Bruce

I’ve been trying to think a little more analytically about my philosophy of sound in a theatre environment. I think I may have stumbled onto a simple organizational tool. Maybe this is obvious but I find that I categorize my responsibilities something like this:

Thinking About Thinking About Theater Sound

15 Jan, 2014 in In A Small Room by Bruce

Why work so hard at being a grump? In addition to my work at the black box theatre, I do sound for The Norton Singers – a great local musical theatre group that does two productions every year. Recent fall/winter productions (A Christmas Carol, Salute to Disney) have extended the […]

The Friendly Mic Guy

1 Jan, 2014 in In A Small Room / Theatre by Bruce

Getting the sound right for the band is a critical element of any musical production at the blackbox. The music director and the musicians should expect nothing less. But an interesting thing occurred during tech for A Broadway Christmas. I came to my first rehearsal to discover that the […]

Fixing Sound For The Band

18 Dec, 2013 in In A Small Room by Bruce

Sunday January 27, 2013 – when three shows converged in a single day. We finished the final performance of Next To Normal at the newly renovated Norwood Theatre. This was a big deal – we had been asked to bring our black box production of the show to this beautiful, […]

What A Rush

15 Dec, 2013 in In A Small Room by Bruce

Looking back, it’s been two years since I started working at my “small room”. Although I had done a significant number of shows (mostly musicals) at other venues before this, doing the sound design for The 39 Steps began my love affair with the MMAS Blackbox Theatre. It was my […]

Climbing The 39 Steps

9 Dec, 2013 in In A Small Room by Bruce

During The Mystery of Irma Vep, there were many cues for environmental sound effects like thunder and wind as well as creature sounds such as screams and howls. You can get away with using the same sample a couple of times but at some point this approach gets noticed. And […]

Small Variations Make A Big Difference.

5 Dec, 2013 in In A Small Room by Bruce

As part of the sound design for The Mystery of Irma Vep, the director made reference to British “door humor”. And of course when you think about both English sitcoms and theatre there is a long history of doors and their ability to supply opportunities for both comedic and dramatic […]

British Door Humor

17 Nov, 2013 in In A Small Room by Bruce

So this is my opening post for the In a Small Room category. I’m not sure exactly where this is going to lead but I have a strong feeling that talking about the challenges and joy of designing sound for a small space is going to be fun. And I’m […]

Sound In A Small Room

6 Nov, 2013 in In A Small Room by Bruce

I’ve spent many a night thinking about a series of little improvements/hacks that would improve the playability of my beloved instrument. Many of these are software-based ideas to do (hopefully) clever things with the MIDI data stream. I’ll do a separate post on where those are heading soon. But some […]

EVI Embouchure Sensor Mod

28 Jul, 2011 in EVI / Music by Bruce

One of the joys of being a brass player is being able to play in a brass choir – a small group covering the range of brass instruments from trumpet to tuba. My favorite composer of music for brass choir was always Giovanni Gabrieli. But alas it’s difficult to find […]

The Brass Choir Experiment

25 Jul, 2011 in EVI / Music tagged EVI / Music by Bruce