Waves.wav

It turns out that ocean waves are a pretty common through line in many of our shows this year... Metamorphoses, even without real water on stage, has movement that just begs for stormy waves; the directing students are doing Shakespeare's Tempest; and Mark's designs for The Liquid Plain (his thesis!) and The Odyssey (which he will be designing in Italy this winter!) both take place near (or on) the ocean.  It's so fortunate that we live so close to the local talent.

(Or maybe we secretly wanted an reason to go to the beach)

Mark monitors the sounds of the ocean

Honestly, who could resist the ability to record a wide multitrack of the Pacific?  I gave the California State Parks department a call, and asked for their permission and their thoughts on a quiet time we might be able to record. As it turns out, we found Corona Del Mar after sunset, and Huntington Beach around midday, both fairly empty (but for a group of UCI undergrad students who very kindly agreed to pause their conversations until we finished our recording -- thanks for your patience and help!).  Listening back, there were some great results, and we are both very excited to layer the recordings into our shows.

  

The strip of beach we had to ourselves at Huntington must have been close to a young seagull nest.  Probably a dozen baby seagulls, just barely able to flap their wings, were running in and out of the water.  In a few seconds worth of the recordings, you can hear the sound of their feet running on the wet sand, and a quiet squeak when the water comes a little too close.

Completely unedited ocean waves below, or come see Metamorphoses and The Liquid Plain to hear it in context!