It’s Not Just A Hen
At Cornish College of the Arts (www.cornish.edu), students learn the technical requirements of sound design on up-to-date digital equipment such as Pro Tools and Sound Forge. The department’s goal is to develop well-rounded artists who understand how to execute their own vision in concert with a production team.

Sound designer Lily Nguyen builds cues in the SFX playback system for Cornish College’s production of Museum.

Dave Tosti-Lane, head of Cornish’s sound department says, “My mission is to provide a whole-person education that combines significant academic work with direct hands-on experience to prepare the student to work as a designer/technician.” The primary quality that Tosti-Lane looks for in his students is “passion for the work.” He doesn’t expect undergrads to have a lot of theater experience or a polished portfolio—he’ll help with that. He says, “If you can’t see yourself being anything but a theater artist, then you’re in the right place, and you’ll find yourself among like-minded people here at every level.”

At Cornish, students design the shows, which lean more toward straight plays than musicals. They work closely with the faculty; the student/teacher ratio is roughly 5:1. As Tosti-Lane says, “Individual attention, small classes and lots of time with your mentor are hallmarks of our program.” One of Tosti-Lane’s favorite courses is a third-year seminar taught by all the production department heads—sound, lighting, costume, scenic and technical direction.

Cornish sound design students learn how to analyze texts and “develop an aural response to them.” They know how to assess their own work and practice basic project management skills. Tosti-Lane involves his students whenever possible with professional associations such as United States Institute for Theatre Technology (USITT) and The Pacific Northwest Audio Engineering Society.

The program does not steer students into design areas traditionally dictated by gender. As Tosti-Lane says, “Women students have an easier time with sound equipment. The industry is about to experience a huge explosion of women [sound] designers and technicians.”

At Cornish, performance production is a distinct department, equal to the theater, dance, music and visual arts departments. Tosti-Lane and his faculty are working designers who understand the demands of the workplace. Students gain valuable experience by interning in professional venues and many Cornish students go on to high-level positions or graduate schools such as Yale.

Ivy League Audio
Yale University School of Drama (www.yale.edu/drama/academics/sound) provides graduate design students with a comprehensive education. Students are required to take courses in all four design concentrations: costume, scene, lighting and sound. Yale aims “to train theater professionals through a combination of practical experience, rigorous training in the art and craft of sound design, music and composition, music and sound technology, communication skills, collaboration, dramaturgy and professional practice.” Classes are intense and small. Three production studios support nine design students.

Yale School of Drama students (left to right) Dan Baker, Hillary Charnas and Bradlee Ward with professor David Budries

David Budries, sound design chair, looks for “an innate sense of musicality” in his students. A passion for theater (there it is again) is also very important. Budries likes people who not only think outside the box, “but question the presence of the box.” He appreciates everything from traditional musical composition to instrumentation with squeaky chairs and dumpsters.

Academic and practical studies are balanced in the Yale program. Students must do good classroom work and present their ideas in an academic as well as a theatrical context.

When Budries selects the three lucky students who will enter the program each year, he tries to find one who is musical, one techie and one student who has a balance of musical and technical skills. Whatever one’s strengths happen to be, Budries works with each student individually to help them become rounded, balanced professionals. “I look for good communication skills, the ability to be a good neighbor and an ensemble player as opposed to a soloist.” At Yale, teachers help the students and the students help each other.

Yale has a unique, full-year course (Drama 148), in which “sound designers and directors learn about professional design practice, enhanced communication and collaboration.” One of the most important aspects of the Yale program is the opportunity to network with professionals and fellow students. Yale Drama School grads have made their mark in every aspect of theater. One must always deliver the goods, but an MFA from Yale will certainly open some doors.

The program involves three years of intensive study that range from survey courses (“Survey of Theater and Drama”) to the highly technical (“Electricity”) and the elective (“Law and the Arts”). Musicality is stressed: Five terms of music classes are required. Through a love of music and technology, Budries’ students learn to make art.

Southern Sonic Philosophy
At North Carolina School of the Arts (www.ncarts.edu), department head David Smith stresses the art and craft of sound design. (Despite indications, not all sound profs are called Dave.) That is, NCSA is a “cross between a trade school and an arts conservatory. We train people to get jobs and then function within that job at a high artistic level.”

NCSA undergraduate student Daniel Gomez plugging up the Soundcraft K3 for a campus "rock ‘n’ roll" weekend.

The facilities at NCSA support that goal. There are four “fully implemented ProTools/SoundForge/Cakewalk preproduction sound suites” for the undergrads, graduate work areas, three campus theaters, a union roadhouse and three rehearsal spaces. The highest student/teacher ratio is 4:1 and the lowest is 1:1. Students typically work on three big shows, three smaller productions, a dance concert and an opera.

Smith, like his colleagues, is a working sound designer. Based on his understanding of what designers really need, he has invented some gizmos himself. (See www.vizear.com.)

While there are no traditional music classes per se in the curriculum, musicality is an important part of the program. In Smith’s view, music and sound are parts of the same continuum of content. “The art comes in how we squeeze, pull, shape and invert it,” he says. “I teach the part of music composition that is concerned with the manipulation of musical structure and form.” Smith teaches students in his “advanced music plundering” course to cut and layer prerecorded music, and recompose it into something entirely different. Students who do have a musical background can do that with their own compositions. Just as musicianship is an art, Smith asserts, the manipulation of sound is an art.

Gender is not an issue at NCSA. Currently, there are only a few more men than women in the program. “That is one reason we have a high ratio of women in what is usually an overwhelmingly male field,” Smith says. “They are not judged on their gender, only on how hard they work.”

And work hard they do. His 14 students (undergrad and graduate) worked on 44 shows this year, not counting projects they initiated themselves.

Graduates of any of these three sound design programs will be prepared for a productive career. One of NCSA’s graduates, Brett Jarvis, has recently been nominated for the off-Broadway Lucille Lortel award. Cornish graduate Aaron Welch is now the director of audiovisual services at the new Tacoma Museum of Glass. Yale grads are everywhere. All three schools offer internships and scholarships. See the schools' websites for more information on work/study, scholarships, course descriptions and admission requirements.



Ann Anderson is a freelance writer based in Los Angeles.

Lily Nguyen photo courtesy of Cornish College of the Arts
David Budries photo courtesy of Yale University School of Drama
Daniel Gomez photo courtesy of NCSA