Baby Jessica's Well-Made Play started in 2018 as part of a series called "Small Plays for Giants," produced by WalkUpArts. Written for one audience member at a time, Baby Jessica’s Well-Made Play is a four-act conversation about fear and hope, as told by an eighteen month old stuck in a well. Sound designer and composer Jorge Olivo* talks with Live Design about his experience with the play during the pandemic of 2020.
Live Design: Can you talk about the interactive experience with WalkUpArts, and how did the project pivot due to COVID-19?
Jorge Olivo: Initially, we would go to your house and set you up in your closet. When we started this iteration, we began there, but as soon as COVID-19 happened, going anywhere was off the table. So we started exploring options and pivoting to the phone somehow seemed really natural to the play. To me, this show is at heart a conversation, and I think we have some of our most intimate and personal conversations on the phone. Experiencing the show that way, to me, helps put you in a comfort zone.
LD: What makes it interactive?
JO: One of the things I love about working with WalkUpArts is that they really think about that question. It's not superficially interactive—this literally could not exist without the interaction of the participants. The actress, Mary Round, asks you questions and responds so it can very quickly go in crazy directions. She does a brilliant job of managing that balance. Keeping the show open in that way but also moving it forward. My favorite act is the third act, which is the most interactive. There is no traditional actor: it's all participants interacting.
LD: How does the phone format work?
JO: On your end, it's very simple. You call the number, and you join a Zoom meeting via that number.
LD: What is your role as a sound designer for this project? Is there gear involved other than a telephone?
JO: I composed the music and designed the sounds. As far as gear, we explored a couple of different ways of getting the music and sounds to the phone and being able to run cues. Ultimately, we choose a software-only solution as getting gear set up and having an operator for every show that has to get to the gear was not really possible because of COVID-19. Our set up is Zoom and QLab. Our actress has Zoom and the QLab on her computer and then our operator controls her screen via zoom to run cues. Both companies have released many updates throughout the last eight months or so that have really helped us, so it's been a lot of fun keeping up.
LD: What else have you been doing since last March when the industry came to a halt?
JO: In between freaking about the giant mess that this country has become and going to protests, I've been doing a little bit of sound design for short films and podcasts. One positive thing is that for the first time in years I have enough free time for hobbies. I started planting things and trying to grow stuff on my fire escape and I got into modular synthesis, which I used for a lot of the sounds in the show.
*Bio:
Jorge Olivo is an NYC based sound designer. Credits include The Signature Project at The Sheen Center, Nu Works with Pan Asian Rep, and American Captives at Dixon Place. Associate sound design credits include Sea Wall/Ah Life at the Public and Todd Solondz's Emma and Max at the Flea. He won Best Sound Design 2017 at United Solo for Hide Your Fires with Ren Gyo Soh.