Round Table
Round Table 1 - Sonification
WED 22 14.45-16.00 | Clean Rehearsal Room
Michael Bull, John Levack Drever, Atau Tanaka; Chair: Ross Brown
In Oslo airport there are listening points, where one can step out of the ambience of departures and into a noise-cancelled zone whre one hears the gurgles of babies, whispering voices and tumbling surf. The theatrical sound effect seems to have escaped captivity and adapted to daily life. The post-industrial soundscape is no longer simply divided into signal and noise, but has been infiltrated by sonic tricks, illusions and puns. Ringtones have become a form of sonic jewellery. What will the ecological consequences be? The processes of inferring from effect have become less straightforward. A mechanical shutter sound is now more likely to signify the presence of a mobile phone than a camera. A dog bark might be a door bell. Birthday cards play digital samples and the act of remotely unlocking a car involves more waveform synthesis and than Kraftwerk could afford onstage in 1979. Sonification has gone way beyond user-interface functionality. Digital phones that sound like old-fashioned analogue ones but with a built in reverb effect to make them sound like they are ringing in a different, more sonically luxurious world. This panel will try to answer the question what does it all mean?
Round Table 2 - Musicals, Brands and the Noise of Celebrity
WED 22 14.45-16.00 | Rehearsal Rooms 1&2
John Rigby, Debbie O'Brien; Chair: Dan Rebellato
Joining Dan Rebellato on this panel discussion will be musical director John Rigby, (Carmen Jones, RFH and Marguerite, Theatre Royal Haymarket), casting director Debbie O'Brien (Grease, Piccadilly Theatre and Saturday Night Fever, Apollo Victoria) and another panellist who has yet to be confirmed at the time of going to press.
Round Table 3 - Is amplification over-used In the theatre?
THUR 23 14.45-16.00 | Clean Rehearsal Room
Paul Gillieron, Paul Groothuis, Neil McArthur, Jeanette Nelson; Chair: Wendy Gadian
Is it imperative to provide contemporary theatre audiences with amplified sound as a matter of course; irrespective genre, cast size and theatre capacity?
Four industry practitioners: Jeannette Nelson (Head of Voice at Royal National Theatre), Paul Groothius (Sound Designer Royal National Theatre), Paul Gillieron (Theatre Acoustician), Neil McArthur (Musical Director and Composer) will debate issues of natural sound, natural acoustics, sound effects and sound design, projection of the actor’s voice, orchestral positioning and the juxtaposition of singing and the spoken word in musicals.
Round Table 4 - Some Noise Within
THUR 23 14.45-16.00 | Rehearsal Rooms 1&2
Catherine Fitzmaurice, Betsy Allen, Roger Smart; Chair: Tara McAllister-Viel
Voice rumbles out of the body, upsetting breathing rhythms, throwing the vocal folds into chaos, requiring gesticulations of the throat and mouth, perturbing the body into vibratory chaos, disturbing emotions and throwing out random imaginings. Accidental grunts and squeaks and other unforeseen noises occasionally accompany whatever logic this series of behaviours is intended to convey. Any individual speaking requires a high degree of tolerance for the unforeseen. To be taught to do it right is in itself a paradox.
With an anti-Apollonian aesthetic with regard to teaching voice for the actor, Fitzmaurice does not only permit, but actively demands a fearless leap into chaos, where a unique order will emerge from silence as an unrepeatable event in this present moment.
A big bang of creative noise ... sounds both strange and exciting ... surprise!