Hofstra Drama 20 – Sound for the Theatre

Date: 2/9 6:51, my upstairs living room

Farthest away from me: My downstairs housemates talking in their kitchen

Medium range: My refrigerator humming in the kitchen and my upstairs housemate’s desk chair creaking a few times per minute 

Closest to me: My keyboard clacking as I type and my occasional sniffling. My other housemate typing on her phone and clearing her throat 

The sound level is very quiet. My other 2 housemates are out of the house and everyone is sort of decompressing from the day on their own in different parts of the house. 

One word: Mundane 

3 essential sounds: Chatter of the downstairs housemates, the fridge, and my housemate’s nails as she types her phone. 

Journal Entry 1

1. 2/8, 6:26PM, my living room
2. Farthest away from me: the sound of the refrigerator running, footsteps in the hallway
3. Medium range: My housemate sniffling and pouring her drink
4. Closest to me: The sound of the fan in my laptop, my keyboard as I type, and the sound of my own breathing
5. It’s generally very quiet – everyone just got home from class and we’re passing around my phone putting in our Doordash orders so no one is really making much noise
6. One word: comfortable
7. 3 essential sounds: the sound of my breath, the footsteps, the refrigerator. These sounds together represent the idea of comfortable silence for me.

1. 1/29/2014, 1:08 AM, Home on Front St.

2. Identify the sounds farthest from you: Four housemates upstairs, their muffled voices above my ceiling. They laugh and scream with excitement, not a care in the world. I hear very faint music as well, so faint, in fact, I’m not quite sure what it is. The water in the sink upstairs goes on occasionally and reminds me our water pressure is harsh when the facet is turned up high and tonight, it seems to roar like thunder.

3. Identify the sounds at medium range: As the housemates joke around and enjoy themselves, I hear the sounds of a loud, squishy mattress, on a rickety, old hardwood floor. The floor creaks beneath them every time they jump off the bed and walk down the hall to another room, and I can hear it ALL from my room down below.

4. Identify the sounds closest to you: The vaguely rhythmic clicking of the radiators in my room as the heat attempts to warm this frigid night. Someone is in the bathroom outside my room. The water from the faucet is much softer and I hear the opening and closing of the medicine cabinet.

5. General sound level and activity: It feels rather chaotic in the house tonight. It seems I’m the only person with homework. The feeling seems to intensify with every creaky footstep, every rustle in the bed above my head, every muffled laugh. Even the heater in my room seems to tease me by assuring me I’ll get no silence tonight. While most of the sounds are muffled through the ceiling and the walls, they are all too familiar and are indicative of an active, loud house of college students. The sound of every footstep on the old hardwood is like nails on a chalkboard. The worst.

6. One word to describe the sound environment: Distracting.

7. 3 essentials sounds to the sound environment: The creaking hardwood above me, the constant clicking of the radiator in my room, the near constant rustling, tossing in the bed in the room above me.