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Mic Pool discusses the work that went into winning the first Tony for Best Sound Design of a Play.
British sound designer Mic Pool has certainly worked on his share of serious theatre throughout his three-decade career. He's tackled The Postman Always Rings Twice and late Shakespeare plays, not to mention Wagner's Ring Cycle as a video designer, so he jumped at the refreshing opportunity to help create an onstage parody of Alfred Hitchcock's classic black-and-white thriller The 39 Steps. Made to look like a low rent production with a cast of four and seriously minimal stage effects - the famous plane chase sequence across the moors is done with puppets and props in shadowplay - this version of The 39 Steps is self-referential and self-mocking. It gleefully quotes other Hitchcock film titles in its dialogue and is driven by manic energy and over-the-top performances from its talented cast, three of whom tackle multiple roles. Now the show has come to Broadway from London's West End, and the icing on the cake for Pool is that he won the first ever Tony Award for Sound Design of a Play thanks to his work on it. In reality, the show is far from stripped down. Ironically, it requires highly sophisticated sound and visual effects to create its low-budget aura.
Stage Directions: What was it like to win the first Tony for Sound Design of a Play?
Mic Pool: It was great. It was very different from the UK award ceremonies. I was nominated for a Laurence Olivier Award the year before for the same show. The Olivier Awards are far more of an industry-only bash, whereas with the Tonys, a good proportion of the 6,000 people that were there are regular theatregoers that had bought tickets. I was quite surprised at how genuinely pleased they were for the few that won. At the after-party people were coming up and were generally so thrilled about it, which is very different to the people in England, who are very cool and reserved about awards. When you get one you're really pleased to get it, but you're not meant to show it. [laughs] In America, jumping up and down seems to be par for the course.
The sound...