Live Music Update

An update on our work with musicians:

The upright bass player was able to make it to rehearsal last Monday. He was very talented and able to play a wide range of emotions, and while it was his first time working with us, it was a wonderful experience.

The biggest lesson we learned – less is more. Silences are powerful when a spect-actor is accustomed to a layer of music coming in and out. Because the spect’s senses are on overdrive for the opening scene, music only complicates the work. Best to let them get comfortable with their surroundings before putting some of their focus on a new element. Tense moments are heightened when there’s a break in the music, when nothing else is audible except the dialogue and sounds of the scene partners, and then a quick start gets the pace moving in a fresh direction.

There were only a couple moments when the music was a distraction, pulling the spect-actor out the moment with the inter-actor in the scene. We’ll have to play with volume control and some more sensitivity to what the scene needs.