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The Patsy
by MARION DAVIES and MARIE DRESSLER
adapted by DAVID GREENSPAN
Rhinoceros
David Greenspan in The Patsy
ROLE
COMPANY
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CITY
DIRECTOR
ATTENDANCE
PERFORMANCES
  SOUND DESIGNER
THE TRANSPORT GROUP
THE DUKE ON 42ND STREET
NEW YORK, NEW YORK
JACK CUMMINGS III
1402
23
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  The Transport Group's website describes The Patsy as “A feisty drawing room comedy that premiered at Broadway’s Booth Theatre in 1925…immortalized in film by the brilliant Marion Davies and Marie Dressler. This affectionate new adaptation, performed by five-time OBIE-Award winner David Greenspan, playfully resurrects this Cinderella story of a girl who is a little less beautiful and a little less loved and her fractious, gossipy family. Filled with familial intrigue, marital sparring, lovers in pursuit, country club scandals, and labors of the heart, Transport Group’s The Patsy explores one family’s aspirations of wealth, status, and love in pre-depression America through one astonishing and virtuosic performer.”

Director Jack Cummings III asked me to craft all sounds for this production to resemble the effect records that used to come with plays scripts on vinyl many years ago. He wanted the quality of old scratchy record sound effects like cars arriving, doors shutting, etc. The play would literally be set in a formalistic, square, 1920’s looking drawing room with Obie Award winner David Greenspan playing all ten characters with no intermission. This design is an example of a "less is more" philosophy and probably one of the more simple but effective examples of my design work.
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cue list   Sound Rider
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EXAMPLE 1 AUTO ARRIVES  
All of the following examples have been altered to sound like they are being played back from a scratchy, old phonograph.

EXAMPLE 2 AUTO DEPARTS  
EXAMPLE 3 DOOR SLAM  
EXAMPLE 4 DOORBELL  
EXAMPLE 5 DOOR KNOCK  
EXAMPLE 6 PHONE RING  
EXAMPLE 7 SCENE END VERSION 1  
EXAMPLE 8 SCENE END VERSION 2  
EXAMPLE 9 SCENE END VERSION 3  
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photo photo photo photo photo
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"Michael Rasbury's sound design pays tribute to the play's provenance with a number of vintage effects -- doorbells, telephones, autos -- wittily rendered with every pop and scratch from their original records." -Lighting and Sound America

"Michael Rasbury's sound design is delightfully comical with mundane sounds such as telephone and doorbell rings obviously coming from a needle placed on a phonograph record." -The Examiner
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