Faculty Spotlight: Debashis Sinha
An important part of my teaching in the classroom involves making - all my assignments are constructed around an idea or theory of sound, design and/or storytelling. The collaborations and projects I do outside the classroom are a continuous practice of this making, and every go-round through working through a play or having conversations with others yields new insights, even after all this time - insights that I bring to my teaching every year, and that guide how I explore sound and collaboration with my students.
Performance at The Creative School is lucky to have so many industry professionals in our midsts and among our faculty. This summer, we're taking the time to focus on what creative projects and research our faculty work on throughout the summer months (and beyond!).
We're kickstarting this series with a spotlight on sound designer and composer Debashis Sinha who joined Performance faculty in 2021. Debashis is a Production + Design faculty member, and teaches classes on production technique and sound design.
This summer Debashis Sinha is enjoying his seventh season at the Stratford Festival (external link) as a sound designer and composer for Casey and Diana (external link) , Women of the Fur Trade (external link) , and sound designer of Wedding Band. (external link)
Debashis captured a week in his life during the tech process for Casey and Diana, (which opens today, Thursday, June 1st) as well as Wedding Band (opening July 14th).
He shares photos from behind the scenes at the Stratford Festival, including the Q-Q process (where the team comes together to work through a play moment by moment), and tech workthrough time.
PRE PREVIEW CASEY AND DIANA - Working on final technical bits before our first preview performance of Casey and Diana.
PREVIEW 1 CASEY AND DIANA - our first audience!!
BREAKFAST OF CHAMPIONS - leftover Indian food in Toronto in the morning.
ZOOM WITH OLIVIA SHORTT - Meeting on Zoom with Anishinaabe composer Olivia Shortt to discuss a collaboration at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Toronto.
CASEY AND DIANA QUILT - Quilt from Casey House, from 1992, hanging in lobby in Stratford Festival's Studio Theatre.
Casey and Diana takes place during Princess Diana’s visit to Casey House in Toronto.
Debashis Sinha is the sound designer and composer.
WORKTHROUGH W TECH WEDDING BAND - rehearsing the show with tech (lights and sound) before our Q2Q day.
Debashis Sinha is the sound designer for this production.
TMU WORKTIME - grabbing some time Thursday morning to work on TMU admin, writing and research projects.
Very excited to meet the new batch of students, and to hear what they cook up. Every year I assign audio projects thinking I’m going to get one thing, and every year the submissions surprise and delight me. I’m looking forward to continue to share the possibilities of sound in performance, and the ways working with sound can yield new insights about oneself and how one wants to express their artistic vision.