I'm doing Almost, Maine now - we open Wednesday! While I like the original music, I decided to do something a little different. I asked each of the couples in the cast (we're doing it without any doubling) to find a piece of contemporary music that represented their scene and we are using those songs during the transitions between scenes. (I have a great little ensemble of Parka People who do all the set moves - and they are choreographed to the individual songs.) We wound up with stuff from Pink, Usher, Beyonce, The Pentatonix, and Robin Thicke (to name a few) and it has added a wonderful energy to the show. It was also a great exercise for the actors, giving them another way to explore and express their characters - not to mention creating an additional sense of ownership of the production for them. For one song, which plays prior to the Prologue, we created a sort of "flash mob" where all the characters appear on stage - staring up at the Northern Lights. They then start to move around in choreographed rhythmic patterns, as if in a trance, and then start to look for their partner. Once they find them, they circle each other in slow motion and then separate and wander off, exiting the stage. The last couple left is Pete and Ginette and we then transition into the prologue without any blackout. It's a nice opening, I think, and the hope is that it will help communicate the idea that all the scenes are happening simultaneously. For the Northern Lights, we created our own SFX made up of three different sounds - a winter wind, bell chimes played backwards and a low-tone electronic hum. This matches the electronic sound of the song choices and also works really well to communicate the idea of the town being in a bit of a trance from the lights. We did away with most of the rest of the sounds called for in the script (the car doors, for example) and we have an actual door on stage (disguised as a tree), so the actors do the knocking live. The only other SFX we are using is a nab for the ironing board hit. The timing of that was tricky at first, but it is now working well.
Hope you have as much fun with your production as we have with ours.
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Susan Speidel
Chairman of the Performing Arts Department
Morristown-Beard School
Springfield NJ
Original Message:
Sent: 11-05-2015 08:38
From: David Springer
Subject: Almost, Maine Sound Effects
I have a new student sound designer and we are in need of the Almost, Maine sound effects. I would love some insight on good websites or other resources that we can use to find these sound effects. Thanks in advance for your help.
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David Springer
Shelby Twp MI
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