On The Verge

By Eric Overmyer
Sound Design by Devin Deal
Design
Statement

Research

Tension Plot
Arrival at Nickys
Paradise Club
Ladies realize they
are time traveling

Esso
Gas Station
Mr. Coffee

Troll
Incident
German
Cannibal Entrance
of Grover

Big Band 1
Cue
Yeti
Slots Cue

Time Travel
Cue

Thunder &
Rain Cue

Jungle Sound
Cue
Scene 8

Scene 18

Scene 12

ACT ONE

Scene 19

ACT TWO

Sound Cues

5-Jungle

Cue List

This sound cue is an ambiance that plays underneath our main characters as they
explore the rainforest. The goal is to provide the audience with a hyper realistic jungle
sound related to the hyper realistic sounds in the media today. Hyper realism is realistic,
only heavily exaggerated. Connecting the audience with media will help them associate
pictures from the media with the sounds heard on stage. This will aid the audience in
understanding where the characters are in the story. The hyper realistic sounds, such as
the jungle cue, will help the story by contrasting the more abstract moments in the play.

10-Thunder & Rain

The Thunder & Rain cue is to be played when sudden rain is noted in the script during
act 1, scene 4. The rain in the script defeats the umbrellas of the ladies, implying that
their norm of umbrellas and skirts will be broken by the jungle and the future they are
heading towards. In order to convey a brief and heavy storm, large thunder is used,
which suddenly stops to reveal the pitter-patter of rain on the leaves and puddles. For
the rain to sound like its falling on massive jungle leaves, pitch shifting was used to
lower the tone of the drops.

42-Time Travel

Being one of the more abstract sounds of the play, the time travel sound effect is
designed to be played whenever reference is made to another time, such as when the
ladies osmose. The sound itself stands out as artificial and synthetic among the realistic
sound world. It is also a brief sound, a notification that something important happened.
This sound would build throughout the play as the characters realize they are time
traveling. This cue in particular is from scene 13 when Mary questions a news clippings
dates. At this point, the time travel sound has nearly reached its final build, as the ladies
discover they are time traveling soon after this moment.

67-Big Band 1

When the trio arrives at Nickys Paradise, the stage directions in the script notate the
need for big band jazz music. The time is 1955, and the popular jazz genre is hardbop.
One famous hardbop band is Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers. This Cue is a song
entitled Deciphering the Message from the Jazz Messengers 1955 live album, At
the Cafe Bohemia, Vol. 1. This particular album of Art Blakeys was chosen because the
year it was recorded in is the exact same year the ladies arrive at Nickys Paradise, and
because the live album supports the live atmosphere of Nickys. The song, Deciphering
the Message, was chosen because of its lively intro, which helps introduce our female
characters into the world of the 1950s and the world of Nickys Paradise.

68-Slots

When Mary, Alex, and Fanny first arrive at Nickys Paradise, the stage directions call for a
sound of gambling addicts at slot machines. For the sound to convey the sound of
gambling addicts, pitch and time shifting was used to lower the energy, making it feel
more depressing. Many lever pulling sounds were used not only to represent the
addictive nature of the people at the machines, but to remain period accurate, as most
slot machines today use buttons instead of levers. This cue shows that everything isnt a
happy fairyland in the future for the ladies; the future has brought with it some new
complicated problems.

Block
Diagram

When the main

characters finally
arrive in the 1950s,
the script calls for
big band jazz music
to be played during
the Nicky Paradise
scene. Hardbop was
a popular jazz genre
in the 50s, and Art
Blakey and the Jazz
Messengers
(pictured above)
was one of the most
popular hardbop
bands of the period.

Much of On The Verge

happens in the rainforest.
Based on the scripts
reference to the
Antipodes, which means
the Oceanic region,
research went into creating the sound of the
New Zealand temperate
rainforest. (As pictured
above)
Photo Taken by
Vogel & Koetz Photography

Photo taken by Lee Tanner

Speaker Plot

Ease Models
Vocal
Reinforcement
Total SPL
Range: 92-88 dB SPL

Sound Effects
Surround Reinforcement
Total SPL
Range: 117-115 dB SPL