TRYING by Joanna McClelland Glass is a wonderful play set in Georgetown, Washington, D.C. It is based on the real life experiences of the playwright between winter 1967 and spring 1968 while working for the honorable (and retired) Judge Francis Biddle, an "eighty-one-year-old, once brilliant man who was Attorney General of the United States under Franklin Roosevelt. After a long and illustrious career he now functions, as he says, somewhere between lucidity and senility."

James Whitmore plays Judge Biddle, and Karron Graves is Sarah Schoor, a twenty-five-year-old girl who has been hired by Mrs. Biddle, to be the Judge's secretary. Will post production photos as they become available.

The sound engineer is Brian Keating, (official title: assistant technical director). Mixing live takes skill, but the difference between mixing live and mixing for live theatre is akin to the difference between playing the guitar and playing classical guitar. It's much more disciplined and takes much more skill and knowledge. In my opinion, Brian is one of the best theatre engineers in the region.

Directed by Gus Kaikkonen
Lighting Design: Rui Rita
Scenic Design: Jeff Bauer
Costume Design: Pamela Scofield
Producing Director: Paul Tetreault

The sound department at signature theatre is growing up! With the addition of Chris Akins, the new production manager, and Matt Rowe, the house sound man, I was welcomed with all the support I needed to really sink my teeth into this wonderful world premier musical.

January 10 through February 26, 2006
World Premiere Musical
NEVERMORE
Music by Matt Conner
Lyrics adapted from the writings of Edgar Allan Poe
Book by Grace Barnes
Directed by Eric Schaeffer

ALICE will be the first play in the new theatre.

You can get more information about ALICE at Kennedy Center

You can visit Kim Hines' site at Kim Hines

Which Media Format to Choose

Quicktime: Optimized for the web (smaller file size), but not all visitors have the quicktime plug-in. Don't want to exclude those who do not.

Windows Media: Also optimized for the web, but again not all visitors will have this plug-in.

Real Media: Personally I don't care for all the extra junk that is installed with the real player.

AAIF or Wav: These allow the visitor to hear the music on his/her computer's default music player, but the visitor must wait for the large file to load before she hears any music.

mp3: This was my choice because an mp3 is a smaller file, and is a universal format.

To Link Or Not To Link

The goal is to make it as easy and as pleasent for the listener as possible. The visitor should be able to click on the title of the song and hear music without having to bother with the mechanics of links or redirects. When done with one audio sample, the visitor should be able to just click another title to hear the next sample, then another, then another, etc. Therefore the nature of the link to the music file should not forward to another page.

You might try the old "target=blank" parameter in your html link, which will force the browser to open a new page, but in my opinion, closing those resulting pages is just more bother than I care to subject my guest to. Furthermore, It might actually discourage the visitor from clicking on more titles. Also, remember, there are many types of browsers, including explorer, safari, netscape, opera, AOL, and firefox, to name a few. The "target=blank" tag could have unexpected results depending on the user's browser and other personal settings.

I decided to use java to open the file as if it were a pop-up window when the title is clicked. This allows the visitor's default player to open and execute the music file. The listener should already be familiar with his computer's default player, so we're not forcing our guest to download any player that he/she may not want to download. Here's the code:

<span class="popup" onClick=javascript:window.open("http://www.tonyangelini.com/mtsampleaudio/clandestine/gallery.mp3","dungeon","toolbar=no,width=300,height=30,location=no")>"Into The Gallery"<span>

And it looks like this:

"Into The Gallery"

Go ahead, put your cursor over the text and click on it.

Jon "Baltimore Jonny" Glick - fiddle
Daniel Knicely - guitar, mandolin
Neil Knicely - upright bass.

The songs were arranged by the four of us in the studio. We recorded at the Footworks Ranch.

Slumber Swing*

Slumber Lullabye* (to be sung by actor playing "Charlotte")

Dark As A Dungeon

Far Away

Minor Swing

Flop Eared Mule

'Tis A Gift

Over The Waves

*Original Music written for the show.

All music was co-written with Jen Cartney and myself, and Jen played the harpsichord (actually she played the harpsichord patch on her kurzweil pc-88).

"Lover's Theme"

"Into The Gallery"

"3 Piece"

"Lord Ogleby's Theme"

"4 Piece"

He is also the Technical Director and Sound Designer for the internationally acclaimed FOOTWORKS percussive dance ensemble.

Tony teaches sound design and theatre at The Roundabout Theatre in NYC, and is a regular contributor to Pro Audio Review Magazine.

Although he maintains an place in Manhattan, Tony resides with his wife in Washington, DC.

Audio Samples:

Show Opening - "Cheese It!"

"Goodnight, Graduate"

End of Act 1 - "They're Here"

Montage of various scene change music and underscore

(all music copywrite: Tony Angelini. Please do not use without permission)

"The Frankinator"

If you have trouble with the link, let me know, ok?

For Now, more audio samples can be found here

Will post production photos as they become available.

Bobby Smith plays "The Snail with the Mail" (By Stan Barouh -- Round House Theatre)



Will Gartshore as Frog and Steve Tipton as Toad (By Stan Barouh -- Round House Theatre)

I've done this very successfully with The Glen Street Playhouse in Sydney, Australia, and with other theatres around the country.

Also, If your theatre has a Stage Research SFX system, I can even program the entire show in my studio and just send you the program files via the web or I can FED EX it to you.

There can be many parts to a sound system, and putting them all together can get complicated and confusing. There are speakers, microphones, CD players, amplifiers, mixers, amplified mixers, amplified speakers; and what is the difference between a graphic equalizer and a parametric eq, anyway? Relax. It's not really that hard. Remember the old slogan for the board game Othello? It takes a minute to learn and a lifetime to master. A public address system is not at all like that.

What's a Sound System For, Anyway?

A sound system has one purpose only: to deliver the sound to the listener in a deliberate way.

A reinforcement system will amplify whatever the microphone picks up and deliver it to the audience through speakers. In this case, the goal of the engineer would be to make the sound in the back of the house about as loud as it would sound up close. One might also use a reinforcement system for artistic reasons. For example, a cabaret singer may use a microphone to energize her performance and musical impact, even if no reinforcement needed for her to fill the room.

A remote delivery system enables people to hear each other over distances. A telephone or teleconferencing systems are remote delivery systems. Speakers placed in the overflow rooms of a large event would also be considered a remote delivery system.

I plan to publish some of my articles on the science and art of sound design, from conceptual theory to practical application. When? That depends on when I have time. I design two or three shows every month, as well as special events and other one-offs, and always have three or four projects in the works. I schedule my time down to the minute. Rest assured, though, they'll be coming 'round the mountain relatively soon.

For those of you who don't know, but care to, I am a Sound Designer that specializes in Theatre and Dance. I'm a true megalopolitan; although based in Washington, DC, I also have a place in NYC for my work there. You can see my bio if you click the link on the right.

For those of you that enjoyed my old site, you can still view it:

Main Page
Plublished Articles
Some Audio Samples (Will be adding much more as I have time)
Permanent Installs
Sound Design for your production via the internet

Feel free to contact me anytime at tonyangelini@aol.com.

Oh, one last thing. You can leave a comment here if you like. Ask a question or just say hello.

You can hear audio samples Here