"Separated from his mother, a young refugee called Anon journeys through the United States, encountering a wide variety of people -- some kind, some dangerous and cruel -- as he searches for his family. From a sinister one-eyed butcher to beguiling barflies to a sweatshop, Anon must navigate through a chaotic, ever-changing landscape in this entrancing adaptation of Homer's The Odyssey"
Director: Katie Lupica
Scenic/Projections Designer: Sophie Smrcka
Costume Designer: Alex Heder
Lighting Designer: Kenton Yeager
Sound Designer & Composer: Amoirie Perteet
SOUND COLLAGE
Anon(ymous) is a whirlwind of a script based on Homer’s Odyssey that follows the journey of a young refugee named Anon as he searches for home. Rarely have I as a sound designer led the tech team in the movement of the play. Anon(ymous) is a sound show through and through. The script calls for very specific sounds that are constant and always evolving the space. Since the play is rooted in Greek theater and mythology, we see many quick locational jumps that are massively different from the last and robust, explosive moments that call for as much sound as can be handled. As heard in the sound collage above, Anon travels from sewing factory, to ocean, to an underground subway, to the top of a train, to a meat factory, to a downtown alley, to a Thai restaurant kitchen, to a bustling highway, to the underworld, and to the top of a city building. When designing the system, I built an immersive sound space that featured 14 speakers total, hitting every part of the 3/4 thrust black box audience. To fully push the immersive experience, I used PanLab to move sounds around in the space in a meaningful way (for example, a wave washing over the crowd from the farthest upstage speakers to the audience or a helicopter traveling from corner to corner of the theater). There was also a boombox practical and wireless mic with tons of reverb (to make the mother archetype actor sound dreamlike) used for many moments.
Anon(ymous) was a huge composition project for me. Throughout the show, we often hear the same melody reminiscent of home. Katie Lupica, the director, had the idea of using the created melody for every musical moment in the show. During the design process, the director and I had great conversation about what the melody Anon is hearing would be. Through my research, I found the Seikilos Epitaph which is considered the oldest Greek melody in the world. Using this melody as a basis, I altered the notes using music notation software and made the melody unique to the show. The melody then went on to be sung live and used in many different genres such as Rock, Surf Rock, 80s Pop, Opera, and bird whistle. Please listen to each track below.
