Sound Designer

Dead Man Walking was performed in NCSA's Catawba Theatre, a theatre with a strong resemblance to a prison common area. With this in mind I wanted the audience to feel like they were viewing this show from inside the death house. As Sister Helen Prejean made her way into the prison, heavy, grinding, metal gates slamed behind her, and reverberated through the house. As she rouned each corner of space a gate would close behind her, trapping her. The system that I had built allowed me to playback multi-point sound effects and separate dry and wet effects, giving me the ability to make the space sound bigger as well as more empty and cold.

Audio Sample Notes

The show began with the singing 'The Troubles of the World' by Mahalia Jackson while images of the murder victims, convicted and other violent crimes are projected upon the scenery. The loud slamming of a prison door abruptly stops everything as S. Helen Prejean enters the prison. She walks deeper into the prison, cell doors slam behind her, trapping her. A prison cell door slams with each scene changes in to Poncelet's cell.

After the act break we are now on hours from the time of execution. A reverberant tick of the prisons clock now accents scene changes. At the time execution we hear Matt's heart on an EKG and begin to race when the poison is administered with the final tick of the clock. We hear the final cries of Matt’s victims as his heart stops. Observers are left with S. Helen Prejean and Earl Delacroix praying in a chapel near the murder scene while in the distance we hear 'The Troubles of the World', asking us to consider how death affects us, regardless of the method.