I enjoy composing music for live theater. It’s a great challenge to quickly tap into the artistic intent of a director, and compose music that really works with the production. The styles are up for grabs: jazz, orchestral, acoustic, electronic…that’s part of what makes this so fun. The examples below are about 10 years old, so the audio production quality is nowhere near what I’m capable of today. For some current examples of my music production, please check out draft versions of my electronica songs-in-progress, and also my jazz duo.
Life During Wartime
by Keith Reddin
Il Teatro 450, San Francisco, April-May 2001
“Life During Wartime” is an edgy black comedy about the paranoia and corruption that lurk beneath the slick surface of suburban America. This production won nine Dean Goodman Choice Awards.
Originally we planned to use transition music before each scene, but thanks to some ingenious staging and solid pacing, music was only necessary at the start and end of each act. Still, setting the right mood and sending the right message was important. I created several jazz pieces (with programmed bass and drums) to bring the audience in and out of each act. Phillip Greenlief plays tenor sax.
Opening Music: This piece starts the play off with energy and momentum, but leaves room for the dark undertone that unfolds as the story progresses.
End of Act I: This piece transforms an intense dramatic moment that ends Act I into a lighter but still somewhat downbeat mood.
Little Murders
by Jules Feiffer
The Next Stage Theater, San Francisco, October 2000
Moni Hoyt, sound technician for "Little Murders," seen with the Powerbook computer, two CD players, and mixer that we used to run the sound effects and music for the show.
“Little Murders” is a dark comedy about a highly dysfunctional family dodging random bullets and reality in the Upper West Side of Manhattan.
I joined this production less than three weeks before opening, so I did not have time to see many rehersals and explore the script in depth. Still, through meeting with the director and trying a few ideas out, I was able to quickly come up with an effective, customized soundtrack.
Dark theme, small ensemble: Act II opens with a dark theme, first heard here with (sampled) flute, cello, and piano.
Dark theme, larger ensemble: For the intro to the final scene, The director wanted to keep the dark theme, but add a militaristic edge. I did not have time to do a true orchestration, but I approximated it with a orchestra patch and (sampled) solo horn, oboe, violin, and orchestral drums.
Henceforward…
by Alan Ayckbourn
Il Teatro 450, San Francisco, April-May 2000
Kevin Kelleher as Jerome in "Henceforward...". In addtion to creating the music that his character composes, I gave Kevin some direction on how to physically interact with the equipment.
Set in a near-future world, “Henceforward…” is about the compulsion of a technology obsessed composer who records his family in order to make his music, appropriating their most private moments for his compositions. This production won three Dean Goodman Choice Awards.
This play was of particular interest to me, because it is about a composer, and we hear several of his compositions during the course of the play. I recorded the actors’ voices, and composed music based on those recordings.
Love Music: Throughout the play, the protagonist records audio samples on which to base his great “love” composition. Towards the end of the show, he uses a single recording of his ex-wife saying “love” to build his piece. Since this play is set in the future, I actually recorded actress Oonagh Kavanagh saying and singing love several different ways, simulating the use not-yet-invented forms of audio processing to turn a single spoken word into an array of sounds.
Laugh Music: This is composed from one single laugh of Kim Kensington’s, who starred in the production.
“Jon Lukas’ sound design and music add intriguing layers to the production without overpowering the intimacy of the playing space.”
Backstage.com
“The digital video…is crystal-clear and hilarious, as are a variety of sound effects, including personalized cell phone beeps (the phones themselves are the size of a pencil) and Jerome’s fragments of musical composition”
CitySearch.com
Sight Unseen
by Donald Margulies
Il Teatro 450, San Francisco, April 1999
Sight Unseen is a smart, comic portrait of the artist as a young capitalist. Four locations are visited in eight taut scenes that render the past and present in cubist shifts.
At the time I created this music, I had no synthesizers and very little recording equipment. I made the best use of what I had: guitars, hand percussion, and some limited computer-based recording. The music highlights an underlying Jewish theme of the play.
Opening Music: A guitar and percussion version of a piece that I have also been working on for solo piano.