Theatre Design & Technology - Fall 2012 - 54

Audience members surround the cast. The production
attracted up to 30,000 visitors each day.

photo: jdvaillancourt.com

photo: catherine bacque

The wharf platform, one of
four stages in the park. A
Renkus-Heinz PN82 hidden
in a burlap sack atop a barrel
provides a localization anchor.

ships of the Age of Sail, their timings and rhythms designed to
coordinate the efforts of many sailors hauling on lines or heaving the anchor. In addition, acoustic instrumental music was
supplied by the string trio Freshwater Trade and by itinerant
fiddler Kelly Lefaive.

photo: catherine bacque

The Soundscape

gnettes; and a couple of rough benches situated near the eastern
edge of the park suitable for one or two "private conversations."
Several times during the two-hour cycle, characters walked
through the set of the town speaking among themselves while
making an entrance or exit. More than once, enthusiastic audience members were observed interrupting these conversations,
with questions on background or historical context for some
aspect of the drama as seen from the perspective of someone
from the early nineteenth century.
There was no underscore or other musical accompaniment to the drama, music being reserved for the intervals
between scenes and vignettes. Unamplified in the tent, the Hardtackers Shanty Crew sang historically appropriate sea shanties
and other work songs that were used on the square-rigged
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theatre design

& technology

2012

Based on the few contemporary paintings of the settlement that
I was able to find, I chose to make it sound much the way cottage country north of Toronto sounds today (minus the motorized intrusions): ambient crickets, birds, and animals on land,
and gulls, loons, cormorants, ducks, geese, bullfrogs, and
lapping water coming from the direction of the lake. To this I
added occasional sounds of domestic fowl (geese, hens, and a
rooster) and animals (cows, sheep, goats, and hogs) emanating from areas behind the structures in the park, where settlers
would likely have penned their livestock.
These tracks were augmented with the sounds of horses
and carts rolling though the village from time to time, as well as
dogs running around sporadically, barking in reaction to scripted
events and other sounds, such as the bosun's whistle from aboard
Challenge. Rope creaks, pulley squeaks, oars in oarlocks, and
other dock sounds helped to flesh out the wharf.
It was important that all these sounds be kept in natural
perspective, without becoming intrusive or drawing undue attention to themselves. The obstacle to creating this more natural sounding environment, of course, was the omnipresent roar
of the city, especially given the park's proximity to the Gardiner
Expressway, a major east-west artery running close to the waterfront, and to Billy Bishop Airport on Toronto Island less than
a mile away.

http://www.jdvaillancourt.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Theatre Design & Technology - Fall 2012