The Question, November 5, 2012

The Composer (?)
by Estelle Rosen

Rob Denton is an independent theatre artist. Coming to theatre from a background in the music business as a sound engineer, he got his start in 1997 mixing the Yiddish musical The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz. He has since tried his hand in most aspects of theatre from technician, to sound, set and lighting designer, director and producer. In 2006 Denton translated, directed and produced his translation of Jean-Paul Sartre’s No Exit under the title Out There and in 2009 offered his own Tryptich, three short plays presented at the Theatre Ste. Catherine. He received a MECCA for his Sound Design for Satchmo’ Suite in 2007 and shares a MECCA with Tsultrum8 for his design contribution to Jesus Hopped the A Train in 2004.

Besides probably loving music which likely was the impetus for getting involved in sound design, has being a sound designer (currently referred to as composer) lived up to expectations, despite no doubt always facing challenges with each production?

As the son of a math professor I must first address the parentheses before attempting to solve the rest of the problem. Just for fun, let’s put the parenthetic phrase in quotes, “currently referred to as composer”. There. Now it seems a lot more important, doesn’t it?  I think so and here’s why.

First, I have been fortunate to work with directors, like Mike Payette,  who have given me the opportunity to actually compose original scores. This is my preferred way to work and is most fulfilling on a personal level. For the current production of Harlem Duet,  all the guitar, piano and harmonica parts were played by me. Certain instruments were virtual i.e. drums, bass and synthesizers but all were triggered by my fingers and arranged by me... For better or worse.