Conference documentation: Theatre Sound as Collaboration. Part 3.2 Audio papers

Show notes

Carving up sonic responsibilities By Paul Clark

Abstract In this audio essay, Paul Clark compares his practical experiences of being both composer and sound designer for multiple Clod Ensemble productions, with working as a composer in collaboration with British sound designers Gareth Fry, Melanie Wilson and Donato Wharton on three productions directed by Katie Mitchell. He references Clod Ensemble’s Red Ladies (2003- present), Cleansed (National Theatre 2016), The Cat in the Hat (National Theatre 2009) and The Maids (2016 Toneelgroep). He discusses the many different ways of carving up the sonic responsibilities and how these choices open up different creative possibilities.

Biography Paul is co-artistic director of CLOD ENSEMBLE (clodensemble.com) and has written original scores for all the company’s productions to date, directed by Suzy Willson – including : Silver Swan, an piece for seven singers (Tate Modern) ; Under Glass, a surround-sound installation (Sadler’s Wells); and An Anatomie in Four Quarters for electronics, live orchestra and a rock band (Sadler’s Wells). Paul has written dozens of scores for theatre in the UK and internationally, including with director Katie Mitchell, Waves (National Theatre UK), Wunschkonzert (Koln Schauspiel); Norma Jean of Troy (The Shed, New York) and with Gare St Lazare with whom he created Here All Night (Lincoln Center, New York). He has written music for and with a hugely diverse range of musicians from Manchester Collective to Danger Mouse, Renee Fleming to Mark E Smith (The Fall), and for filmmakers including John McDonagh, Simon Amstell and Arnaud Desplechin. –––––––––––––––– Sound as shepherd, spell, armour and advocate: sonic practise in feminist performance making By Melanie Wilson

Abstract In this audio paper, sound artist and composer Melanie Wilson reflects on her involvement in performance project You Heard Me (2022/3), and how a collective of theatre making artists used sound and music as a primary originating ‘text’ for devising and tactic of feminist solidarity.

Biography Melanie Wilson is a U.K. based multi-disciplinary performance maker. Her acclaimed work is founded on the contemporary interplay between sound, experimental forms of composition, language, technology and live performance. Melanie collaborates as a composer and sound artist with companies across the U.K and Europe in theatre, opera, film and installation. Her own work is currently focusing the human/animal relationship in sound, and the use of machine learning to create hybrid human/animal vocalities for a new choral work. –––––––––––––––––– Co-conspiracy: an intergenerational dialogue on queer/ing dramaturgy. by Professor Alyson Campbell, VCA, University of Melbourne and Meta Cohen, VCA, University of Melbourne

Abstract
This conversation explores an intergenerational collaboration between two Melbourne-based queer artist-researchers: director-dramaturg Alyson Campbell and composer-dramaturg Meta Cohen. We consider how our collaborative work generates new queer dramaturgical practices and offers new ways of thinking about queer(ing) dramaturgies.

The discussion is based around the project that formed the genesis of our collaboration: a production of Doctor Faustus Lights The Lights by Gertrude Stein (2019). What emerged was a synergy around the meeting of a (queer) director who thinks musically and a (queer) composer who thinks dramaturgically and the ensuing exploration of new ways to articulate and map what is happening in the processes of making and rehearsal.

Biographies: Campbell is an award-winning director and a Professor in Theatre at the VCA, The University of Melbourne. She teaches and researches dramaturgy and directing with a focus on queer dramaturgies and HIV and AIDS. Cohen is a queer composer, dramaturg and sound designer specialising in sonic dramaturgy and musical thinking in theatre-making, currently undertaking a PhD at the VCA.