RLT Summer Program

Every summer Raleigh Little Theatre holds a six-week conservatory program for students ages 14-18. The Teens on Stage (TOS) / Teens Backstage(TBS) program consists of classes, workshops, and hands-on opportunities for both performers and technical crews.

These learning experiences lead to a fully realized production, performed by the TOS students with sets, lights sound, and costumes built by the TBS students.

The TOS / TBS program enhances students’ training by applying the theory learned in class directly to performance and production. The intensive concentration in the development of a play builds students’ specific theatrical skills and develops their general communication, collaboration, and problem-solving skills for life.

Antigone Production Design

The 2019 summer production is Don Taylor’s version of Sophocles’ Antigone. Antigone is the third play in the Oedipus Trilogy and explores the aftermath of the massive destruction of the battle for Thebes. Director Meredyth Pederson Cooper stages the play in a post-apocalyptic setting where few remnants of modern society remain in a world reduced to middle age technology.

Set Designer and Technical Director, Kylee Silvas, creates the environment of a war-torn warehouse which serves as the central government chamber for the city of Thebes. Costumes by Elly McClanahan reflect the roles the characters played in the war: The chorus representing the military in camo uniforms, Antigone, who fought in the war in fighting gear, Ismene who stayed in the palace in civilian robes, and Creon the new king trying to restore the old ways in a conservative business suit.

Ryann Norris’ lighting design creates the look of daylight flooding through beams and broken walls into the warehouse chamber. During the chorus scenes, choreographed by Jess Barbour, the lighting takes on an abstract pulsing feel that punctuates the movement and music of those scenes.

Sound Design

Creative Approach

The Opening

The scene one of Antigone takes place after the horrific battle at Thebes and the death of the two brothers fighting for control of the city. To tell the back story of this play, sound designer John Maruca created a sound environment of distant battle sounds and military vehicles that envelopes the audience as they entered the theater. A short sound montage opens the play with the sounds of mortars, tanks, gunfire, and aircraft and culminates in a massive explosion triggering a blackout that signifies the collapse of technology and the destruction of modern weapons. The soundscape crossfades to the sounds of horses and sword fighting, concluding with the cries of the dying brothers and the cheers of the fighters and population as the battle for Thebes is won.

Government Chambers

At lights up on the warehouse/government chambers, the voice of the building establishes itself and becomes the background for the duration of the play. The drones of vibrating metal beams transformed with swirling and phasing effects and punctuated with occasional rumbles create the foundation sound bed of the building. This base is augmented throughout the play with random sounds of creaking wood and steel, dripping water, flexing metal, and booms and thumps.

The building also reacts to specific actions in the play with groans, rattles, metal scrapings, and other sounds that accentuate the dialog and moods of the characters.

The Chorus

The three longest chorus scenes are choreographed to music that reflects the tone of play at that time. The movement and music for the opening chorus are lighter and more hopeful as if looking to a better future after the war. The middle piece is gloomier, reflecting the anger and stubbornness of Creon and a growing sense of wariness about the future. The final chorus is abstract and chaotic, reflecting the confusion and anger over the death sentence of Antigone and the division of the population over Creon’s ruling.

Tiresias

Tiresias, the prophet, is played by three members of the chorus who transform themselves from the council members to the blind soothsayer. The transformation begins with a recording of the prophet’s dialog adding effects to make it sound distant and otherworldly. As the characters on stage take on the persona of Tiresias, the lights begin to swirl, and bursts of fog and smoke appear from under the stage. The audio crossfades from the recording to the live performers and the sound of the building, which has been a constant undertone until this point fades. The background silence sets off the vocal triad of Tiresias as something powerful to be valued and respected.

Sound Design Resources

The custom sound effects for this production are recorded on a Sound Devices MixPre-10T for field recording and an Allen & Heath Qu-16 into a MacBook Pro running Reaper in the studio. Microphones are an Audio-Technica BP4029 for fieldwork and Electro-Voice RE16’s and Audio-Technica AT4050’s in the studio. A Waterphone and an old spring reverb tank provide the metallic and percussive sounds for the warehouse while a Moog Slim Phatty and Arturia MiniBrute synthesizers create drones and rumbles. Prerecorded sound effects are sourced from Pond5.com as is the music that underscores the chorus.

Sound Design Technical Set-Up

The Gaddy-Goodwin Teaching Theatre at Raleigh Little Theatre is a black box theater set with audience seating on three sides of the stage. Antigone uses three groups of speakers distributed around the space in telling the story. Three Electro-Voice ZX-1 speakers are flown in the lighting grid and directed at the seating on the three sides of the stage. These speakers provide a non-localized source for the incidental music. Four Electro-Voice EVID 6.2 speakers are positioned in the corners of the theater. These speakers provide the surround sources for the sound effects. Finally, two cheap generic horns are built into the warehouse set. They provide a localized source for music and voices that are a part of the world of failing technology in the show. A Yorkville YX10SP subwoofer positioned along the stage right wall provides the low-end reinforcement for sound effects and music.

QLab Programming

Sound is played back using QLab version 4.4.5 running on a late 2014 Mac mini 3.0GHz dual-core Intel Core i7 with 16GB RAM. This show uses four cue lists, the preshow, opening sequence, and warehouse background all have their separate cue list. The main cue list runs the show and calls the other lists.

The preshow and warehouse cue lists run for 30 minutes and 90 minutes, respectively. Rather than create a list that accounts for the entire time, each list combines a short looping foundation track that plays through all the surround speakers with randomly timed accent cues assigned to individual surround speakers.

The Warehouse

The warehouse cue list contains three group cues that make up the 90-minute soundscape that create a random sound environment for the warehouse. The first cue in the list is a three-minute loop of drones and swirls that develop the foundation of the warehouse sound. The first group is a timeline group that contains ten start cues spread out along 3 minutes. Each start cue targets the next group called Time group. The Time group contains eight waits of varying times. Each wait cue is followed by a start cue that targets the third group called the Effects group. Starting the Time group fires a random child that starts the Effects group after the specified wait. The Effects group starts a random child and goes to the next cue. This group contains 25 sounds of creaking metal, dripping water, groaning wood, etc. each assigned to a different surround speaker. The final cue in the list is a start cue that starts the timeline cue and the process repeats. Once the wait times are adjusted properly, this cue list plays random warehouse sounds at random intervals giving voice to the warehouse.

Antigone is a timeless play that provides lessons for today. It is given a fresh, dynamic perspective by the creativity and skill of the education staff and students of Raleigh Little Theatre’s Teens On Stage / Teens Back Stage summer conservatory program.