OISTAT Sound Design Working Group - Webinar #1

Music as a Foundation of Theatre Origins

Richard K Thomas

Friday, January 15 2010, 9:30 am - 11:30 am. EST US (2.30pm – 4.30pm GMT)

Webinar#1 was enjoyed by 128 participants, at 35 different locations, in 9 Countries.

 

I managed to catch quite a bit of Rick’s extraordinarily detailed exposition and would like to express my thanks…many congratulations to all concerned.

John Leonard

Sound Designer and Author, London

 

Thank you so much, Rick, for your beautiful lecture! I understand that it is very difficult to present such complex theme in this short time. But you did it magnificently!

Igor Drevalev 

Stage Director, Playwright, Composer, Moscow

 

We thought it was great….

Jason Romney
Sound Design Faculty
University of North Carolina School of the Arts, Winston-Salem

 

Rick was great.

Kate Burnett

Theatre Designer and Reader in Theatre Design

Nottingham Trent University

 

Rick did a great job and the material was a pretty good launching point for further discussion. 

David Budries

Chair, Sound Design Department at Yale School of Drama, New Haven

Sound Designer and Producer at Sound Situation

 

Nice job Rick, it was terrific, lots of food for thought and investigation.

Dave Tosti-Lane

Chair, Performance Production at Cornish College of the Arts, Seattle

 

Awesome presentation… can't wait to hear some more!

Nela Brown

Sound Artist and Designer, London

 

Fantastic!

Karen Lauke

Edge Hill University, Liverpool

OISTAT Sound Design Working Group Webinar #1

Music as a Foundation of Theatre Origins.

Richard K Thomas

Friday, January 15 2010, 9:30 am - 11:30 am. EST US (2.30pm – 4.30pm GMT)

In this presentation we will explore the debate about the evolutionary origins of music and language, and the various theories regarding the origins of theatre. After looking at these independently, we will look the fundamental role that music played in what is generally regarded as the first autonomous theatre, Greek theatre. These origins will serve as an aesthetic foundation establishing the primal role that music plays in all theatre activities.

Richard K Thomas

Rick’s recent projects include a biography about Broadway sound pioneer Abe Jacob (The Designs of Abe Jacob), and leading a team of Visual and Performing Arts students and faculty in the creation of Labcoats on Clouds that premiered at the 2007 Prague Quadrennial in June of 2007. Rick also organized and led a group of artists from Purdue, Germany, Paris, and San Francisco in the performance art piece, Laptop Connections at the Marysakovo Railway Station during the “PQ.” Having composed music and soundscores for the Hong Kong Repertory Theatre, Dublin Theatre Festival and ESPN among many others, Rick’s most recent theatre compositions include An Unkindness of Ravens at Roosevelt University in Chicago in 2007 and Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale at Purdue in 2006. Rick won the Murphy Award for outstanding teaching at Purdue University in 2007 and the USITT Herbert D. Greggs Award for outstanding journal article in 2002. Research interests include playmaking, music composition and sound design for live theatre, and sound system design and engineering.

Sincere gratitude goes to Davin Huston at Kirkegaard Associates and Phil Ingle for helping to make this possible.  

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