in Other's words
Press Clippings & mixed media - Selected projects
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Triptych
written by Edna O'Brien produced @ Magic Theatre "Directed with sizzling restraint by Paul Whitworth, aided by Kurt Landisman's fine lighting, B.Modern's character-defining costumes, and Michael Woody's subtle sound, Triptych, the second play under the helm of new artistic director Chris Smith, is a compelling work." Robert Lee Hall Piedmont Post December 17, 2003 |
This track was composed to accompany a scene where a teenage daughter has an evolving fit while on Ecstasy (MDMA) and it ebbs and flows without getting too busy to follow her dialog. I produced it using loops and tried to make something sonically resembling the group Massive Attack.
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The Sex Habits of American Women written by Julie Marie Myatt produced @ Magic Theatre "Everybody looks terrific in Todd Roehrman's crisp '50s fashions, and Michael Woody's sound design features some wonderfully appropriate music..." Chad Jones Oakland Tribune October 17, 2003 |
Sex Habits of American Women gave me the chance to do a fairly straightforward early 1950's Period Sound Design and then devote my time teaching myself on a primitive PC how to create the special effects required for the video design. I created a page specifically describing my pioneering use of PreVisualization in Theater featuring this play.
Schrödinger's Girlfriend
"Schrödinger's Girlfriend ", written by Mathew Wells and directed by Kenn Watt, was produced at Magic Theatre in October, 2001. It's an intelligent and romantic comedic scientific musical set in 1928 at the time of the emergence of quantum mechanics featuring appearances by all the greats of that age. I single handedly produced the sound effects, composed and arranged the songs, coached the singers, animated the physics and the surrealistic video effects projections by virtually, on occasion literally, living at the theater for weeks and developing everything in the space after rehearsals. It was epic. It showed. This production was a career highlight, so many 1sts were accomplished and it was recognized. First off, three simultaneous designs! I lived at the Magic for ten weeks, six consecutively and fine tuned each design for the space in concert with Kate Boyd's set while mixing my 2001 MIDI music to sound reasonably like a live off stage pit band circa 1925. It was here that I invented PreVis for Live Theater in 2001. An animation I made recreating the opening video design and orchestral score is below. I created a page illustrating my pioneering use of it starting with this play. |
Schrödinger's Girlfriend
written by Matthew Wells produced @ Magic Theatre "Kenn Watt and the Magic give the play a good shot, with Michael Woody's clever musical quotes and slide and video projections on Kate Boyd's cyclotron-sleek black-and-white set." Robert Hurwitt SF Chronicle November 5, 2001 |
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Schrödinger's Girlfriend written by Matthew Wells produced @ Magic Theatre "He uses Michael Woody's black-and-white videos and Kurt Weill-inspired music to vibrantly reflect the mutlilayered qualities of the play." Mark De La Vina Mercury News November 5, 2001 |
Schrödinger's Girlfriend written by Matthew Wells produced @ Magic Theatre "Director Kenn Watt has tremendous fun with his cast , but his talents have been put to better use at the Magic on less structured, more fundamentally obtuse pieces like Charles Mee's "Summertime." All the slapstick physicality and fancy video projections (by Michael Woody) in the world can't disguise the fact that Schrödinger's Girlfriend is fun for its 50 minute first act, but loses momentum in its hour long second act." Chad Jones Oakland Tribune November 5, 2001 |
Schrödinger's Girlfriend
written by Matthew Wells
produced @ Magic Theatre
"Michael Woody's musical sound bites and period video projections offer whimsical nostalgia against Kate Boyds ultra-modern set, and Fumiko Bielefeldt's costumes are as good as it gets."
Staff
Bay Times
November 15, 2001
In all the excitement of creating the work in 2001 I managed to miss the opportunity to get any recordings of the cast performing my songs. In 2011 I resurrected the song Auf Weidersehen for performance at a house concert in Las Vegas.
Auf Weidersehen Live-ish House Concert #5 All Day Pool Party & Benefit For Anne Charbonneau The Westwind Academy, Las Vegas, August 18, 2011 |
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Dr. Faustus Lights The Lights written by Gertrude Stein produced @ Intersection "...eclectic sound design and musical direction by Michael Woody." "Stein meant her 'Faustus' to be an opera, though her chosen composer (Gerald Beners) never came through with a score. Watt and Woody fill the void by setting her arias to a wild assortment of rock, country, folk, jazz, including everything from 'Chopsticks' to 'Frere Jaques.' Not all of it works, but there's a real kick in the way they've wrapped Stein's lyrics around the swinging lilt of "Bei Mir Bist Du Schön" and Louis Prima's 'Sing, Sing, Sing.' " Robert Hurwitt SF Examiner November 11, 1997 |
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"It is no wonder that Watt, a recipient of a National Endowment Directing Fellow-ship, and his successful company have combined stylized acting technique with the modern electronic sounds of Michael Woody to produce a well-blended, stimulating production -- one that appeals to those who profess to belong to the "new intellectual movement.""
"And the sets, sound, lighting and costumes contributed perfectly to the production's power."
Michael Kushner
Guardsman Staff Writer
November 21,1997
"And the sets, sound, lighting and costumes contributed perfectly to the production's power."
Michael Kushner
Guardsman Staff Writer
November 21,1997
Summertime was given a workshop before full production allowing us to be playful and experimental in our approach to Chucks script. I didn't compose for this production, the score was primarily b-sides from Henry Mancini and Nino Rota with the occasional oddity of Kenn's suggestions to shake things up.
This recording was part of my design. The dialog read to me as melodramatic and I wanted to edit together some piano bits I had to underscore the not-so-sub-text. I asked the actors to allow me to record their lines so I could fine tune the spoken and musical phrases which allowed them to pantomime a hilarious routine over-acting it with a mix of their voices and the new "silent movie" soundtrack.
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Summertime
written by Charles Mee Jr. produced @ Magic Theatre "Kate Boyd's Magritte-meets-Chekhov set is a beautifully airy vision that curiously helps to ground this bounding play, and Michael Woody provides the campy, beguiling soundtrack for romance. Some may find Summertime's Felliniesque mélange frustrating, but for me its wonderfully frisky embrace of love's head-over-heels madness feels much like the real thing." Brad Rosenstein SF Bay Guardian July 12, 2000 |
This recently unearthed video is from the workshop/staged reading of Summertime the year before the World Premier. Much changed so this is a very rare peak into the process. We're lucky to have any documentation from any of the live theater in SF from the old days.
The Serfs
"The Serfs, who include songwriter Michael Woody and acclaimed playwright John O'Keefe among their collaborators, bring the pain with a vengeance--and laughout-loud insights for an age of chaos." KR East Bay Express November, 1999 Bonus 2003 The Serfs Review |
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Bake Sale @ SOMAR. written by Edmond Gaible produced by The Fifth Floor @ SOMAR San Francisco, 1997 Kenn Watt Director/Sound Design Michael Woody Composer/Sound Design Sommer Ulrickson Choreographer Alex Nichols Lights John Flanagan as David Koresh with Celia Shuman, Robert Parsons, Andrew Hurteau, Raquel Cion, Nina Gold, Liam Vincent, Sommer Ulrickson, Jason Wiener |
Bake Sale was a high point for Fifth Floor and local theater that year. After first receiving company acclaim for our first production of Chuck Mee's Orestes the year before, Kenn and the crew started picking through the transcripts of the Waco fiasco with a Velvet Underground lens... and Bake Sale premiered at Cell Space November 1996 with Helen Shumaker in the role of Janet Reno. It had teeth and hopefully some of that comes through in this documentation from the second production at SOMAR with Celia Shuman as Janet Reno |
Bake Sale
written by Fifth Floor produced @ Cell Space "Somewhere in the wild conflation of video, movement, fragmentary narrative, and Michael Woody's textured sound and music, flashes of truth about an awful chapter in our history shine through. Not all the strands connect, but this is a rich, ambitious work, as provocatively inclusive as a nightmare." Staff SF Bay Guardian August 6, 1997 Bake Sale written by Fifth Floor produced @ Cell Space "...compelling original music by sound designer Michael Woody." Robert Hurwitt SF Examiner August 1, 1997 |
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Bonus Media Alert!
Sommer Ulrickson and I collaborated on a lot of different projects in this era starting with Marisol.
I brought her on board while my band o' mates SUNZ of Alien Teknowledgy were recording Songs From The Hot Zone and preparing for our largest multimedia live event Live Product Demonstration at Frank Garvey's Theater Concrete SOMA SF.
Sommer Ulrickson and I collaborated on a lot of different projects in this era starting with Marisol.
I brought her on board while my band o' mates SUNZ of Alien Teknowledgy were recording Songs From The Hot Zone and preparing for our largest multimedia live event Live Product Demonstration at Frank Garvey's Theater Concrete SOMA SF.
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Robert Strange wrote Domino Falls music and lyrics and handed me the vocal duties. I came up with a three part harmony that reminded me of the Andrew Sisters but we went with me singing two part for the pioneering D.I.Y. music video we made with my art and animation and Hugh's AVID chops. Domino Falls premiered on Dirk Dirksen's SF TV cable show "Video Potpourri" Dec. 1996.
For the CD we decided to enjoy the opportunity to invite Sommer to sing the melody on Domino Falls, me on harmony which is what you'll hear with this player above. Later we sang it for Live Product Demonstration, the last live mixed media event by the complete original band of loons.
For the CD we decided to enjoy the opportunity to invite Sommer to sing the melody on Domino Falls, me on harmony which is what you'll hear with this player above. Later we sang it for Live Product Demonstration, the last live mixed media event by the complete original band of loons.
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Marisol
written by José Rivera produced @ Life on the Water "Michael Woody's rich sound design keeps up a steady, ominous growl or eerie wind beneath the action, when it isn't regaling us with an uplifting Renaissance motet or pulsing, Philip Glass-like runs." Robert Hurwitt SF Examiner July 1, 1996 Marisol written by José Rivera produced @ Life on the Water "Orestes, director Watt creates a blown-out, freaky-deaky atmosphere, with much help from Marsha Ginsberg's set, Rand Ryan's inventive lighting, and Michael Woody's sound design." Dennis Harvey SF Bay Guardian July 1, 1996 |
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Scenes From An Execution
written by Howard Barker produced @ Brauva Theater "Michael Woody's sound offers squalling experimental jazz and tinkly cocktail standards that sometimes drown out the dialogue." Dennis Harvey SF Bay Guardian September 4, 1996 |
"Directed by Kenn Watt and designed by Sandra Woodall (sets and costumes), Kate Boyd (lighting), and Michael Woody (sound), with projections by Woodall and Ed Gaible (who also produced), this Scenes is a feast for the senses as well as the intellect. Everything is engineered to rouse the audience, to keep us alert, awake, and mindful."
Mari Coates
SF Weekly
August 28, 1996
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To appreciate this track "Prelude To An Execution" it would help to know the script. Sorry. This started Act 1 Scene 1 and I recall being tasked to write something that might convey themes from the show. I recorded some dialogue performed by Fifth Floor stalwarts Kenn Watt and Ed Gaible, acting like art critics pontificating with suspicion, and wove it into a ridiculously over the top Wendy Carlosesque fanfare that just doesn't know when to quit. |
Videophone Day @ San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
Local News coverage of the SF MOMA event. Long hair, red shirt, you can't miss me. The last clip of the segment is an endorsement I took seriously. |
In 1992 Ulysses Jenkins is pioneering videophones as social media, not waiting 25 years for the technology to catch-up, allowing you to watch this on your "smartphone" now and again.
Local ABC news segment promoting Ulysses Jenkins and his installation for Video Phone Day at SF MOMA, 1992 which connected kids from Oakland in real-time to The Electronic Cafe in Santa Monica and an outpost in Hudson Bay using dedicated phone lines for slow-scan video (1 still frame every 20 secs, or so) and audio. I was on loan from the Exploratorium, engineered the broadcast from SF MOMA . Ulysses was at Exploratorium through a residency well worth describing. Soon. |
Speaking of music on kpfa 1989-1992
Speaking of Music Host Charles Amirkhanian Produaced @ Exploratorium "Overseen by an exceptionally credentialed Exploratorium staff of composers, instrumentalists, radio technicians, and sound engineers, including Pete Richards, Pamela Winfrey, and Michael Woody, and hosted by Charles Amirkhanian, music director of KPFA radio, Speaking of Music is a fascinating forum for conversations between musicians and Amirkhanian and the attending audience." Derk Richardson SF Bay Guardian October 16, 1991 Ustad Ali Akbar Khan- Speaking of Music Jai Uttal -Speaking of Music David Byrne - Speaking of Music Najma - Speaking of Music Susan Stone – Speaking of Music Bernard Heidsieck - Speaking of Music Trimpin - Speaking of Music Jin Hi Kim - Speaking of Music Marilyn Crispell & Leroy Jenkins - Speaking of Music Robert Dick – Speaking of Music David Lang - Speaking of Music Pamela Z – Speaking of Music Alan Hovhaness -Speaking of Music Alvin Curran - Speaking of Music Astor Piazolla – Speaking of Music P.A.I.R. Vanessa Ament Maggi Payne - Speaking of Music Frederic Rzewski -Speaking of Music |
From 1989 until it ended in 1992, in addition to being the facilities manger where we recorded I was the Assistant Sound Engineer for Speaking of Music which was broadcast locally on KPFA radio. The last show in the series, featuring Ustad Ali Akbar Kahn, was at the Palace of Fine Arts Theater next to the Exploratorium and for that I was the primary Sound Engineer. Having grown up in the 1960's listening to his recordings with Ravi Shankar this was an honor, a pure delight.
To the Left are the recordings I participated in, in backwards chronology starting with Ustad Ali Akbar Kahn. |
newsman 1999
"Newsman 1999 An in-house production by the Climate Theatre staff featuring a few flat cutout puppets and props in front of computer animations projected onto the back scrim. The theme: "If you don't like the news go out and make some of your own" (local newscaster Scoop Nisker) and "You furnish the pictures and I'll furnish the war." (W.R. Hearst). I was intrigued by the animation and the news (casters) war of the future, complete with topical references, i.e. Saddam Co Gas Station (laughter). A good opener for Chico's beyond human puppets." -Betty Hart Below is the show tape as projected so not only are all of the puppet performances missing it's flipped backwards. We're lucky anything exists.
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The Exploratorium contributed greatly to this production. Besides McBean Theater late at night to create it all we used scaffolding, curtains and the RP screen used at Climate Theatre. Staff also helped with puppet design and set manufacturing for the video.
L.B.J.
written by Jamal Williams
produced @ Lorraine Hansberry Theater
"Eric Sinkkoren's stark set, Michael Woody's sound design and Stephanie Johnson's lighting add considerably to this highly recommended production."
Gene Price
Coming Up!
February 11, 1986
All Night Long written by John O'Keefe produced @ Encore Theater "Director Kenn Watt has cleverly succeeded in keeping this barrage of non sequitur vignettes interesting enough and never boring; he is greatly aided by the solidity of David Maier's detailed stage set and Michael Woody's sound design." Staff Coming Up! July 11, 1987 |
Accidental Death of an Anarchist
written by Dario Fo produced @ Eureka Theater "There is a good deal of rowdy vaudevillian fighting, beautifully choreographed by Michael Cavetti, and soundman Michael Woody creates a splendid explosion with light effects by Kurt Landisman." Nancy Scott Coming Up! November 9, 1984 |
fan Mail
Renderosity.com is an 3d artists community and marketplace I've been affiliated with since near its start. There I published a tutorial, "1+1=3D", illustrating a method I devised using "hobbyist" software that may yet revolutionize the world for a few job titles in the vast world of 3D animation. A fellow going by Talisman wrote a comment that startled me to receive.
Talisman 9:48AM Wed, 14 January 2009 "I worked as an photo interpreter for the U.S. Army, and we used stereoscopic viewers, which basically facilitated the cross-eyed view for 3D. In that faux-3D environment, I recall that I only see one, composite image, but a lot of eye-strain and headache goes with the technique. This, too, diminishing over time, however. "In the parallel viewing technique, I see one, nice 3D view, and the two satellite 2D views on either side. Once you can stabilize and hold the 3D view, you can easily switch between all three views. I think what is easy for one is maybe not so easy for another, so 3D glasses may be the ticket for those who find it harder to do without assistance. "I know, in my stint of military service, that I could generate any 3D view with just the sight of the appropriately-spaced 2D views but some of my fellow interpreters needed the stereoscopic viewer to create the 3D image. To each their own, I say. If the use of Open GL eyeglasses would help, then maybe that should be pursued. "The technique that the author of this tutorial tries to present, successfully, I think, is that, for some people, no aids are needed using these views. You can see 3D in real time, with camera motion. You do not have to render anything to see the views; I can generate a 3D view of the manikin on this website by just focusing properly on it, thru both cross-eye and parallel techniques. I also recognize that this is not necessarily possible for all people. "In the service, some people, who wanted to be photo interpreters, simply couldn't see in 3D and so failed the qualifying entry tests. So Kuro's point is worth noting: other tools to view the 3D-ness of this technique may be needed for some people. "I think, however, that Eye (that's me) has done us a valuable service when showing us how to create the camera setup. All that is left to us as users is to find the way of emulating the 3D image from this useful perspective. I am curious, however, to see how making a movie using two cameras would actually work; a walking sketch would be ever-so-nice with some of my favorite models!" |
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