Boston Globe feature: Composing theatrical soundscapes
Photo by Nile Scott Studios
Boston Globe feature: Composing theatrical soundscapes
MFA sound design alum Mackenzie Adamick (CFA’24) is making a mark on the Boston theater scene
This article was originally published in The Boston Globe on June 27, 2024. By Terry Byrne
Composing, says award-winning theatrical sound designer Mackenzie Adamick, “is the art of storytelling.” An eerie musical motif can generate goosebumps as much as any dialogue, while a melodic fanfare can inspire joy. The challenge for a theatrical sound designer is understanding the director’s vision and creating a soundscape that supports that vision without drowning it out. “When I meet with a director, the first question I ask is ‘Why this play now?’” says Adamick. “I read the script so that I understand the emotional arc of the play, but each director chooses a play for a specific reason, and my music needs to serve that.”
Although Adamick, 27, just graduated from Boston University with a master’s degree in sound design last month, she’s already making a mark on the Boston theater scene. She created a moody and evocative soundscape for “Let the Right One In,” a vampire tale co-produced by Actors’ Shakespeare Project and Boston University; created a stir earlier this year with her lullabies-meet-spooky magic for the Commonwealth Shakespeare Company’s Stage II production of “A Midsummer Night’s” Dream” earlier this year; created music that helped ASP’s “As You Like It” really flow; and shared an Elliot Norton Award for her work with David Remedios on the sound design for Commonwealth Shakespeare Company’s “Macbeth,” which included snippets of melodies and atmospheric sounds. She returns to Boston Common this summer for CSC’s “The Winter’s Tale” (July 16-Aug. 4).
“Each production has its own challenges,” she says, “but after getting a sense of what a director is trying to accomplish, I develop a couple of short musical pieces with chord progressions, textures and timbres that I present to them. And then there’s a constant back and forth as we revise and refine.”
When I meet with a director, the first question I ask is ‘Why this play now?’ I read the script so that I understand the emotional arc of the play, but each director chooses a play for a specific reason, and my music needs to serve that.
For “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” director Victoria Townsendframed the play “in a kind of familiar children’s bedtime storybook, from soothing stories to more ‘Coraline’-like adult themes of isolation and confusion,” Adamick says.
“It was important that the audiences – mostly high school students who were seeing a Shakespeare play for the first time – could latch on to something familiar,” she says. “My music tapped familiar lullabies as well as pop songs, but added more darkness, referencing the spooky magic that happens in the play.”
The upcoming “Winter’s Tale” follows a clash between a pair of princes and requires two kingdoms that look and feel distinctly different from each other.
“[Director] Bryn Boice wants classical strings and woodwinds for one court while the other needs to have a Coachella or Lindsey Stirling vibe,” says Adamick. “My job is to blend those two styles. I present pieces to Bryn and she makes notes or suggestions.”
While Adamick is remarkably matter of fact about the acclaim her work is getting so early in her career, she is not new to composing, having been trained as a classical musician and has been writing music since 2018. She was the audio engineer with the Alabama Shakespeare Festival until the pandemic shut that down, and when she learned about BU’s MFA program, she thought the opportunities, connections and encouragement to get some professional experience while in the graduate program would be invaluable. Her teacher, Remedios, hired her as his assistant sound designer for three shows at last year’s Contemporary American Theater Festival.
Although a good sound design can add greatly to the audience’s experience, Adamick says she probably feels less pressure than other members of the design team, such as set, lighting, and costumers.
“I can sit down at my piano at home and start composing,” she says. “I work on one theme at a time, and the process is pretty free form. I like to start developing motifs based on sonic colors. Introducing live sound is another element and allows even more creativity.”
As for her own composing style and preference, Adamick says, “I like strings and some dark synthesizers. I love some grit.”
BU Night at Shakespeare on the Common
Join BU Night at Shakespeare on the Common for Commonwealth Shakespeare Company’s production of The Winter’s Tale on July 25! Before the show, mingle with BU alums, including Bryn Boice (CFA’16), the show’s director and CSC’s Associate Artistic Director and CFA Dean Harvey Young at a reception at Scholars American Bistro.
BU School of Theatre’s 2024 Showcase
Presented by Boston University College of Fine Arts School of Theatre, the annual Theatre Showcase serves as a celebration of the graduating class and the group’s formal introduction to the professional theatre community. We invite you to meet the incredible Class of 2024, including Mackenzie Adamick from The Boston Globe feature!