Meet Anthony Narciso, Sound Designer for Big Fish

Guest sound designer, Anthony Narciso, visited Auburn University Theatre to help bring the fairytale world of Big Fish to life on the Telfair Peet Stage, but this was not Anthony’s first rodeo at Auburn. His previous designs include sound for Playhouse Creatures, Assassins, Frankenstein, The Drowsy Chaperone, and Chicago.

Anthony Narciso is a sound designer, composer, and audio engineer from Orlando, Florida where he works as a seasonal sound designer for the Orlando Repertory Theatre. Anthony also works with the Texas Shakespeare Festival, where he met Auburn University Theatre’s Technical Director, Matt Gist. In addition to the aforementioned credits, he has designed for Norwegian Cruise Lines. Anthony received his BFA in Theatre Design Technology from the University of Central Florida, but his curiosity for sound began much earlier in life. “I started learning about sound in middle school,” Anthony mentioned, “I was involved with the theatre and music classes and was asked to run the soundboard for the production of The King and I.” Anthony kept working on sound throughout all of high school and into college. During his sophomore year at UCF, Anthony was in a stage management class taught by the Executive Director from the Orlando Repertory Theatre. Through the class he was brought into The Rep to design one of their Youth Academy Programs. By the time he graduated, Anthony was designing for all shows at Orlando Rep.

During tech week, we were able to catch up with Anthony and ask him a couple of questions about Big Fish. Being a musical that incorporates a lot of fantasy and fictional characters, sound may seem to be a challenge to most, but Anthony tells us, “within the context of a musical, it’s actually pretty easy with all the underscoring happening”. The aspects that occupied most of his attention during the design period were the “little subtle things”. Anthony wanted to “reinforce the over-the-topness of the stories” by emphasizing the tiny moments of what the characters are doing. “There’s a giant splash sound for the mermaid and Karl the Giant has footstep sound effects that’ll rumble the room”. Emphasizing these things will help the audience feel fully immersed in Edward Bloom’s larger than life world.

To finish up our time with Anthony, we asked if he had any guidance for students making their way into the professional world. He advised that “education is an important step in the process, but you also need to make network connections in order to find work. Having a great resume and skills is only half the battle.” For example, Anthony recently worked with Travis McHale, the scenic and lighting designer for our previous production of Holiday Memories, at the Orlando Rep. He sheds light on the fact that you’re likely only two degrees of separation away from a job. Anthony explains, “It’s all just one big web."

Get your tickets for Big Fish at https://theatretickets.auburn.edu  and make sure to stay tuned for more features on the professional artists that visit Auburn University Theatre. We proudly welcome several guest artists throughout the year that enrich the theatrical experiences of both the students and faculty.

Last Updated: February 18, 2019