This month we were thrilled to hear that we have been awarded funding from Arts Council England for the next stage of our project; to develop Witchfinder as an immersive audio recorded performance.
To help us on this stage of our journey we have enlisted the expertise of Unscene Suffolk, a community theatre company for visually impaired adults, who are working alongside sonic artist Simon Keep to develop sound effects and other audio aspects of the work. As well as being a musician and audio specialist, Simon runs CLIP, a community interest company that encourages young people to take risks and be creative with sound and audio technology.
We began our series of online workshops with a cast read through of the newly refined script, and a group discussion around how sound might be used to enhance the ‘otherworldliness’ of the show. In our second workshop we analysed several mystery audio clips and had discussions around context and personal experience can affect how we receive and process sounds.
Next week we will be challenging our community participants to make and manipulate their own sounds with objects available to them around the house. We’ll be looking at ways to create an unsettled atmosphere, and also [spoiler alert] playing with ‘squelchiness’ in the appearance of a zombified witch.
In June 2021 workshop participants will get together with our professional cast and band for rehearsals and further sonic experimentation at DanceEast in Ipswich. Here we’ll be playing with ambisonic elements such as binaural microphones to see how we might create a 3D sonic environment for listeners of the performance.
