Sound Design Home

Set in an abandoned asylum, Faustus lies in the ruins as the audience enters. The sounds of the environment surround the space - wind, distant squeaks of dangling medical machinery and wildlife intermingled with echos of music and memories. He is watched over by the Good and Bad Angel. They enter, pick up the book, and explain the events that lead us to present circumstances- Faustus the scholar is deciding whether to turn his attention to the study of magic.

The concept of the sound design for this production centers on the the arrogance and narcissism displayed by Faustus. He is a polymath, has studied and mastered every subject available - Theology, Language, Physics, Art - no one can match his knowledge and understanding. He is compulsively driven to study that which is forbidden to mortal men: Magic.

In this setting of the abandoned asylum, perhaps Faustus has been driven mad by his

compulsive scholarly endeavors. Facts, theories, lectures play endlessly in his head and haunt him in his dreams.

Suffolk University

Fall 2011

Directed by David Gammons

Scene Design by Richard Chambers

Lighting Design by Kimberly Smith

Costume Design by Lisa Polito

Music and Sound Design by David Wilson

Photos by Andrew Brilliant

Opening Cue

The angels enter and tell the audience of the life of Faust - his birth, his studies, his success as a scholar, and his pending decision to make the devil’s bargain

“Till Swoll’n with cunning of a self-conceit,

His waxen wings did mount above his reach

And melting heavens conspir’d his overthrow:

For falling to a devilish exercies,

And glutted now with learning’s golden gifts,

He surfeits upon cursed necromancy;

Nothing so sweet as magic is to him,

Which he prefers before his chiefest bliss.

And this the man that in his study sits.”

Mephistopheles summons devils to dance for Faustus

An Old Man comes to Faustus, implores him to beg forgiveness from the Lord and reject Lucifer.