Alumni Bulletin - Winter 2008 - (Page 10)

theater • bookshelf • gala 2008 ARTS & CULTURE A Prairie Home Companion’s cast retells the story of A Christmas Carol, using auditory props provided by Fred Newman. theater LIVE FROM ZOELLNER, IT ’S A PRAIRIE HOME COMPANION A young, freckle-faced Fred Newman ﬁrst learned to mimic sounds from aged storytellers in his small, rural town of LaGrange, Ga. While buying popsicles at Jack Fling’s Cash and Carry Gro’ (short for grocery) store, Newman listened to these master narrators audibly illustrate their tales with clicks, creaks, and squeaks. “With one’s voice, a person can become a dwarf in a castle or a dragon,” Newman says. After learning to imitate these sounds, he heralded his teachers with trumpet fanfares and provided drum rolls when they distributed homework assignments. Although he’s moved from small-town Georgia to the Big Apple, Newman continues to color stories with his unusual collection of sounds. “I still sit at the feet of storytellers,” says the man whose sound effects provide auditory props for Garrison Keillor’s A Prairie Home Companion. The radio show, which features a 10 lehigh alumni bulletin variety of music and skits, set up shop in Lehigh University’s Baker Hall in the Zoellner Arts Center for a Friday night rehearsal on Dec. 21, followed by the live broadcast of the annual Christmas show on Saturday, Dec. 22. Both performances were sold out. During the Saturday evening broadcast— heard by 4 million listeners on some 580 public radio stations—Newman created an amazing array of sounds ranging from a cattle choir crooning “Away in a Manger,” to the Ghost of Christmas Past howling and rattling his chains, to a toilet ﬂushing. Newman began his career in 1980, when the Harvard Business School graduate and Newsweek employee published his first edition of Mouthsounds, a book that teaches others to mimic more than 200 noises, including the pop of a champagne bottle, the honk of a goose, the smooth beat of a jazz bass, and the screech of a car’s tires. That year he promoted his book on a variety of TV and radio shows, including A Prairie Home Companion. “I walked on stage and did a baby voice,” he says, demonstrating by adopting the high pitch of a 3-year-old blues singer. Then he returns to his own voice. “I probably wouldn’t have done it if I knew what type of show it was. “Garrison knew exactly what to do,” he says. Keillor welcomed Newman’s character. “He said, ‘Baby Elizabeth, come sit on my lap and sing me a song,’” Newman recalls, mimicking Keillor’s slow, soothing voice. From that point, Newman knew he wanted to work on A Prairie Home Companion. When Tom Keith, who provided sound effects for A Prairie Home Companion for more than 30 years, decided not to travel with the show, Newman was offered the position. “It’s the most pleasant work environment I’ve been in,” he says. “There is a real, honest acoustic nature to the show—unplugged, and the joy of the show goes out live.” The cast members play off each other and the audience, “like a piece of jazz, always moving and changing,” he says. Before he moved to Keillor’s ﬁctional Minnesota town of Lake Wobegon, Newman worked as a puppeteer for Jim Henson and later hosted The Mickey Mouse Club with Mouseketeers Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, and Justin Timberlake. Newman gave life to Garry Trudeau’s “Doonesbury” comic character, Duke, by providing the voice and, through motion capture, the actions for the character to use in an onPHOTOS BY DOUGLAS BENEDICT

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Alumni Bulletin - Winter 2008

Alumni Bulletin - Winter 2008 Contents From the President's Desk Mailbox On Campus Research Arts & Culture Sports Ugly is in the Eye of the Beholder Fitch's Law of Motion A Blessing to the Community The Amidonian Acclamation China Trip Bridges Cultures, Generations From the Publisher's Desk Alumni News The Last Word

Alumni Bulletin - Winter 2008

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