Signal To Noise Podcast
The Signal to Noise podcast features conversations with people from all corners of the live sound industry, from FOH and monitor engineers, tour managers, Broadway sound designers, broadcast mixers, system engineers, and more.
Signal To Noise Podcast
258. Theatre Sound Designer ien DeNio
Over the Fourth of July holiday, Andy teamed up with some Signal to Noise guest host alumni, as Kate Foretek pulled up the co-host chair once more to hang with previous guest host, theatrical sound designer and live foley artist ien DeNio. The jam-packed episodes includes tales of travel hijinks, pounding beers as part of a puppet show sound design and much more. This episode is sponsored by Allen & Heath and RCF.
ien DeNio is a New York City-based trans non-binary sound designer who sought refuge in theatre after college oboe studies led to a falling out with Mozart and — a couple decades later — hasn’t looked back since. ien’s career has taken them to theatres all over the world, from Israel to Broadway to Cedar City, Utah and beyond as associate, designer, composer, and live sound effect artist.
Kate Foretek is a NYC-based sound engineer with extensive experience as mixer, A2, and associate designer on and off-Broadway, as well as in the corporate and Broadcast realms, including the Broadway productions of Waitress and Chicago, and broadcasts of the Tony Awards, MTV VMAs, Kennedy Center Honors, Dick Clark’s Rockin’ New Year’s Eve, and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction.
Episode Links:
ien DeNio’s Sound Monkie Designs
PUPPETCINEMA’s Planet Egg
NASA – Crab Nebula Sonification
The Sounds of Star Wars — J. W. Rinzler
WALL·E — Animation Sound Design: Building Worlds from the Sound Up
Jimmy MacDonald (legendary Disney sound effects artist) on David Letterman
Disney Family Album — Jimmy MacDonald
Episode 224 - Lindsay Jones with Guest Co-Host ien Denio
Episode 258 Transcript
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Signal To Noise, Episode 258 Theatre Sound Designer ien DeNio
Note: This is an automatically generated transcript, so there might be mistakes--if you have any notes or feedback on it, please send them to us at signal2noise@prosoundweb.com so we can improve the transcripts for those who use them!
Voiceover: You’re listening to Signal to Noise, part of the ProSoundWeb podcast network, proudly brought to you this week by the following sponsors:
Allen & Heath, introducing their new CQ series, a trio of compact digital mixers for musicians, bands, audio engineers, home producers, small venues, and installers that puts ease of use and speed of setup at the heart of the user experience.
RCF, who has just unveiled their new TT+ Audio brand, including the high performance GTX series line arrays and the GTS29 subwoofer. Be sure to check it out at rcf-usa.com. That's rcf-usa.com.
Music: “Break Free” by Mike Green
Andy Leviss: Hey, everybody. Welcome to another episode of Signal to Noise. I'm your host, Andy Leviss, and with me in the co host chair is a surprise guest co host, the one, the only, my better half, Mrs. Kate Foretek. What's up, Kate?
Kate Foretek: Oh God, I guess I did get the MRS degree, didn't I?
Andy Leviss: You did just, uh, for, for those who, for those who aren't in the Discord or we're not friends with on Facebook and don't know, Kate and I, after threatening to do so for a long time, actually done went and got married last week.
Kate Foretek: We did.
Andy Leviss: So again, we're a little bit nepotistic on this week's episode, but here we are. But,
Kate Foretek: it's only cause Sean is off doing more fun things, I think.
Andy Leviss: yeah, Sean's, I don't think he's directly blowing things up, but he's helping accompany things getting blown up, uh, for, uh, American Impertinence Day,
Kate Foretek: That's definitely more fun.
Andy Leviss: yeah, or Independence Day, if, uh, if you take that approach to it.
That's about as political as we'll get. Um, So, yeah, so, uh, Sean, Sean was out, and, uh, Kate and I were hanging, and our guest is a good friend of ours, and Kate has some experience in one of the subjects we wanted to talk with this guest, so, since folks seem to like her almost as much as I do when she was on last time, I invited Kate to hop on the laptop in the room next door and join us.
Kate Foretek: And we have ien with us. ien DiNeo.
ien DeNio: De-nigh-oh.
Kate Foretek: DeNio, xsorry.
ien DeNio: It's all good. It's, it's one of those things that always happens.
Andy Leviss: so, yeah, I mean, lis listeners kinda know you, but ien, you wanna real quick introduce yourself, give us your pronouns, uh, to give us the quick and dirty on who you are.
ien DeNio: Hi, I'm ien Denayo. Um, uh, it's ien, not Len. It's, but it's spelled I E N, but I'm not a plumber. It's cool. Uh, I, uh, use they, them pronouns. I live in New York in Brooklyn with my two cats, Jess and JM. Um, I've been a theatrical sound, I've, I counted the other day and it turns out that I did, uh, my first show 20 years ago this fall and, uh, have been working in the New York area and regionally, uh, for the last 17 years.
Kate Foretek: 20 years. Damn.
ien DeNio: Yeah. No, it's not a thing. It didn't happen. It's not
Andy Leviss: I don't understand this.
ien DeNio: Magic!
Andy Leviss: So, yeah, ien was with us, uh, back in the early, early days and it was like this, maybe the third episode I hosted as, uh, as a kind of guest co host and, uh, fellow poker funner at, uh, Lindsay Jones.
ien DeNio: He is, is good for poking fun and for very good, uh, uh, stories. Like, the weirdest things happen to that man.
Andy Leviss: oh, yeah, no, I, I think it needs to be a semi annual thing that just Lindsey comes on and like story time with Lindsey.
ien DeNio: Oh, definitely. And, and there are rumors about a show, so like, yeah, you can
Andy Leviss: Um, yeah, I, I know his, I know his workshop, I, I'm trying to, I think he even mentioned a little bit about it when, when we were all, when we were all last gathered here. Um, but when, when we were doing that show, one of the things we talked about, Uh, and intro you before we intro Lindsey was your background in theater and particularly that you do a lot of, uh, Foley, uh, particularly for live theater.
And that was really cool. Uh, folks who remember, we won't necessarily get into that particular story, but I'll link in the show notes to that episode so you can hear about ien nearly getting, uh, banned from, uh, foreign travel for trying to smuggle, uh, was it white powder into a foreign country?
ien DeNio: Oh, no, it was, it was, it was, uh, fireworks, pertinent, and, um, uh, and, uh, uh, a container, a large container of lighter, uh, lighter fluid.
Andy Leviss: Okay, this is a different story because the story we told on the podcast was, I think it was like cornstarch or baby powder or something.
ien DeNio: Okay, yeah, that went Ha ha
Andy Leviss: though, I think I know where
Kate Foretek: travel in general.
Andy Leviss: starting. I mean, being our 4th of July episode, tell us about the fireworks.
ien DeNio: Okay, so, um, I did a short stint as a technical director slash stage manager slash tech crew slash, you know, that person for a small Chinese opera theater company in Queens. And the company was constructed of humans who spoke Cantonese, um, Mandarin and English. Oddly enough, Japanese and, uh, me. And I don't speak Kandarin or Mandarin or Cantonese or Mandarin, sorry.
Um, and, uh, I was the only white person available on this, uh, journey. And, uh, so I was speaking this weird combination of really bad Japanese and English to this one company member who would then translate for everybody else. Okay. So we arrived at. The airport and divvied up all the bags because of course we had our, our costumes and props and everything.
And, uh, went ready to go to, through, to security. And, uh, I said, you know, everybody's good. Everybody has what they need and doesn't have what they don't need. Yes. And everything was good. The
Kate Foretek: Except.
ien DeNio: the maienian who very much did not speak anything and, and, and, uh, anything but Mandarin, I believe. And very much did not listen to me.
Um, started going through security and like every bell started going off every single one. And I was like, Oh God, this is not good. Um, okay. So I walked over and of course I'm not supposed to interfere. So we, uh, we got off on the wrong foot immediately, but it turns out that, He had a, like, 16 ounce bottle of, uh, lighter fluid, uh, that was the tip of the iceberg, and they were like, you can't have this, and I was
Kate Foretek: definitely over the three ounce
ien DeNio: yeah, yeah.
Andy Leviss: is that even allowed under the limit?
ien DeNio: I was like, go, go, go, go, um, and then he was like, and there are Chinese fireworks, and I was like, Oh, well, yeah, I mean, that's you can have those two if you must have them. That's fine. He was like, yeah, we're taking them. And I was like, okay, great.
Kate Foretek: Emotional
ien DeNio: and there's this pot. Huh?
Kate Foretek: Emotional support fireworks? Is that a thing?
Andy Leviss: It is now.
ien DeNio: And he goes, and there's this pot. And I was like, okay, and and it's, it's just this little metal pot with a black plastic handle on top. And they're like, There's something in it. And I was like, okay. And they took off the lid and there was nothing in it. And I was like, okay. And they were like, but there's something in it.
And I was like, it's a, he's a, he's a magicien. It's a magic trick. Can he do it for you so you can see what's in it? He was like, no, he can't touch it. And I was like, okay. Um, I don't know how to fix this situation if he can't touch it because he's a magicien. I don't know the trick. Um, and he was like, oh, I have to go talk to my superiors.
And so he went. Over to the left and I was like, do the trick, do the trick, do the trick. And finally he understood what was going on and he did the trick real quick and the guy like bustled back over and looked down and it was, um, children's little stuffed keychains but with, um, the little keychain was the ball chain.
So they were seeing in the image all of these little ball chain,
Kate Foretek: Oh, God.
Andy Leviss: shrapnel.
ien DeNio: um, and he looked, he just, He glared at me so hard, um, but we did the trick. We got through everything and I got gathered everybody and we're walking away and one of my actors go, What? Did he think we had a bomb?
And I was like, that's it.
Kate Foretek: Yep.
ien DeNio: it. We're never getting to Seattle.
Andy Leviss: Nope. You said the word out loud. You said the word out
ien DeNio: He said the word. Uh, um, yeah, it was, it was an interesting little trip there. And, uh, then they lost our bags and we had to go to New Hampshire overnight and it was, it was great. It was all sorts of exciting.
Kate Foretek: Oh, man.
ien DeNio: You know, theater weirdos, weirdnesses, and also travel day weirdnesses.
Always, always extra, extra
Andy Leviss: And I, I, I mean, I understand why you and Lindsey get along now.
ien DeNio: wrong. Not wrong. And the, the, the, the white powder was, uh, was corn starch in Israel. That was fun.
Andy Leviss: Yeah, that was the one I was thinking of, which, which we'll link back to that episode for folks who want that whole story. But um, from that one though, I think maybe we should rewind and uh, and uh, talk about like so how, like how much of your work does involve like Foley or Foley esque stuff and like how did that end up becoming like a particular specialty or special interest of yours?
ien DeNio: Um, so in
Andy Leviss: Or, you know what, actually, sorry, before we do that, should we pause and for, for the folks who don't know, should we explain when we use the term fully what it may mean, because I imagine Sean sitting at home being like, what does world wrestling have to do with this?
ien DeNio: I'm in. I'm in. I'm totally in. So Foley Art is, um, is what is generally used in film, um, and TV to do to re record the sound effects after production. Um, and what they do is they in a, in a fun studio, they just use toys and objects and whatnot to, Uh, re put in all of the sound effects, um, and it's quiet and they do like a bazillion frickin layers and all of the craziness, um, and I, you know, I heard one story of like 300 layers for a Pot or something.
It was, it was very strange. I don't know. Um, but, um, so what I do is I do it more for radio style theater. Um, and then I, uh, I, I originally did it for radio and then pulled it over into live theater. Um, and. What we do is we just have objects to create live sound effects and amplify it from there. Um, these objects are all sorts of like crazy stuff that I find, um, things sold for the purpose, machines that I've pulled from archives and built, um, all sorts of wonderful amazingness.
There's a, um, There's a documentary at the end of WALL E with, um, yeah, with Bill going, yeah, Bert, thank you, yeah, Bert going into the, um, archives at Disney. Disney had a wonderful Foley artist, and actually there are some David Letterman spots, um, with this artist, um, whose name is escaping me right now, going on, um, I don't know if you've heard of him.
on the late night show and showing people Foley art live with his
Kate Foretek: so cool.
ien DeNio: and it's great. It's wonderful. And he's so cool. Um, and like one of the things that he shows is, um, his old wallet. He had a wallet for the longest time and it's leather and it's broken in and whatnot. And it creaks like the best thing that you've ever.
Creaked, and he just like has it for creaks.
Kate Foretek: I was gonna say that's super convenient, because you're usually always carrying your wallet, so why not make it a working piece as well?
ien DeNio: there you go. Exactly. Um, anyway, there's so, um, Burt went into the archives and they have at Disney a bunch of the old machines that were made for Um, for the, uh, silent cartoons before vocal work, uh, or actor vocal work. Um, and they're the coolest things. Um, and from that, from that documentary, I pulled I think I only ever actually built one. But I built a sound effect from that. Um. a fly, a little fly, um, instrument that I can play.
Kate Foretek: That's awesome.
ien DeNio: the original was an old wooden, old spool, one of those big old wooden spools with a rubber tubing from it. And, uh, I built it with a PVC pipe that I put caps on both ends, uh, and a tube out one end and a small hole in the top of the other end and a dental dam. And you put the dental dam over the hole, um, and secure it around and then blow and The air squeezes out kind of like, um, uh, holding a balloon, uh, tail and making that squeaky noise. Same sort of effects on, for a fly and you can play a fly buzzing.
Kate Foretek: That's really cool. I really wish that you had that thing so we could hear it.
ien DeNio: I know. I don't have it on me. I'm sorry. I'm in Utah.
It's
Andy Leviss: we've caught ien in the field, so, so unfortunately we don't have demonstrations of these, but that'll just give us an excuse to have you back on another
Kate Foretek: it's true,
ien DeNio: There we go. And we'll, and I'll pull, I'll, I'll bring toys or I can take pictures too. Maybe I can do some of the recording, something like that. Anyway, we'll it out.
Kate Foretek: ien, just for like clerical purposes, I looked it up while we were talking because I was like, that's not right. It, we, you were right. It's Ben Burtt. It's not, yeah, you were right. I was using a last name. You were using the first name. You were good
ien DeNio: good. All good. Um, I also have from him, uh, has everybody seen the Sounds of Star Wars book?
Kate Foretek: to God. Yes. Wait, it's a book. I saw a documentary, I
Andy Leviss: No, there's, there's a, I actually was, I was at the launch for the book
ien DeNio: Oh my God.
Andy Leviss: with him. Uh, it was at a Disney celebration that my half brother, uh, basically was like, Hey, I don't really like flying. I want to go down to Orlando from New Jersey and I'm going to take the 24 hour train ride to go. And I was like, that's a terrible idea.
You shouldn't do it yourself. I'll go with you. And so it went to a Disney celebration years and years, like 15 something years ago, and it was the year that book came out. And, uh, yeah, like ien, why don't you go and describe what the book is, because it's super cool.
ien DeNio: It's so cool. The book is It's like 200 pages. It's this wonderful glossy thing. Do y'all remember from like the nineties, those, um, sing along, uh, sound effect along sing along storybooks where they have like a pad of, uh, buttons that would play a sound effect, like a little clip of somebody Um, vocal recording or whatnot.
This is kind of the same thing, only it's a bank. So it's got a book that's like 200 pages and a bank of sounds. And as you read through, you can hear all the sound effects that they're talking about. And it's all these great stories of Ben Burtt doing like. Those, all those fantastic stories that I'm sure all y'all have heard, um, some of, but, um, to create the sound effects of Star Wars, um, which include a lot of, like, foley work and on location recording sound of, of Performances of effects and then create it and then manipulating them in post to create the sounds.
And so like, that's very similar to what I do. But I mostly do it in a live context. So I don't do any post production or anything like that. For the most part on it. Sometimes I do some live processing, but, um, uh, sing, usually. My max is four sound effects at once, I think, um, that I can manage to do while standing there on stage in front of a table.
It's great. And
Kate Foretek: becomes its own like performance piece on its own.
ien DeNio: it does, it really does. And I, I have, like, I have a script. I have all these, I have, I have lines I have memorized and entrances and exits and all of that fun jazz. And, um, I, I've done a production of, um, the Christmas, Oh my gosh.
Kate Foretek: Christmas Carol.
ien DeNio: Uh, uh, It's a Wonderful
Kate Foretek: Story. Oh, got it. Nice.
ien DeNio: Wonderful Life, um, radio style. I was dressed up as Rosie the Riveter.
It was great. And did the whole show, um, from stage left. And performed it live. That was a lot of fun. Um, done a whole bunch of other different stuff. I got into it because, um, this wonderful human called Ross Wade, um, who I went to school with. I went to Sarah Lawrence college, came up to me. I don't know if it was, I think it was like 2025 or so, maybe 2026.
Um, and he was like, I want to do radio shows. Do you want to do sound effects? And I was like, oh, I have no idea what that entails. Sure, why not? Um, and
Kate Foretek: most of us got into it.
ien DeNio: yeah,
Kate Foretek: I don't know what that is. Um, sure.
ien DeNio: And very quickly got obsessed with collecting anything that makes noise. Any little fidget toy, any little, uh, like, There, I have antique sound effects.
I have, uh, created sound effects from, um, from archives. I have, um, well, one of my favorite places to shop is the, uh, the children's, uh, distraction toys at grocery stores. I've gotten some really cool sounds from that stuff. Um, and just like I, I'm, I'm kind of terrible to go shopping with and anywhere that isn't clothing related because like I will, I will poke things and make things like make funny noises and be like, Oh my God, it's so good.
Kate Foretek: Must have.
ien DeNio: Yeah, um, I have a small collection and by small, I mean, it's a little ridiculous of whistles and bells. Um, I have a squeak board that I made in college
Kate Foretek: What's a squeakboard?
ien DeNio: a squeak board. Yay! A squeak board is a small, uh, mine is, is relatively small. It's, uh, a piece of Luan, square piece of Luan in a, um, display. Uh, sort of clamp that is a stand and two side pieces and, uh, Two blocks of wood on either side holding the Luan.
So it's not actually attached to each other it's just like kind of assembled. In the middle of the Luan is a uh, an attachment point with a string of cotton, slightly thick string, and then I take a cotton piece of muslin is what I got, put the Rosin in the muslin and you clamp the, uh, fabric around the string and pull and it resonates through the luan and create, you can play a creak or a
Kate Foretek: basically made your own instrument, like your own violin, because that's a very similar technique, but like, but out of, but to, for the purpose of making a creak. That's
ien DeNio: hmm. It's a lot of
Andy Leviss: I'm, I'm picturing, like, those Chinese, like, stringed instruments that, like, they play on the subway sometimes.
ien DeNio: yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. I, uh, it's a lot of fun. It starts with a W, I think. Um, I don't have one of those. I have an old, um, Egyptien stringed instrument that kind of like, uh, does kind of similar things, but this one I built this, my, my squeak board I built in college, um, from, I don't know. I saw, I think I like saw beginning plan somewhere and then like extrapolated and came out with that.
And it's. It's been in my life for 20 years now
Kate Foretek: That's awesome.
ien DeNio: and it's in a closet.
Kate Foretek: I bet that you feel like, uh, correct me if I'm wrong here, but like the folks who are like professional cellists and stuff like that, like they end up having a very personal connection to their instruments. And I kind of wonder if you end up feeling the same way about things like a squeak board that you built 20 years ago, that you pull out every once in a while for a gig.
And then you're like, Oh, hi, old friend.
ien DeNio: Oh yeah. And like, um, one of my favorite questions to ask people is what is your favorite thing? And uh, a couple months ago I started asking that question. Someone asked me back and I was like, actually right now I have a squeak board and the sound that that squeak board makes that right there is my favorite thing.
Yeah.
Kate Foretek: That's awesome.
ien DeNio: It's great. It's so lovely. And I get attached to, you know, uh, uh, Actually, the most, uh, I guess like disposable sound effect that I have is, uh, you know, those slightly inflatable silicon balls that have the, the like tines on them that are little children's toys.
Kate Foretek: balls? Is that
ien DeNio: of kush, but they have, um, they have a center that is a hollow ball
Kate Foretek: Okay.
ien DeNio: with some amount of air in it, which you can activate. Which you can activate with the tines, so you can, you can play, if, based on how tightly you squeeze the ball of air, the tines will make sound in the air, will
Kate Foretek: That's awesome.
ien DeNio: Um, and I, uh, I used that for a UFO sound a couple times, a couple other things, but like, it started with a UFO. So, um, but those things are, uh, You know, give it, give it two years and they just start dying.
And so I get to a point where I'm like, but that one sounded so good. It has to go now.
Kate Foretek: Aww.
ien DeNio: I'm
Kate Foretek: Time for that one to go away. It got replaced with the newer version.
ien DeNio: Yeah.
Kate Foretek: I really, I feel like you need your own, um, Ben Bird style book that we can put together that has like a little bank on the side of buttons that we can like, yeah.
Andy Leviss: Like a website.
Kate Foretek: Yeah.
ien DeNio: I'm down. Uh,
Andy Leviss: I think we just designed ien's new website.
ien DeNio: Oh yeah. Oh, let's please, my website is so bad. I gotta work on
Andy Leviss: Hey, you have a website.
Kate Foretek: I mean that's fair.
Andy Leviss: Only reason I have a website is because there's this podcast.
ien DeNio: I love it. I love it. Um, I, uh, I have, uh, so one of the big performances that I did fully style was a puppet show called, uh, Planet Egg. Planet Egg was a, uh, one, uh, uh, sci fi B movie puppet show with puppets. We make in, uh, with puppets. One to three inches tall. And we make the movie in front of you, um, and project it live on the screen behind the actors.
So there, uh, there used to be two, it was Zvi Sahar is the mastermind behind this. Justin Perkins, amazing puppeteer, puppet creator, lovely artist, human, love him, um, and me. And, uh, they were, they stood on stage right with this Huge set up. We had a turntable and, and the whole planet egg was there. And then these tiny little puppets everywhere and little mushrooms.
They go shroom, shroom, shroom, shroom. Um, and, and then there's me on the other side. And, uh, I had this whole table of, you know, I had a wind machine. I had, uh, the squeak board. I had, um, a can, Arizona iced tea. Better resonance than standard because they're
Kate Foretek: Bigger, yeah.
ien DeNio: Um, uh, and Gak. I'm, I went through a process.
I now know how to make, um, the most sonically useful Gak and, uh, depending on the sound that you want to achieve.
Kate Foretek: Recipe, please.
ien DeNio: I so, like, I, I made basically Barbie, liquefied Barbie flesh in my kitchen for like a week straight, figuring out like
Kate Foretek: Wait, like you melted Barbies?
ien DeNio: No, it's just it, like the consistency. I know, right?
Andy Leviss: This sounds like Sean's childhood.
ien DeNio: Goals. Um, um, I, it's, uh, The perfect one, you can use borax, you can use liquid starch, um, uh, and corn starch and, um, other, other fun stuff, and glue. Um, And I did a bunch of experimenting to figure out the right thing. The best one that worked for me to make the slurpiest, like gooeyest kind of sound is, uh, liquid starch and white Elmer's glue, only white Elmer's glue.
I have a story about that in a second. Um, and. You mix it up, usually using a little bit more liquid starch than actually is ratio needed. Like, you really want to kind of block off all of the glue properties using the liquid starch, um, and then add just a hair more so it gets gloopier. Um, and, uh, Yeah, and then, uh, you, I put it in a container, just like a large Chinese food container, uh, soup container, and, uh, you put your hand in it and go to town and it makes, you remember Gak? You remember when they, Nickelodeon sold Gak?
Kate Foretek: I do.
ien DeNio: And you make little fart noises in the little splat container? Yeah, it's that kind of thing.
Kate Foretek: all great for all sorts of biological needs.
ien DeNio: Oh, yeah, totally. Very, very,
Kate Foretek: Sound needs. Excellent.
Andy Leviss: I was gonna say, everybody at home can just imagine Sean is here, like, panned off to the one side and inserting all the inappropriate jokes for us. You've got them all going in your heads right
ien DeNio: yeah, yeah. Um, and, uh, it made a really good. gooey noise when the robot got stuck in a yolk on planet egg.
Andy Leviss: And I have just located some, some web evidence and video of this, so I've scribbled a note to link to it in the show notes for folks who wanna, who wanna get at least some, some of an idea, if, if not the full live experience.
ien DeNio: Um, and, uh, so the story about Elmer's glue, Elmer's white glue only, is, uh, we took the show, Zvi is from Israel and he was over here for a couple of years and then went home and he The Israeli Consulate has an amazing arts and culture program and brought us over to Israel to the Holon Puppet Festival and we worked for a week.
Further developing the piece, um, but we shipped everything. We shipped the drum and all the puppets and everything over to Israel. So we shipped, um, all my sound effects with it, including the corn starch talk. Um, and, but we didn't ship the Gak because I was like, I will make Gak. I don't want the Gak. like getting everywhere because it does get everywhere.
I have, um, I have little yellow, I finally dyed the GAK yellow. Um, I have little yellow, like glue spots all over my equipment like splatter and stuff like that. It's great. Um, uh, so I was like, I'll just make it when I get there. Funny story. You cannot get Elmer's white glue in Israel. Um, At least you couldn't when I went.
Um, there was, it just was not available and I was like, okay, great, so let's try some other glue? Turns out, there's a proprietary difference from the, um, from the recipe for Elmer's white glue and every other white glue that is out there. And it interacts differently with the starch. And so for some reason I couldn't get any of the other white glue to seal.
So it just turned into like, Real messy instead of useful. Um, and I actually ended up making, I tried a bunch of different glues and it didn't work. And so I was like, okay, screw this noise. Um, and basically what I made was a bread dough,
Kate Foretek: Inedible bread dough.
ien DeNio: inedible, really soupy, gross bread dough. And over the course of the week, it so went rancid
Andy Leviss: Oof.
ien DeNio: and it was just in this like picture on my table.
It was, it was, it was. Highly disgusting to perform. It was great.
Kate Foretek: man.
ien DeNio: and, and I also had to use a tall boy cause we couldn't get Arizona iced tea. So I just like cracked open a beer on tape on, on the stage and then drank it. It was great.
Kate Foretek: I mean, at that point, when you're like, you know, when you can't find the glue that you need, you're like, Oh, thank God beer.
ien DeNio: There you go. I have the
Andy Leviss: It's like, I need a drink.
ien DeNio: Um, when the UFO opened, the sound involved a little can, uh, uh, Arizona iced tea, can pop,
Kate Foretek: Yeah.
ien DeNio: and then later. In the sequence, I crushed the can. So
Kate Foretek: to be empty.
ien DeNio: yeah, it, it, it was, it was actually written into the action that I had to slam a tall boy. It was great.
Kate Foretek: And the rest of the show just became that much more fun.
ien DeNio: Uh huh.
Andy Leviss: Nice work if you can get it.
ien DeNio: There you go. There you go.
Um.
Kate Foretek: So where are you now, ien? I don't think I got that part of the story.
ien DeNio: I am currently in Cedar City, Utah at, uh, the Utah Shakespeare Festival where I am doing the sound design for the Ains Theatre. We're doing two shows in rep, The Mountaintop and Silent Sky.
Kate Foretek: Nice.
ien DeNio: Um,
Andy Leviss: am a fellow USF alum. Way, way, 25, yeah, 25, somewhere around 24, 25 years ago.
ien DeNio: Yay, USF! Woo!
Andy Leviss: But it's a dry heat.
ien DeNio: Yeah, and everyone's like, yay, we're not in St. George, it's 10 degrees cooler, and I'm like, it's still a murder ball.
Andy Leviss: Oh, and I was, they housed me at, like, the, uh, the, like, apartment, like, townhouses they have that are, like, way, way across campus, where, like, they usually put people with cars, I did not have a car, although I did have rollerblades, so I would be, like, rollerblading across the Southern Utah University campus in, like, a hundred and ten degree,
ien DeNio: there you
Andy Leviss: 10 percent humidity weather.
ien DeNio: That sounds right. Yeah.
Andy Leviss: Yeah, that was special.
Kate Foretek: I'm now imagining you, like, in the Barbie movie. Like, in the scene where they're, like, rollerblading down the side of the beach in, like, the super 80s, like, colors.
Andy Leviss: Oh man. It was, it was the thing. And I was, um, what's the, I mean, I don't know if it's still there is, which is the more like modern theater there. Cause there was like the Shakespearean style theater. And then there was like the, like
ien DeNio: Oh, the Randall. Randall, Rent, Rob, yeah, Randall.
Andy Leviss: Yeah. The Randall. And like, it's, it's a round building with this like floor to ceiling glass walls, or at least it was 25 years ago.
I don't know if it still is.
ien DeNio: Oh, are you ta Oh, which one are you talking? Are you talking about the, there's the old Shakespeare theater, which is on actually on campus on the, um, on
Andy Leviss: Yeah, cause, cause there was, there was that, and then there was, like, the indoor, like, modern, like, air conditioned, that, like, did all the, like, all the comedies and, like, the musicals.
ien DeNio: Oh, okay. I think that's the Randall. It's not, it's roundish, but it's not, it's more proscenium styles as far as.
Andy Leviss: no, no, it was just the lobby was rounded,
ien DeNio: Oh yeah. No, that
Andy Leviss: Yeah, and it's got those big glass windows, and at least at the time, the lighting and sound booth was on the same thermostat as that big glass lobby, so everybody would be like 110 degree heat, like sweating their butt off and looking at me like a weirdo in like a heavy varsity jacket and a scarf and gloves in the booth, hitting go on, on a hateful stack of mini disc players, because that's how long ago it was.
Kate Foretek: my
ien DeNio: Oh,
Kate Foretek: I feel like we could all talk about, like, poor HVAC design
ien DeNio: poor HVAC design. Also MIDI disc players, CD
Kate Foretek: Oh, yeah.
Andy Leviss: lots, lots of poor industrial design in
ien DeNio: We're, um, so the Ains is, is like a, a black, a small black box. And, um, I actually have, uh, loaned out my spare hoodie our dramaturg. Uh, it's great.
Kate Foretek: Spoken like a true theater person.
ien DeNio: Oh yeah. We
Kate Foretek: and a backup.
ien DeNio: main and a backup. And, and everyone's like, it's so cold. And I'm like.
Don't, don't you know, you, you always bring a main and a backup cardigan or something like always.
Kate Foretek: Yes. Well, that's cool. Are you So you're sound designing there? Or are you doing your Foley work there? What's the
ien DeNio: I am sound designing and composing. It's all recorded. It is not fully work though. I have some fully recordings that I have, that I have made and then use and reprocess for other sound effects and stuff like that.
Kate Foretek: Totally. Cool. Awesome.
Andy Leviss: That's, I was gonna say that's kind of an area to dig into too, because that's the other way theater people use those techniques a lot, and I know Kate, you've like done a bunch of cool stuff like that over the years and in your design career
Kate Foretek: Yeah, I spent, like, unfortunately, like, I think the bulk of it that I did, like, never made it to air, so to speak, um, because the, my first show in New York was the, um, ill fated, uh, Rebecca, um, which, uh, as soon as they got the marquee up on the theater, uh, announced that they were not, uh, actually doing the show because the investors sort of lied about how much money they had.
Um, but, uh, at the time I'd been hired to, um, be the assistant sound designer and I was told, uh, all of the storm sounds and, like, also they're, you know, next to the cliffs, um, of an ocean and so you need all of the, like, wave crashing stuff and I was like, okay, what do I have? Um, I have a bathtub. Uh, so I think I spent an hour, um, playing Splish Splash in the bathtub, uh, recording it and, um, Um, and then, you know, processing it to get to the point where, um, now we're, you know, uh, emotionally representing this crazy woman's, uh, breakdown in storm form.
Yeah.
ien DeNio: there you go, there you go. I actually once did a production of, um, an adaptation of the book, Deliverance. And we did the Georgien wilderness, complete with whitewater rafting, drowning, death, all of that fun jazz. Um, In a, in theater C at 5090, 59. So what is a 20 by 20 space?
Kate Foretek: Yeah. It's small, right? Yeah.
ien DeNio: The stage was 16 by 16, I think, and black plexiglass floor and, uh, black plexiglass walls, uh, Merti Evans did a beautiful job.
A beautiful scenic and lighting design. It was freaking gorgeous. And the, um, costumes were, uh, just standard minimal and minimal props. Like they had a vest, like that's it. And we did the whole movie in that space. And so I used like a shit ton of bathtub time and other, other people's bathtub time, like all sorts of craziness.
Kate Foretek: You're like, you have a big bathtub and I only have a small apartment, New York bathtub. So,
ien DeNio: Better bathtub.
Kate Foretek: yeah.
ien DeNio: Um,
Kate Foretek: Better sound effects.
ien DeNio: yeah, it's very true. It's French. Depth is really important sometimes. Um, um, but yeah, so like, uh, stuff. I do a lot of. Um, I do a lot of my mixing, actually, I was thinking about this the other day, I do a lot of DAW work, actually in QLab, weirdly enough, I do a lot of composing and really building of sequences in QLab and manipulation.
Sometimes, if it gets like particularly complicated and it's just Doable. I'll record it out. Um, but I, I have a tendency to do a lot of placement work and, uh, and effect manipulation within the place that the, the, the, the, uh, speaker layout in the theater, um, that just kind of relies on, on like mixing it in the space.
Kate Foretek: Yeah. I think that's really important for like directors to kind of understand too. I mean, we, we all kind of in the theater world have this, uh, hang up that like, we never want to hold for sound. Right. Cause, uh, that's sort of like our, our claim to fame, I think for a lot of, um, designers, but like the flip side of that is, is like, you can't really hear what it sounds like until you get in the theater.
And then there's so much weight placed on the first time that a director or an actor hears a sound effect. And. You know, if they hear it the first time and it's either not in the right placement or it's not at the right volume, or, you know, it doesn't have the correct amount of reverb on it. Immediately the knee jerk reaction is, no, that's never going to work.
And you're like, well, wait a second, like, give me 30 seconds to like, actually place it correctly and put the correct, like, sound effects on it. And like, and then, you know, it'll work, but you know, they've still got that, like, reaction, that initial reaction in their mind of like, no, I've already said no to the sound effect.
It has to be something else. And like, you could come back three days later and you might be able to talk them into it, but it just becomes a longer like process.
ien DeNio: Mm hmm. Mm hmm.
Kate Foretek: um, do you like argue in your, like when you're, um, going out and doing like sound designs, how much time do you build ahead of the tech process for you to just be in the theater?
And, and play and not just like quiet time, like tuning the speakers. Cause like, that's obviously important too, but like quiet time, like you tuning your effects.
ien DeNio: Mm hmm. Mm hmm. Um, I more recently, I, I used to pre build like completely, like I was completely ready. I had everything and we threw it at, at the show. Life was good. Bing, bang, bong. Um, and I would spend a decent amount of time, quiet time, just like playing through stuff, getting it at least, at least mostly there.
So I wouldn't get the, the, the knee jerk rejection. Um, but in the past, I don't know, maybe seven, Or 10 years or something. I've been more moving towards approaching tech as, um, improvisational painting. Um, so I have my box of tricks, so I have things pulled that this might be the toilet flush. This might be the, the, um, the seagulls, whatever.
Um, and I have a, but I, I've, all of my paints. ready to go. And then I sit down, um, for quiet time and I'll like test some things out and be like, okay, this is how this room works. Um, these are the, the, the, uh, Outputs I have available. Essentially, these are my paint brushes. I have all of these paint brushes.
Um, okay. Now I know how all of these work. And then as we start tech, I'm just like, okay, uh, paint brush in paint. Here we go. Like, let's, let's, let's throw it out there. Let's move. And I've, I've gotten to the point where I am sort of like, I guess, uh, radically, um, indifferent about, uh, making noise.
Kate Foretek: Yeah, fair.
ien DeNio: Like theater, tech, tech time is, um, our rehearsal.
It's when we're getting it right. It's when we're like figuring out these moments and how they gel and how, how they work together. And I need to make mistakes. I'm sorry. Like I am not going to be able to do a transition. Just from like, you need 45 seconds to change this person's skirt. And I'm going to give you 45 seconds so you can change this person's skirt.
Here we go.
Kate Foretek: Although that is important to a certain extent, but that's not the primary goal.
ien DeNio: well, yes, I mean, but, but like, the needs are evolving and we're never going to know how long, like 45 seconds to change a skirt, I'm, you're not going to be able to know that it is actually going to take 45 seconds.
Kate Foretek: Fair. Yeah.
ien DeNio: Um, And so, like, the needs of the transition are going to grow, and what if somebody has to, like, replace the flowers in a vase or something?
Like, who knows? Like, things happen, and, um, So what I'll, what I'll do kind of, um, my preference generally, I guess, is I will put an idea in, we'll put the cue, we'll put like some tonal thing, and we'll call the cue and I'll see what happens. Just like watch, watch how we put it together. And then I mean, I guess to some extent I've been doing this long enough that I can kind of go, Oh, okay.
That took too long because we haven't practiced getting the skirt on or, uh, that took too long because of this or whatever. Um, But, uh, then I'm like, okay, great. It is going to take 45 seconds and we have a wall move cover and somebody is going to run a vacuum backstage. So, uh, I'm gonna make a big sound, you know, like, um, yeah, the needs of the show, you can pre plan as much as you want.
I think nine times out of 10, the, the. The needs of the show are going to rear their ugly heads in the moment.
Kate Foretek: Going back to your like painter analogy, I'm thinking of you as like Bob Ross instead of like Jackson Pollock. You're like, Oh, here's this tree, but I made a mistake. So what about this? And like, you turn it into, you know, a mountain as opposed to just like, I don't know. Here's blue.
ien DeNio: I think, I think, I think it's kind of both. I think it's, I think I'm Bob Pollack is really what's going here. Yeah.
Andy Leviss: I was going to say the last show that you and I did together, I feel like you were very much the Bob Ross to my Jackson Pollock.
ien DeNio: I love it. I love it. I'm so in.
Andy Leviss: I was solidly bad cop on that show and ien was a fantastic good cop.
ien DeNio: It's all good. It's all good. We'll get there. It's totally fine. Yeah. Everything is, ah, all at the same time. Yes. Um, but yeah, so, um, so like, uh, like with, um, let's see. Uh, well, there's mountaintop and silent sky. Thoughts, feelings, emotions. Which one do you want me to talk about?
Kate Foretek: Which one do you want to talk about? Which one do you feel more like, um, uh, connected to or, um, which one is more interesting for you to work on? I guess.
ien DeNio: Hilariously, they're both really interesting and I'm really connected to them in different ways. Um, Silent Sky really speaks to my, the way, um, we're approaching it. Um, Melinda is the director. The way that we're approaching it is this very sort of ethereal, um, epic universe star, you know, kind of, kind of direction, which is fairly expected.
Um, but it's very cerebral. Um, my, my approach to it has been very much like figuring out the logic behind when she has her earpiece in and what she is listening to and how she is coming to these ideas and trying to translate that into, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, in the sound. And we're using a lot of sort of clear tones and whatnot.
However, but actually, we're not using a lot of clear tones anymore. I initially started with clear tones. But, so what I did for Silent Sky was I went, there is a, um, there's a NASA project. I want to say it's called Calypso or something. Something like that. There's a NASA project that takes the images of the universe and, uh, translates them into sound, makes music from the stars.
Very, very core, sort of like straightforward. It's great. So I found one that I. liked, and I took it and cut it up, reorganized it. Um, put a bunch of processing on it, stretched it six different ways, I think. And then I put it back into QLab, all, uh, put all of these different tracks into QLab in different, uh, spatial placement, uh, with different effects on them with harmonizers, which I, all sorts of things, and then, uh, sort of mix the.
Sky out of that, mix the universe out of that. So all of it is actually the tones of the stars.
Kate Foretek: That's awesome.
ien DeNio: That's really cool.
Kate Foretek: Uh, I'm looking at, I just went on to nasa. gov cause why not? Um, Cosmic Harmony, sonifications from NASA telescopes. Is that the one that you were talking about or is
ien DeNio: think so. I think so. I think that sounds right.
Kate Foretek: Um, Aquarii, Aquarii, I
ien DeNio: That's Martin Luther King. That's some riots. That's a waltz. I'm really mad at the waltz for Silent Sky right now. That's the big thing in my head. No, come on. Where? Yeah. History, uh,
Kate Foretek: just want everyone to be able to hear it. Cause I think it's a really cool project.
ien DeNio: history, um, stars. No, that's Jessica Lang. Um,
Andy Leviss: So while you're digging, I just went back into the archives because you said Melinda and because USF is like the, like, world of like deep alumni that I know it is.
ien DeNio: Uh.
Andy Leviss: double checked which Melinda that was, and Melinda was in a couple of the shows when I was there in 2001, which is mind boggling to me. that's, that's awesome.
I didn't realize she was directing.
ien DeNio: Yeah, yeah, she's directing. She lives out in, um, Colorado with kids and dogs and all, all the magic and
Andy Leviss: she was in uh, Wilderness and uh, Penzance the year I was
ien DeNio: Oh, nice. I will, um, shall I say hi for you?
Andy Leviss: I mean you can't,
ien DeNio: Ah!
Andy Leviss: I doubt she would
remember me 20, 23 years later, but
ien DeNio: Uh,
Kate Foretek: old. Uh,
ien DeNio: yes. I mean, that's thing.
Kate Foretek: ien, drastically you never change. I'm always magic, er, I'm always in awe of how you always look the same as, I feel like, we left you, which is, with like, different color hair, which is awesome.
ien DeNio: Oh, I love it. I love it. I'm so in. Um. So it's the Chandra, yes, uh, I'm trying to find what, which one I used, but the Chandra project is, I think, where it, God, YouTube. Why is YouTube screwing with me? Uh,
Kate Foretek: Oh, Chandra X Ray, C H A N D R A? No.
ien DeNio: Uh, is it Crab Nebula? Yeah, the Crab Nebula sonification. on YouTube. Um, let me find you again and I will send it
Andy Leviss: a note. So we put it in the show notes.
ien DeNio: and all participants. There we go. Oh my gosh, that was so complicated. Why is that so complicated? Um, because my computer is like very confused right now because we've got NASA, we've got, we've got
Kate Foretek: The matrix of the Google search has just gone crazy.
ien DeNio: Yes, there was a fun, um, like three months where I convinced Amazon that I was a Nazi because I was working on a Tom Stoppard play and, uh, doing all that research and Amazon was just like, would you like Mein Kampf? And I was like, I would not. Thank you. Um, so yeah, it's, uh,
Andy Leviss: that one coming. I was
ien DeNio: So that, that's how we're doing Silent Sky and we're, and, um, it's a lot about, uh, the sort of bifurcation between, um, The home front and more like straight pieno tone kind of things.
And then more university, whatever, um, as kind of both, uh, Henrietta's inner life and Harvard and the stars kind of area and doing sort of bouncing back and forth between that. Um, then the mountaintop, it's a really interesting, um, approach. Cameron is doing it, Cam, and, um, it's a little bit darker and grittier, um, and we're pulling in, we're using the magic in, in a really sort of interesting way of that, of that, um, the magic of that play and, and who they are.
Um, and there's definitely the, the standard. You know, speeches of MLK, um, which have been hilarious to try and pull. There are like, I was like, okay, I'm going to go find a complete MLK recording package. Totally found one, was not complete. I was like, really? So now I have to go pull archival versions and then repair those to
Kate Foretek: Oh man,
ien DeNio: And cause some of the recording, even C SPAN was just. Um, I mean, it's 68, so, okay.
Kate Foretek: yeah, I, uh, it's
ien DeNio: but yeah, so I, I, I tend toward, um, it was actually really funny. I was talking to my mom the other day and I, she was like, uh, or I, I was talking about the mountaintop and how we're going a little bit, we're dipping into this sort of horror kind of world and whatnot, and my mother was like, And I don't, I don't think of you as horror.
Like, I don't feel like you're a horror person. And I was like, I don't do horror. Like, I don't watch horror. Don't, don't, don't, nope, nope. But sonically, apparently, I do creepy real fucking good. So I go creepy, horror, um, uh, existential, uh, ethereal role is kind of like the quadrant where I, I thrive.
Kate Foretek: the Venn diagram of intersection of ien
ien DeNio: yeah.
And then, and then obsession over toilet acoustics offstage.
Kate Foretek: and noisemakers. How, like, I'm imagining your apartment right now, like, how many boxes of, like, noisemaker y stuff do you, and also do you want more because we have a lot in the attic?
ien DeNio: Um, um, um, both things are highly true. Like, uh, it is, it is a wreck. I have so much stuff, it's not even funny. Um, also I'm a maximalist, so it, it, it gets bad quick. Um, but, but if you have cool things, I'm so totally interested. I.
Kate Foretek: more.
ien DeNio: Exactly. I, I mean, I, I let go of my wind machine. It was very sad. My friend, Lauren, helped me make it.
Um, but I re homed it with my friend, Chris Pierce, who lives in Jersey and he's got a studio. And I like said goodbye to the wind machine. Um, so I could have more space for whistles and bells and ratchets.
Andy Leviss: like, I've built a wind machine once, but it barely made it through the show live, let alone long enough to develop an attachment.
ien DeNio: Nice.
Kate Foretek: still, I think there's still one for a while, um, in the bowels of the Met Opera. There was like all of the old, um, the, the old sound effect machines that they, that they used. And one of them was this gient wind machine. And I remember walking by and just being like, I know what that is. And like one of the other, like, Um, hands that I was with, who is a, you know, a young kid was like, what is that?
I mean, it looks like a torture device. And you're like, Oh my God, it's a wind machine.
ien DeNio: Oh, my god. Yeah. I, um, so this one, my friend Lauren and I, uh, adapted a, uh, design that I found online it was a barrel style and I, uh, we made it with a little slot so I could change out the fabric to a different texture, if necessary, during
Kate Foretek: Oh, cool.
ien DeNio: And it, nothing was attached. So it was just wrapped around a, like a one by three, um, and then put in the slot and then it draped over and did the sound and whatnot, and then you pull it out and you put it in another one.
It was great.
Kate Foretek: That's awesome.
ien DeNio: and it had my logo on it in like three colors spray paint. It was great.
Andy Leviss: Was it the, the sound monkey logo?
ien DeNio: It is, in fact, the SoundMickey logo. Though I, because it was more fully art, I did the Fez option of the two. Yeah,
Andy Leviss: Zane has one of my favorite logos ever.
ien DeNio: I love my
Andy Leviss: have one of ien's stickers on one of them
ien DeNio: Yeah! Um, shout out to Kiki Shulio, uh, who's the graphic designer that I worked with ages ago to get that, that, um, That, uh, design and it's a, it's a, it's a lovely, cute little monkey whistling with, um, he's blue and he wears headphones, uh, is my standard, like, sound designer, uh, is, uh, yeah, logo.
And then I have, um, another option where he's wearing a fez for my, like, puppetry and Foley and all, all of the, uh, Chainmail, the other gack.
Kate Foretek: Does the monkey have a name
ien DeNio: you know,
Kate Foretek: not yet?
ien DeNio: He doesn't weirdly enough all my tech toys have names like I've slowly been yeah, like making I have a sticky note on my computer of all the tech toys names that that people have given the names to and and nobody's named my logo.
Maybe we should, should we do audience participation?
Kate Foretek: Can
Andy Leviss: Right. Well, we'll, we'll post it. We'll post the photo in the discord, maybe the episode discussion channel, and we'll
ien DeNio: do it. I'm in I'm
Kate Foretek: Yeah. ien's monkey.
ien DeNio: ien's monkey and also
Andy Leviss: Insert Sean comment here.
ien DeNio: and,
Andy Leviss: I love that I don't even have to make the jokes, I just make the joke about making the joke and it has the same
ien DeNio: There you go, exactly. Um, I, and I will offer I, uh, a spare whistle or something. If you, if you, if you find the best name for my
Andy Leviss: all right, all right.
ien DeNio: I don't know. This is getting weird, but like, I'm
Andy Leviss: a euphemism. This is what happens when we get somebody in the desert and we do a holiday episode. So, I mean, we're getting, we're getting around wrapping up. Do you have any other, like, favorite, like, wildest sound effect you've had to do?
ien DeNio: Um, I tell this story of in college I wrote or I, I did a show called Lions, Neil Knox, I think wrote it, uh, um, and there was a stage direction of the sound effect of a thousand dying children being hacked to bits in a soccer field. Oh, hacked to bits with machetes in a soccer field a mile away.
Kate Foretek: Very specific.
ien DeNio: The one, the family in my head. Um, uh, anyway, uh, so, uh, what I decided to do was I booked time in the recording studio and I called all my friends and I said, show up to the recording studio.
And they did. And I said, I pushed the buttons and made it record and closed the door and said, you're in college. Scream. And they did. And they just like screamed and screamed and screamed and all the screaming. And so then I took all of the recordings of the screaming and manipulated them from there and did some processing and what not.
And then did layering and then machetes and knives and all sorts of craziness. And, um, uh, at one point my two roommates, Aviva and Jess, Came into my room and I was sitting on my bed with one laptop on one knee. The other laptop on the other knee, two sets of headphones. And I was like mixing on one and bouncing to the other and like, like doing all of this crazy stuff.
And they came in and they, and I like, I guess they hadn't seen me for like two days or something. And, um, they just came in and, and, and they were like, okay, ien, we're worried about you. And I was like, why, why? Screaming dying children. What are you talking about? Um, so, uh, there's that one. That one is like kind of the, like, I did that once.
Um, I also, let's see, I. I did a pre show once where I had a heartbeat playing really low in the background and sped it up to two times speed over the, from, from, um, from, I think it was about 0. 6, something like that, and sped it up to two times speed over the course of the 30 minute pre show. And I had a couple of people come up to me and be like, what the fuck? Why am I like this? And I was like I made you like this. Yay. Um, yeah. And I, I, most shows, I, I have like one pet sound effect that I'm like, I'm going to, this is, this is going to be the most beautiful thing that I've ever beautiful ed and I will generally try, generally that, that becomes like. The toilet cue or the doorbell, like the thing that happens maybe twice or three times during the show that nobody actually cares about, but, um, it's probably going to still be there by the end of the show. So I don't have to, I don't get attached to my, um, my, my children. Um, and then I just obsess about it. On Ibsen's Ghost, uh, which we did earlier this year, um, it was the doorbell. And at one point the director was like, can the doorbell be louder? And I was like, okay, But, architecturally, outside of that door on the stage, there has to be a hallway, and like, the distance between the two, the doorbell, and the thing, it doesn't work, and like, how long they're, I'm so confused. He was like,
Andy Leviss: Suspension of disbelief.
ien DeNio: No, no, believe!
Kate Foretek: So, in case anybody goes to see the shows in Utah now, what are the two, like, one from each show, what are the two sound effects that you are, um, kind of obsessing over as your most beautiful children, if you will?
ien DeNio: Um, that is a really good question.
Kate Foretek: Or are they not there yet? Summer's
ien DeNio: I think they're not there yet. These two, the way, because we're, I guess because we've been doing it so fast. Um, I have Bugaboos, yeah, Summershock. Um, yeah. Summerstock Rep, woo! Um, I have Bugaboos more than I have babies right now. So like, the Waltz is making me crazy in Silent Sky because I haven't unlocked it yet.
And the, um, what is it about? Oh, Mountaintop I think I have. We did two days of Mountaintop, uh, yeah, uh, two days ago and yesterday. Um, and by the end of yesterday, I have the frame. So it's all, I think it's all there and I have the foundation, but now I just have to make it sound good. And so there, there, there are a couple that I'm like, it's going to sound good.
I promise it'll get there probably, but nobody else is noticing. So I'm like, yeah,
um, yeah, I think I might. With mountaintop, I think what, what, what it actually might be is, is that the, um, the shimmer is my favorite. Like I'm, I'm going to put the shimmer into a bunch of different places, sort of subliminally and whatnot,
Kate Foretek: Nice.
ien DeNio: I think. We'll see. Yeah.
Andy Leviss: so, so wrapping it up, normally one of our, no, all good. I just like we can go forever, but I want to let people get back to their holiday weekends. Um, one of the questions I would normally ask would be if we're coming to visit you in Cedar city, where would you go eat? But I gave you a homework the other week and I want to know, have you made it over to Bullocks yet?
Kate Foretek: No.
ien DeNio: I'm the worst. I have not. I basically I stuck it in my brain and I was like, I'm gonna go there but I'm gonna go there on a really particularly bad day.
Andy Leviss: That's,
ien DeNio: The, the, the confluence of like, Cedar City, Utah closes at like 8:00 PM and that's cool. Um, and theater goes until midnight and a half at least. Um, uh ha, uh, uh, has made that very difficult.
However, I am a. Big proponent of Soda Nerd. Their
Andy Leviss: so for, for the. 89 percent of you, probably 99 percent of you who have never been to Cedar City, Utah, Bullocks is a pharmacy in the middle of downtown Cedar
Kate Foretek: Old School
Andy Leviss: been there since like the 40s or 50s that has the classic vintage soda shop ice cream counter. And it is, and like, I love that it's still there.
And it's, it was my favorite thing there. Yeah. With like the crushed dice and like the, you can get the vanilla Coke or I don't know if it's still on the menu. Is it Fred Adams is the infamous late founder of Utah Shakespearean Festival. And there's the Fred Adams on the menu, which is a chocolate Coke, which takes exactly two and a half times ordering it for it to become an acquired taste.
The first time you're like, Oh, that sounds cool. And Fred liked it. I'll try it. You're like, that's. No, but you finish it cause you bought it. And then like a week later, you're like, was it actually that bad? And you have it and you kind of debate back and forth. And by the third time, that's what you order the rest of the summer.
ien DeNio: I love it. I'm totally in. I, I think maybe tomorrow, maybe
Andy Leviss: All right.
ien DeNio: before pre, before rehearsal.
Andy Leviss: Send me photos.
ien DeNio: Okay. Okay. This will happen.
Andy Leviss: Oh, Well, ien. Yeah. Well, ien, thank you so much for hopping on, on July 4th and hanging with
Kate Foretek: you.
ien DeNio: Yeah. It's really good to talk to you too. Thank you so much for having me. And hi everybody. Reach out, say hi, something,
Andy Leviss: And we'll, and we'll,
ien DeNio: name ien's monkey.
Andy Leviss: the logo on the discord when the episode goes live and we'll do that contest. And because I'm a bad podcast host and don't always do the housekeeping and I didn't at the top of the episode, I'm going to take the second. Now I said I would, and then I didn't.
So, um, everybody, if you're listening, first of all, hit that subscribe button. If, if you don't already, you know, that always helps us. Also, if you listen to an Apple podcast, uh, they changed a thing last year where if you subscribe to a podcast, but don't actually listen to it for a few weeks in a row, it'll stop downloading episodes.
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We always love suggestions. Uh, we love hearing what you love about the show too. Uh, if you think you know a cool guest or you'd be a cool guest, uh, reach out. And of course, as always, uh, the last bit of housekeeping I have to do is thank our wonderful sponsors, Allen and Heath and RCF for helping, uh, keep the virtual studio running.
And, uh, thanks to Kate for, uh, joining in and, uh, co hosting this one in Sean's absence. And, uh, thanks again to ien for being here. Thanks again to everybody else for listening and I'll catch you next time. Till then, this has been Signal the Noise on the ProSoundWeb Podcast Network. Take care, everybody!
Music: “Break Free” by Mike Green
