It's a Foley Life: Creating Sounds On Stage
WDCB’s Gary Zidek catches up with Foley artist Shawn Goudie to talk about creating sound effects.
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“It’s the ability to take elements and give them life as the sound that you need. Footsteps, a door closing or wind rushing, and it’s just finding those elements that can create those sounds for the audience”. - Shawn Goudie talking about the skills needed to be a Foley artist.
Foley artist Shawn Goudie on-set for American Blues Theater’s production of IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE
IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE premiered in theaters on December 20th 1946. The Frank Capra-directed drama was nominated for five Academy Awards including Best Picture, but initially struggled at the box office. And while we consider it a holiday classic today, it only attained that status after the film lapsed into public domain in 1974. Networks and even local television stations looking for cheap content began airing the forgotten film around the holidays, re-introducing the timeless redemption tale to audiences all over the country.
Image from IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE
The film was adapted into a radio play that was broadcast around the country in 1947. And then theater companies started producing the work as a radio-play on stage. For the past 18 years, Chicago-based American Blues Theater has presented IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE: LIVE FROM CHICAGO as a radio play. Sitting on-stage along with the actors is Foley artist, Shawn Goudie, who creates all the live sound effects for the production.
Some of the tools used by Shawn Goudie to create sounds for American Blues Theater’s radio play
