Gareth Fry Wins Drama Desk Award!

Cursed Child sound designer Gareth Fry, along with Pete Malkin, picked up the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Sound Design in a Play for their work on The Encounter.

The awards are touted as the “only major New York theater honors for which productions on Broadway, Off-Broadway, and Off-Off Broadway compete against each other in the same category,” according to the Drama Desk twitter account, now promoting its 62nd annual awards.

The winners of the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Sound Design in a Play are @garethfrysound and @PeteMalkin, @EncounterBway #DramaDesk

— Drama Desk Awards (@DramaDeskAwards) June 5, 2017

The honor comes less than a week before Fry and Malkin also receive a special Tony Award, previously announced by Leaky, for their work on the production which saw a limited Broadway run but still left its mark, undoubtedly due in large part to their incredible contributions.

We are thrilled to present the 2017 Special Tony Award to The Encounter’s Sound Designers, Gareth Fry & Pete Malkin! pic.twitter.com/guRNGjEg6r

— The Tony Awards (@TheTonyAwards) May 1, 2017

Fry’s commitment to creating a total experience through sound made the tale of photographer Loren McIntyre’s harrowing experiences in the Amazon a sensory reality for audiences. Leaky described his approach as follows:

“Fry wanted the audience to feel as immersed in the setting as possible. Knowing that it would be impossible for the audience to fully appreciate the jungle’s atmosphere with just visual props and set design, Fry did the next best thing making auditory sensation the primary element of the show.

“He wanted to be able to capture the fear, anxiety, and confusion of the photographer as well as the darkness, heat, and danger of the jungle. To create an even more realistic experience, Fry himself took new recordings for the show directly from the heart of the amazon rainforest.”

Writer Simon McBurney crafted The Encounter with the express intention of making sound design the focal point of the production, so he hired Fry to work his magic. The sounds were so important to the success of the play that they chose to forego typical production techniques, projecting from speakers placed around the audience, and opted instead to provide each viewer with binaural headphones.

This required Fry to work with specially-designed, expensive equipment that would record sound in the same way a human ear processes it.

Fry told Stuff:

“The great thing about listening to recordings made using that binaural head is that it places you in the exact sonic world where that head was used to make the recording. You might be sitting in London or Auckland, but you’ll be coming with us to the Amazon rain forest. We use a big wall of those sounds to help transport you into this story.”

Given Fry’s prodigious skill, talent, and devotion, it’s no wonder he’s receiving recognition for his work in theatrical sound design–and the next comes June 11 at the Tony Awards!