One Man, Two Guvnors
One Man, Two Guvnors was performed at Weathervane Playhouse in Newark, Ohio in 2015. Director Kevin Connell and I decided that the sound was needed the most for transitions and to establish a few environments. Our main concern was creating an "event" for each transition to keep the humor rolling and entertain the audience during scenic changes.
Scene two takes place outside a pub that does food in Brighton. For this transition, I composed a piece that utilized car horns. An actor came out on a tricycle with a handheld horn and honked it in ridiculous ways. For the final horn, a semi horn honked, making it seem like it came from the actor's horn.
For the transition to the aperitif (a high end, fancy restaurant), I created a piece using the sounds of dishware and cutlery that accompany the actors changing the scene to the restaurant. Francis chased a waiter with a tray of food around the stage until he was eventually hit in the head and knocked to the floor, completing the transition and signifying the beginning of the next scene.
Francis spends quite a bit of the show trying to convince Dolly to go away to Majorca with him. For this transition, Francis did a seductive Spanish dance with an ironing board, pretending it is Dolly. I composed this piece using Spanish guitar, a shaker, and Latin horns. The piece builds as the dance gets sexier and more elaborate.
​In a case of mistaken information, Stanley and Rachel both believe the other is dead and rush to the pier to jump off and kill themselves. They then discover that they are both alive and are overjoyed. This transition piece is tense, using a foghorn, seagulls, and trilling strings.
For the transition to the final scene, Alfie and company attempt to escape from the police. Connell and I thought it would be funny to have the scene become a comical chase. Gareth steps out onto stage and narrates the race as would an announcer at a horse race.
Another challenge for this show was the selected use of the original music from the West End production. Since we did not have a live band, I was tasked with creating tracks using software. These tracks were created to exactly match the versions from the original, as the actors had to sing with them. The tracks I created included "The Brighton Line," "Lighten Up and Lay Low," "Tomorrow Looks Good From Here," and "Brighton Car Horns."
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Directed: Kevin Connell
Choreographer: Erika Twining Wills
Scenic Designer: Alyssa LeBlanc
Costume Designer: Cora Delbridge
​Lighting Designer: Jennifer Ivey
Francis starts a fire
Stanley Stubbers puts out a fire on the audience volunteer's head
The cast sings "Tomorrow Looks Good from Here"
Francis starts a fire