Tom's Midnight Garden

I've been spending the last couple of weeks putting together the sound design for Ottershaw Players' latest show, Tom's Midnight Garden.

I've done Sound for a show a couple of times, but usually either in our village hall, or a sound plot that's not too complicated.

So I volunteered to do the sound design for this show, thinking "how hard could it be". And then I read the script. And saw the list of over 60 cues in the back of the book. And then realised that there were a load of music cues and pre-recorded voices which weren't listed. Ouch!

Well, I chose some music (Penguin Café Orchestra, if you insist on asking) and gathered all the sound effects. Then I recorded myself doing the pre-recorded voices and treated them with various bits of magical trickery to make it seem like there were 5 versions of me with different voices.

Popped along to Sunday's double run-through with a laptop full of cues and hoped for the best. And, miraculously, though I say it myself, it didn't sound too bad at all! I'm going to have to spend a looong time at the theatre balancing all the volume levels of each individual effect - and I'm still struggling to figure out how I make the sounds of the grandfather clock come from the clock itself - but I think the sound plot I've come up with does complement the play and (I hope) will help it to flow along nicely.

And there are some lovely performances from our young (and much older) cast which will undoubtedly spring to life in the theatre.

And as I'm not actually on stage, it'll be even better!

All of which is just one long advert for our play, which I hope people will come along to see. It's on next week, 9th - 12th December at the Rhoda McGaw Theatre, Woking. For full details, see our website (or click the link at the top of this article) or call our Box Office at 07714 264010.