IRNE Award 2008

Hi everyone -

I've been a total flake when it comes to updating this blog. In the past few months I've had many adventures. Been to Palestine/Israel and made a film about it. IT can be seen HERE.


I'm having a ton of fun facing the challenges of filmmaking. It's a growing addiction...

Also, last week I won the Independant Reviewers of New England (IRNE) award for best composer/sound designer for my work on New Rep's production of "A Streetcar Named Desire." I won this award in 2004 as well and it's a huge compliment to be recognized along with the rest of the amazing artists who were both nominated and won. Streetcar also won for Best Supporting Actor, Best Set Design, Best Actress, Best Director AND Best Non-Musical Production. Pretty amazing!

Anyhow, here's a little bit of the score to jog your memory.

Into the Quarter:




Hopefully, I'll be less of a flake and write more soon. Til then, H

Streetcar's Great Reviews

We've been receiving some great reviews for our work on this production as of late. A few of them even mention the music and sound design, which, IMHO doesn't happen nearly enough :)

Just so I can stay organized when I'm able at the end of next month to turn the music I wrote for this show into a package to license to other theater companies, here are a few links and quotes

9/18/07

"It's all the more remarkable, then, that the New Repertory Theatre's Rick Lombardo has staged a "Streetcar" that feels deeply true to the spirit of Tennessee Williams and at the same time true to itself. Working on a set by Janie E. Howland that's just what a Williams set should be - dingily realistic in its details, dreamily abstract in its structure - and underscored by Haddon Kime's mournful streetcar moans and saxophone wails, Lombardo's four main actors and their supporting players draw us irresistibly into Williams's shattered, shattering world."
READ THE ENTIRE REVIEW HERE

9/18/07

"The New Rep revival of Streetcar is really very good, with a period feel, able acting, and the right sense of enervation punctuated by explosion. Set designer Janie E. Howland's squalid two-room apartment sandwiched into a nest of neon signs, a John Malinowski lighting design that splashes the characters' interaction with rhythmic blinks of red, and Haddon Kime's sound design of raw jazz mixed into city noise all add to a sense of carnal, quarrelsome private lives lived in public. Costume designer Frances Nelson McSherry has come up with some jaunty-looking open shirts over underwear for the men; the women have a mix of outfits that run from period chic to Amanda Wingfield's antiquated finery. And as Blanche enacts her passion, the supporting cast promenades and scuffles before and over the proceedings, hawking roasted corn, or rolling a john, as if performing a dance to Kime's music".
READ THE ENTIRE REVIEW HERE

A Streetcar Named Desire

I've been back in Atlanta only a few days now after spending the better portion of this month in Boston working with Rick Lombardo and New Rep on "A Streetcar Named Desire."

This is the first show I've ever designed using Q Manager software. It took some getting used to. Let there be no doubt about it, Tennessee knew what he wanted and wrote almost every sound cue into the script. It's a very large sounding production when done correctly.

Luckily when I got the call to design this show I already had plans to go through NOLA on the way back from Texas (see previous VIDEO post.) Thus, I was able with the help of my AMAZING little H4 Zoom Digital Recorder to capture a plethora of actual New Orleans streetcars jangling up and down Canal and St. Charles Streets.

Here's one now:

Upon my return to Atlanta I set about writing some sultry brass music and some dixieland jazz. I hired the amazing talents of Sam Skelton and Mike Barry to play for me here's a little sample of what I came up with for the show:

I'll be writing more about this on a future webpage in the theater section, but for now if you're in Boston or will be there int he next month or so, checkout this amazing production at New Rep!