Name: Robert Neuhaus
Position: Sound designer
Years: 24
“The isle is full of noises,” the misshapen brute Caliban declares during “The Tempest.” Accordingly, Chicago Shakespeare Theatre’s current production of the play is full of sonic effects, from powerful thunder to sweet birdsong to the mysterious sounds that accompany the magic performed by Prospero, the play’s lead character. Behind the Scenes spoke with sound designer Neuhaus to learn how he filled Shakespeare’s imaginary island with these noises.
Q. How did you and the director [Barbara Gaines] come up with the concept for the sounds in “The Tempest”?
A. Her concept was that this island was another reality, but that it was not a fantasy reality. It was another reality that was plausible, but different. It was always understood that Scene One with the thunder would be the last sound that was realistic. So I did research into natural sounds of the world that were unfamiliar to American audiences. I wound up putting together a composite of a number of kinds of natural sounds. I used underwater recordings mixed with jungle recordings mixed with desert recordings, and all of those were manipulated through audio processing. That gave us the aural vocabulary for this particular island.
Q. How did you assemble all the different sounds that are used in this production?
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A. First off was the ambient sound. We wanted to get the sound of the island. Then I focused on the realistic sounds of Scene One, because it was a bear putting together that sound, not only the thunder and the wind and the rain, but we’re augmenting the sailors screaming and the ship cracking. The third thing was the music, getting all that together, because so much of the island environment has to do with music. We really zoomed in on that particular line, that this island does have sound that it generates by itself. I worked closely with Barbara [director Barbara Gaines] and Rokko [composer Alaric Jans].
Q. What about the sound effects that go with Prospero’s magic?
A. They all say different things about the magic. Prospero has a very dark side as well as a good side. He likes to be in control of what he does, so there’s a lot of dark magic that he engages in. So the sound effects reflect a different character in his magic. There’s a point in the play where he takes control of Ariel, and that sound has a different character than the sound when he releases Ariel. The dark magic sounds are deeper, [bassier] sounds and have more of an impact to them. The so-called good magic sounds have a lighter quality to them.
Q. How do you create all these different sounds?
A. I’ve been doing this for many years, and I’ve got a collection of sound effects in my stable that I’ve used for a long time. Some of them are created electronically, some of them are processed natural sounds. It’s sort of like a musician using a familiar instrument. In the old days we used to do it all with open reel tape, and sometimes you’d have to have three or four tape decks running at the same time. Now all of that and more can be done on one computer. The computer has really revolutionized what we can do with sound.
Q. The sound design in “The Tempest” is elaborate. What sort of things do you do for simpler plays?
A. You start the same way, which is that each sound in the play has to support the message that’s in the play. They all have that in common, but how you approach it depends on the particular needs of the play. When I’ve done a realistic play, sometimes all you need is some pre-show music, scene change music and curtain call music, and the occasional sound affect, a car starting or crickets at night, a water faucet dripping. It can be realistic and very simple, and yet, in order to carry the audience along, you have to do it in a certain way.
Q. Once you’ve created the sounds, how do you re-create them every night for performances?
A. Early in my career the way to play back sound effects was open reel tape. Those were very bulky machines and you had to edit them with razor blades and tape. Now the smaller theaters use mini-disks and a player. It is a digital recording of near CD quality, and you can rearrange the cues if you want. Theaters like Chicago Shakespeare or the Goodman have a system called Level Control Systems, which is a computer-based system where you store your sound on a hard drive and you can play them back in any particular order you want. You can have one cue follow another cue. These are very new to sound design, because of the amount of memory sound files take up.
Q. How are the sounds cued during a performance?
A. It’s all programmed into the computer. What [sound operator Jason Ducat] does is, he turns on a computer, he’s got a screen that shows him where he is in the show, and it shows him where he is in the sequence, and he pushes a button and makes it go. [He] listens to the singers every night, and he adjusts the processing if there’s reverbs or delays on the mikes.
Q. How’d you get started working in sound design in the first place?
A. I got interested in it in college, which was in the late ’70s. I went to the University of Missouri at Kansas City, which is affiliated with Missouri Repertory Theatre, which is an Equity theater. So I was able to design sound while I was still an undergraduate. Right out of college I got a job at the Goodman Theatre as a sound operator, and while I was there I also started doing sound design for smaller off-Loop theaters. Around ’84 or ’85, I made a break with Goodman and went exclusively to sound design. I’ve also done consulting and radio.
Q. In a sense, you get paid to make funny noises. It’s the dream job of 8-year-old boys everywhere.
A. I’ve been making funny noises since before I was an 8-year-old boy, so I’ve never really stopped. That’s why I became a sound designer. I never grew out of that. Until I grow up, I’ll continue to be a sound designer.
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“The Tempest” continues through June 16 at Chicago Shakespeare Theatre on Navy Pier. For more information, or to order tickets, call 312-595-5600 or visit online at www.chicagoshakes.com.