Written for Slaughter City by Naomi Wallace, directed by Kaiser Ahmed, produced by Jackalope Theater.  For this design, I assigned an instrument to each character.  The octave mandolin represented the workers, the main violin is Cod, and the secondary violin is Cod's mother.  Written and recorded by Marisa J. Barnes.  Violins: Marisa J. Barnes, octave mandolin and bass: Adam Dennison.

Slaughter City - Finale

This is a selection of the themes written for Slaughter City by Naomi Wallace, directed by Kaiser Ahmed, produced by Jackalope Theater.  For this design, I assigned an instrument to each character; the first vocal/violin line is the Textile Worker, the main violin line is Cod, the concertina is the Sausage Man, the bass is Tuck, the electric violin is Roach, and the octave mandolin represents the workers.  The words for "Slave Song" were written by Naomi Wallace, the actors sang it live (the recording is a demo I made to teach them the parts) over the recorded "hums" bed.  All music written and recorded by Marisa J. Barnes.  Violins, vocals, and Reason instruments: Marisa J. Barnes, octave mandolin and bass: Adam Dennison.

Slaughter City Themes (Selected)

This is an unused piece I composed for the 10-minute play "That First Fall"; during tech we decided that a modern pop-rock song was more appropriate for the characters than evoking the first falling of leaves.  Composed and performed by Marisa J. Barnes; live guitar, bass, and keys with percussion programmed in Reason.

That First Fall

This went through a long scene that was set at a festival, and cut between various mini-scenes at different locales in the festival.  You can hear about 10 seconds of each one.  Some scenes were supposed to be closer to each other than others, so they would have the same bird in the background.

House of Home - Festival Ambiance

This was the ambiance of the kill floor, where the meat was hung and moved via chains.  The double bell signaled a break, the single bell signaled for returning to work and the end of that scene.  We then moved to the managers office, where he was listening to music on an old clock-radio.  The chains continued for a bit to mask the sounds of stage-hands moving meat props that were on actual chains.  At one point, the manager starts speaking of his aspirations for his workers and his position over them, at which point the music's sound quality changes to reflect that sentiment, and then brings us back to reality.

Slaughter City - Kill Floor to Manager Office

This underscored a character's speech as she spoke about wanting to be an undersea creature.  The director wanted a loud sound at the end to shock her out of her reverie.

Underwater Ambiance

In the Slaughter City, we had two different scenes that were in different locker rooms, but there was limited space onstage so we had to have both locker rooms in the same area, the only difference between them being that the men's had a loud vent, and the women's had a dripping shower.  In the women's scene, one character has a long speech about something that happened in her childhood next to a river, so I turned the drip into a river to underscore that speech.

Slaughter City - Locker Rooms

"And A Child Shall Lead" by Michael Slade, directed by Laura Luc, performed at the Here Arts Center.  A story about children in the Terezin concentration camp.  Medley of underscores and themes, using toy piano.  Written and recorded by Marisa J. Barnes.

"And A Child Shall Lead" Toy Piano Medey

"Long Way Go Down" Written by Zayd Dorhn, directed by Kaiser Ahmed, produced by Jackalope Theatre.  Medley of transitions.  Written and recorded by Marisa J. Barnes.

Marisa J. Barnes

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