Sam Huxter

Writer, performer and sound designer

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Welcome, nutty

This is the online home of revered sound designer and performer, Sam Huxter. “Who”, you ask? Wrong. It’s “whom”. As in, "whom do you speak of?"

Keep scrolling down and you will see posts about my work with sound, in reverse chronological order. I’ve also split these up into separate pages, for each show I’ve worked on (see above). There is also a link to my acting and performance CV. Just click ‘Performance’. Happy reading! 

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Infected Minds

Throughout August and September 2019, I designed the sound for ‘Infected Minds’, a devised piece based on Shakespeare’s Macbeth. The performance was showcased at the Ravensfield Theatre, Middlesex University. I also operated sound for the production.

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Features the song ‘The Path’ by Zoë Keating (as chosen by movement director, Kelly Horne)

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Features the song ‘Seafood’ by Beaty Heart

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Dream sequences

The tracks that were chosen for each dream sequence. I have also included Roy Orbison's 'In Dreams', which was used as pre/post-show music.

Sam Huxter · Infected Minds dream sequences

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Music references

Since it was suggested that some music would be needed to underscore movement sequences, I set about compiling a playlist of potential tracks. Eventually I picked out tracks that would create contrast in the worlds of the three dreams. In hindsight, I would have spent less time creating this playlist. It might have been easier to put forward ideas on the spot, in the rehearsal room, although this wasn’t a possibility as I was working remotely.

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Initial meetings

I joined the Infected Minds project after a meeting with director Bronwen Sharp, and movement director Kelly Horne. Bronwen and Kelly had developed an idea for the play, and would lead on the project, in collaboration with designers and performers.

Their initial idea was inspired by Shakespeare’s Macbeth, and the science of dreams. Bronwen and Kelly proposed to me that there would be three dream sequences, and that each would require backing music for a physical score. The dreams were as follows:

- An underwater dream, where the central character is swimming with fish. - A forest nightmare, where the protagonist is tormented by three witches. - A disorienting nightclub dream.

Between the dreams, my sounds would help to suggest the monotonous reality of the protagonist’s everyday life. 

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King Ubu

In the second year of BA Theatre Arts, our core module focussed on collaborative theatre making. We were split into three groups, and were to perform an interpretation of Alfred Jarry’s ‘Ubu Roi’ (King Ubu), For this project, I worked as an actor and sound designer, with a special interest in how music and sound could enhance the dramaturgy of the piece. Below is a selection of key moments from the process.

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Production images from King Ubu, Grove Studio 2, Middlesex University (2018).

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‘King Ubu’ (in the style of ‘Little Boxes’ by Malvina Reynolds)

An example of a song which we refashioned, as a protest from the Barmpots (the storytelling squatters). Others included:

- ‘We’re Gonna Tear Ubu Down’, based on Lead Belly’s ‘Mr Hitler’. - ‘What Shall We Do With a Drunken Ubu?’, a variation of the popular sea-shanty.

Lyrics by Shannon Topliss and Rebecca Stewart.

King Ubu in his castle, King Ubu, the king of everything, Steals your money, kills your family, And has no shame at all.

He killed the real king and his family, And there’s one prince left to save us all, From Pa Ubu and his army, And Ma Ubu wants it all.

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For a scratch performance, we created a physical sequence using this version of ‘La famiglia dei gobbon’, as chosen by our director, Ivan Loboda. The song is a popular folk chant from the areas surrounding Venice, and tells the comical story of a family of hunchbacks.

The song greatly inspired my research into folk music and the traditions of songs; particularly their links to specific places. Regrettably, I made the decision not to have any prerecorded music or sound effects in the final show, and so we performed this scene without music. While we managed to create a riotous party atmosphere, through our voices and movement, I feel now that something was lacking (in retrospect). The music brought a higher level of energy to earlier versions of the scene. 

My decision was mostly out of balancing my workload, as an actor/sound designer. However, I also felt that it was justified to only use acoustic sound, tying in with our context of a group of squatters telling a piece of old folklore. I now think, looking back, that a couple of prerecorded tracks wouldn’t have sounded out of place. 

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This orchestral version of Aphex Twin’s Cock/ver10, performed by Alarm Will Sound, became a key moment in the development of my sound design. The fast-paced music paired with the classical instruments sound cartoonish, and remind me of The Simpsons’ theme.  The very fact that this song had been reimagined using an orchestra, instead of electronic composition techniques, inspired my later ideas in repurposing classic folk songs.

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Initial ideas and musical reference points

Our production process for King Ubu started with a series of seminars to give us inspiration for collaborative theatre making. These included discussions on Dada and Surrealism. During a session on Dada, we explored sound poetry and noise, creating our own house band and using instruments in unfamiliar ways. 

In another design meeting, we developed some concepts, and cartoons were mentioned. A lot of my early sound ideas looked at cartoon sound effects, and I was influenced by electronic artists such as Aphex Twin and Rustie, who both create quite frenetic, glitchy music. 

We moved towards a more rustic, folk-inspired sound later on in the project, so this is also reflected in my Spotify playlists. Some songs such as ‘Little Boxes’ and ‘Mr Hitler’ were recreated for the performance, with new lyrics. 

Here is the full playlist of music, which influenced my sound design:

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Loveplay

In my first year of university, I designed the sound for our group’s production of Loveplay by Moira Buffini. Below, I outline some of our process, including concept development, and techical aspects such as programming sound effects, working with mics, and using reverb to suggest vastly different spaces.

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Part of our Q Lab sound tracklist - this was built up using a mix of prerecorded tracks and sound effects, layered up to produce ambient soundscapes.

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A playlist of our prerecorded tracks for Loveplay.

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The developed audio for the backing music in scene 8, taken from a trailer for Alfred Hitchcock’s ‘The Lodger’. I used methods inspired by chopped-and-screwed hip hop remixes - slowing the tempo right down and playing the same track again, delayed by a beat. This gave it a surreal, dream-like quality.

I created the original audio file from a YouTube video, so the sound quality was very poor. I didn’t anticipate this, as it was a WAV file, and I assumed this would be of a good quality. Unfortunately, when we came to mix the track, we couldn’t raise the volume levels without the track sounding distorted (although this happened in the actual show and I found it strangely effective). This means that the track is very quiet and hard to distinguish, when you listen to it.