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Thinking Like A Sound Designer

Video Video Introduction

Check out this short interview with Tony Award-winning sound designer Jessica Paz, the first ever woman to receive the Tony for Best Sound Design in a Musical.

Jessica Paz: Tony-Winning Sound Designer Links to an external site.Jessica Paz: Tony-Winning Sound Designer

(Length 2:49) from ThinkingSound on YouTube

Think The Guiding Questions of a Sound Designer

In order to be successful, the sound designer must have a mastery of many different disciplines and technologies, but must also be exceptional storytellers. Sound affects us at a subconscious level in a unique way that can immediately transport the audience member into the world and emotions of the story. That is why underscoring in a movie can be so impactful.

As a result, it is important for the sound designer to ask themselves questions like the following when they read the play:

  • What is this story about? What are the major themes, motifs, parallels, or symbolism that the playwright has woven into their writing?
  • What is the underlying internal action or mood of the play? Of the scene? Of each character? Within the world established by the play?
  • Why are we (the theatre, the creative team, the playwright, etc.) telling this story? 
  • What do you want the audience to take away from this story? To feel emotionally when they view it? Does that change over the course of the story?
  • What might the world of the play sound like? Does it need to be grounded in reality? Is it abstract? Is it expressionistic?
  • What is the role of sound in the story? Is it mentioned at all? Are there specific moments that require specific sound effects or soundscapes?
  • What commentary can the sound give to the audience about the characters who exist in it?

The answers or further questions they come up with from these self-questions inform later conversations with the director, playwright, music director (if there is one), and fellow designers.