The Near East


Near East Sound Design jaguar from toby jaguar on Vimeo.


The Near East | UCSD BNPF 2007
By: Alex Lewin | Dir. Jerry Ruiz | Lighting. Stephen Sakowski | Costume. Rachel Shachar | Scenic. Steven Kemp | Sound & System Composition by toby jaguar algya

The Near East, produced for the 2007 Baldwin New Play Festival at UCSD, portrayed the consequences of an American archeologist, caught in the collateral damage resulting from the West imperializing the East. The direction embodied a contemporary, Indiana Jones, melodrama documenting Ken Schnider’s journey to Saudi Arabia to excavate Um-al-Kiteb, the ultimate religious text, written by the hand of God.
The sound design incorporated sourced sound material emanating from the character Ahmed, the ghost of a 14-year-old boy who accompanies Ken throughout the play. For Ahmed’s character it was important to distinguish the ghost quality of the character at two pivotal points in the play, at the top when the character is sent from heaven down to earth, and at the climax of drama when the character transcends the reality of the narrative to stop Ken from being killed by one of the antagonists.

The integration of small speakers into the breast pocket’s of Ahmed’s jacket was used to bath the character in an aura of ambience that connoted a metaphysical relationship with the other characters, and to highlight the character from the environment established by the soundscape. The result propelled the character to a supernatural perspective outside the defined space of the narrative, supporting the character’s transformation.

The speakers used were the kind you would find in a mp3 dock-station, and were connected to an in-ear monitor that received sound transmitted from the sound booth.

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