When it comes to theatre, Northwestern University is known far and wide for having one of the country’s greatest collegiate programs. Every year, within the walls of the Virginia Wadsworth Wirtz Center for the Performing Arts, the study and practice of theatre takes place.

Although it supports many Northwestern programs and departments, as well as outside productions, Northwestern’s Department of Theatre is the Wirtz Center’s largest client.

“At the Wirtz Center, we’re all theatre professionals who are responsible for producing professional-level work, even though many of the people working on the projects are students,” explains Production Manager Heather Basarab. “But our primary reason for existing is to help students learn.”

Although Northwestern’s theatre programming covers costume design, stage design, and lighting design, there’s one component it lacks: a sound program.

Discovering a Common Connection

Three years ago, when the campus began to re-open after pandemic-related lockdowns, the Wirtz Center’s team was looking for a way to create programming to serve students that didn’t require too much in-person work. “Real productions weren’t possible because they involved too many people being in one place at the same time,” explains Basarab. “So, we teamed up with the MA in Sound Arts and Industries (SAI) program to create an open house. SAI students created soundscapes that filled the space, making it feel warmer and more alive.”

The experience was so positive for all parties involved that a natural question emerged: How else could the SAI program and the Wirtz Center team up?

“It seemed like a really natural overlap, so we started to proactively think about things we could do that might serve students,” explains Professor of Instruction Stephan Moore. “Everyone at the Wirtz Center is so positive, willing to try new things, and open to new ideas.”

Since the SAI program’s inception, he says, students have been interested in learning about sound design for theatrical productions. So Moore, along with Basarab and Peter Anderson, lighting and sound supervisor at the Wirtz Center, put their heads together to brainstorm ways to create more learning experiences for students.

Creating Transformative, Real-World Experiences

Moore remembers the first SAI student who took advantage of the program’s relationship with the Wirtz Center: Kelvin Boddie ’22. “As an accomplished DJ, he could spin records and run a room,” explains Moore. “He was already used to operating mixing controls in performance situations and using his ears to listen and make decisions. I told him that he’d be great at running the sound board in a theatre production.”

Boddie was up for the challenge and took on the task of running the sound board for a Wirtz Center show. He was successful, says Moore, in large part because Basarab and her team did an excellent job of training and preparing him for success.

“I watched him go from being wide-eyed with lots of adrenaline on the first night to having everything down by the final show,” describes Moore. “He knew what he was doing, and he was confident. This was the kind of transformative experience I wanted my students to have. After that, I was sold and started talking to Heather about ways we could be more proactive about getting SAI students involved from the beginning.”

A Student Perspective on Hands-On Work

To introduce students to the possibilities that await them at the Wirtz Center, they get to take a tour of the space during orientation. They also speak with Basarab and Anderson about ways to get involved with productions, from sound design and engineering to music composition, mixing microphones, and recording.

“We lay out all the options for them,” explains Basarab. Those options might include:

• Being the live audio engineer and sound board operator for the run of a production
• Serving as a sound designer
• Composing music for a production, whether it be an incidental soundtrack played between scenes or fully realized musical numbers involving the cast and live musicians
• Acting as an assistant sound designer to support someone who leads the charge
• Being a shadower who watches tech rehearsals or interacts with sound engineers to learn more about what they do

“If someone doesn’t know something but wants to learn—such as sound design, for example—we would hire a professional mentor and have the student do the design while that mentor works with them,” she says.

After that, students can reach out to her if they’re interested in immersing themselves in a professional-level production. To help students find the right fit based on the productions scheduled for the year, she speaks with them one on one to explore their skills and areas of interest.

After Micah Simmons ’24 went through orientation and toured the Wirtz Center, they reached out to Basarab as soon as he could. Simmons had experience in music composition but wanted to learn more about the technical side of sound, including engineering.

“I was placed as the assistant sound designer for Dracula,” Simmons explains, “which turned into me engineering that production, running the console and mixing microphones live.” They learned from and worked alongside professional sound designer Emily Hayman. Simmons got to watch her process from start to finish and especially enjoyed seeing work change on the fly during tech week. It was a collaboration that they say was incredibly valuable.

Once Dracula wrapped up, Simmons turned their sights to engineering The Waa-Mu Show, a Northwestern theatrical tradition that brings more than 150 students together to create an original musical. “That’s what I originally asked to do, but I worked on Dracula first,” Simmons explains. “Then, when they realized they needed a sound designer for The Waa-Mu Show, I did that as well. I got to handle the top-down design through the run of a show as a sound designer and engineer.”

For that production, Simmons worked closely with mentor Brandon Reed, a sound designer, composer, and audio engineer.

“Because of those experiences, I feel confident in what I’m doing,” says Simmons, “and Brandon is still super supportive. He was willing to answer all my questions when we worked together, and he’s still answering my questions today. We keep in touch. It was very valuable to me to go through those experiences and meet all these great people, all while getting actual credits and doing actual work. The more you do the work, the better you get.”

A New Season of Opportunity

The 2023-2024 production season is one that the Wirtz Center and the SAI program can be proud of. The season kicked off with Imagine U’s Frida Libre in October 2023 and ended with a reimagined take on Shakespeare’s The Tempest in May 2024.

Many of the students involved in those productions are now moving on to professional roles and being hired for gigs and full-time work.

“We set ourselves up for a really great year this last season, and every year will be different, depending on the productions the Wirtz Center is putting on and the interests of the incoming cohort,” says Moore.

The Wirtz Center recently announced its 2024-2025 Season, which means that new opportunities for collaboration are just around the corner.

“It’s a win-win-win for us all,” says Moore. “It helps our program, our students, and the Wirtz Center. It’s tapping into the talent we have right on campus while contributing to our educational mission. Everybody’s getting something great out of this.”

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