9 to 5
Music by Dolly Parton
Book by Patricia Resnick
Sound Designer: Jeremiah Tuner
Director: Myrona DeLaney
Scenic Designer: Betty (Junyuan) Xiong
Lighting Designer: Kassia Curl
Costume Designer: Rebecca Shepherd
Stage Manager: Logan Brubaker
University of California, Irvine Department of Drama
2024-2025 Season
Artistic Direction
9 to 5 follows three women and their lives surviving in a male dominated workplace. The main theme that we wanted to push was community and female empowerment. These women are stronger together than they are apart. As the show evolves, we not only see these women grow together, but change their surrounding environment for the better. As the sound designer, I represented their growth not only through the sound effects of the show, but in the system design as well. As the women in our show change, the sonic environment changes.
Sound
Workbook
Drafting
Package
Photo credit: Jasmin Miranda
For my system design, the biggest goal was building one that allowed us to sonically grow as the energy and the emotions of the show grew. The sound system should have just as much power as the women do in this show.
The challenge in this was how do we keep the energy of the show in both the the orchestra seating and the balcony. The answer we came up with was using a Line Array system for both the orchestra and the vocal system.
To make sure that we were building the best system possible, we spent a lot of time working in Mapp 3D, a speaker prediction software, seeing how the system would interact with the space before we built it. I made sure there were no egregious drops in coverage for our system. For my predictions the dark to light red represents a 3dB difference in coverage, which was exactly what we needed.
Office Bullpen, Act 1
The Office Bullpen in the beginning of the show is controlled chaos. With Hart at the helm as boss everyone is on the same schedule. Getting work done is the most important goal for him. In this portion of the show, the men are in control of the office. Therefore, the dominant voices we hear are male. To make the office space feel larger, I recored the cast a few times and layered them on top of each other as a bed of sound that underscored the scene.
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Photo credit: Jasmin Miranda
Cowgirl's Revenge: Rodeo Crowd
Photo credit: Jasmin Miranda
In the show there are three dream sequences. During the dream sequences, we wanted to represent that the world was beginning to shift in our womens' favor. For Doralee's dream sequence, we wanted to place the audience in the middle of a rodeo. I recored the female cast members to create a base layer for my rodeo crowd. Having a predominantly female crowd served as a foreshadowing of the shift in power of the show from the men to our lead women.
Office Bullpen, Act 2
Once we reach the second act the shift is in full force. The women are in control of the office, and can shape it into an environment that they believe would benefit everyone. The office is a lot calmer and less chaotic, and now the primary voices we hear are women.
Photo credit: Jasmin Miranda