Hofstra Drama 20 – Sound for the Theatre

Date: March 8

Time: 6:00 pm

Location: Bits & Bytes

Far Sounds: indistinguishable conversations in the back room, electricity humming, food wrappers rustling.

Medium Sounds: garbled voice speaking over the phone, people talking, chairs scraping across the floor, hands clapping occasionally. 

Close Sounds: fan whirring overhead, keyboard clicks, table wobbling, fabric rubbing.

Sound Description/Level: quite consistent, there is a steady drone of voices engaged in different conversations, but they all blur into one another. The other sounds are mere accents dropped in occasionally.

One Word: bustling

Most Important Sounds: people talking, chairs scraping, voice on the phone

March 6th, 4:26PM, Shapiro Family Hall lobby.

Furthest: Heating system humming, very distant talking, echoes from the piano. 

Medium: Footsteps walking towards outside, piano playing melodically.  

Closest: Students talking, the double glass doors closing, fabric from my clothing moving. 

Sound level varies extremely as the people who pass me talk loudly and their footsteps ring, contrasting with the light piano tunes and the echoing. The amount of sound activity is spirited as there is a strong contrast between low tones and high.

One Word Description: Spirited

Essential Sounds: 

1. Piano playing melodically 
2. Students talking 
3. Footsteps

1. 02/09/2023 – 4:22 PM – Emily Lowe Hall Drounge
2. Far away: People talking in a classroom, a small beep, the sound of an air conditioner
3. Medium: Footsteps (some going further and some coming closer), the entrance door slamming, a classroom door being shut
4. Closest: The sound of me breathing due to congestion, someone taking a sip of their drink, typing, someone chewing
5. The sound level started out quite loud, but it has now gone down to barely any sounds that aren’t the ones mentioned in #4. This is the same regarding the sound activity. Originally, it began with hearing #2 and #3 together, and those sounds faded away, which led me to hear #4. Therefore, the sound activity went from high to low.
6. Descriptor: Bustling
7. The essential sounds are: the faraway sound of people talking in a classroom, the sound of footsteps, and the sound of the entry door slamming. 

Date: April 30th, 2022

Location and Time: Blackbox Theater, 10:30am

Far Sounds: Door to the scene shop creaking, someone walking around backstage, audience platform creaking, AC going

Medium Sounds: Someone getting up from their chair, Tom typing on his computer, George walking down the stairs, someone walking across the audience platform, Ashley walking around on stage, moving lights moving to light up the tree

Close Sounds: Rych asking Mystery if lighting is okay, Royston talking to Mystery, the shaking of the platform, sounds playing in the speakers

Sound Description/Level: Chaotic, loud

One Word Description: Chaos

Most Important Sounds: AC blowing, the shaking of the audience platforms, door to the scene shop

Date: April 15th

Time:  10:54 pm

Location: Downstairs living room of my house

Far Sounds: Joey and Ben laughing and talking upstairs, thudding from upstairs

Medium Sounds: Avery’s friend on the phone, rain, the washing machine

Close Sounds: Avery talking to her friend on the phone

Sound Description/Level: Low level, fairly quiet and casual

One Word: Gentle

Most Important Sounds: Avery talking on the phone and her friend responding, the rain, and washing machine

Date: April 3rd, 2022, 

Location and Time: My bed, 7:57pm

Far Sounds: The dryer running, the tv going downstairs, an ambulance driving by, plane flying overhead, car honking

Medium Sounds: Housemates talking downstairs, people walking by my window talking, typing, housemate moving chair in their room

Close Sounds: Housemate laughing, the shower running upstairs, housemate slamming fridge, pouring water from a britta filter, Mishka running down the stairs, Harry Styles playing

Sound Description/Level: low, mostly quiet

One Word: comfortable

Most Important Sounds: Mishka running down the stairs, housemates laughter people walking and talking

Date: March 8, 2022

Location and Time: Psibrary in Lowe, 4:08 pm

Far Sounds: students rehearsing in musical theater class, footsteps going upstairs

Medium Sounds: freshman talking, laughing, and singing in the drounge, opening and closing of Lowe doors

Close Sounds: Nicole and Olivia typing on their computers, Olivia adjusting her chair 

Sound Description/ Level: Energetic, loud

One Word: Bustling 

Most important sounds: people talking, doors opening and closing

Location: My kitchen, Hempstead 9:49pm

Sounds:

• Opening and closing of fridge
• Moving/putting containers away in fridge
• Housemate saying “hello” to me
• Group talking in the distance
• The hum of the refrigerator 
• Cardboard boxes rubbing against each other

Date: February 27, 2022

Location and Time: The Joan and Donald Schaeffer Black Box Theater, 1:50 pm 

Far Sounds: Muffled chatter of audience members sitting farther away from me, the faint pinging of a sound effect from the show, a phone falling out of someone’s pocket and hitting the ground

Medium Sounds: Clanging of seats as people were getting settled, Sigma Capella’s ICCA set playing on a phone a few rows ahead of me, Avery, Ben, and Cindy talking, someone coughing

Close Sounds: Joey speaking to me, footsteps of people approaching seats

Sound Description/Level: Light, casual pre-show chatter, not too noisy

One Word: Cheery

Most Important Sounds: People talking, accapella music, jingling of seats 

1. Date: 3/22/20 – Time: 12:00pm – Location: Estabrook Parking Lot

2. Farthest away from me, I can hear other students and their parents talking to each other, and their car trunks being closed.  I can also hear the wheels of their bins being dragged along the concrete.

3. In a medium range, I can hear my parents talking about wearing masks and gloves before entering the building.  Moreover, I can hear the trunk of our car being slowly opened.

4. Closest to me, I can hear the footsteps of both myself and my mother, as well as me complaining that the mask is causing my glasses to fog.  I can hear the wheels of my bin dragging along the concrete as I pull it.

5. The general sound level is a bit noisy due to the bins being pushed/pulled along the concrete. Other than this, there is not much sound activity taking place.

6. One word to describe the “sound environment” is “peaceful”.

7. Three sound that are essential to the “sound environment” are the bins being pushed/pulled along the concrete, my complaints about my glasses being fogged, and my parents talking to each other.