Design Statement
A Little Night Music is one of Sondheim's lesser known masterpieces. A tale of three couples intertwined with each other to create the ultimate romantic farce. When approaching this show, I knew that there wouldn't be a lot to work with sound wise. However what was there was enough to create a simple yet immersive soundscape.
Preshow
For preshow we wanted to double down on the fact that the sun never sets during the play, so placing preshow during the night made sense as the lighting designer placed us in dark blues to emulate night light. I went ahead and put underneath it sounds of crickets and other night life to put us the enviornment.
Antique Door Bell
At one point in the show, Countess Malcolm rings the doorbell to the Egerman estate. I wanted to make sure the doorbell was historically accurate so I researched what door bells sounded like at the time and managed to find an effect using a similar doorbell that was used at the time.
Intermission
During Intermission we wanted to make sure that the motif of the sun not setting continued. To make it sound more like evening, I included the night time ambience of preshow but this time with the sounds of birds chirping. This makes sure that the audience is aware that it is not quite night time yet, but it is slowly approaching.
Car Honks
When both parties arrive to the Armfeldt estate the cars can be heard honking to indicate their arrival. Like the door bell I wanted to make sure that these effects were historically accurate. I was lucky enough to find a recording of an old electric horn and went ahead and used that for the cars.
Glass Breaking
During the dinner scene, Henrick in a fit of rage takes his wine glass and smashes it into the ground. We didn't have a prop glass to smash so the director needed an effect to cover it and give the illusion that he actually broke his glass. I went ahead and recorded myself smashing a old wine glass, and it turned out perfect.
Gunshot
Towards the end of act 2, Carl Magnus demands that Fredrick play a game of Russian Roulette. The gunshot had to be in time with the music as it happens during the transition into the next scene. I also paned it to stage left which is where Carl and Fredrick exit off to.
Cue Sheet
