Breaking News: Tonys Change Rules for Revival Authors, Erases 2 Creative Categories... — Page 2

Wow, that petition is getting signatures like crazy.

Jason Danieley posted this on Facebook:

"This is BULLSH*T!!! They only just started this category recently. Why can't they honor the sound designers?!? It's no skin off their back. They don't let any creatives accept their awards on air anyway. And I'm sure these hard working magicians would like to be recognized for the hours and hours of painstaking work they put into making a production work. Directors, orchestrators, actors, musicians and most of all the PRODUCERS need the skills and abilities of the sound designer to make their productions fly. In this day and age no one projects their lines or sings to the back of the house the way Ethel Merman or Ethel Barrymore did back in the day. Our collective sensibility has changed... and that's fine. We want to hear intimate interpretations of lines and sung text. We need the sound designers to make that possible in a large, or not so large house to be heard over an amplified orchestra which is the accepted norm in theatre today. GIVE SOUND DESIGNERS THE RIGHTFUL ACKNOWLEDGEMENT OF THEIR ART AND CRAFT! (end of sermon)"


Amen, Jason. Amen.

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I don't take issue with the classics rule on its face. I think it's a very good rule, actually. Still, something seems strange to me in allowing Rodgers and Hammerstein and others to potentially be nominated for/win awards for material written 50 or more years ago. That was my question.

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It has been suggested here that many do not understand what sound designers do, thus it makes sense to abolish the Tony Award sound design categories . As I have designed sound for many plays, I thought I might tell you a little about what we do by describing my work on one recent production. In 2012 I won the Drama Desk for my work on Gore Vidal's The Best Man. That design was a combination of original music I composed for transitions, and found music and sound I assembled. My collaborators and I decided to give the audience the experience of being at a nominating convention in 1960. Thus I had to first design a surround sound system which would serve to envelope the audience, and still be able to provide the subtle amplification needed to have the actors' voices heard over loud projectors and by an audience whose age averaged well over 60. This enormous task is done in collaboration with the set, lighting, and projection designers with whom we must negotiate space and visual aesthetics. In the case of THE BEST MAN, I also put together a huge 1960 looking audio cluster which loomed over the 'convention floor'

When you entered the theatre we wanted to give you the feeling you were entering the convention- so I produced an elaborate collage of sounds/organ music/crowd sounds. We found text from the 1960 Democratic convention that we modified to work in the context of our production, recording several of the actors making speeches, which I then spent many many hours editing and adding crowd reactions to. We found lists of the music played at the 1960 convention on a paramount organ- I recreated this by recording myself playing some pieces and finding other recordings.

If you saw the production, you might remember that there were TV's and video which had live and recorded material. I was responsible for recording the sound for these clips and adding crowd sounds and other effects to the videos, working closely with the video designer.

For scene transitions, I composed original percussion pieces to keep things moving, and these needed to be edited in the theatre as transition times constantly changed. New pieces had to be composed on the spot with a mobile midi studio I have at my tech table, and other cues altered during the course of tech and previews. Many sound effects are gathered and edited before getting into tech, but much of the final product is produced in the space, as we oversee the programming of how sound is played back and delivered to speakers around the room.

THE BEST MAN had various amplification challenges, both aesthetic and practical- we had to recreate the sound of a 60's anchorman presiding over the action in a box house left. We also had many different actors of various ages and vocal ability. I and my team had to work with the vocal coach, and the actors, some on wireless mics, others on area mics, to get a uniform sound from the all and help them feel confident about how much sound they needed to produce.

So in a nutshell I was responsible for the concept of what you heard, and its execution, as well as how the actors sound. We work closely with directors as music and sound consultants, composers, editors, and often performers. We also design sound systems and are responsible for all the sound programming that goes into it all. For me, sound design in a play is as much about content- framing a play properly, keeping its pace moving well, seamlessly rendering transitions- as it is anything else. Any questions?



Reinstate the Sound Tonys

Updated On: 6/12/14 at 01:15 AM

The elimination of the Sound Design category is an insult to all the sound designers and sound technicians working on Broadway, especially considering that it's a fairly new category.

The argument that the there's a general lack of understanding what sound designers do doesn't hold up. Does the general public have any idea what good orchestrations consist of? If you randomly polled ten people on the street and asked if they could even tell you what orchestrations were, do you think even half would know?

I hope the Tony Administration comes to their senses, and soon.

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Updated On: 6/12/14 at 02:40 AM

A seriously stupid move to get rid of the sound design awards.

All it does is show me that the people who are supposed to be in charge of honoring artistic merit don't understand artistic merit.

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It's silly to get rid of any categories.

They don't even announce it on the broadcast so it's not like it's making the show run long.

It seems rather random. Did they even give a reason why?

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Thank you emg_sound for acknowledging 39 Steps (which was my first show as co-producer and which I'm bringing back to NYC shortly) - which is a perfect example. We even had a 'cast album' of the wonderful music cues but I can't imagine not acknowledging Mic Pool and his Tony-winning work on the show - the train whistle, chugging and music cue takes us to the chase on the train even before the scene changes.

Sound design is as much a part of the theatrical experience as lighting, costumes and makeup. Plenty of shows are un-miked for a variety of reasons (and personally I wish we didn't need to mic any show for amplification purposes), but the magic of SOUND DESIGN takes us to a different time and place and THAT is the ART that I agree should continue to be recognized. Sound design in films is recognized equally as cinematography and music, and on stage the sound designer is usually also responsible for the score of a play.

So perhaps in this argument, let's refrain from emphasizing the micing and amplification (as vital and challenging as it may be to accomplish) and instead emphasize the aural artistry of the theatrical experience.

Yes, I too appreciate the explanations.

I just don't see what the purpose of all this is (the canceling of the awards I mean, not the sound design).

What are they trying to accomplish?

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I, too, want to thank the sound designers not only for chiming in here with their knowledge, but also for all the work done to make theater an immersive, palpable experience. As an actor, one of my favorite times in tech (which is always just dreadful) is the addition of the sound. I worked on a production of A CLOCKWORK ORANGE that had such unsettling sound effects that we could watch the audience become more and more queasy as the forced film sequence went on.

During the last revival of Follies, I was excited by all the sounds before the show even started: the giggles of chorus girls, the taps of a routine being practiced, the wind blowing through the theater. For me, sound design is the most thrilling aspect of design because it viscerally transports me someplace new as both an actor and audience member. So, let's make sure the Tony committee regrets this decision and reverse themselves.

Please sign that petition. This is horrible.

As a director, I rely on the tremendous contributions of my Sound Designers and the highest honor in our field beginning to recognize it in 2008 was a huge step in the right direction. It may only be symbolic, but this is dreadful step in the wrong direction.

In regards to the Revival works being considered for Book and Score Tonys, does the rule about a score needing to be written for the Theatre still apply?