The Art of Theatrical Sound Design: A Practical Guide (Backstage)

This guide is an incredibly readable, focused look at the art of sound design in the theater from a creative rather than technical perspective. In it, she elaborates on the function of sonic dramaturgy within the presentational frame of the sound system in a clear and precise manner, and explains the creative process as a collaboration between designer, director, shared physical space, and the text. Highly recommend as the thought of "teaching creativity" in this form is either too reductive or too woo-woo and hard to put into words. This book lays out the function and process of design in a readable way for individuals on any side of that continuum.In an academic setting, I would suggest using this book in tandem with lectures/handouts or another guide that focuses more on technical aspects (John Bracewell or John Leonard's books for example) to round out the curriculum, until Volume 2 comes out, that is!

Great book about the artistry of sound design. Learning how to be a technician is easy, but teaching art is not. The author does an excellent job mixing physics and psychology and script analysis into parts of the artistic whole that are needed to be a sound designer.

There are better resources available.

This book is great - glad to have it in my collection of books on theatre sound design. I really appreciate the chapters on the interpersonal aspects of collaborative working. Wish there was a bit more focus on the technical side of things like speccing systems and speaker placement etc. but there are other tech focussed books out there that go into that I suppose. All in all, I'd recommend it as an addition to any budding theatre sound designer's collection.