Ride the Cyclone
by Jacob Richmond and Brooke Maxwell
Ride the Cyclone is a very touching and powerful story about resilience, identity and transformation. After six Canadian high school students die in a tragic roller coaster accident, they arrive in “limbo” where Karnak, a mechanical fortune telling machine, tells them they have the opportunity to compete for a chance to come back to life. Traveling through a variety of musical genres, Ride the Cyclone shows the development and growth of these high schoolers in such a beautiful way.
My design had two distinct, contrasting sounds within it: the sound of the dark, dilapidated warehouse the show is set in, and the gameshow, carnival sounds the dialogue calls for. These two sounds, while pretty contrasting, worked together to bring this show to life.
Production Team:
Director: Raimondo Genna
Assistant Directors: Ryan Bernier & Em de Zafra
Scenic Designer: Yuki Kondo
Lighting Designer: Tyler Micheel
Costume Designer: Krissy Sneshkoff
Assistant Costume Designer: Clover Ashmore
Choreographer: Lydia Kibler
Sound Designer: Connor von Rentzell
Projections Designer: Ally Watters
Technical Director: Scott Mollman
Stage Manager: Ansley Eddy
Photo Credit: Raimondo Genna
Low drone that played underneath all dialogue outside of the characters’ bumpers. Established feeling of the dark and dilapidated world.
For this sound, I recorded the lines with the actor playing Karnak. To create a more robotic sound, I copied each track twice so there were three total of each, and micro-adjusted one track before and one track after the original. I then progressively pitched each one down, in conjunction with the powering down sound effect behind it.
Gameshow/carnival sound. Played when Karnak introduced each character.
Example of carnival/gameshow sound.