Theatre Design & Technology - Winter 2011 - 27

on from a look through the script, whereas in dance I have to find more of the elements that are
going to make a piece work on my own.
DW You know my process is my process and the basics of it don't really change much. I'm a pretty
dramaturgically led designer and be it theater or dance I let the process of making the piece
guide me day by day and I have to work to not come into the a room with a pre conceived
notion as to what a production might be.
I love working in the grey area of a process and am generally more interested in the
questions than the answers. But, on a practical level of course in dance you're dealing with less of
the spoken word so of course that factors into what the music is doing and with the lack of text for
the "meaning" of a piece to sit upon, the sound plays a deeper role in the storytelling of the event
(if there is a story in the dance at all).

How do you execute your design when mounting the piece? Is the
approach different from theater?
SC The main difference for me is that the whole process is a lot more malleable than theater.

photo by john nation

I like to build a lot of mixes in QLab of files that function together so I can control
individual textures inside one composition or design. That way I can explore ideas with
choreographers in real time. The end result is subject to a wider degree of change than
most theater design for me: the end of the dance can become the beginning, large sections
can be inserted, the piece can be cut in half, et cetera. The end product can be really
different than what you start with; you have a lot of unknown factors involved, but this can
really lead to beautiful surprises through the process.
Sometimes I've explored elements in dance pieces that are almost more sculptural. In a
recent site-specific piece in Venice that I composed and designed for Bill T. Jones, I had the
opportunity to work in an old ship-building facility that was essentially three giant stone rooms;
I was able to place speakers throughout the rooms and create huge organ textures that played
with the architecture itself. It's really nice to take that kind of time when you're
creating a work.
DW Once again not really actually, between theater and dance you're simply
juggling different information in the room between the two. When I work in
a room and put a piece of music to accompany the event that is happening,
I'm still sitting back and evaluating how that particular piece is working and
asking a lot of questions. Is this helping tell the story?
I think the most difficult part of either process is coming up with a point
of view for the design that has an artistic integrity of it's own but, at the same
time is a team player to the rest of the work. I'm always asking questions like
who is the audience in the room for the piece? How do we relate to them? Does
the soundscape emanate from the internal emotional core of the characters or
Darron L West
dancers or does it act upon them? What is the relationship of
the performers to the sound design? Can they hear it? Is the
scoring internal based on the performers emotional life or is
it external from the perspective of the audience so it's more
cinematic?
I'm also always one to sit back and see what the other
design elements are doing story-wise to figure out what
role the design is going to play and once that's made clear
the process for working on the design's character begins.
I like to think of the sound design as the other player in
a production. Since sound is emotive like the actors or
dancers in a piece it requires the same working internal
thought process's of the actors or dancers regarding basic
things like motivation and action. Sound design is actually
Liz Lerman Dance Exchange in The Matter of Origins.
doing the same thing as the actors or dancers are, but
Photo by George Hagegeorge.
we're just using a different set of tools.
w i n t e r 2011

theatre design

& technology

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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Theatre Design & Technology - Winter 2011
