 In both sound and light, texture refers to the way we
perceive the unique combination of frequencies
associated with an object, either as reflections of light,
or generated as soundwaves.
Visual
Auditory
Texture
Timbre
 In both sound and light, objects have a unique shape.
 Since sound unfolds in time, we primarily determine
shape by the envelope of a sound.
 The envelope refers to how the sound starts (attack),
how it then falls away to a sustained level (decay), the
level it sustains at (sustain), and the amount of time it
takes to fade away once the sustaining part has ended
(decay).
Visual
Auditory
Shape
Envelope
 In both auditory and visual realms, objects have, or appear
to have weight. Visual objects appear to be heavy or light.
 We identify the heaviness or lightness of audible objects by
how loud or soft they are.
 Sonic weight starts with silence and extends through a
deafening roar.
Visual
Auditory
Weight
Loudness,
Dynamics
 Carol’s discussion of Weight Effort applies to sound also.
 In movement analysis, one must sense the weightiness of
the body before one can do something about it.
 In sound design, one must establish a baseline sound level
before one can manipulate its dynamics.
 Rarely does energy remain static in a composition, even if
it’s only varying slightly.
Visual
Movement
Auditory
Weight
Weight
Effort
Loudness,
Duration
These elements that
Joel, Rick and Carol
have described identify
the energy
characteristics of an
object.
The visual artists will
gather objects that they
will turn into puppets.
Our sonic artists will
make raw recordings,
and turn them into
sound design objects.
Element
Visual
Movement
Auditory
Color
Frequency,
Pitch
Texture
Timbre
Shape
Envelope
ENERGY
Weight
Weight
Effort
Loudness,
Dynamics
All Matter is a form of energy!
 Both visual and auditory artists place their objects in the a
physical space, in our case, our puppet theatre.
 We know this space visually by how its boundaries are
defined.
 We hear these boundaries also, in the reverberation
and reflection characteristics of the space.
 We have two eyes and two ears to help us perceive the
location of objects in space.
Element
Visual
Auditory
Boundaries
Reverberation
Direction
Localization
SPACE
 Visual and auditory space are related to Space Effort in
movement in that they are all concerned with where and
how we focus our attention.
 We develop dramatic space by controlling where and how
in space our audience focuses their attention.
For example, if the audience focuses on our set,
they won’t notice that it sits in a theatre;
If they focus on our sound objects,
they won’t notice the sound of the theatre.
Elemen
t
SPACE
Visual
Movement
Boundaries
Direction
Auditory
Reverberation
Space Effort
Localization
• We can choose to focus our audience’s attention directly or
indirectly;
• The less the sound changes over time, the more it will
move into the background of the listener’s consciousness,
and focus our audience indirectly.
• The more sound changes, the more it will move into the
foreground of our listener’s consciousness, and focus our
audience’s attention directly.
Elemen
t
SPACE
Visual
Movement
Boundaries
Direction
Auditory
Reverberation
Space Effort
Localization
 The most important difference to explore between sight
and sound is the complementary relationship they have
between space and time.
 Our visual senses are much more accurate and acute at
perceiving space, whereas our auditory senses are much
more accurate and acute at perceiving time.
Spatial
Painting,
Sculpture,
Architecture
Length,
Width,
Depth
Temporal
Arts
Music,
Poetry, Prose
Basic Units
Tempo,
Meter,
Rhythm
 The main way the brain organizes time is through its
perception of pulse (tactus, related to tempo), meter, and
rhythm.
Element
Visual
Auditory
Pulse (Tactus)
Time
Tempo (?)
Tempo
Meter
Rhythm
Rhythm
 The most important thing we work to control with sound is
called “tactus.” Tactus is the inner pulse of the human
being, related to their heart rate, breathing rate, and other
neural systems.
Einstein said it best…
Sit on a park bench with a pretty girl, and an hour seems like
a minute. Put your hand on a hot stove, and a minute seems
like an hour.
 By controlling the listener’s inner pulse, we control their
sense of time!
 The main temporal elements we use to control pulse are
tempo and rhythm.
 Tempo can directly influence pulse.
 We use the term tempo in visual arts, but we don’t quantify
it like we do in sound, e.g., 120 beats per minute!
Visual
Tempo (?)
Element
Time
Auditory
Pulse (Tactus)
Tempo
 Meter and rhythm modulate tempo, and provide infinite
perceptual variations that can influence the listener’s
tactus….
 Note the similarity between how Time Effort modulates
Effort Flow, and how Rhythm modulates tempo (and
pulse)!
Element
Time
Visual
Tempo (?)
Auditory
Movement
Pulse
(Tactus)
Effort Flow
Tempo
Meter
Rhythm
Rhythm
Time Flow
 So far we have compared sound to visual primarily in the
visual domain.
 Visual arts are primarily spatial, and sonic arts are primarily
temporal.
 How you develop rhythm on top of tempo can drastically
affect the inner pulse of the listener.
 Time perception is much stronger for sound than it is for
visual arts.
Movement
Examples
Visual
Examples
Time Effort
Rhythm,
Tempo,
Tactus
Element
Auditory
Examples
TIME
Rhythm,
Tempo, Tactus
 The minute we start putting sound objects together in
time, we start generating line(s).
 Line connects our individual sounds together in time, in
the same way that visual line connects points together in
space.
 A very specific type of audible line is melody.
 Here’s a good example that demonstrates the connection
between sight and sound:
Visual
Element
Auditory
Line
LINE
Line, Melody
 Consider our old friends
takete and uloomu:
 There is a strong
connection between
visual line and auditory
line.
Visual
Examples
Element
Auditory
Examples
Line
LINE
Line, Melody
 There is also a relationship between both visual
and auditory stimuli and Laban Movement…
Element
Visual
Movement
Auditory
ENERGY
(Objects)
Color, Texture,
Shape, Weight
Weight Effort
Frequency, Pitch,
Timbre, Envelope,
Loudness, Dynamics
SPACE
Boundaries
Direction
Space Effort
Reverberation,
Localization
TIME
Tempo,
Rhythm
Time Effort
Tactus,
Tempo, Meter,
Rhythm
ENERGY, SPACE
and TIME!
Line
Effort Flow
Line, Melody
Element
Visual
Movement
Auditory
ENERGY
Color, Texture,
Shape, Weight
Weight Effort
Frequency, Pitch,
Timbre, Envelope,
Loudness, Dynamics
SPACE
Boundaries
Direction
Space Effort
Reverberation,
Localization
TIME
Tempo,
Rhythm
Time Effort
Tactus,
Tempo, Meter,
Rhythm
ENERGY SPACE
and TIME!
Line
Effort Flow
Line, Melody
 When you compose over the next two days, try to
always keep the role of each of these in mind .
Element
Visual
Movement
Auditory
ENERGY
Color, Texture,
Shape, Weight
Weight Effort
Frequency, Pitch,
Timbre, Envelope,
Loudness, Dynamics
SPACE
Boundaries
Direction
Space Effort
Reverberation,
Localization
TIME
Tempo,
Rhythm
Time Effort
Tactus,
Tempo, Meter,
Rhythm
ENERGY SPACE
and TIME!
Line
Effort Flow
Line, Melody
 Become very aware and able to talk about how your team
uses these elements individually and collectively.
Element
Visual
Movement
Auditory
ENERGY
Color, Texture,
Shape, Weight
Weight Effort
Frequency, Pitch,
Timbre, Envelope,
Loudness, Dynamics
SPACE
Boundaries
Direction
Space Effort
Reverberation,
Localization
TIME
Tempo,
Rhythm
Time Effort
Tactus,
Tempo, Meter,
Rhythm
ENERGY SPACE
and TIME!
Line
Effort Flow
Line, Melody
 Do this, and you will create a wonderful theatre work!
Details of Our Project
 Over the next two days you will create a two-
minute performance of animated objects and
sounds.
 You will stage your performance in our miniature
theatre using simple stick puppets and a
synchronized sound score played over a pair of
stereo speakers
 We will videotape your performance, put all the
performances together, and make them available
on the Scenofest Exchange website.
Day 1, Saturday, June 18:
 9:00 – 11:10 Introduction to Workshop (Rick Thomas,
Joel Ebarb, Carol Cunningham-Sigman and
Kathy
Evans)
 11:00 - 15:00 Gather materials and sound from Prague!
 15:00 - 19:00 Construction of both puppets and sound
designs; students work in their groups, but
separately (i.e., costumes and sound sub
groups);
Day 2, Sunday, June 19:
9:00 - 11:00 Explore puppet movement using
Laban Movement Analysis with Carol
Cunningham-Sigman
 11:00 - 13:00 Groups work individually on Scene
Development






11:00 Group work
12:00 Group A uses theatre model
12:15 Group B uses theatre model
12:30 Group C uses theatre model
12:45 Group D uses theatre model
Day 2, Sunday, June 19:
 13:00 - 14:00 Lunch (on your own)
 14:00 - 17:00 Scene Development with Tech
 14:00 Group work
 15:00 Group A techs with theatre model
 15:30 Group B techs with theatre model
 16:00 Group C techs with theatre model
 16:30 Group D techs with theatre model
Day 2, Sunday, June 19:
 17:00 - 19:00 Scene performance and archiving (video
taping)
 17:00 Group A performs and video records
their production
 17:30 Group B performs and video records
their production
 18:00 Group C performs and video records
their production
 18:30 Group D performs and video records
their production
 19:00
End Workshop
Joel Ebarb
 A “character: manipulated by a rod, or stick
 Need not be anthropomorphic, or human in form
 Materials selected and method of assembly should




communicate specific character choices
Puppets may be controlled by one stick or have
appendages or parts controlled by additional sticks
Materials may be fabric, found objects, paper, plastic,
organic material…anything is a possibility!
Assemble the items with glue, wire, or needle and
thread ; rods/sticks and assembly materials provided
Let’s look at some examples!
Kathy Evans
Carol Cunningham-Sigman
 WRING
 Continuous bound flow, strong, slow,
indirect
 Use of this dynamic can imply – self
indulgence, masochism, suffering,
introversion, neurosis, emotional despair,
jealousy, hate, envy.
 PRESS
 Continuous bound flow, strong,
slow, direct
 Use of this dynamic can imply –
authority, pride, ecstasy, idealism,
obsession, power, fanaticism, anger,
repression.
 SLASH
 Interrupted bound to free flow,
strong, fast, indirect
 Use of this dynamic can imply – energy,
fanaticism, anger, wildness or madness,
desire for power, gluttony.
 THRUST
 Interrupted bound flow, strong,
fast, direct
 Use of this dynamic can imply – energy,
aggression, ebullience, joyousness,
ambition, rage, avarice, lust.
 FLOAT
 Continuous free flow, light, slow,
indirect
 Use of this dynamic can imply – good
nature, lyricism, indolence, dreaminess,
laziness.
 GLIDE
 Continuous free flow, light, slow,
indirect
 Use of this dynamic can imply –
harmony, a romantic nature, a childlike state, untruthfulness, or slyness, a
natural dignity, or a hidden obstinacy.
 FLICK
 Interrupted free flow, light, fast,
indirect
 Use of this dynamic can imply –
impulsiveness, nervousness, wit,
incandescence, emotional in a childlike way.
 DAB
 Interrupted free flow, light, fast,
direct
 Use of this dynamic can imply –
simplicity, sensitivity, playfulness,
precision, energy, petty-mindedness.
Michael McNamara
Rick Thomas
Your objective is simple:
Create a two minute soundscape that orchestrates
the puppet movements and assists in providing the
emotional journey for the audience
Sounds:
 Try to use the sounds you brought from home, and
the sounds you have gathered in Prague as much as
possible.
 Feel free to manipulate the color, texture, shape
and weight of these objects with your sound
processing software as much as you like. We LOVE
Mangled sound!
 If necessary, use other sounds from your library to
fill out, connect, and enhance the sounds you have
brought from home and gathered in Prague.
Ambiences and Pads:
Ambiences and pads are long, sustained flowing sounds
that work very well to provide a baseline that the rest of the
score can modulate, or change.
PQ Bottle
Blow
USITT Car
on Bridge
Theatre
Table Saw
Table Saw
on Bridge
Layering Other Sounds:
 Add sound effects, punctuation sounds, and other
short sounds on top to further orchestrate the
scene.
Barrel
Beads
Thunderbird
 Some tips on gathering sounds:
 Avoid the mundane—especially sounds that include crowd
noises or traffic
 Find sounds from different parts of the frequency spectrum so
you can combine them easily (Think soprano, alto, tenor
bass!)
 Play with the elements!
 Energy (Objects): Color *** Texture *** Shape *** Weight ***
 Space: Reverberation *** Localization *** Focus
 Time: Tactus *** Tempo *** Meter *** Rhythm ***
 Consider how you shape your two minutes!
 Where are the quiet places, where are the climaxes?
 Allow one sound or element to dominate, then another, then
another.
 Most of all, consider how sound, your puppets,
their movement, and the world they inhabit all
intersect.
 The combination of costumed characters and the
worlds they inhabit give us several interesting
choices when creating our emotional journey.
Layering Other Sounds:
Decide if, when and where you want to:
 Reinforce/resonate the character's emotional state, i.e.,
that state expressed through movement; in practical terms,
you would make the movement and the sound
synchronous;
 Contradict the character's emotional state, indicating
conflicting drives and desires between that which they
express, and that which drives them; in practical terms, you
would make the movement and the sound noticeably in
conflict with each other;
Layering Other Sounds:
Decide if, when and where you want to:
 Create an auditory world that is driving the character's
emotional state; e.g., the external force causing the character's
emotional state; in practical terms, you would make the puppets
react to the soundscore;
 Create an auditory world driven by the character's emotional
state; in practical terms, you would make the soundscore react to
the puppet's movements;
 Create an auditory world that is unrelated to and unaffected by
the character's emotional state; in practical terms, you would
ensure that there is no relationship whatsoever between the
puppet's movements and the soundscore.
Of course, each piece may simultaneously and/or
sequentially move through any of these
relationships.
But most of all….
Just have fun exploring with all of
your new friends at the 2011 Prague
Quadrennial!
 Here are a couple of articles that will allow you to study
a bit more of the theory of sound and music in the
theatre that relate to this workshop:
http://web.me.com/zoonds/Zounds_Productions/Fun
ction_of_Soundscape.html
Thomas, Richard K. "The Sounds of Time." In Sound:
A Reader in Theatre Practise, by Ross Brown.
London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010. (Available at
your library?)