MFA Pro Sound Design

Tom Mardikes

(Chair of UMKC Theatre and Professor of Sound Design) has worked on over 200 professional productions, nation-wide, as Sound Designer for Missouri Repertory Theatre, the Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, the Dallas Theatre Center, Syracuse Stage, Coconut Grove, the Roundabout, Buffalo Studio Arena, the Alley Theatre, Great Lakes Theatre Festival, Heart of America Shakespeare Festival, Idaho Shakespeare Festival and Shakespeare Santa Cruz.  Mardikes has been head of graduate sound design training since 1986, and is now the chair of the UMKC Department of Theatre. He has long been active in the United States Institute for Theater Technology, first as a Sound Vice Commissioner for Education and then as Sound Commissioner from 1998-2000.  He was one of five professional sound designers who helped facilitate the organization of sound designers into the United Scenic Artists Local 829 which has led to the official recognition of sound design by LORT and professional theatres nationwide and recently authored the Sound Design examination for new designers.  He was one of two featured sound designers in the USA Exhibit for the 2003 Prague Quadrennial and will serve as co-curator of Sound for the American Exhibit for PQ2007.  He is a co-founder of Kansas City Actors Theatre, an artist-led, artist-driven professional theatre company performing in Kansas City’s fabulous Union Station.

BOB BECK

Bob Beck Email: BeckR@umkc.edu or WWW: http://cctr.umkc.edu/user/rbeck/ Education: -May 1999-Graduated from UMKC's Professional Theatre Training Program with an MFA in Sound Design, focusing on Sound System Design and Technology. -December 1994-Graduated from UMKC's College of Arts and Sciences with a Bachelor of Liberal Arts, focusing on Audio Recording and Theatre Sound Design. -1992-Completed course of study and internship in Audio Production at City Spark Studios, Kansas City, including 3 levels of multitrack recording and mixing as well as courses in sound reinforcement. Employment: -Since January 1992, a staff recording engineer for UMKC's Conservatory of Music. -Chief Sound Engineer for Missouri Repertory Theatre since the summer of 1995. -Chief Sound Engineer at the Heart of America Shakespeare Festival since 1994. Sound Designs: -Shadow of a Gunman; Directed by Ron Schaeffer; UMKC Department of Theatre. -Tis Pity She's a Whore; Dir. Jeff Goode; UMKC Department of Theatre. -The Lisbon Traviata; Dir. Cynthia Levin; The Unicorn Theatre, KCMO. -Greytop in Love; Dir. George Keathley; Missouri Repertory Theatre's Second Stage, KCMO. -Across The Plains; Dir. Amie Brockaway; The Coterie, KCMO.

Dwight Frizzell

Dwight Frizzell 3927 Warwick, Kansas City, MO 64111 816-931-4648, revdwight@yahoo.com

Radio Works:

• Center of the World, broadcast on NPRÕs Lost and Found Sounds [1999]

• From Ark to Microchip series broadcast across the US and in France [1984 - current]

• Music Director, Midwest Radio theatre Workshop [w/ Firesign Theatre 1983 - current]

• International Radio Solstice Broadcasts [w/Don Cherry, Charlie Morrow, 1982 -1986]

Video Works:

• Sunset Event at the Musee d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris 12th Bienale [1982]

• ÑHarry's Shadow, PBS broadcast & the WorldWide Video Fest (Amsterdam, Sept., 1997)

Compositions for chamber ensemble and new media:

• The Hills are Alive with the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (w/Jeffrey Ruckma) for chamber ensemble on three levels and Foley sound [1999]

• Out of Time (w/Michael Henry) for soprano, chamber group, multi-media [1997]

• Search for the Particular, commissioned for the opening of the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art and Design [after the ideas of Gunnar Birkerts, 1995]

• Postmodern Prometheus [after Mary Shelley's Frankenstein] for actor, 6-channel sound projection, Foley artists, soprano, guitar and video projections [1995]

• Building the Earth [after the ideas of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin], for seedless grapes, narrators, short wave radio, multi-channel tape, chamber ensemble on three levels [1994].

Writings on media communications/culture:

• "Early Radio Big Wigs," Semiotext(e) Radiotext(e) [1994]

• "Inaudible Postscript: a silent coda on the disembodied voice and the subsequent unwriting of history," TDR (The Drama Review) MIT Press [1996]

• Website receives Lycos Top 5% of Web, Yahoo Site of the Day Regional and national arts grants and residencies: Ñ Harvestworks Digital Media Arts, "The Phenomenological Telephone" [radio, 1994]

• The National Endowment for the Arts [radio, 1992 -1994]

• The Missouri Arts Council [radio/video/performance, 1980 - current]

• The Southwest Alternate Media Project [theatre/multi-media, 1989]

Musical director for theme music and/or sound design:

• Laughter on the 23rd Floor, Missouri Repertory theatre [1999]

• Jazzplay, National Public Radio [1996 ]

• What's Up Network, Fox TV [1993]

• Richard III, Missouri Repertory theatre [1992]

• King Lear, Missouri Repertory theatre [1993]

• Dilemmas of War and Peace, Wisconsin Public Radio [1992]

Co-Founder/musician/composer:

• BCR band [1982 - current]

• newEar contemporary chamber ensemble [1994 - current], www.newear.org

• The New Music Institute of Kansas City, Inc. Board of Directors [1993 - current]

Critical reviews, articles and interviews published in:

• High Performance, Art in America, Ear Magazine, Option, The Kansas City Star, Forum Magazine, The Pitch, New Times, Vagabond Magazine and KCPT-TV's Marquee: A Journal

Selected Discography:

• Natural Selection with newEar, Tony Allard and others, Paradigm CD

• Beyond the Black Crack reissue of the 1976 LP, Paradigm PD 06

• Contacting the Other: Amazing Psychotropic Tales, LodesTone Wabi 004 (www.lodestone-media.com)

• Indeterminate Moments with John Cage and The Importance of Being Ernst, LodesTone Wabi 002. Background/Education

Education:

• BFA Kansas City Art Institute, emphasis in photography, video & performance [1980]

• MFA University of Missouri-Kansas City, Sound Design for theatre of the Arts[1998]

GREG MACKENDER

(Instructor of Theatre Sound Design and Composition) has composed extensively for Theater in the Kansas City area.  He has most recently composed music for the Talley plays (Talley's Folly, Fifth of July, and Talley and Son) running in repertory by the Kansas City Actor's Theatre, of which he is a founding member. He was the resident composer for the Missouri Repertory Theatre (now Kansas City Repertory Theatre) from 1995-2000, and is currently beginning his thirteenth year for the Heart of America Shakespeare Festival. He has been the Sound Designer and Composer for a number of animated films, including Boing! and Farkleberry Farm, both achieving awards at various international film festivals. Mr. Mackender has taught an evolving course at the University of Missouri, based on the use of the Computer as a recording and editing tool for audio as it is applied to music and sound design for film, video, and theater. The class is titled Hard Disc Recording, and is centered around the use of Pro Tools but also looks at the range of tools currently in use. Planned for 2006 are a series of movie tutorials that will supplement the existing class format and will be fully produced at the ReSounders studio.

MFA Sound Design || Alumni || Shakespeare Festival || KC Rep Sound || Conservatory Recording