Enmity of the People
Summary
Enmity of the People was a devised piece put on in the University of Dayton's Black Box Theatre. The show was about a doctor trying to save his town from water poisoning. However, his brother, the mayor, wanted to keep the fact the water was dangerous a secret. The story fallows this doctor through his nightmare of what can happen if he doesn't speak up and try to save the town.
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As the sound designer of the show, I was given the task of convincing the audience it was a nightmare the audience was seeing. The sounds I recorded of the cast have an effect on them to make them echo and this helped the audience feel the creepiness of what was happening. The entire show was sound heavy and I had so much fun working on this show and watching it come together!
Sound Effects
Near the beginning of the nightmare, the doctor has a dinner scene with his family. They speak in gibberish and play ridiculous games with their food and table. Everything in the scene is made of cardboard to help give the illusion of a dream. During this scene, the director wanted a fun song to play and I found a song from the 1950's. I chose to turn the song backwards to help give it a feel of confusion but also fun. It was playing through the speaker closest to the characters which helped create the scene in that one area.
The news reporter of the show likes to "speak the truth" and one of the lines is "the day the truth was born". This is a turning point in the play when people start to turn on the doctor. It was supposed to be an echo around the room because it is a nightmare by the doctor and this was his worst fear. I added reverb to the reporters words and reordered these words. The actress recited the words with different inflections so the phrase would sound slightly different each time it was played. I also had the phrases playing in the back rooms of the space in order to give depth to the space.
I recorded the cast creating water noises because the show revolves so heavily around water. The beginning is a group of different water/rain sounds the cast thought about. They created a sound scape of water based on how they felt about certain words. Then, one of the actresses comes in and helps create the ritual atmosphere the piece needed. The main actress was able to create emotion based on how she thought it would feel to be in the scene. Everyone is standing around the table at this point and they are praying around the body of one of the characters.
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The "why?" sound is the cast feeling what the towns people would feel if the doctor had betrayed them or they died from the poisoned water. They didn't understand why it was happening. They were confused about why the doctor didn't tell them about the water sooner, before they started dying. It is suppose to be an eerie sound overtop of the actors saying the words in the actual space. I added a slight echo to their words to help give depth to the space.
Starts off quietly
Photos by: Ryan Wantland