It is tempting to think of The Cemetery Club as a play
about coming to terms with
death, but I prefer to think of it as a play about coming to terms
with life. Doris and Lucille
both live on the extremities of grief, while Ida, Sam,
and Mildred all seem to be trying
to come to find a middle road. It would be all too easy for
the characters of The Cemetery
Club to be too grounded in types to emerge as characters,
but Matthew Trombetta prevents
this nicely in his direction of the play. Rather than psychological
extremes, he directs
his cast to ground themselves in a world that they've lost, and
variously remember fondly,
try to re-create, or can't let go of.
Since the past itself, and the deceased spouses of the characters,
figure so prominently into
the work of the cast, I wanted to create a soundscape that would
help
realize that environment.
Drawing heavily on the works of Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra, and
other
standards, my sound design
helped to make present the summer-time of the lives of The
Cemetery
Club's characters.
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