To Kill A Mockingbird

By Christopher Sergel
Based on the Novel by Harper Lee
  
The Utah Shakespeare Festival 2012

Director: Edward Morgan
Scenic Design: Jo Winiarski
Costume Design: David Mickelson 
Lighting Design: Jaymi Lee Smith
Sound Design: Joe Payne

“Depression-era youngsters Jem and Scout are innocent witnesses to their community in a tense tug-of-war. Justice, dignity, tolerance, racism, violence, and hypocrisy are at the heart of this compelling American drama. This wise and softly humorous staging of the original novel will compel you to take an honest look at our nation’s past and to our moral responsibility to each other today.”

Texture, texture, texture. That was the motto for this sound design. I never realized how loud nature was until I moved to the south. Bugs. I wanted to capture southern atmosphere at every moment during this play. Birds and insects would entwine the actors, while music became integral to the pace and movement of this show.  Beautiful music, and texture for a well produced piece.  As I compose music more and more, it was kind of fun to get back to detailed editing and sculpting of found music.

Demo of content and atmosphere

Music composed and performed by Joe Payne for USF web and radio publicity