Design Statement

Laughs in Spanish by Alexis Scheer is a contemporary comedy set in the Wynwood neighborhood of Miami, preceding and during Art Basel. While the play is a comedy and is framed around the mystery of stolen artwork, there is an emotional core to the play that develops. Estella navigates repairing her relationship with her daughter Mari, culminating in a performance-within-the-performance near the end of the play. Mari and Jenny reconnect after years apart and school-aged friendship blossoms into romance. Caro and Juan deal with the uncertainties and complexities of having a baby together. The playwright wrote a note preceding the play.

“On design: We never see any art displayed in the gallery, so these characters should stand out as pieces of fine art on their own. Things are vibrant. Distinctly Miami. Color is important.”

The music for the production needed to follow this ethos. It was an excellent opportunity to explore a variety of Latin music styles and work within several genres. My research consisted of developing an inspiration playlist and collecting additional information about the particulars of instrumentation, tempo, etc. for each genre. My assistant sound designer, Bryan Pivaral, grew up in Miami and was helpful in bringing his own experience to the project, particularly in selecting the version of “Mi Burrito Sabanero” that we used for the production. I developed original music for scene transitions as it allowed me to custom fit the time of each transition and resolve music when dramatically useful.

The sound system consisted of the main left and main right speaker hung in the Studio Theatre, a speaker secreted into the stage right desk, a speaker hung in the grid above the bench, and a pair of speakers upstage of the barn doors.