Piece: Movers + Shakers
Author: Deborah Stein
Composed: James Suggs & Daniel Kluger
Production: UCSD

Director: Suli Holum
Set: Charlie Jicha
Lighting: Anthony Januzzi
​Costumes: Danae McCray
Venue: Marcus Weiss Forum Theater
​Date: March 2016

This piece was a collaboration between the graduate students of UCSD and the production team of Stein/Holum.  Modelled as a bizarro play with songs, this musical set the daily inanities of the political class against the backdrop of a midwestern hotel complete with onstage hotel bar band.  

One of my biggest concerns was how to sonically justify the onstage band.  I am a strong believer that theatrical sonic situations can easily run counter to the needs of the production.  When this happens, I find myself pulled out of the world of the play.  The band in this case is itself a character, a collection of local musicians who have a regular gig at the local hotel.  I resolved to make a two system design. The onstage system was a model of the classic wedding band set up with a large, low quality PA system.  The theater system was a Meyer Sound system specially designed for the very bizarre shape of the Marcus Weiss Forum Theater.  This system allowed us to crossfade between two looks: the "real" world of the wedding band and a hyperrealistic theatrical play space where songs become wild fantasies.