The Insect Play

The biggest challenge I faced while designing The Insect Play was making sure that all of the different groups of insects were both set apart in their different worlds, but were somehow connected with each other. During this process, I worked closely with a composer who composed music for specific moments within the play, but told me that it was up to me where I actually used the music. I was able to use two pieces that he composed to create an underscore for the transitions between scenes and insect groups.

I built my design based off what I saw in the rehearsal room, and ended up working backwards, starting with the last moments of the play. The epilogue needed to feel empty and burdened with death, so I used silence to my advantage. I packed the rest of the show with as much sound as possible so when we reached the epilogue, the silence was noticeable and achieved the desired effect. Most of the epilogue’s dialogue was recorded and edited by me, which allowed for some reverb effects and overlapping dialogue among the mayflies.

Each act had a unique feel to them. The first and the third had only one group of insects, so it was easier to find their sound and stick with it thought the whole act. The second act was made of four different groups of insects that connected with each other, but still lived in their own environments. The director wanted the parasite to feel as if he were part of a film noir scene, which prompted me to think of the rest of the groups as different genres of film and T.V.

This show challenged me to create different atmospheres of sound and use the space to my advantage. One sound I got to create was a metronome that was made only out of machine noises. This was a collaboration with the stage managers and the actors to make sure that the timing was correct and that it worked with the scene for each performance. Another creation that I built was the sound of a war for the ants. I used QLab to map out each of the 13 speakers to make the gunshots sound as if they were surrounding the audience.