Gareth Owen: ‘I didn’t get into theatre to do sound ... Owen: ‘I didn’t get into theatre to do sound effects. I love music ... Hairspray and Sister Act,” he says. “So to

Gareth Owen: ‘I didn’t get into theatre to do soundeffects. I love music’

Gareth Owen at the mixing desk for A Bronx Tale at the Longacre Theatre, New York. Photo: Kal Dolgin

by Nick Smurthwaite - Mar 13, 2017

Find out what you’re good at and then become the best you can. This simple piece of careers advicecould certainly be applied to sound designer Gareth Owen, who discovered in his early 20s that musicaltheatre was the discipline he found most exciting and inspirational.

“When I started out I realised two things,” says the hard-working 39-year-old. “Firstly, there were anawful lot of people out there who were much better than me at doing sound design for plays, andsecondly, I didn’t get into theatre to do sound effects, I went into it because I love music, especiallyrock’n’roll. I decided I should concentrate on the thing I enjoyed the most.”

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Now one of the most sought-after sound designers in the world, Owen routinely works on four or fiveshows simultaneously – “my schedule is absurd” – and his current portfolio includes the revival of 42ndStreet in the West End, Bat Out of Hell in Manchester, Come from Away on Broadway and Disney’s TheHunchback of Notre Dame in Berlin.

At any given time, there are up to 70 technicians of various nationalities working on his shows aroundthe globe, and, of that number, about half work exclusively for Owen. “I don’t actually employ people,” heexplains, “but they are associates who remain loyal to me. I put their names forward to the producer towork on a particular show with me. That way I can be technically impartial.”

Neil McDermott and the company of The Wind in the Willows at Theatre Royal, Plymouth. Photo: Marc Brenner

What happens with his “associate team”, as he refers to them, is that they do all the preparatory leg-work on replica productions. For example, when one of his Broadway successes, The Little Mermaid,was recreated in Moscow in 2012, Owen’s associates did the fit-up and the sound checks so that hecould then turn up at the dress rehearsal and make sure everything was fine and dandy.

“We have very strict guidelines on how we put shows together, so that any one of us can walk into any ofour shows and know they are set up and cabled in the same way, which means I can be in New Yorkone day and London the next, walk into the show I’m working on and know precisely how it is configured.It’s all about forward planning, methodology and everybody pulling in the same direction.

“Today you can create sound effects for other members of your team, and for other shows, from theother side of the world. We regularly update the software we need in order to work on several shows atonce. It is a common model across big musicals – the senior creative working on new shows, while theassociates look after the replica shows. Without my associates, I wouldn’t be able to do what I do.”

Summer Strallen and Tom Chambers

in Top Hat at the Aldwych Theatre,

London, in 2011. Photo: Tristram Kenton

Beverley Knight in Memphis the Musical

at the Shaftesbury Theatre, London, in

2014. Photo: Tristram Kenton

Owen got into performance tech in his mid-teens, growing up in StIves in Cornwall. “I did the lighting for a local nightclub and when theowner asked me if I knew anything about sound-mixing live bands, Itold him I was an expert, while knowing absolutely nothing about it. Ibought Peter Buick’s book Live Sound and taught myself the basics.Then I bought a mixing desk, some microphones, some cable andsome effects boxes, and I was ready to go. I did lifeguard work on thebeach during the day and mixed bands at night. It was an idyllic life.”

At university, he blagged his way into working part-time for a companythat provided sound for rock and pop festivals throughout the country.One of his colleagues who was contracted to work on stage show TheBlues Brothers in the West End asked Owen if he would cover for himwhile he went off on a three-month tour with Deep Purple. “I finishedup as head of sound on The Blues Brothers. I didn’t have anywhere tostay in London, so I bought a tent and lived in the garden of a housein Palmers Green rented by the band from the show. Luckily, it was over the summer.”

The musical director of Blues Brothers put Owen up for sound designer on a UK tour of Godspell. “Tothis day I’ve no idea how I got it,” he says. “I was in my mid-20s. I must have been really good atblagging, because I had no idea about really basic things, like which was upstage and which downstage.I learned as I went along. I even got a mention in the Guardian review of the show. My mum and dadfinally acknowledged that sound design might be more than mucking about at a mixing desk.”

Clearly one of Owen’s strengths is his genuine enthusiasm for the job. He came to Bat Out of Hell as amassive fan of Meat Loaf and composer Jim Steinman, and with a determination to do their legacyjustice.

“I really enjoy doing shows like 42nd Street, Top Hat and Singin’ in theRain, but my first love is big, loud rock’n’roll shows like Memphis,Hairspray and Sister Act,” he says. “So to bring Jim Steinman’s musicto the stage was an honour for me and I really wanted to treat it like arock concert. I’ve tried to create a rock concert environment withoutscaring off the average musical theatre patron. Basically we ended upwith a non-stop soundscape in full surround-sound. I’ve developed amatrix of surround speakers that fit on the roof of the stalls and thecircle, so you are enveloped by the music.”

Another “dream gig” for Owen was The Hunchback of Notre Dame,not only because of its director, Scott Schwartz, who gave Owen freerein to do the best job for the show, but also for its sweeping,cinematic ambition. “Everything that happens on stage is punctuatedwith a sound effect, so when a knife drops on the floor inside thecathedral you hear the noise of metal falling into stone echoing roundthe auditorium. In the bell tower, there are seven full-size cathedralbells, each embedded with switches and sensors so that, whenQuasimodo pulls the ropes, the bells swing backwards and forwardsjust as the real ones would; the clappers hit the bells, which transmit to sound-effect engines, emittingthe ringing sounds the real ones would.”

Owen says he and his team are pushing sound technology forward every day. In the last six months, hehas adopted an innovative mixing desk that “enables me to do things other people can’t do”.

The turning point in musical theatre sound tech happened in 2005, he says, when Mick Potter won anOlivier award for his sound design on The Woman in White. “For a long time the attitude to sound designhad been to pretend it didn’t exist. It was all about microphones and speakers being invisible. What Mickdid was effectively put the audience in the middle of the orchestra. It was a real eye-opener to someonelike me. Every time you go to the cinema, the music swells around you, and even the cheapest car has12 speakers, so the same thing happens when you’re driving and listening to music.

“In short, people’s expectation of sound has dramatically altered in the last decade – almost everyonehas a phone with an MP3 player, and great-quality speakers. But so much musical theatre has notevolved in the same way, because, traditionally, amplification has been a dirty word. Slowly but surely,musical theatre is catching up. We’re seeing more and more shows that don’t apologise for havingmicrophones and speakers, and don’t try to hide everything, while allowing the audience to hear everyword sung and every note played. The sound designers who can deliver that are the ones taking musicaltheatre forward.”

CV: Gareth OwenBorn: 1977, Sheffield Training: Self-taught Landmark productions: Disney’s The Little Mermaid, world tour (2007-16), Top Hat, Aldwych Theatre,London (2011), Merrily We Roll Along, Menier Chocolate Factory, London (2012), Harold Pinter Theatre,London (2013), Disney’s The Hunchback of Notre Dame, world tour (2013-17), I Can’t Sing!, LondonPalladium (2014), Memphis, Shaftesbury Theatre, London (2014), A Bronx Tale, Broadway (2016), TheWind in the Willows, Theatre Royal, Plymouth (2016), Come from Away, Broadway (2017), Bat Out ofHell, Opera House, Manchester (2017), 42nd Street, Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, London (2017) Awards: Olivier for best sound design for Merrily We Roll Along, 2013, Olivier for best sound design forMemphis, 2015 Agent: Creative House

garethowensound.com

Nick SmurthwaiteNick Smurthwaite has been writing about the performing arts for The Stage andother leading publications for more than 30 years.