Grad School Personal Statement

This personal statement is dedicated to the Technical Director of Pitt Rep; Lou, you're a brilliant man and a wonderful person to talk to about anything and everything. You always have a word of wisdom.

So more than likely, this will be sent tomorrow to UC, San Diego and hopefully, they'll want to talk to me and then admit me and then throw money at me.!! Hopefully.

--J

Sound, specifically music, is the most basic of all forms of communication. It has an immediate power to communicate emotion. And it is because of sound’s specific application in the theatre that I find sound design endlessly engaging. Always when I read a book, I am listening to music. And, as a writer, I cannot begin to compose a short story without music. The music I listen to directly influences the characters I create. And this is particularly true of the theatre, where actors bring a text to life and the careful articulation of mood and atmosphere through sound envelops the audience, bringing them fully into the world of the play.

Sound design requires a careful and thoughtful attention to the primary text as well as a felicity for its emotional impact on potential audiences. My work as a sound designer aims always to articulate a certain sympathy for the goals of the text as well as the director and fellow design team members, always keeping in mind the directorial concept and running with it to a creative and effective end.

With A Toothache & A Plague & A Dog, each one-act, conceptually, required a different and unique design that flowed from one to the next. For the opening of A Toothache, I worked with the entire cast to create a Stomp! routine that presented the audience with a dynamic opening and introduction to the cast and the world of the play. Using objects found at the local Flea Market which, with the help of the scenic designer, could be worked into the aesthetic of the set, I lead drum circles during early rehearsals so that cast members could learn to listen to one another and improvise. My preshow sound design included the ambient noises of pedestrians, street traffic, as well as music in order to create a world inhabited by street performers existing on fringes of society, particularly under bridges and overpasses.

As with A Toothache & A Plague & A Dog, the play Nocturnal Wanderer required extensive mixing of sound effects and music in order to create the dream world of the play. Using Audacity, Sound Forge, Peak G4 as well a more unorthodox application of Soundtrack Pro, I was able to create individual sound files that combined prerecorded sound effects, voiceovers and music seamlessly. In contrast, my work on other projects shows a marked facility for the technological tools used in the theatre for sound production, amplification, and reinforcement. Most notably, my work as an Assistant Sound Designer on Vinegar Tom required augmenting a pre-existing sound system to include drop microphones and auxiliary stage needed to be hung, wired and labled neatly.

In all of my work, both at the University of Pittsburgh Repertory Theatre as well as professional theatre companies, it is my continued goal to demonstrate my ability to think with a text and provide creative conceptualizations of the world being described. I approach each production with exuberance because they provide new opportunities for independent learning and growth, furthering my creative and technical skills in the field of Sound Design. Continued study in this field, I have no doubt, will only enhance my skills.