This page is a work in progress, please visit again to hear more!
dear white america
by Danez Smith
Featuring Nicholia Q. Aguirre and Noah Michal
Sound Design by Bradford Chapin, Rebecca Kessin, and Aaron Harris Woodstein
This collaborative piece was designed for the 2020 TSDCA Creative Challenge. Three designers were teamed up and presented with a poetry prompt. Smith's powerful text, as well as a failed scan of the text itself provided the impetus to explore and develop an excerpt as a sculptural form of sonic poetry. I was especially interested in "carving out" negative and positive space with extreme panning and spatialization.
BLACK LIVES MATTER
Commissioned in 2021 by All Saints Beverly Hills Episcopal Church, this half hour audio installation was created for Easter Vigil. Religious text, immersive sound design, and original composition invite the listener to contemplative meditation.
Featuring Matthew Modine
Directed by Michael Wilson
Designed by Rebecca Kessin
I use "sonic sketches" to convey creative and sonic ideas to the rest of the design team early in process, and some of the sounds may ultimately make their way into the final production. Ideas explored in this sketch include deep grief and loss, a world of magic that is dangerous, and a world of fantasy that is broken.
Peter Pan: The Boy Who Hated Mothers, by Michael Lluberes
The Blank Theatre, 2013
Directed by Michael Matthews
Sound Design by Rebecca Kessin