Vacation abroad and workload at my day job have kept me from keeping the news flowing. Here’s what’s coming up in the near future.

A local theater group has asked me to do a sound design for their latest production. The play is titled ‘A Rising Wind’ and is the story of the sinking of the steamer Lady Elgin. This passenger & cargo vessel left Chicago on its return trip to Milwaukee, WI but never made it back.

The production will take place at Best Place Tavern and run from September 8-11, 2010, show starting at 8:00pm. It will be presented in an interesting format, one that I’ve never experienced, much less taken part in. Actors will be costumed and lit dramatically in a small bar, the lighting moving the audience’s eyes from actor to actor, very intimate. My role is to provide a sound design that sits below the dialogue, unobtrusively supporting the emotional content of a handful of people telling their story and the eventual death of some of the play’s characters and how this event affected the future of Milwaukee’s Irish community.

There aren’t any reservations being accepted for any of the shows and a $10 suggested donation is all that’s being asked for. Come early, have a nosh and a drink and stay for the play. For more details see the show’s Facebook page.

I’ve created sound designs for stage and dance pieces but never one presented like this. I may even be able to run a discrete 4-channel sound system, which would be a wonderful challenge for building a sonic palette, creating motion, stillness and subtly transporting the audience back to 1860 on the deck of the Lady Elgin.

Other things coming up…

- a number of sound designs based on found-sound readings and my music/audio still in the works
- music to follow up my piece performed at the MARN Mentor show earlier this year, to be recorded by my ensemble Liquid In Plastic
- music composed for electric bass guitar and laptop-based looper; composing and still acquiring hardware and software
- the concert planned for October 2010 could still take place but not as grandiose as originally planned (maybe we’ll use Best Place Tavern instead of a concert hall)