Originally from Brownwood, TX and a graduate of our undergraduate program in 2017, Natalie Mayo has been employed with SOTD as the facilities manager since the construction of the second portion of our new facility. After graduating from Texas Tech with a focus on sound design, Natalie discovered her love of Children's Theatre and worked on many shows in the capacities of production and stage management. She spent several years in Colorado and touring the country for TYA (Theatre for Young Audiences). Some of her favorite aspects of projects created for children are the empowerment of children able to see themselves represented on stage:

I love it. If kids like or don't like a show you know immediately.  For me, I love seeing that authentic energy and earnest response to each performance. When you've been working on a production for a long time and a busloadof kids shows up and enjoy the show, it feels instantly worth all the time and effort you put into it.

Recently, she was able to revisit her passion for sound design and children's theatre when she hired by a past collaborator for a production of Lucadora! by Alvaro Saar Rios. The show opened in March, but Natalie had been working remotely with the artistic team at Seattle Children's Theatre since last June to create an unforgettable experience. Luchadora! features lucha-libre (Mexican wrestling) and is inspired by the Chinese legend, Hua Mulan. Culturally rich, the production weaves pieces of Spanish, German and English into the sound design to represent the myriad cultures depictedin its Texan setting. All the fight choreography the kids witness on stage was crafted by lucha consultants and choreographers to make the wrestling as authentic as possible.

This was Natalie's first-time doing sound design at a new location from a distance, but she enjoyed the challenge. During tech rehearsals for the climactic final fight scene, Natalie realized that to achieve the most hyper-realistic experience for the audience, she would have to create something completely new:

In preparation for the show, I built all the cues to create as much as I could beforehand to facilitate rehearsal. We worked through the show in order, and so on the third or fourth day I realized, as we were building to that final climactic moment, the crowd sounds that I pulled didn't match the events on stage. I needed sounds of more specific reactions to each phase of the fight. We gathered everyone to sit in the audience space as a crowd and recorded them reacting with boos and cheers for the characters. Then we honed that into a much more realistic recording. Carving out time to turn that around by the opening was a bear, but it bettered the scape at the end, elevating the experience.

After designing Luchadora!, Natalie is looking forward to working again with Seattle Children's Theatre soon on their upcoming shows. Although she doesn't stage manage or design sound for our mainstage productions, we benefit from and appreciate Natalie's experience as a staff member. You can find Natalie all over the building managing room reservations, maintenance, and events.

Thanks, Natalie, for helping SOTD work smoothly and efficiently!