Theatre Design & Technology - Winter 2011 - 25

What was your process for crafting your vision for the piece?
JS Look at the context of the piece. I had a more traditionally theatrical approach than the director had.
I did lots of research on Japanese material and really fed from rehearsal material.

What special techniques, if any, did you use to pull the piece together?
JS I went from a sparse piece to a fully scored piece. Traditional Japanese instrument tones were kept
even with a more modern feel to the piece. I made a big shift with the end of the piece. It wasn't
something that was noticeable but reinforced the strong ending.

Did the end product please you?
JS Yeah! The scenery changed from venue to venue while touring. The bamboo blinds were noisy and
that influenced the soundscape. (The blind moved up and down on large drums).

Did it end up how you thought it would?
JS No. The scenery changed the sound a great deal [as well as] the way Big Dance normally does
shows. There was a rhythm that the scenery added to the soundscape.

Any tidbits on designing for dance, specifically?
JS Dance has fewer rules. You are not competing with text. You are also not supported by text. There

photo by do desclaux

are no clues to follow, which is scary sometimes. Dance doesn't cue locale, or effects. I bring the
structure from theatre and attention to the dance world with a continuous score. Audiences are
challenged to make up a story from the beginning with dance. This can help you tremendously.
Designing both dance and theatre inform each other; one feeds off of each other.

Sam Crawford

Sam Crawford completed both his Bachelor of Arts in
English and Associate of Science degree in Audio Technology
at Indiana University in 2003. A move to New York City led him
to Looking Glass Studios where he worked on film projects
with Phillip Glass and Bjork. His most recent designs and
compositions have included works for the Bill T. Jones/Arnie
Zane Dance Company, Jennifer Nugent, and Peter Chamberlin.
He currently resides in Brooklyn where he works as a freelance
designer/engineer and plays guitar and lap steel in the groups
Bowery Boy Blue and The Goodwill Orchestra.
Darron L West's sound design has been heard in over 400 Broadway, Off-Broadway, national,
and international productions. He is recipient of the 2006 Lortel and AUDELCO Awards, the 2004
and 2005 Henry Hewes Design Awards, the 2000 Princess Grace Award, the 1998 OBIE Award,
and an Entertainment Design magazine EDDY. He was resident sound designer at Actors Theater of Louisville for three years and since 1993 he has been a member of the SITI Company. His
directing credits include Kid Simple (2004 Humana New Play Festival), Big Love (Austin's Rude
Mechs; he received the Austin Critics Table Award Best Director), and co-directed with Anne
Bogart SITI's War of the Worlds - The Radio Play and Radio Macbeth.
w i n t e r 2011

Peter Chamberlin, Maija Garcia,
Shayla Vie Jenkins, Leah Cox in
Serenade/The Proposition by the Bill T.
Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company.
Photo by Paul B. Goode.

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