Conversations with Sound Designers

John Leonard produced his first sound design in September 1972 for a production of A Streetcar Named Desire at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre Company's Little Theatre. Since then, he has: produced countless soundtracks for theatres around the world; spent eleven years with the Royal Shakespeare Company; worked regularly as a freelancer for the Almeida Theatre, Hampstead Theatre and Donmar Warehouse; written articles and a book about theatre sound and developed a sideline in recording sound effects. He is a Fellow at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, an Honorary Fellow of the Hong Kong Academy of Performing Arts and a Companion of the Liverpool Institute of Performing Arts.

Nicola T. Chang is an award-winning composer/sound designer for stage and screen from Hong Kong, now currently based in London. She was the Composer/Sound Designer on the 2020/21 Old Vic 12 and a co-winner of the Evening Standard Future Theatre Fund (Audio Design) in 2021. She started her theatre career in performance, having performed in STOMP! West End and Six the Musical, and continues to perform alongside her composition and sound design work. Most recent theatre credits as composer/sound designer include For Black Boys Who Have Considered Suicide When the Hue Gets Too Heavy (Apollo Theatre/Royal Court Jerwood Downstairs/New Diorama), My Neighbour Totoro (RSC/Barbican) and Kerry Jackson (National Theatre

Donato Wharton is a Sound Designer and Musician, he was born in Cardiff Wales in 1976, he grew up in Worthing West Sussex and went to school in Stuttgart in southern Germany. Donato's career as a musician, and his life in theatre began in Stuttgart. Donato's music spanning the genres of Alternative Rock, Hip Hop, Electronica, Digital Ambient and Filed Recording based music has been published on several labels. The first of these releases is from 1995 and his music has been used in radio features, television programs, theatre productions and art installations internationally. Donato trained for Sound Design in Theatre at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama in London, and holds an MSC in Digital Composition and Performance from the Reid School of Music, University of Edinburgh. As a Sound Designer Donato works almost exclusively in theatre, his work has been heard at major theatre in the UK and abroad in Germany, France, the Netherlands and the US. Donato also teaches Sound Design, is a lecturer in Sound Design and Production at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama in London, has also given lectures and workshops at the Royal Academy of Art, the Royal College of Artand the Ruskin School of Art Oxford, amongst others. Donato is a native speaker of both English and German, he lives in Reading, Berkshire and is married and has a son.

Carolyn Downing is an award-winning sound designer working in a variety of fields including exhibitions, fashion, theatre and live events. Creativity and collaboration are at the heart of her work from initial concept development with fellow designers through to realisation with technical and project delivery teams. Carolyn's most memorable projects include Goya And Munch: Modern Prophecies for Munch Museet in Oslo; Life Of Pi with Sheffield Theatres & Simon Friend Entertainment created for West End, Boston A.R.T, Broadway, the UK Tour and beyond, for which she was awarded a Tony in 2023 & nominated for an Olivier in 2022; The Commonwealth Games 2022 Opening Ceremony performed at Alexander Stadium, Birmingham; The Nightwatchman by Prasanna Puwanarajah, a one-woman show with Stephanie Street for the National Theatre; Jean Michel Basquiat: King Pleasure exhibition shown in NYC & Los Angeles; Ness a geo-located audio experience based on Robert McFarlane's poetical work. Most recently, Carolyn has enjoyed collaborating on Mark Ravenhill's new play Ben & Imo at The Swan Theatre, RSC.

Alexandra Faye-Braithwaite is a sound designer and composer working across theatre, tv and radio. As well as bespoke audio projects born in Lancashire and brought up in Yorkshire. She now calls Manchester home she's worked all across the UK including the The Royal Court, The Young Vic, The RSC, The Royal Exchange , The West End,  Sheffield Crucible and more as well as internationally, most notably in Beirut Lebanon 

Ben and Max Ringham are multi award-winning Composers, Sound Designers and Dramatists. Over the last two decades they have worked extensively in film, television, theatre, dance and performance.Notable recent work includes:(as Composers/Sound Designers)   Prima Facie - West End/Broadway (Olivier Best Sound Design nomination, BWW Sound Design winner), 2022-23A Dolls House - Broadway, 2023 Blindness - a socially distanced sound installation for the Donmar, also worldwide (South Bank Theatre Award nomination, Los Metros Best Design winner), 2020-22Cyrano De Bergerac - West End and Broadway (Olivier Best Sound Design nomination, Drama Desk Award Sound Design Winner), 2019Betrayal - West End and Broadway, 2018 Frida Kahlo, Making Herself Up - V&A, 2018Epic Iran - V&A, 2020 Berberian Sound Studio - Donmar, 2018Bells For Peace with Yoko Ono - MIF, 2018.(as Directors/Writers/Creators) Exemplar, co-created with Dan Rebelatto, 3 episodes as writers - BBC Radio 4 (BBC Audio Drama Awards Best Original Series or Serial winner), 2022The Return by Shahid Iqbal Khan - ETT/StoryGlass, 2021The Curse Of The Crackles, co-created with Ed Stambollouian - STH, 2021ANNA, co-created with Ella Hickson, National Theatre (Olivier Best Sound Design nomination), 2019

Ian Dickinson is an Olivier Award winning, Tony Nominated Sound Designer for Theatre. He has an extensive catalogue of work, with key and frequent collaboration with The National Theatre, Harper Eliot/ Marianne Elliot, Mathew Dunster and Ian Rickson. He is a resident designer for the London based sound company Autograph Sound, and in the past has been Head of Sound at the Royal Court, the Lyceum theatre in Edinburgh and Deputy Head of Sound at the Royal Exchange theatre in Manchester. He works in both the subsidised and commercial sector across musicals and, more frequently, with content based productions. His most notable success include Curious Incident of a Dog in the Night Time (National Theatre, West End and Broadway), Company (West End and Broadway), Jerusalem (Royal Court, West End and Broadway?), Angels in America (National Theatre and Broadway) and Oceans at the End of the Lane (National Theatre and West End).

Anna Clock is a composer, musician and sound artists working across all forms including theatre, film, radio and installation; as well as composing and performing for other musicians and leading their own projects, they are based in London.

Tony is a London based Theatre Sound Designer specialising in Musicals, Plays and live music events. Tony has been working in the Theatre industry for over 30 years after entering the industry after a short lived professional football career. He has a City & Guilds in Sound Engineering and a BTEC National Diploma in Stagecraft. Theatre backstage diversity and inclusion activism features heavily in Tony's career. He is currently one of 3 Co-Directors of Stage Sight and founder membee of industry based advisory and recruitment group, The Audio Cartel. He is supported and inspired by his family, who have enabled him to thrive and enjoy his work. Tony is a twice British Black Theatre Award recipient, Alfred Fagan Black Champion and has been nominated for several of his Sound Designs.

Ting is a Sound Designer, Composer, and Theatre Maker. After graduating from drama school in 2019, she started off creating sound design for fringe theatre and quickly made her way into larger spaces. Her recent work includes Watch On The Rhine at Donmar Warehouse, My Son's A Queer (But What Can You Do?) at Garrick Theatre, and designing the sound content for The Crucible at National Theatre. As a Theatre Maker, Ting is collaborating with practitioners from different disciplines on a few projects, with topics around cultural identity, existential crisis, eco-system, and languages. She enjoys the process of devising and is interested in exploring experimental, multi-disciplinary, and magical realistic forms. Born and bred in China, Ting studied for an MSc in Behavioural Economics in the Netherlands before moving to London. She trained at the BA(Hons) Production and Technical Arts course at LAMDA.

Paul Arditti is a sound designer working on plays and musicals. He won a Tony Award for Billy Elliot The Musical on Broadway, and has received several other Tony nominations, most recently for The Inheritance, with his co-designer Chris Reid. Amongst his other awards are four Drama Desks, two Oliviers and an Evening Standard.Following a degree in English and Drama at the University of Hull, Paul immediately started working in theatre. His design career has spanned nearly 40 years, kicking off with three years in the National Theatre's sound department in the 80s, and eight years as Head of Sound at the Royal Court Theatre in the 90s under Stephen Daldry and later, Ian Rickson.Mostly, Paul has been freelance, with the majority of his work heard in the theatres of London and New York. Paul is a founding member of the ASD, and currently an Associate at the National Theatre.

In this episode we meet Tom Gibbons. Tom is a sound designer and composer who works predominantly in live theatre and musicals, and sometimes film. He studied for a degree in Theatre Sound at The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama before starting a career in sound design, living and working in London. Over the last ten years Tom has designed sound on projects at most of the large London theatres including the National Theatre, Young Vic and West End. During that time his work has transferred to Broadway and many European theatres, while also creating new plays and musicals on those continents. He is often associated with, and has designed shows for bold directors such as Robert Icke, Jeremy Herrin and Ivo van Hove. During his career he has been nominated for Tony, Olivier and Drama Desk awards, winning an Olivier award for People, Places and Things at the NT and West End. His home is in London, with his family and their dog.

In this first episode we talk to Melanie Wilson. Melanie is is a U.K. based multi-disciplinary performance maker. Her acclaimed work is founded on the contemporary interplay between sound art, experimental forms of composition, language and live performance. Melanie collaborates with artists and companies across theatre, film, opera and installation, creating highly crafted sound works at varying scale from main house auditoria to intimate podcasts. She is a long term collaborator with director Katie Mitchell. Melanie is currently developing a choral work that uses AI to explore the human relationship with non-human species, as part of Sound and Music's New Voices composer programme. Melanie's recent collaborations include little scratch, dir. Katie Mitchell (Hampstead Theatre: score), Unsere Zeit, dir. Simon Stone (Residenztheatre, Munich: score), Extinct, dir. Kirsty Housley (Theatre Royal Stratford East: soundtrack) Current Rising, dir. Netia Jones (ROH: libretto); Where I Go (When I Can't Be Where I Am), dir. Rachel Bagshaw (BBC Culture in Quarantine: score) and Orlando dir. Katie Mitchell (Schaubühne, Berlin: soundtrack). Melanie's own recent work includes Women of Record (A Woman's Place Exhibition, Knole House), Opera for the Unknown Woman (Wales Millennium Centre/UK tour) and Landscape II (Dublin Festival/UK tour). Melanie is also the Chairperson of the Association of Sound Desingers