When Mishelle Cuttler does her job right, no one really notices — and she’s OK with that.
As a sound designer, her goal is to blend audio elements into theatre productions so seamlessly that the audience is barely aware she’s there. “If it’s done well, hopefully you don’t even know it’s happening,” says Cuttler.
Most recently, Cuttler has taken on the sound design and original music for The Concessions, presented by Touchstone Theatre in association with Playwrights Theatre Centre and the Firehall Arts Centre. Part mystery, part psychological drama, the “Canadian gothic” play, as it’s billed, centres around a horrific act of violence in a small town. Directed by Katrina Dunn, the cast includes Jillian Fargey, Sebastian Kroon, Marilyn Norry, Emma Slipp and Alec Willows.
This is the fourth instalment in Touchstone Theatre’s Flying Start program, which gives a stage to new playwrights who have yet to be professionally produced — in this case, rural-Ontario-born Briana Brown.
“It’s really important to support young women in the field because there are very few of them,” Cuttler notes.
In addition to creating sound effects for The Concessions, such as falling rain and radio static, Cuttler has also composed the original music for the show, some of which she recorded herself and some she produced digitally. When designing the sound and music, Cuttler says she tried to balance both the mystical elements of the story with the small-town drama. The tiny community in which the play is set becomes gripped by fear after the tarot card-reading main character, Faye, discovers a murdered body in the forest.
“It’s mostly just about people and how they deal with each other and how they deal with a crisis.”
Cuttler received her bachelor of fine arts in acting from UBC in 2011 and continues to work as an actor. While she never formally studied sound design, her background in classical piano and musical theatre earned her the opportunity to write the score for one of her university theatre productions. Similar work offers followed and, after graduating, Cuttler began to master the more technical side of sound design. It’s been enlightening to work as part of both casts and crews, she says.
“When you’re an actor you don’t go to design meetings and production meetings and you kind of are unaware of all the other stuff that’s happening around you while you’re in rehearsal,” she says, “so it’s really great to get to be on that side and see all the people that are working to make the show happen while you’re in the rehearsal hall acting.”
Cuttler adds that she feels fortunate to have the skills and training to land jobs in more than one area of theatre. “It keeps me doing theatre all the time, instead of having to be a waitress,” she says.
The Concessions marks Cuttler’s first time working on one of Touchstone Theatre’s main stage shows and, knowing the company’s all-Canadian mandate, she’s not surprised this particular play was selected as the 2014 Flying Start production.
“I think at the core it’s really about a Canadian experience and about a human experience and I think that that’s important to tell,” she says.
The Concessions runs until June 14 at the Firehall Arts Centre. Details at firehallartscentre.ca.
