Unifying design statement
Radium Girls is a Brechtian style play, so the music choices should directly reinforce (or add
context) to ideas shown within the stories. For example, when attempting to convey a love arc,
the use of love songs for each scene can be very direct to convey the emotion going into the
scene, this aids in the audience’s understanding of the circumstances going into scenes and more
clearly conveys an arc within the larger story. For general sound design, we were not as
concerned about immersing the audience as we were with complimenting the acting and
reinforcing the ideas within. Some examples are sound effects used on tableaus meant to
heighten that moment. This does not mean that underscoring or atmospheric design cannot be
used, instead it should be used only to reinforce ideas already present within the script (like
adding a feeling of terror). The reinforcement of actors should be classical and unobtrusive per
budget needs and to give the makeup and actors a clean look (that contrasts the complex set
well). The band should be mic’ed and mixed in a way that aids itself to the time periods it is
present in, so there is minimal use of modern effects.
Summary of given circumstances
The author's note in the script mentions that the show takes place between 1918 and 1928 in
Orange County, NJ. This gives me as the sound designer two important pieces of info. First, is
the time. The places that scenes are roughly set in and in what area I can do some research and
find a collection of popular musical pieces from that time. However, I still wanted greater
accuracy in the music I chose. So, with the director, I labeled each scene’s year (as the show
jumps around loosely). With this I was able to correctly match the music with the scene. In
addition to telling us what music classically fit best would, giving us that time period can also
tell us quite a bit about the world we are in, one where digital sound effects and synth sounds
would not fit very well. A quote from the script: ”sense of place is created by the rearrangement
of the tables and chairs, with the help of lights, sound, props,” This quote is also quite important
as it tells us (in addition to the director's vision) that sound must play a significant role in this
production to add context and a sense of place to scenes. It also tells us that these sounds must
intertwine well with the transitions onstage. Beyond the overarching show, there are few
mentions of sound; so creative liberties had to be taken as to what the show should sound like,
this included the use of foley for almost every scene.
Artistic and practical needs
As mentioned in the summary of given circumstances, this show required a lot of sound design,
by the final revision there were, on average, 2-3 sound cues per scene, many of which were live
foley. To accommodate this, a live foley desk with a dynamic microphone was constructed, this
allowed me to quickly and efficiently mold the sound and react to dialogue in a way that pre-
recorded SFX couldn’t match. Another way I worked to make this show dynamic was by having
a live band made up of a saxophone, percussionist, guitarist, and I directing it. We were in a box
boom as a group (see image) in view of the audience, having a live band enhanced the music by
an immeasurable amount, it allowed for transition music and underscoring to go on as long as
needed without the need for looping or awkward fade out. As mentioned, we as a band were in a
box boom about 20 long and 5ft wide so building a compact sound setup was paramount, this
meant that much of my keyboard and SFX setup was tiered. Mixing in a box boom was also a
strong practical need I had (mixing the band, not the actors) to help accommodate a more modern
mixing approach. Mainstage was used to run vocal effects and some guitar processing.
For the dream sequence, underscoring a more tactile approach to synthesis was needed, because
of these factors the Arturia Minifuse was chosen along with LogicPro and Mainstage to run the
underscoring.
As far as actor micing goes, it was very minimal outside the normal body Lav on the cheek or
forehead was needed. Our only practical need was to work closely with costuming to design
pockets in many of the costumes to hold wireless packs instead of using traditional mic belts.
(Only 10 mics, so I needed to use theater mix!)
Sources of inspiration
Around the time of Radium Girls, I started to get passionate about jazz, so when radium girls
came around, I auditioned to be the music director. My guiding principle throughout this show
was that I wanted it to be a love letter to not just jazz music and swing, but the jazz music that I
love. I took heavy inspiration from legends like Billie Holiday, Chet baker, Bernard Hermann
(especially The Taxi Driver soundtrack) and others. The music had inspiration from many other
specific sources as well, one of the first songs that came to mind when I first starting to work on
the show was Midnight the Stars and You by Al Bowley, because of its sweet, though also
somewhat ominous tone (you may have heard it used as the outro to Stanley Kubrick's The
Shining). This song inspired a large portion of the music used throughout the second half of the
show. Finding repertoire for jazz guitar and saxophone can be quite difficult, so I looked to the
jazz guitarist Django Rheinhart for pieces and inspiration in playing style. For the Dream
scenario underscoring I took inspiration from classical jazz pieces and Wendy Carlos’s synth
scoring in movies like A Clockwork Orange. (For the accordion intro, the lyrics were inspired
by 20’s ragtime music that was popular in NJ and the piece was modified by me.) The foley in
the show was inspired largely by heightened realism, as they were not meant to sound off axis
from the story.
Techniques used within design
There were many different techniques used in Radium girls. Here is a list of them and their
usages below.
Live Foley
Foley was used for a variety of purposes that boiled down to either aiding the actors in
performance such as stomping, doorbells ringing, harsh knocking, or to enhance the story such as
a bell on tableaus or typewriter sounds while letters are read aloud by the actor.
Live band
A live band was used that consisted of a saxophone, drummer, guitarist, and pianist, the live
band allowed us to have much finer control over underscoring and transition music. Many people
said it was their favorite part of the show, as it gave a positive and authentic feel to the show.
Emotion feels deeper when it is live.
Writing music specifically for the show
To help match the show, about half of the music was written by me for it. Such as the
underscoring during a later scene where music that flowed as a character left for a moment and
then came back was written with gaps for the character to fill in so as not to pull away too much
attention. Some pre-written music was also modified for the show, for example the piece Radium
Dance, which was originally a ragtime piece for the show Piff, Paff, Pouf. (1918) but it was
without lyrics. So, I wrote lyrics to it as a top of show piece that sets the somewhat eerie vibe of
the show.
Live Digital Comping and Live synthesis For the “nightmare scene”
in which the main character Grace has a dream she is being haunted
by Marie Curie and some of the radium girls painting with the poisonous paint, I decided to take
a very contrasting route from the rest of the show, for this I use mutiple different effects, starting
with a saxophone solo to cover the transition into it that faded out as I played a nightmarish
scene using triggered string sounds, An Arturia Minifreak playing strange, terrifying Geiger
counter sounds and a Midi piano.
By playing this underscoring live every night, I was able to match the increasing energy of the
scene using filters on the synth. It also allowed me to have the low piano fill gaps in the sound
better, this together gave a more immersive and meshed feeling to the sound.
Pre-recording sound effects
About half of the sound effects used in the show were pre-recorded because they were simply not
possible in the foley space (such as the clock ticking). A good portion of them were recorded by
me for the production, specifically like the trumpet intro which was written by me and recorded
being played by a live three-part trumpet trio playing.
Clock
Midi rendering of Opening number: Vocal Radium Dance
Trumpet News Reporter Sting
