“Take care of the sound and the sense will follow.”

-Lewis Carroll

After 20 years of Sound Design and Composition for live theatre, I find this quote has more obvious and immediate resonance for my life.  As Charles Dodgson,  aka. Lewis Carroll, created stories from nonsensical poetry (think: “Jaberwocky”), The Composing Sound Designer arranges chaos into algorithms, finds a logic to support emotions, and sculpts an emotional language to speak to actor and audience alike.  The casual listener will not recognize that they have been spoken to in such a manner and only take notice when the design shouts, screams, sings, distracts, or otherwise calls attention to itself.  Although many moments of a sound design often are not actively attended to, and plenty are outright subliminal, this quest not to draw focus actually affords the Designer the opportunity to speak freely.

I take solace that perhaps the careful listener may find deeper understanding of a character, a scene, a play, or themselves, their community, or even their culture when they perceive eloquence from this hidden wordless language.