SOUND DESIGN AND MUSIC AS PART OF THE ADAPTED AND PERFORMED TEXT IN NARRATIVE THEATRE Shannon M. Murphy O’Neill A thesis submitted to the faculty of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in the Department of Communication Studies. Chapel Hill 2006 Approved by Advisor: Paul Ferguson Reader: D. Soyini Madison Reader: Lawrence Grossberg 2006 Shannon M. Murphy O’Neill ALL RIGHTS RESERVED ii ABSTRACT SHANNON M. MURPHY O’NEILL: Sound Design and Music as Part of the Adapted and Performed Text in Narrative Theatre (Under the direction of Paul Ferguson) This study is based on the narrative theatre production of The Time Traveler’s Wife , a collaborative production with adaptor/director J. Lauren Shouse and musical director/sound designer/composer Shannon M. Murphy O’Neill, performed in October 2005 in Studio Six of Swain Hall on the campus of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. This study examines the importance of music and sound design as a part of the adapted and performed text in a narrative theatre production that is not a musical. Specifically this study examines a.) relevant literature pertaining to music and sound design, b.) the collaboration between the adaptor/director and musical director/sound designer/composer to create the text, and c.) the development of an artistic aesthetic through the study. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank my ad visor, Paul Ferguson, who continually showed enthusiasm for my work and patience with my gentle challenges. Thank you for your guidance, imparting your creativity and passion, and for helping me find the work that “lights me up.” Paul is one of a great team: my committee. Thank you to D. Soyini Madison and Lawrence Grossberg for your support throughout this project. Without my collaborator and friend, Lauren Shouse, this project would never have happened. Thank you for sharing your talent and for choosing to work with me. I cannot imagine doing this project with anyone else. Our work together is a highlight and I cannot wait until we work together again. The theatre production of The Time Traveler’s Wife wouldn’t have gone nearly as smoothly as it did without our stage manager, Tracy Walker. Thank you, Tracy, for keeping Lauren and me organized and for giving us your time, your effort, and yourself throughout the course of the project. Thank you to Wordshed Productions for funding The Time Traveler’s Wife , to our amazing cast and crew who gave so much of themselves to make the show happen, to Rob Hamilton for building the set, to Annissa Clarke, Chris Chiron, elizabeth nelson, Mark Robinson, Enrique Varela, Andrea Powell, Kim Jessen, Jonathan Beever, D avid Terry for all of their assistance. iv A special thanks goes out to Audrey Niffenegger, Joseph Regal, and New Line Cinema for giving us the rights to perform The Time Traveler’s Wife for our thesis project. Most of all, I would like to thank my mother an d father, Kimberlee and Hugh O’Neill, for their unconditional love and support. I wouldn’t have been able to do it without you. And thank you, Mr. Higgins, just for being you. v TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION ……………………………………………………… 1 The Problem of the Study ……………………………………………………… 3 Method ………………………………………………………………………… 5 Limitations …………………………………………………………………….. 6 Organization …………………………………………………………………… 7 Justification ……………………………………………………………………. 7 Conclusion …………………………………………………………………….. 9 CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW …………………………………………. 10 Music References ……………………………………………………………… 11 Sound Design References ……………………………………………………… 13 CHAPTER THREE: EXAMINATION OF THE CREATIVE AND COLLABORAT IVE PROCESS ………………………………………………… 17 Personal Reflections …………………………………………………………… 17 Reflections From the Writer/Director and Composer/Sound Designer ……….. 19 How was music written into the script to advance the story, create connections, or create the scene? …………………………….. 19 Where was staging used to guide the music? ………………………………….. 24 Why did we create musical themes to represent characters? ………………….. 25 Where did collaboration work? ………………………………………………… 26 Where did the collaboration break down? …………………………………….. 28 Our collaborative aesthetic ……………………………………………………. 32 vi Conclusion …………………………………………………………………….. 33 CHAPTER FOUR: REFLECTIONS FROM THE MUSICAL DIRECTOR/SOUND DESIGNER …………………………………………… 35 Thematic Representation ……………………………………………………… 35 Synaesthesia and Emotional Response ………………………………………… 37 Transitions ……………………………………………………………………… 39 Successes and Failures ………………………………………………………… 40 Development of an Aesthetic ………………………………………………….. 42 APPENDICES ………………………………………………………………………… 44 APPENDIX 1: Rehearsal Journal ……………………………………………… 44 APPENDIX 2: The Time Traveler’s Wife script with sound cues …………….. 73 APPENDIX 3: Original Song Listing ………………………………………… 175 Supple mentary Music Files BIBLIOGRAPHY ……………………………………………………………………… 176 vii CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION Sound is a very special modality. We cannot handle it. We cannot push it away. We cannot turn our backs to it. We can close our eyes, hold our noses, withdra w from touch, refuse to taste. We cannot close our ears though we can partly muffle them. Sound is the least controllable of all sense modalities …” – Alten 1; quoted from Jaynes Music and sound design are powerful methods of communication that cannot be completely controlled by the listener, as noted in the above quote. When I speak about music, I refer to a stylized collection of arranged sounds that uses conventions such as melody, harmony, and rhythm to distinguish itself from “noise” (DeChaine 82). When I speak about sound design, I refer to both music and everyday sounds (a clock ticking, for example) that are woven together to create a specific ambience. Whether on the radio, in a concert hall, on the street, in film, in live theatre, or in everyday life, music and sound design communicate messages. As a musician, I am fascinated that music and sound design are often overlooked as texts . Music and sound design can stand alone as texts, but in film and theatre, they are an integral part of the whole text. When I listen to music, it is a multi -sensory experience. I can hear, see, feel, and taste the music. R. Murray Schafer (1977) discusses how the sense of sound and touch intersect at lower frequencies (about 20 hertz), saying “Hearing is a way of touching at a distance and the intimacy of the first sense is fused with sociability whenever people gather together to hear something special” (page 11). Sound “penetrates into the body” in a way that the visual alone does not (Celeste 115). In my thesis I focus on a production of The Time Traveler’s Wife , a novel by Audrey Niffenegger, that my colleague, Lauren Shouse, and I adapted for narrative theatre. Our goal for the adaptation was to remain true to the spirit of the novel while bringing it to the stage using visual and aural components. For my portion of the adaptation, I designed the sound and wrote the original score. I also served as musical director of the production. In my thesis I discuss how the music I created and the sound desi gn are integral parts of the adapted and performed texts. The idea for a collaborative project between Lauren and me began in October of 2004. During her undergraduate work, Lauren studied adaptation, directing, and acting. Throughout my life I have been a musician. I have played many musical instruments, I sing and I hold a degree in Music Education (voice). I have performed in musicals, opera and on film, presented solo recitals on voice and instruments, taught music in public schools, conducted bands and choirs, and I am a private voice teacher. Lauren and I both knew that we wanted to do a production for our thesis project, and her interest in adaptation and directing and my interest in music and sound design seemed to fit well together. In Jan uary of 2005 we had the opportunity to work with Paul Ferguson on a stage adaptation of Sarah Dessen’s The Truth About Forever (primary adaptation by Casey Walton). Lauren was the assistant director while I worked as the sound designer and composer of ori ginal music. This was my first experience working as a sound designer and the first time that any music that I had written was played in public. I learned very quickly through my work on The Truth About Forever that themes and leitmotivs assist meaning in scenes and assist the audience in remembering certain elements of the story. 2 During The Truth About Forever Lauren and I could tell that we work well together and we began to narrow down what we wanted to do. We both began looking for an appropriate novel to adapt and stage. In order for us to consider the novel, it had to provide adaptation and sound/music opportunities and challenges. Lauren found The Time Traveler’s Wife , which provided suitable challenges for adaptation, staging, music and sound design, and secured the rights to the novel – a process that took over two months. The story is of a man who time travels within his own past and future and of the woman (his wife) who meets him for the first time when she is six years old. The challenge s for the adaptation and sound design/music are similar: given the non-linear plot, the performed text must designate constantly shifting times and places. The performed text must also delineate the shifting ages, thoughts, feelings, and experiences of th e characters. For me, the devices to aid in these designations were music and sound design. These challenges are addressed more fully in the “Problem” section. Throughout the collaboration process it has always been clear that although we worked on one show, Lauren and I would generate two separate theses from the project. We each approached our theses from different perspectives, but as Lauren and I have moved further into the project, our experiences revealed compatible goals. The Problem of the Study Scoring and designing a soundscape for a production based on a novel about time travel provided ample challenges.