Hofstra Drama 20 – Sound for the Theatre

Emily Lowe Hall room 216

breathing, keyboard, clicking a trackpad

Location: Walking into the student center from the unispan

Sounds: Keys jangling, footsteps, breathing every now and then, overlapping chatter (distant and close)

1. Location: Living Room of my house, 4:14 pm 2/24/23
2. Sounds furthest away: Planes flying overhead, Cars driving down the turnpike behind me, wind in the distance, cars revving, horns honking
3. Sounds at Medium range: Cars driving past my house and down the street, The sound of my storm door banging against the porch railing due to wind, my roommate typing down the hall, sound of garbage being thrown in the dumpster of Popeyes, woman talking on the phone on the sidewalk.
4. Sounds closest to me: Me typing on the computer, the sound of me sipping my tea, phone buzz notification, me breathing, my knees popping, the chair shifting under my weight.
5. Around me in the house, the sound is very quiet. There is, however, a lot of loud sounds in the distance, mainly due to the cars and busy roads. By the time those sounds get to my ear, they are dampened and muffled.
6. “Secluded”
7. Cars going by on the turnpike, me breathing, me sipping tea

Time/location: my dorm room in Constitution Hall, 6:31pm

Sounds heard:

• Wind rushing outside the window
• Blinds shaking back and forth
• Paper shuffling and being blown around
• Chair creaking
• Me chewing/eating dinner
• Soft breathing

1. The sound environment took place 02/07/2022-9:30pm-Alliance 12th Floor Lounge 
2. Far sounds include the door outside of the lounge swinging open and shutting closed quickly with force as people walk in and out of the upstairs lounge space. 
3. Medium sounds near me is the constant clicking of controller switches as my boyfriend plays a game, as well as the sound of his slow inhales and exhales. 
4. Closest to me is the dialogue vibrating from the tv. “I appreciate you being vulnerable gabby- will you accept this rose?” 
5. Without focusing it may seem like there is only one sound flooding the room, that being the sound coming from the tv. However when doing this exercise one realizes there is a lot more comprising this sound environment than general droning of the bachelor. 
6. One word: Co-existence 
7. In order for the environment to stay in tact I feel as though the most important sounds are the clicking of the controller, the rise and fall of deep breaths being inhaled and exhaled, and the dialogue blaring from the tv that signifies what I am doing. 

1. Date: 3/10/20 – Time: 4:00pm – Location: My Dormitory

2. Farthest away from me, I can hear a couple of people talking in the hallway, as well as the stairwell door being slammed shut.

3. In a medium range, I can hear my air conditioning unit constantly blowing out air.  Also, I hear noises coming from the television.

4. The sounds closest to me include me laughing and breathing.  I can hear the many different noises coming from my phone too.

5. The general sound level is quiet due to the fact that many other students on my floor already left for Spring Break.  However, there is still a good amount of sound activity occurring in my dorm.

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

7. Three sounds that are essential to the “sound environment” are the a/c unit blowing out air, noise coming from the television, and the stairwell door being slammed shut.

1- February 8th – 11:00 pm – Room 315 in The Hague House in the Netherland

2- Farthest – Cars driving down the street, people talking in the house common room

3- Medium – My roommates talking in the other room, the toilet flushing in the bathroom

4- Closest- my breathing, the running of my fish tank’s motor, the bubbling or the fish tank’s filter, my clock ticking

5- It is very quiet in this room and there is very little sound activity.

6- Tired

7- Clock ticking, fish filter bubbling, cars driving by

Location: My Dorm Room (Alliance Hall) — Thursday, April 25, 2013, 10:14 am

Sounds Heard: My good friend came over to do homework with the night before, and she fell asleep in my room.  I woke up early to keep working, and she was breathing very calmly.  The way people breathe when they are fully asleep is very interesting, as an automatic body function.  I could never fake this rhythm as a kid to convince my mom I was sleeping.  I also wanted to test the microphone on my iPhone and see if it would pick up any of the traffic or birds outside.  It’s great at picking up soft, close sounds like breathing, but doesn’t seem to catch anything from outside.

(I got her permission to upload a creepy clip of her breathing.)

Bonus Recording!

Location: Social Sports Kitchen — Friday, April 19, 2013, 12:11 am

I was having a few drinks with friends and decided to take out my phone to record the barflies singing along to the music.  This clip is funny to me because, without fail, whenever I tell people that I am recording sounds for class, someone says, “Kat, put your shirt back on!”  I even used one such recording a couple weeks ago, from my improv rehearsal.  

1- 3.12.13, 11:05am, 011 Davison Hall

2- Footsteps echo down the hall and above us; the occasional voice is heard, muffled through the door

3- The door opens when a student enters, but other than that, this area is silent.

4- Someone taps lightly on their desk; once in a while a person will shift in their chair creating a light swooshing noise; sometimes I can hear the breathing of the people around me as they take a deeper breath or sigh; the person next to me emits the tin-y beat from their headphones

5- The general sound level and activity is low. It seems as though we are sitting with baited breath – class begins in five minutes

6- Waiting

7- The echoing footsteps, breathing, the tin-y sound from someones’ earphones

Sound Environment Observation 4 – The Hofstra Gym – Running on a Treadmill

1- Date/Time/Location

– February 23, 2012 / 5:00pm / Running on a Treadmill / Hofstra Gym

2- Identify and list the sounds farthest away from you.

– Other gym machines, people using other machines, the distant sound of people talking, the sound of people’s feet on the track around the work-out-machine area.

3- Identify and list the sounds at medium range from you.

– The people running on the treadmills on either side of mine… along with the sound of the surrounding Elliptical machines swishing back and forth.

4- Identify and list the sounds closest to you.

– Some music  (Belanova) playing on my Ipod… the sound of my heavy breathing along with my feet on the treadmill. Also, the HUGE guy next to me on the treadmill is running hard and thumping his feet very loudly.

5- Describe the general sound level and amount of sound activity.

– It is a very busy sound environment. There is noise coming from all around – between the machines and other people’s ipods and heavy cardio breathing.

6- Assign a one word description to the “sound environment”.

– Enthusiastic

7- Select and list 3 sounds which are essential to the sound environment.

– The sound of the machines, heavy breathing, I-pod noises, Elliptical swishing