Urinetown
In this terrific musical with a terrible title, a prolonged drought has led the government of a Gotham-like city to partner with a private corporation to regulate water usage by requiring citizens to use only public bathrooms…for a steep fee! This bitingly fun Tony Award-winning musical satire astutely and hilariously intersects the climate crisis, corporate America’s mismanagement and social irresponsibility, and an economic system designed to exploit its marginalized citizens. A technological innovation will bring this production beyond the Bing Stage across campus and around the world as part of USC’s 2022-23 Visions & Voices season.
Picture by: Craig Schwartz
March 30, 2023 - April 5, 2023
Bing Theatre
University of Southern California
DIRECTED BY - Scott Faris
MUSIC DIRECTED BY - David O
CHOREOGRAPHED BY - Dana Solimando
SCENIC DESIGN - Sibyl Wickersheimer
PROJECTION DESIGN - Eliot Ohlemeyer
COSTUME DESIGN - Morgan Whittam
LIGHTING DESIGN - Erica Ammerman
SOUND DESIGN - Belle Alatorre
PRODUCTION STAGE MANAGER - Harrison Newton
Concept
The theme of Urinetown is a parody on life and the situations happening now exaggerated. My concept arose from that. My director, Scott, had a meeting with other designers where he stated “There are three types of people in Urinetown. The elite, the poor, and the police.” From that saying forward, I ran with it. I added just a bit of reverb under all the elite to make them sound slightly different. Hope had her own reverb, which was also very subtle. The poor are everyday workers so I wanted their voices to be dry but normal, as that is how people speak. The cops I did not do a single thing to them as they already were bass heavy and they sounded different from others. The show also referenced memories, for those moments I added delay so that it felt like the memory echos through our brains.
Paperwork
Below is some drafting examples! This includes my speaker plot and signal flow. To see my sound workbook click here.
Overture/Opening
The opening is one of the most powerful pieces to mix. For my design, I had reverb on the Overture, yet once the opening started, I made the band dry (no reverb). I wanted the vocals to mimic a normal theatre performance with them being heavily over the band. I also added a touch of reverb on Hope’s vocals.
