As the Harper Joy Theatre’s run of Kissing the Witch comes to a close, we asked guest sound designer Andrew Fox a few questions about his work on the show.

 

Andrew Fox is a musician, composer, and audio producer based in New York. Having worked on a wide variety of sound and audio projects, including playing in his band Joy and the Wildfire, Fox says that becoming a sound designer was a natural continuation of his work as an orchestrator. Following his work creating original music for Harper Joy Theatre’s The Penelopiad in Fall 2021, director Dr. Laura Hope asked Fox back to Whitman to create the sound design for Kissing the Witch, Fox’s first live theatrical sound design project.

Fox’s process for creating the music for Kissing the Witch was a long one, with a lot of trial and error. He began by identifying concrete sounds in the script and then sound suggested by the location or ambiance of a scene. The next step was identifying the emotional shifts in the characters. Fox wrote the majority of the music for the show himself, creating leitmotifs, which are melodies that recur throughout the show to represent characters, themes, and emotions. While it was challenging for him to work on the music before actually seeing the actors in action, Fox says that some of the most satisfying music that he wrote was actually written in the rehearsal room. “The entire last sequence [of the show] and the second half of Tale of the Handkerchief, were written in the room so they work a lot smoother…I’m able to take them off what the actors are doing and what they’re playing. Because what’s on the page is not always what ends up on the stage.”

While a lot of the music that Fox has created for Kissing the Witch is smooth and on the subtle side, he says that his favorite parts of what he has created are when he’s allowed to make something loud. He really enjoys the sound during the donkey killing sequence, and the three loud knocks in the cave when the fisher girl is looking for the witch. “Subtle and smooth, that’s not who I am. I like things that just slam you in the face. That’s what I want. Bam bam bam, that’s my favorite part of the show. When the big loud thing goes boom.”

To hear Andrew’s dynamic sound design, come see Kissing the Witch before it’s too late! Buy your tickets at the Harper Joy Theatre Box Office prior to the show. Kissing the Witch runs in the Freimann Black Box Theatre March 2-5.