War of the Worlds – Sound Booth

Here Zac Alfson works his magic in the sound booth. He has his hands full as he often has to fade in the soothing sounds of Ramón Raquello and his orchestra. He of course also had to balance the sounds from the radio broadcast being conducted on the stage while also adding haunting sound effects where needed. Since all the sound cues are not set in stone at this point, Aradhana signals him on when to come in from where she is seated in the theater by turning and raising her hand.
Some complicated staging had to be worked out and Aradhana struggled to communicate to her Public actors while the Mercury Theater performers were rehearsing on stage. Since she couldn’t hear herself think, she asked all of her actors to crowd into the sound booth hoping to muffle the on stage performance. This plan was foiled since the performance was amplified with speakers in the sound booth and the speakers could not be turned off. She ultimately held her acting huddle in the hallway outside the theater.
While doing this sketch I couldn’t really see the colors as I put them on the page since it was so dark in the booth. I was pleasantly surprised when I looked at the sketch when I got home. I should paint in the dark more often.
During a break I was talking to Erika about how exciting all the rehearsals were to sketch and she said “This is enough isn’t it?” She meant that staging the play was one thing, but also there is enough drama right here and now, that every day is drama enough.