Telemachus is a 150-minute half-immersive theatrical play by the Cornell Jingyuan Drama Society that retells the story of Telemachus leaving Ithaca (where Cornell is) in search of his father, Odysseus, after the Trojan War using modern language.
The play is showcased at Cornell Black Box Theatre on November 3rd and 5th, 2023, with 200+ tickets sold.
Telemachus’s Intro and Outro are its thematic music. Composed with strings (violins, cellos, and harps) and decorated with old bells, this theme conveys an enigmatic, ancient, and somewhat sublime feeling.
Soundscape
Telemachus is performed in Cornell Black Box Theatre, where six speakers are distributed spatially. We panned the sound and designed unique spatial properties using QLab and Logic based on the Theatre’s soundscape and each scene’s spatial constructions to create immersiveness.
Ambient Music
The entire play spans eight different places, including palaces, graveyards, and tropical islands, and each place has its own ambient music. For example, graveyards have eerie synths with sliding notes and distant owl cooings, and tropical islands are illustrated with marimbas, wind blows, and bird chirps.
Sound Designs
We create sounds to match specific actions like breaking glasses or flashing lights. We sampled and remixed sounds of similar objects and humans from the real world.